steinerman

I don't know how many here might be interested, but Red Fox Studio now has their 3D cockpit available for the 1/32 Tamiya F-15E Strike Eagle. Price is 38 EUR. I just ordered mine and the final cost was $46.56.

Wow! This is great! Thanks!!!!

Morning, fellow glue sniffers! I have a question: Do any of you know where I can find the meanings of the various colored bands around the bodies of armament mounted on modern aircraft? I think red means the device is armed, but other than that I don't know. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks! Larry

I'm super excited to see you are starting this. I have this kit, along with the Aries cockpit, wheel wells, and the Zacto intakes. Believe me, I'm going to be hanging onto every word!!!

Morning Friends, I'm wondering if the B-36 had deicing boots. Most of the high altitude bombers of that era, namely the B-17 and the B-29 had deicing boots, but for some reason I've never seen any pictures or videos of them on a B-36. I even went back and watched parts of "Strategic Air Command" and nope, not showing up there either. Just curious because if not, how did they keep the wings from icing up?

Just a pleasant shout-out and to let you fellow modelers know about the enjoyable experience I recently had with one of the subscribers here - HobbyZone USA, based in Indiana. I recently placed a first time order with them for some ANYZ switches and knobs and I couldn't be more pleased. They kept me abreast of my order every step of the way and it even arrived a day earlier than they said. The order was well packed to avoid damage and what's more, they even shipped for free. We need more verdors like this, and, in my opinion, HobbyZone USA needs more customers. GREAT JOB!!! Larry Steiner Grand Rapids, Mich

