steinerman

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

Have fun painting them, Iain!

OK, it's now 11PM and I guess I have time to add the rest of the pictures. So, here they are: Progressing further aft on the starboard side, we see the life rings, the fire hoses, and the compressed air cylinders. There are red fire water nozzles that are glued to the main deck near every fire hose. These have not been added yet. I’ll do that after deck #1 is glued down. The short squat compressed air cylinders are acetylene, the ones with the green top are oxygen, and the ones with the white top at the far left are hydrogen. This is the way the tanks were painted in 1945. This is a little further aft on the starboard side. Note the hoist on the side of the 5” gun platform. The two red valves above the fire hose are identified on the blueprints as steam cutoff valves. Also, the compressed air tanks with the yellow top are dichlorodifluromethane, which is used as a refrigerant. This is a closer view and shows the detail of the front of a 5” gun mount. There are 10 of these on the ship, 5 on each side. Also, if you look very closely at the white fire hose, the nozzles are painted red. A good magnifying glass is a definite necessity when building this ship! This is the aft starboard portion of Deck #1 – and actually part of deck #2 as well. I painted the ventilator intakes black behind the gray grids to make them look more realistic. The grids are actually separate brass pieces. Note that there is another open hatchway here. Now we start down the port side of deck #1, looking at the locker room and also turret #2. Again, the side of this deck is cluttered with all sorts of equipment and hardware. Progressing a little further back, we see 5” gun turrets, a fire hose, a life ring, vent pipes, and more gas cylinders. The ones with the red tops contain propane and/or other fuel gasses. The solid black ones contain just compressed air. I took this next shot to show the detail on the back of the 5” gun turrets. Note the hatches to gain access to the insides of the turret and also the two shell ejection chutes. These little snots were a bugger to make. Took me a couple weeks to make all 10 of these assemblies. Building a model like this as actually building dozens of small models and then putting them all together. Well, more or less! Here we’re looking at the aft end of deck #1 in the port side. Still more hardware mounted on the side. The brown topped cylinders are ethyl chloride and the red valve is another steam cutoff valve. I have no idea what the yellow valve is, the plans don’t tell me. The ventilator grill on this side was painted black behind the grill also. Yeah, the 40mm gun mount looks crooked, I agree. I’ll have to straighten it. Close-up photography is great at pinpointing problem areas! I took this to show that there is stuff mounted on the sides of the 5” gun platforms. Here we have a hose reel, a fire hose, a loudspeaker and a rack with mops. No, these weren’t included in the kit! I had to make them by unraveling string and gluing strands to a plastic rod. Then I had to drill tiny holes in the rack. I have to make two more of them for deck 2, too - UGH! And speaking of deck #2, I set it in place temporarily so you could get an idea of what I’m working on next. I’m building this beast from the bottom up, however a lot of the railings and other really intricate detail won’t go on until the ship is nearly complete. They’re way too fragile. Also, there is quite a bit of detail that mounts on the main deck in front of deck 1 that isn’t in place yet. Things like ladders, winches, fire nozzles, etc. Here’s a closer look at the next deck – and part of deck 3 as well. You can see I have the portholes drilled out and the porthole rings glued in place, as well as the handles on the hatches. There’s a long way yet to go on this sub-assembly. One thing I have to do is to make a few Stokes Litters from scratch to mount on the side of this deck, and I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to do that. But that’s what makes this fun and exciting, right?? We call that “Improvising”! I don’t know if you noticed or not, but several placed throughout these pictures, you’ve seen ladders going up the sides of the deck. These are made using individual rungs, a pair of very sharp pointed tweezers, and a magnifying glass (and a glass of wine, depending on how many of the little buggers I have to glue in!). There are brass PE patterns for every place there is a ladder of this type, and a whole sheet of tiny rungs – which is a good thing, because you lose almost at many as you get glued in! Oh, and you use Elmer’s glue diluted 50/50 with water to glue them in. And, you glue them in by using the tip of a sewing needle. CA glue (super glue) would be a disaster with these. You tape the pattern in place, then VERY CAREFULLY drill 0.3mm (0.0118 inches) holes where the pattern indicates. And incidentally, you buy the drill bits 10 to a pack from Amazon. I’m on my 4th pack. You look cross-eyed at them and they break! This shows the contents of the Pontos detail-up kit for this ship. There are 17 frets of PE, 297 turned brass parts, a deck of real wood, and a bag of assorted miscellaneous parts. The advanced detail set includes 20 Veterans 40mm Bofors kits, solid brass screws, detailed 36” searchlights, and fire valves – and more PE! This shows the turned brass parts that are part of the Pontos detail-up kit. OK, Friends, that's it for tonight. I do have more done than what's shown here, but it'll be a bit before I can post more. I have to set up my tripod, take the photos, then clean them up a bit before I can let you see them. In the meantime, take care, wash your hands, and make damn sure you don't get this crazy virus!

