USS Arizona - 1/350

[DocRob]

15 hours ago, Spitfire said:

Absolutely amazing, what a great build, all aspects of it, the figures really add some more interst to it as well.

 

9 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Right with Dennis X2 - awesome work What a fantastic build.

Thank you Dennis and Peter, it needed the start of the GB and the loss of my initial chosen kit's PE to get started with the USS Arizona. After some hours of building time, I asked myself, 'what have I thrown me into'. Endless PE sessions, uncountable subassemblies and complete inexperience with ship build in this scale were towering, but interestingly I got not completely demotivated. I had a picture of the finished model in my mind and that helped to lay the path for the building sequence and what was needed to rebuild this picture.
When I first saw the ION Figures, it was clear to me, I had to give them a try and they were great to work with, but naturally very tiny and tedious to paint and place.

This will not be my last venture into ship modeling, but for some time it will not be that small scale, maybe I find my Schneelboots PE and I have a Flower Class Corvett kit in 1/144 scale in stash, where I wait for a huge Pontos set to materialize.

Cheers Rob  

[DocRob]

4 hours ago, GazzaS said:

I really dig the figures and how they work with the ship.  Railings look good, too.  I really hope you rig it.  Or it will look naked.  No pressure

Thank you Gary, the railing job was a lot easier than expected, luckily. I will finish some touchups and then decide about the rigging. I somehow have the strong feeling, I will destroy the ship due to clumsiness, while doing so .

And this is what me actually scares :

 

Cheers Rob

 

[GazzaS]

18 minutes ago, DocRob said:

Thank you Gary, the railing job was a lot easier than expected, luckily. I will finish some touchups and then decide about the rigging. I somehow have the strong feeling, I will destroy the ship due to clumsiness, while doing so .

And this is what me actually scares :

 

Cheers Rob

 

There is such a thing out there as partial rendering of the rigging.  Enough to make it look good without so much that would intimidate a spider.

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, GazzaS said:

There is such a thing out there as partial rendering of the rigging.  Enough to make it look good without so much that would intimidate a spider.

Normally, I'm more a do or die type of guy, I may take a shortcut here .

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

A short story about modeling fate, when the group build started, I wanted to build the Fore Model S-38 Schnellboot early as my contribution. Some weeks before, we had a heavy rain and the box, stowed on the ground got soaked to pulp. When I discoverd it, I took out the manual, decals and PE and later recovered the sprues from the sodden box.

Now with the USS Arizona, my substitute participant 98% finished, I cleared the bench, put some spares in other boxes, which I slid out of my bench under construction and whop, the PE and the metal barrels hit the floor. I must have parked them onto that box initially and then forgot about and stapled another box onto it.

I searched the PE set for hours and hours and was sure not to have thrown it away accidentally. Now only the decals are missing, no big deal and I'm happy and may start th boat soon.

Cheers Rob

[KevinM]

Rob you got six flag lines(per/side) it looks like I bet four would be good enough.I had someone remind me those lines are rope and tan if you so wish to be that authentic I think the break-up in color would make one ask "WHY?".

[KevinM]

On 4/14/2023 at 9:25 AM, DocRob said:

I'm not so sure, if rigging would be visible in this scale, but this decision will be made later.

let me change your mind.

[BlrwestSiR]

16 hours ago, DocRob said:

Thank you Gary, the railing job was a lot easier than expected, luckily. I will finish some touchups and then decide about the rigging. I somehow have the strong feeling, I will destroy the ship due to clumsiness, while doing so .

And this is what me actually scares :

 

Cheers Rob

 

Yikes! Not sure what else to say. 

The partial rigging idea would be extremely tempting to me. 

[GazzaS]

11 hours ago, DocRob said:

A short story about modeling fate, when the group build started, I wanted to build the Fore Model S-38 Schnellboot early as my contribution. Some weeks before, we had a heavy rain and the box, stowed on the ground got soaked to pulp. When I discoverd it, I took out the manual, decals and PE and later recovered the sprues from the sodden box.

Now with the USS Arizona, my substitute participant 98% finished, I cleared the bench, put some spares in other boxes, which I slid out of my bench under construction and whop, the PE and the metal barrels hit the floor. I must have parked them onto that box initially and then forgot about and stapled another box onto it.

I searched the PE set for hours and hours and was sure not to have thrown it away accidentally. Now only the decals are missing, no big deal and I'm happy and may start th boat soon.

Cheers Rob

Well, thank goodness for that!  I figured they were somewhere else in your stash.  I'm still missing an upgrade kit for the Mercedes d.III in 1/32 scale that I lost a year ago.  My hopes are slim. 

Re:  the railing.  Your choice.  For me, it would be like the aerial on a 109...   it would drive me nuts not to represent it even in a faint form.

[Peterpools]

17 hours ago, KevinM said:

let me change your mind.

Kev

Unreal - just amazing work.

[Peterpools]

Rob

I'm right with the guys and agree partial rigging would do the trick and add to the atmosphere of the build and look so good. Most of us would certainly just drool over partial rigging as it will look so good.

 

[DocRob]

On 4/15/2023 at 11:41 PM, KevinM said:

Rob you got six flag lines(per/side) it looks like I bet four would be good enough.I had someone remind me those lines are rope and tan if you so wish to be that authentic I think the break-up in color would make one ask "WHY?".

Six Kevin? I count a lot more and I'm not so sure if these are really flag lines. I will lean back for some days and then decide about rigging.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

On 4/15/2023 at 11:53 PM, KevinM said:

let me change your mind.