Hi there Ladies and Gentlemen! Happy Easter!! It's a gorgeous day here in Grand Rapids, Michigan! Things are starting to green up, the sun is shining, and it's supposed to get up to the low 70's today. Truly a delightful spring day. I went back and looked and my last post was back in January, so I thought it was about time I gave you an update on my "Plastic Toy Boat", or, what I refer to as my "Monster Mo". Since I last posted an update, I've been cleaning up and repairing places I didn't like, adding the seaplanes, dingys, and boarding ladders, and installing railings on the main deck. I won't take up bandwidth with repeat photos of what I've already done, but here's a few photos of the new additions. Just in case you did forget what she looks like, though, here she is in all her current glory. She's a full 53" long and stands 11 5/8" from keel to the top of the foremast: I don't know if I ever mentioned it or not, but every time I complete a sub-assembly, I count the parts that went into it and log the totals in an Excel spreadsheet. As the ship stands now, there are 6,291 individual parts that make up this ship. 1,311 of them are plastic and 4,341 are brass photo etch. There are also 392 resin parts and close to 300 miscellaneous parts such as chain, string, fabric, etc. You guys that complain about photo etch - I probably wouldn't recommend you tackle this ship! I really think I'm nearing the end. I have to still do a bit of clean up, finish the main deck railings, and do the rigging, which will take quite a while. Believe it or not, there is a LOT of rigging on this ship! Also, I still have those 300 sailors to paint! Any volunteers??? Here's the stern showing the seaplanes. If you recall, they were used as spotters and reconnaissance. They were shot off the catapults with dummy 5" explosive cartridges and upon return landed in the water where they were hoisted back onto the ship by the crane. One thing I did since my last update was to add number decals to the quad 40mm Bofors gun positions. There are 20 positions and each are numbered according to how they were numbered at the end of WWII. According to my reference books, each gun tub was numbered as well as the splinter shield on the gun mounts proper. I cleaned up the crane, added some rigging to it, added a tie-down, and added the seaplanes. I also straightened the railings on the catapults, or at least I thought I did. I see, though, that my messing around messed up the railing on the foreground catapult. Oh well, it's an easy fix! Painting the canopy on the little 1/200 scale seaplanes was a real pain in the you-know-what!! I think the brush I used had at least 3 bristles in it! The underside of the seaplanes is white and it gradually fades to blue on top. It took me forever to get this where I thought it didn't look crappy. Finally, after 4 cycles of stripping and repainting, I finally gave up. Not perfect, but hey, it's the best I can do. I have to make a decision fairly soon. The rigging you see on the crane is 0.01" thread called EZ Line. At 1/200 scale, this would represent rope 2" in diameter, which is about right. The problem is, it's very hard to see and unless it's on a white background or a bright light is on it, you can barely make it out. The crane tie-down is 0.02" EZ Line, which would be 4" actual. Most of the rigging on the masts is actually about 2", but it's going to be hard to see. Should I go for realism or use the larger diameter thread? What to do????? OK, now we move on to the dingys. Believe it or not, there are 30 separate parts to the little boats and their mountings. I added a lot of detail because they're one of the focal points of the ship and they add a bit of color to an otherwise fairly drab grey superstructure. There are two of these dingys, one on each side. THis shot also shows part of the main deck railing. More about that later. Sure was fun adding the windshield! Not to mention the bow cleats! Extreme close ups never flatter a model, as this shows. But this is the only way I could show some of the tiny detail. Here's a dime placed along side one of the dingys to show how small these little boats really are. Sharp tweezers and a strong magnifying glass are petty much a necessity. As is a glass of wine more often than not!! Three fenders are stowed on either side to prevent damage to the sides of the ship. Can you see the brass screw on the rear of the dingy? The prop blades are even bent to approximate the correct pitch! One of the boarding ladders has been added. There is one on the port side toward the stern and one toward the bow on the starboard side (yet to be added). This is also a good look at the main deck railing. I'm thinking that maybe I'll paint the rope on the ladder crane black to make it stand out better. Wish I'd have thought of that before I glued it in place!! I finally got a halfway decent shot of the top of one of the funnels. Each one of those dividers is a separate brass piece of photo etch. Need I mention what a job it was drilling out the 3 tiny vent stacks!! Here's what I'm working on now. These are the parts that make up the main deck railing. The railing comes in 6" lengths of PE like you see here. Once you cut it free from the fret, you have to be extremely careful not to bend the individual strands. They are fragile beyond belief! The stanchions have to be cut loose from the sheet of PE, then folded in half and glued. And, there's an outside and inside to them as well, Good thing they give you lots of spares!! Then you apply a tiny amount of super glue to the railing at the appropriate locations and carefully drop the stanchions in place, making sure they are straight and not crooked. And, they go on the OUTSIDE!! Actually, this one of the easier jobs. You don't need a magnifying glass to see the pieces of PE! Once you get all the stanchions glued in place, you then have to locate the positions of the chocks on the deck, transfer this location to the strip of railing (about 6"), and cut the bottom rails to fit the chocks in between the rails. Touch a tiny drop of glue to everything and carefully glue this section of rail in place. OK, Friends, that's all I have for you today. I'll post more when I get started on the rigging. That's going to be a pain, because every time I get my fat fingers in there I damage something. Have a great day, y'all!!

