USS Arizona - 1/350

[Peterpools]

Carl

Pretty awesome diorama - the effects are brilliantly done. Just didn't see the point of doing such a detailed build and then most of it is completely hidden in the explosion - modeling just the front third would have done the trick.

 

[GazzaS]

Rob,

     The recent work looks great!  Starting to look like a warship, now.  I'm glad you've become un-distracted.   On my Grosser Kurfurst build, the brass barrels I put in the lightest guns were too wide for the barbettes...   I made them fit...   but it kind of helped me take a long break from it.  I'm hoping that watching you will help me get into the shipbuilding mood once again.

[DocRob]

17 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Some great progress there Rob. It's staring to look like a proper battlewagon. 

 

17 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

One more thing, have you seen this diorama?

 

17 hours ago, HubertB said:

I was thinking about something in the same line « now we need a Val overflying the Arizona »

Thank you Carl, it's the first time the heap of plastic and brass looks like a ship, which really motivates me to continue.

I haven't seen the video about the dio before, but similar ones, possibly by the same creator. He possesses great skills and imagination, to realize his project.
I never thought about displaying the Arizona this way. It's maybe a bit hypocritical, but I don't want to show the moment of death of so many sailors. 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

10 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Your progress is amazing and the hours of working with all the PE, has brough your Arizona already up to a new level. Simply fantastic work.

 

7 hours ago, CANicoll said:

Super work!!  Love the PE, since I'll never do anything nearly as detailed (or tiny!).  

Thank you Peter and Chris, with this base kit, it was absolutely necessary to improve. I have no idea, how that piece of junk could have be thrown on the market by a major company. There are parts in the kit, which are so unbelievable ugly, I sometimes can only stare and laugh. Eduard did a good job, addressing the shortcomings with their boxing, luckily.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

3 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Pretty awesome diorama - the effects are brilliantly done. Just didn't see the point of doing such a detailed build and then most of it is completely hidden in the explosion - modeling just the front third would have done the trick.

Have you never done a super detailed cockpit Peter ?

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

3 hours ago, GazzaS said:

    The recent work looks great!  Starting to look like a warship, now.  I'm glad you've become un-distracted.   On my Grosser Kurfurst build, the brass barrels I put in the lightest guns were too wide for the barbettes...   I made them fit...   but it kind of helped me take a long break from it.  I'm hoping that watching you will help me get into the shipbuilding mood once again.

Thank you Gary, shipbuilding in these small scales is definitely another cup of tea, but once you're in a groove it's fun and sometimes even rewarding. To see the ship in it's almost entire form put the spurs in my sides again. 
I'd like to see, what you are doing with the Kurfürst. I have a soft spot for these early vessels and had considered buying the 1/200 Mikasa in the 1902 livery, along with some brass, a very appealing ship to my eyes and a better kit in every aspect for sure.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Good point, I didn't look at it that way. 

[DocRob]

Patience is the key to this build. While having Youtube videos on about esoteric hifi discussions - sigh-, I spent some hours with these two cranes. Again the fit of the PE is very good luckily and what's left of the plastic needed a heavy dose of cutting and sanding The roundels where annealed, an absolute must to my eye. The deck starts to look busy with all the sub assemblies joined together, at the same time it becomes more difficult to plan ahead considering the later wooden deck application. Every part hasto be checked, if it fits into the pre cut deck openings.

Cheers Rob

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

WOW, the deck cranes look just brilliant and, in your hands, the Eduard PE looks wonderful.

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Amazing PE work Rob - those cranes look incredible.  Very nice job!!

[GazzaS]

11 hours ago, DocRob said:

Thank you Gary, shipbuilding in these small scales is definitely another cup of tea, but once you're in a groove it's fun and sometimes even rewarding. To see the ship in it's almost entire form put the spurs in my sides again. 
I'd like to see, what you are doing with the Kurfürst. I have a soft spot for these early vessels and had considered buying the 1/200 Mikasa in the 1902 livery, along with some brass, a very appealing ship to my eyes and a better kit in every aspect for sure.

Cheers Rob

Hi Rob...  At your request here is my current progress on GK.  I generally try to avoid putting pics of my model on other ppl's threads.  Last thing I did was place all of the coal chutes and boat rails on the wooden deck which I dulled down with a grey-brown wash.  I still can't remember why I painted the tops of the coal chutes brown.  I have seen wood-covered coal chutes on earlier Kaiserliche Marine ships...  and I have seen modellers represent them in black.     In a subsequent photo, you'll see my poor fitting of the too-thick secondary armament barrels.

There are other impedances to my progress.  One is the fact that I have added torpedo nets for a Jutland fit.  But the kit has the masts of a later fit.  Another is the ships boats.  I have seen written that cranes and boats were left behind when going out for action.  Or that the cranes were lowered for action.  These steps supposedly cleared room for the central turret to operate.  You can see I have a water base partially made...   the ship is only sitting on it, and not attached.  I have crew figures for her, and was even going to add a couple shell splashes.

I've actually only completed one ship in my adult life.  Pics available upon. request.

 

[Peterpools]

11 minutes ago, GazzaS said:

Hi Rob...  At your request here is my current progress on GK.  I generally try to avoid putting pics of my model on other ppl's threads.  Last thing I did was place all of the coal chutes and boat rails on the wooden deck which I dulled down with a grey-brown wash.  I still can't remember why I painted the tops of the coal chutes brown.  I have seen wood-covered coal chutes on earlier Kaiserliche Marine ships...  and I have seen modellers represent them in black.     In a subsequent photo, you'll see my poor fitting of the too-thick secondary armament barrels.