With what Kevin, I have left my microscope down in the basement and can't see a thing . Your tiny Japanese vessel looks amazing, but I'm not sure, if the implication is to scare me off rigging or encourage me .

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

On 4/16/2023 at 2:52 AM, GazzaS said:

Well, thank goodness for that!  I figured they were somewhere else in your stash.  I'm still missing an upgrade kit for the Mercedes d.III in 1/32 scale that I lost a year ago.  My hopes are slim. 

Re:  the railing.  Your choice.  For me, it would be like the aerial on a 109...   it would drive me nuts not to represent it even in a faint form.

Bummer with the detailing kit for the Mercedes engine. Was it a Taurus one, hard to come by, after he ceased business.

Rigging, hmm, you put the heat on me Gary, subtle, but hey, I noticed , but I have to tell you, I am nuts , so nothing to gain, nothing to loose.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

22 hours ago, Peterpools said:

I'm right with the guys and agree partial rigging would do the trick and add to the atmosphere of the build and look so good. Most of us would certainly just drool over partial rigging as it will look so good.

Honestly, I prefer rigging a WWI kite to this Peter. Very thin elastic threads, sometimes intersecting and it's so easy to destroy the finished work with clumsy hands, while doing so.

Cheers Rob

[KevinM]

11 minutes ago, DocRob said:

Six Kevin? I count a lot more and I'm not so sure if these are really flag lines.

Sorry seven being doubled is flag line hoist/down.

[DocRob]

Just now, KevinM said:

Sorry seven being doubled is flag line hoist/down.

Thanks Kevin, good to know. Who needs flags, when they have radio .

Cheers Rob

[KevinM]

3 minutes ago, DocRob said:

Who needs flags, when they have radio .

Those sneaky Japanese......................?

[GazzaS]

5 hours ago, DocRob said:

Bummer with the detailing kit for the Mercedes engine. Was it a Taurus one, hard to come by, after he ceased business.

Rigging, hmm, you put the heat on me Gary, subtle, but hey, I noticed , but I have to tell you, I am nuts , so nothing to gain, nothing to loose.

Cheers Rob

Yes...   the Taurus set.  *sniff*

[DocRob]

I call the USS Arizona project done. I did a lot of little things over the last days, like a simplified rigging, added flagpoles, painted lots of details, added the anchors, I had forgotten before and took some final pictures.
It was a demanding but also satisfying project, where I learned a lot of new stuff, as it was my first small scale ship build. The most important lesson was, not to limit myself with upfront fear of the lots of PE and small detail stuff. 
Finally, I also learned something new about photographing, focus stacking, which my camera is able to do in house. It means, that a lengthy object, which normally would have out of focus areas can be photographed without these areas. It takes some pictures of different focus points in one file, which later are merged in the camera to generate a completely focused image, cool stuff.

 

Cheers Rob

 

[HubertB]

It’s a great looking AZ, Rob, with a very attractive scheme. I admire your skills at taming the PE in this scale. For me, 1/350 is just too small (although I would probably be trying to superdetail a 1/200 version with just as fiddly small bits 😂, so it’s just in the mind that I reject 1/350 … - but you cannot beat the presence of a 1/200 major vessel)

Well done, and congrats on finishing this one !

Hubert

[BlrwestSiR]

Looking at the finished model, I'd never think that it was your first attempt at a super detailed ship model. A truly impressive model. 

So much new information has come out about the colours of the ships on that day that it makes you think how colourful Battleship Row must have looked. 

[GazzaS]

Well done, Rob!  Nice finish and an attractive scheme.  Don't believe the hype...   1/200 scale only has more small pieces.

[DocRob]

13 hours ago, HubertB said:

It’s a great looking AZ, Rob, with a very attractive scheme. I admire your skills at taming the PE in this scale. For me, 1/350 is just too small (although I would probably be trying to superdetail a 1/200 version with just as fiddly small bits 😂, so it’s just in the mind that I reject 1/350 … - but you cannot beat the presence of a 1/200 major vessel)

Well done, and congrats on finishing this one !

 

19 minutes ago, GazzaS said:

Well done, Rob!  Nice finish and an attractive scheme.  Don't believe the hype...   1/200 scale only has more small pieces.

Thank you Gary and Hubert, the sheer amount of tiny PE was daunting, but the preparation of the remaining terrible plastic was more challenging at times. The PE, Eduard provided was very well designed at fitted near perfectly, which helped a lot.
Like Gary, I don't see a big difference with the detail work needed for a larger scale vessel with 1/200 scale. There will be only more details to replicate, but a huge battleship in 1/200 will be an imposing sight. I have the Revell Flower Class Corvette in 1/144 in stash and whenever the dedicated Pontos set shows up, I will give it a try. Sadly there are no fitting British sailors out there, after North Star closed business. 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

8 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Looking at the finished model, I'd never think that it was your first attempt at a super detailed ship model. A truly impressive model. 

So much new information has come out about the colours of the ships on that day that it makes you think how colourful Battleship Row must have looked. 

Thank you Carl , I exaggerated a bit, I built a Revell Admiral Hipper as a teenager, brush painted and glue soiled, but that hardly prepared me for the USS Arizona.
The color scheme is indeed interesting and make the ship look different from the typical grey battleships. The USS Arizona sported it only for a very short time.
The red topped turrets were for air identification, not a good idea in times of war. All the American battleships of this time were coded red, white and blue for recognition.

Cheers Rob