Greetings, John, and welcome to the site. I hope you like it here. I've been here a couple years and can say the people here are about the most friendly and helpful group I've yet to run across. Yeah, you may ask why I'm on a model airplane site when I'm building a battleship. Well, I started out working on a 1:48 B-17 (which ended up in the trash), then progressed to a 1:48 B-29(still WIP) and finally a 1:32 F-14D Tomcat (Still in the box). All this while building my "Monster Mo" as I call it. I also belong to a model warship site as well but I don't post there much anymore since a few of the members decided to take issue with my abilities (or lack thereof) in regards to my ship. Apparently I'm not quite up to caliber the people on that site are used to, hence my posting of my progress here. The folks here don't appear to be nearly as fussy as the rivet counters at the model warship site - at least when it comes to building a plastic toy boat! However, when it comes to aircraft - Holy Smokes! There is some unbelievable talent here. I'm l almost afraid to show my face when I start my Tomcat! Yes, John, while they are indeed sister ships, there are several differences between the Iowa and the Missouri, particularly in the bridge area and also in the radars and the AA armament. However, the Iowa will turn out to be a beautiful and impressive model - one that you can be extremely proud of. I'm not sure how much detail you want to put into your ship, but may I strongly recommend that you purchase a detail kit to go with the model. I selected Pontos because I felt I got the most for my money, and also because they also have an "Advanced Detail Kit" which includes even more detail. But be aware, all this detail comes at the cost of hundreds of extra $$$ and literally thousands of little tiny Photo Etch parts. The Trumpeter kit has 1500 parts, but with the 2 detail sets and all my scratch built parts, my parts count is somewhere up around 6200 individual parts. If I may offer a suggestion, John; head over to Modalwarships.com and get on their forums page. Go down to the "Calling All Ship Fans" page and select "Battleships". Once there, open the thread "Calling All USS Iowa BB-61 class fans". There's over 200 pages of information regarding not only the Iowa and Missouri, but the Wisconsin and New Jersey as well. Also, you might want to take a look at the build log I started there which covers the time up until I got my feelings hurt and stopped posting. The Ship Model Forum • View topic - Trumpeter 1/200 USS Missouri Build Log (Sept 2015 - ?????) (shipmodels.info) Lastly, any help or advice that I can give you, please feel free to pick my brain. If you prefer not to tie up the bandwidth here, you are welcome to contact me through E-mail at phydeaux99 (at) comcast (dot) net. Good luck and have fun!! Larry

Howdy Friends! Hope you are all safe and staying healthy. This is not a good time and I hope and pray that once more people are able to get the vaccine that things will once again start to return to normal. Being an old fart (78) I, along with my wife, have already gotten our 1st shot and are scheduled for our 2nd one in 3 weeks. But, I didn't post here to tell you about that! I have actually been working (now and then) on my ship, and, since I haven't posted anything since October, I thought I'd give you an update on what I've been up to. It's coming along - slow but sure, and I think I'm actually starting to see the end. During the last few months I've been working on the stacks, masts, and the main control tower. As you can see in the accompanying photos, I've finished these and am now working on the two seaplanes that are mounted on the stern catapults. After that, what remains is to build the small whaleboats and their mountings, add the railing along the sides of the main deck, and the rigging. Plus, of course the 300 sailors that will populate the finished model. OK, let's see some photos: Here is the front stack and the control tower in process. Lots of detail still to add yet but you can get an idea of why this part took so long to build. If you look close just below the wing of the top radar and again a little below the horn, you will see a box with three vertical lights, red above green above white. These are called "Fighting Lights" and depending on what pattern is lit tells the other ships in formation what the ship is doing. They are not lit during battle at night as they make excellent targets to aim at in the dark! Here's another shot from another angle. There is a ton of brass photo-etch on this sub-assembly - along with a lot of little fiddly parts! Here the foremast and the fore yardarm have been added. Also, more of the antennae that sticks out all over the bloody ship! More of the front stack assembly. The various brass parts are extremely thin and fragile. You can see the very top antenna is bent. It's since been straightened. There are 2 horns on the ship. One is a siren. Note the brass bell and the fire hose and red water supply valve. Yeah, I know - there's a bent antenna on this end of the yardarm. Every time I touch this I upset something! Here's a closer view of the yardarm and the SK-2 Air Search radar dish. This dish was a real ***** to make. It's not perfect, but from a few feet away it looks fine! A view from the top looking down at the MK-37 Gun Directors and the dual 36" searchlights. Note the detail at the top of the stack. This is all brass PE. The 12" searchlights mounted on the railings were a real bear to glue in place. And yes, the railing needs to be straightened. There's a lot of tweaking and straightening to do once this assembly is glued inn place! Here's the rear funnel and the attached mast and yardarm. While the mast on the forward funnel is taller, this one is called the "Main Mast". This stack has two 36" searchlights mounted on it as well as two MK51 gun directors on either side. Close up of the main mast and yardarm This is what the ship looks like with both stacks glued in place. The superstructure is just sitting on the main deck because I haven't screwed down the boat to the base yet. Looks kinda busy, don't you think? Antennae all over the place! A shot of the superstructure from the starboard bow. I don't know about you, but I think it's turning out fairly well. KInda hard to see the individual boo-boos when you stand back and look at the whole thing. You wouldn't think it, but there is a LOT of rigging to add to this ship. I haven't decided yet if I want to use EZ-Line or stretched sprue - or possibly a combination of both. This spot is where the Japanese surrendered on September 1945. I have a small table, chairs, and microphone, along with a whole bunch of Japanese officials and sailors. I don't know if you paid attention or not, but several of the windows on the bridge have windscreen wipers added. Wanna know how difficult that was - tiny wipers glued to tiny arms! The rectangular shaped structure on the deck with the sloped top is called the "Flag Locker". There's one on either side and all the signal flag halyards run down to these lockers. Notice a 3rd set of Fighting Lights on the outboard side of the 40mm Bofors gun tub. There's a flag locker immediately aft of the rear shack as well. This is for the battle flags, pennants, and Old Glory. You can't see it, but each of the 20 40mm Quad Bofors gun positions have tiny numbers on the sides of the tubs as well as on the sides of the shields themselves. (Trying to be authentic here, folks!!) OK, that's it for now friends! Stay safe and stay healthy!!!