There are other impedances to my progress.  One is the fact that I have added torpedo nets for a Jutland fit.  But the kit has the masts of a later fit.  Another is the ships boats.  I have seen written that cranes and boats were left behind when going out for action.  Or that the cranes were lowered for action.  These steps supposedly cleared room for the central turret to operate.  You can see I have a water base partially made...   the ship is only sitting on it, and not attached.  I have crew figures for her, and was even going to add a couple shell splashes.

I've actually only completed one ship in my adult life.  Pics available upon. request.

 

Gaz

Very nice work and one more then I have. I know I must have missed it but what scale is she in?

 

[GazzaS]

1 minute ago, Peterpools said:

Gaz

Very nice work and one more then I have. I know I must have missed it but what scale is she in?

 

1/350, Peter.

[Peterpools]

Thanks Gaz

 

[DocRob]

16 hours ago, Peterpools said:

WOW, the deck cranes look just brilliant and, in your hands, the Eduard PE looks wonderful.

 

14 hours ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Amazing PE work Rob - those cranes look incredible.  Very nice job!!

Thank you Peter and Mike, you should have seen the original plastic . They were some of the worst kit parts, I've ever seen.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

11 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Hi Rob...  At your request here is my current progress on GK.

Thanks for showing Gary, I don't mind having pics of other builds in my log. You never know, what comes of it. Your GK looks absolutely great and these holes for the secondary artillery only show, when heavily macroed. You definitely have a point in assuming a historical scenery and make the ship fit accurately. You have to do a lot of research to get everything right. With the Arizona, I'm absolutely no expert and I will not dig too deep into reference material. With such a well known subject, I'm in the minefield with my approach, but if it looks Arizona in the end, I'm ok with that.
The water base looks great and adds a lot of 'real feel'. I will decide later, if I go this route. Figures are planned for the USS Arizona. I have a set of sailors made by Ion, which look really good.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

More PE-madness was on todays schedule. I wanted to finish the basic construction of the back masts and flying bridge. 
First was creating the masts, using 2 mm brass tube cut to length like mentioned in the manual. Luckily the manual contains a precise drawing of this subassembly with measurements added.
The single aft mast was used to mark the height of the different decks with a pencil and then glue on the first deck, using a steel angle for orientation.

Then I added the two decks above with just a drop of CA and put the assembly in it's designated place on the deck and added the other two masts. I tried to do this step as quick as possible, to have some wiggling time, before the CA cured. Later, all was secured with more CA .

After all was aligned and the CA had hardened, I added all the traverses to the decks undersides, leaving a very delicate construction.

The flying bridge was bent and the circular or rounded parts got bent using a rubber mat and some steel rod, after annealing the brass. Not all looks totally clean after the CA mess, but keep in mind, these pics are heavily macroed and everything will hopefully look proper under primer and paint.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Some mighty serious and delicate PE work. The Flying Bridge and masts are looking mighty good. I always take into account the extreme magnification and at 1:1 scale, they will be perfect.

. 

[DocRob]

Thank you Peter, the mast assembly sans flying bridge is seven centimeters high, really not that large. The CA causes white residues which look very ugly and the annealed parts, well look dark and dirty. Nothing a coat of primer couldn't cover. But before, I have to install all the railings and ladders to this section, but this is for another day.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

An incredible amount of work to go for sure. Be honest - how many pieces of PF have been lost to the carpet monster? If it was me, I would easily have lost agood 25% of the smaller pieces knowing my past track record.🙃

[KevinM]

The flying bridge looks the treat Rob you are doing a wonderful job on the enhancements and I think you may of found a new journey/foray?Ships are really neat just more planning and time involved in most cases over other works we encounter,

[DocRob]

15 hours ago, Peterpools said:

An incredible amount of work to go for sure. Be honest - how many pieces of PF have been lost to the carpet monster? If it was me, I would easily have lost agood 25% of the smaller pieces knowing my past track record.🙃

So far, I haven't lost a part Peter, that equals the loss of the complete PE-set, that I can't find anymore, for the originally planned Schnellboot build .

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

9 hours ago, KevinM said:

The flying bridge looks the treat Rob you are doing a wonderful job on the enhancements and I think you may of found a new journey/foray?Ships are really neat just more planning and time involved in most cases over other works we encounter,

Thank you Kevin, hmm, well, ships, yes, I will build others, but I like to do different things. There are so many nice kits in my stash, so many projects in my head. The next will be a ship too, I will rig my wooden sailing ship, the Duchess of Kingston.

Cheers Rob

[belugawhaleman]

1 hour ago, DocRob said:

Thank you Kevin, hmm, well, ships, yes, I will build others, but I like to do different things. There are so many nice kits in my stash, so many projects in my head. The next will be a ship too, I will rig my wooden sailing ship, the Duchess of Kingston.

Cheers Rob

Never built a ship......saw a 1/35 css Hunley but not sure its worth the price, still, it's

tempting. Nice work so far. That photo-etch looks daunting.

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/mikromir-35-013-css-hl-hunley--700077

[DocRob]

21 minutes ago, belugawhaleman said:

Never built a ship......saw a 1/35 css Hunley but not sure its worth the price, still,

tempting. Nice work so far. That photo-etch looks daunting.

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/mikromir-35-013-css-hl-hunley--700077

Should be a good start, low part count, only some bits and pieces in PE, but the casting quality is not on par with the Japanese offerings. I built the Fokker D. VIII from Mikro Mir and it needed a bit of scratch building and improvisation.

Cheers Rob