Hi Kevin. To get that color I used Model Masters Jet Exhaust and after it dried I used Tamaya Smoke by twirling the gun barrel against the brush to give it a circular look. Did this twice and then don't put any final coat on it. Leave it as is.

Not sure what happened, Kev. I couldn't seem to get anything to work. Finally closed everything down and restarted from scratch. Software glitch, maybe???

Hi all you LSP friends out there. It's a wet, cold, gloomy day and since I can't be outside picking up leaves, I thought now would be a good time to give you an update on my "Plastic Toy Boat", or, as I call it - "The Monster Mo". I would say it's probably 75% finished ay this point. I have to put on the smoke stack assemblies and the front upper control bridge yet, then add the rigging (ugh) and add a bunch of little piddly stuff on the main deck. And oh yeah, I've got to do the airplanes that attaches to the catapults. And don't forget the people! I take that back, maybe it isn't 75% done!! Anyway, here's the latest 35 pictures. It's actually starting to look like a battleship now. Still a ways to go, though. Finally got the 2 20mm AA guns mounted on the bow. Railing on main deck won't be added for a while yet. This is the area I've been working on for well over a year now. The higher up you go, the smaller the pieces are, and the more brass photo-etch there is. There are 2 masts on this ship. one mounted on each of the twin stacks. The masts are 100% brass. Yeah, I said I was gonna! You probably didn't see them. but there are 11 windscreen wipers mounted on the bridge windows. And, I did get the railings installed on the upper decks - not the main deck yet. How's that for detail! I even have an open door under the gangway. Can you see the big 36" searchlight in what looks like an inverted tub? That searchlight has 16 individual pieces to it, including a clear plastic lens and seats for the operators One good thing, there is so much going on with this model that if I make a goof, I doubt seriously if you'll ever notice it! At least I can hope!! Sure is a lot of guns on this beast. Can you imagine a Japanese aviator's thoughts as he flew towards this ship trying to attack it? This is one area I had a lot of trouble with - trying to fit the two 5" practice loading machines in place along with the gun director and radar tubs and ladders, then adding the railings and net baskets. A bloody nightmare, it was! There's a 12" searchlight that had to be glued to the top rail of the railing. Wanna know how much fun that was? Damn thing is so small you can hardly see it and you have to hold it in place with tweezers until the glue sets up. Then you get to do it on the other side as well. Here you can see the hole where the aft smokestack goes. That's what I'm working on now. With the addition of the 12 whip antennas, I can no longer cover this ship with a piece of plastic. So, I now keep it downstairs in the family room and keep the case on it. Then, as I finish a module, I'll add it to the ship. Next addition will be the aft stack with it's associated mast.

Greetings friends. With this quarantine in effect I thought I'd be able to make tons of progress on my ship. Alas, such is not the case. My wife just has that much more time to spent on her "Honey-Do" list. And, I've come to the realization that if you spend too many hours a day working with little tiny pieces of PE, you soon get to the point where you have to take a break and walk away for a while. This is a hobby, remember - not a job. It's supposed to be fun, and when it isn't, it's time to do something else. But, I have managed to make a little headway from when I last posted back in March. So, here I am again, with an up-to-date report on my progress. There’s around 40 pictures in this batch, so lean back, grab a cup of coffee (or a glass of wine) and let’s begin. I have 3 decks finished above the main deck. According to the plans I have, the lower most one is referred to as the 1st Superstructure Deck, the one above that is the 2nd Superstructure Deck, and the top one is the Flag Bridge Deck. This is an overall shot of the whole assemble, to date. Since my last post, I changed my mind on how I wanted to build this model. I intended to attach the hull to the base at this point and then build upwards from there. Due to the weight – and the size of the hull and base, I decided to build the superstructure (called the citadel) by itself and attach it to the hull at a later date. Makes for a much easier build – and I don’t have to worry about knocking all sorts of things off! OK, a couple things to point out here. One is the American flag. It was actually mounted where you see it at the time of the Japanese surrender. And, you’re right, it does appear to be backwards, but that’s the way it was hung. I had to search for a 48 star flag, then copy it and reduce it to 2/10” wide and print it on photo paper. The other thing here is that I tried my hand at making windscreen wipers for the windows (Yes, there is clear plastic in the windows). The first one isn’t all that good, as you can see, but the second one turned out great. I now have to replace that first one and then make 2 more for the other side. Wanna know how tiny these little things are!!! They’re made from 0.2mm (0.008”) copper wire. Several new things here. One is the mops and their rack. All hand made from .25mm plastic rod and unraveled string. Also note the fire station under the gangway to the 2nd level. Also, note that all the life rafts now have tiny oars in them and are tied down to the deck with 0.2mm copper wire. The oars were made from plastic rod with the tips heated and then flattened. Lots of detail added since you saw this last. The vents are painted flat black and then fine mesh copper screen is cut to shape, painted, and glued to the frames. I had all the compressed gas cylinders painted and attached to all 3 decks when something didn’t look right. I did some checking and calculatin’ and discovered that the tanks that came with the ship kit were about 20% too big. They looked out of place. So, I ordered new ones from a place that makes 3D printed parts (more $$$) and did them all over. Then I wrapped 0.2mm copper wire around the tanks to simulate the cables holding them in place. Looks a lot better, don’t you think? The little short, squat tanks are acetylene and if you don’t think it was a pain painting the red band around them!!! The little buggers are only 2/10 of an inch tall to begin with. The boxes on the 2nd deck are ammunition lockers and are scattered throughout the ship. The white hoses are fire hoses and are located every place you see a red fire suppression valve. Look close and you can see the nozzles of the fire hoses are painted red. The hose reel on the side of deck 1 is made by wrapping a layer of real fine copper wire around a toothpick and painting it flat black. The things you don’t have to do to add detail to a model! The gas bottles are painted the same way they were in 1945. Three 20mm Orlikon Anti-Aircraft guns mount on the angled platform. The diagonal tubes on the side are spare gun barrels and the protrusions on the top edge are to hold loaded 20mm shell canisters so they are ready for the gunners at a moment’s notice. They're called "Loader Frames". Note the gas cylinders in the enclosed walkway and the tiny steps leading up to the 20mm gun platform. I’m not installing any more guns until much later in the build. They’re too easy to knock off (I learned that the hard way!) Here we have a couple new things for you to see. One is a spare float for the float planes that are catapulted from the stern of the ship. I had to buy an extra set of airplanes just to get this float! $$$. Also, do you remember when I left off last March , I said I needed to make some “Stokes Litters”? Well, nobody makes any in 1:200 scale, so I did some research on the Internet and discovered that they were about 7’ long and roughly 3’ wide, and were made out of canvas webbing. I carved and sanded what I though was a reasonable looking part, then made a mold and pressed glue saturated toule fabric into the mold. When the glue dried, I carefully cut it out, wrapped a border of 0.2mm copper wire around the outside, and painted it. An old sailor from that era probably would take one look at it and laugh like mad, but hey, it’s the best I could do. You can see 2 of them in this view. There are 5 altogether. Here’s a view showing a ventilator, stokes litter, gas bottles, hose reel, and fire suppression equipment. Also, two stacks of life rafts, with oars, tied down to the deck. There are several places on this ship where I cut out the hatchway and installed photo-etch doors that are partially open. When the ship is all complete, I plan to have about 300 sailors and officers placed throughout the ship’s decks. Also, please note the gun crew’s helmets mounted on the outside of the gun tub’s splinter shield. To make these, I bought extra oversized compressed gas cylinders, cut the rounded tops off, and painted then dark grey. I took this picture to show the 4 layers of ammunition clip hangers around the insides of the 40mm Bofors gun tubs. If you recall, the shells are fed into the 40mm Bofors cannons in clips that hold 5 shells at a time. These clips are stored here and are retrieved and fed into the guns by the loaders when the ship is in action. Also, there is a 20mm Orlikon AA gun mounted just aft of the 40mm gun tub and the helmets for this station are hanging on the aft of the 40mm gun tub. Here’s a close up of the life rafts and oars. If you’re new to these progress reports, you might be wondering where all this detail is coming from. I have a set of blueprints for this ship that are 9 feet long and show the tops and sides of every deck in sharp detail, along with the masts and rigging. Expensive as heck, but worth every penny! Here's another open hatchway and a couple more Stokes litters. There’s a ton of crap that goes on top of this upper deck and it’s going to take a long time to get it all installed. My plans show a rack with oil hoses is installed here. No such animal in the kit, so to the rescue comes Evergreen plastic rod and strips. Looks just like the real thing! The port 20mm gun platform and more gas bottles. It was a real pain having to tear out the old ones and paint and replace with the smaller ones, but I’m glad I did. They look a lot better! Only took about 12 hours all told. Another stokes litter and more gas bottles. Sure wish there wasn’t so many acetylene tanks. It's a real pain painting that red band! Also, note the mop rack and hose reel on the aft side of the 5 inch gun mount. Stepping away and looking at all 3 decks. There is still quite a bit of hardware that goes between the main deck and the 1st superstructure deck that I won’t be able to put in place until the superstructure is glued in place to the main deck. Port side at the front of the superstructure. More gas bottles, another mop rack, more life rafts. I see a problem where there’s a sizeable gap in the plastic parts near the front. I’ll have to correct that before I go on. It’s way too noticeable. Port side of 16” gun turret #2. The ladder on this side of the storage shed is all bent out of shape. Might be a good idea if I replaced it. I opened this hatchway too. I don’t know if you recall or not, but the red fire hose hanger is made from 1/64” automotive striping tape. This is the very front of the superstructure. It’s referred to as the “Conning Tower” and extends all the way up to the navigation bridge. The rack holds spare rail stations and the two side protrusions are antenna outriggers where the antennae tie off and feed into the conning tower. They are made from 0.3mm copper wire and anchored inside through .3mm holes drilled in the plastic. This view also shows another gap between the port windows and the conning tower. Close-up photography is excellent at locating problem areas that are not noticeable when looking at the model with the naked eye. Close up of compressed gas bottles and both open and closed portholes. Every porthole has a brass photo-etch ring glued to it. I can show portholes either opened or closed at my discretion. The 4 objects attached to the side of the adjacent 5” gun platform are spare barrels for the 5” guns. This photo shows the ammo clip rings for the 40mm Bofor guns in detail, as well as the gun crew helmets. These rings are brass photo-etch (PE) and have to be glued in place one at a time, starting with the bottom layer. There are tiny tabs on the outer perimeter of each ring that you bend down to rest on the ring below. This maintains the proper distance between rings, but it’s a real pain in the butt to hold them in place and apply glue to the tabs at the same time. This is looking down on all three decks at the front of the port side. Note the mop rack, the oxygen bottles, the life rafts, and the ladder up to the 40mm gun director. I elected to open the hatchway to the flag bridge. I do need to make windscreen washers on this side. OK, I know this is what you’ve been waiting for. What this latest module looks like on the ship. Here it is. If you’re new to my built posts, I elected not to mount my ship on brass pedestals, as is normally the case. Instead, it’s mounted on walnut blocks laid out to represent the keel blocks under the ship when she was in drydock for her last refit. I think it looks a lot better than having it stuck up on some brass pedestals, don’t you? OK, here’s the lower 3 decks of the superstructure mounted on the hull (not glued down). Also, the #2 16” gun turret is in place. The next few pictures give you an idea of the complexity of a modern (WWII) battleship. And, the amount of detail that goes into a model of this size and scale. In case you don’t remember, this model is 1:200 scale (1” = 200”, or 16.67 ft). The model is a fraction over 53” long – almost 4-1/2 feet, and the actual USS Missouri (Mighty Mo) is 883 feet long. The ship is on permanent display at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Traveling down the starboard side. I know many of you think I’m anal, and you’re probably right. But, every time I finish a sub-assembly or a module, I stop and count the number of pieces that went into that particular assembly. I keep an Excel spreadsheet that totals up the number of parts, the number of assemblies, and the total parts count. In case you have any interest at all, so far there are 4864 individual pieces in this model. That includes all the guns that are not mounted yet, as well as the 40+ gun directors built but not yet installed. It does NOT include all the tiny pieces of plastic glued to the safety net baskets. These are counted as I piece. This total includes 1041 plastic parts, 3272 individual brass photo-etched parts, and 348 resin parts. Told you I was anal! Looks kinda impressive, doesn’t it? But, believe it or not, I’m probably about only halfway finished. There is a lot of equipment that mounts on the main deck alongside the superstructure that I can’t glue in place yet. This includes things like the lifeboats and divots, more 20mm gun platforms, and the like. Also, none of the railings have been added – and there’s a ton of those! Believe it or not, most of the remaining assemblies are smaller and more delicate that what’s come so far. The higher up you go, the more complex things become, and the masts, with all the antennas and radars, are totally unreal! I thought of placing the 5” gun turrets in place for this shot but decided nah, why risk damaging them. You’ll just have to wait to see them in place. Yeah, I know, there are a few mistakes I've made so far. I try to catch as many as I can, but some will undoubtedly slip through. On the whole, though, I think they will be relatively hard to see once the ship is done and in it's case. 01 I haven’t attached the boarding ladders to the sides of the hull yet either. That will come later. All ready to start working on the next level. And oh yeah, I’ve already had a nameplate made for the ship when it’s finished. Notice there’s no finish date on it!! OK, friends, that’s all for this post. I hope you liked it. So, until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and stay home!

Hi Iain, You are doing just fine. It's slow going and it's a HUGE project! Just take your time, work at a pace that's comfortable for you, and most of all - HAVE FUN! I, too, plan on adding sailors to my ship at the end. So far I have 3 sets of Trumpeter US sailors (180 total) to add. I may get more, just haven't decided yet. Have you by chance had an opportunity to view Wojtek's (Voyteque) build photos of his Missouri on the Modelwarship forum? You might want to take a look. http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=167658 He has populated it with sailors and crew to portray the ship at the signing of the Japanese surrender on September 1945. It's quite impressive and may give you some ideas. Good luck and keep us posted as to your progress. Don't be like me and slough off posting for months on end!

Hi Chek, Thanks for the kind words. Yeah,I've been watching his videos too. He's done things that I haven't and by the same token, I've done things he hasn't. I have picked up a few tips from him, though. In regards to the Veteran's 40mm Bofors sets, that's what I'm using. If you buy the Pontos Advanced Detail set (also more $$$), it includes 10 of these Veterans Bofors sets, as well as brass props, added detail for the 36" searchlights, and more detailed MK51 gun directors