OK, are we ready for Part 2? I'm not sure if I can get everything posted tonight or not. It's already after 10 PM and I have to upload the photos to Flickr, then get the URL to post here and then do the write-up. See what I go through for you guys! OK, let's get on with it. Once both sides of the deck are detailed (we’ll show more of that later), we turn our attention elsewhere. As you may imagine, a model of this size and this delicate must be screwed down to a base. Up until now, the ship has been mounted on a temporary base that is not nearly as long as the ship. Now, though, we must mount it to a permanent base before we go any further. Once we glue the first superstructure deck to the ship, the opening you see here will be partially covered up and we won’t be able to get to the holes to screw the ship down. So, it’s time to build a base. I chose cherry to make the base out of. I bought two really nice cherry planks from a local guy who planed them down to the proper thickness for me. (Another $50 down the drain!) I cut them to size, then I cut out an opening in the bottom board so it wouldn’t be so heavy ( unfortunately, it still is!). After sanding for a half day, I finished the boards with 5 coats of hand rubbed water based poly, sanding between coats. Not to brag, but they are as smooth as glass. (I was going to say a newborn baby's butt, but since this is a public site, I won't.) Normally big, elaborate ship models are mounted on brass pedestals, but I didn’t want to do this. I wanted something different; I wanted my ship to rest on keel blocks. And even more, I wanted the keel blocks to emulate the layout of keel blocks that were installed in the drydock where the Missouri went for its last refit. Here’s a picture if what the drydock looked like - before it was filled with water, of course! My pattern isn’t exactly the same, but it’s close enough for me. I used walnut for the keel blocks to provide a contrast to the lighter cherry wood. Besides, I had the walnut so it didn’t cost me anything. I used 288 walnut blocks 3/8” x 3/8” x ¼” spaced every ¼” apart. Actually, it was easier to do than it looks. The hardest part was cutting them out. My thumb suffered an injury from the blade of my hobby saw. Told you earlier I was clumsy! At the same time I was cutting out the keel blocks, I found a local acrylic fabricating company that could make me a clear acrylic case for this ship. If any of you are from southwest Michigan, I highly recommend a company called PlexiCase, located here in Grand Rapids. They were competitive, dependable, and did an excellent job. I have a friend on my modelwarship forum who paid over $400 for his case. Mine only cost $235. (Yeah! More $$$$$$) They borrowed the base and made the case to fit exactly over the lip of the bottom board. They did it in only a couple weeks, too. I promised them that when I finished the model, they could put it on display in their showroom for a month or so. They were delighted to hear that. Sure hope I finish it before they go out of business! The case is 60” long, 10” wide, and 15” high. It is make of 3/8” acrylic and the seams are rounded and flame treated for smoothness. The ship is 53” long, which gives 3-1/2” clearance at both bow and stern. I’m having a nameplate engraved for the case, but it’s not finished yet. And yes, the case IS high enough. I may be dumb, but I ain't stupid! This and the next three pictures show the ship resting on the keel blocks. Looks kinda neat, don't you think? I think this looks a lot nicer than if the ship was mounted on a couple pedestals. Another shot of the ship resting on keel blocks. This is a lot more work than using pedestals, but I think it looks a whole lot better. The stern of the ship mounted on the base. I don't know if I told you or not, but the silver colored strips on the prop shafts are zinc anti-corrosion plates. There are some on the rudders also. This is actually automotive striping tape! This is an overall side view shot of the ship mounted on it’s base. A 36” yardstick is placed in front of the model to show the relative size of both the ship and the base. This is one BIG ship!! And please don't ask me where I'm going to put it! The next several pictures show close-ups of the detail on the sides of the first superstructure deck. This, and all successive decks above this, is referred to as the Citadel. It, and the hull immediately below, is the most heavily armored portion of the ship. The angled tubes you see on the outside of the 20mm splinter shield are spare gun barrels for the 20mm guns. Also, note the 9 gun crew helmets located on the outside of the 40mm gun tub. These items were all made out of bits and pieces of plastic. They are not part of any kit. Here we are starting at the front of the starboard side of deck #1. We see a hose reel, fire hose, and life preserver. Note that all the vent pipes are hand made from thin brass rod, with a tiny dab of CA glue at the tip. NOTE: for you landlubbers, Starboard is the right side looking towards the bow. The left side is the Port side. This view shows the detail of one of the 40mm quad Bofors gun mounts as well as the ladders and miscellaneous equipment hanging from the deck sides. I see from this photo that the open hatch is slightly drooped, which has since been corrected. This deck has not been glued down yet, resulting in the visible gap where it joins the hull deck. Note that many of the vent pipes are "kicked out" at the bottom about 4-5 inches. I have a ton of information about this ship and this is an accurate representation. OK, Again, I think I'd better end this part before it gets too long and the moderators do something bad to me. Stay tuned for Part 3, coming up!

Hi Folks! After going through Ian's thread on his 1/200 Hood, I suddenly realized that it's been forever since I posted an update here. In fact, the last post I made was way back in July of last year. You probably figured I got burned out and quit, right? Well, I haven't, but the progress on my "Monster Mo" has been in fits and starts. When you have both a house and a wife that's an expert at creating "Honey-Do" lists, you find your modeling time becomes low priority. But, little by little I'm making progress and it's probably time to bring you up to date. So, what say we begin, OK? Back when we last left off, I said that my next project was to work on the first deck of the superstructure. Here you see it exactly as it came out of the box, unpainted but with the flash removed. Doesn’t look all that impressive, does it? But – just wait. There's a ton of work to be done on it. I’m going to go into a little more detail than I normally do here to show you the process of how a part gets built up. From here on out, all the sub-assemblies will be handled this same way. The first thing we do is to drill out the portholes with a hand drill. I decided that I wanted a couple of the hatches (doors) opened so I drilled out the opening using my Dremel. Then I added the ladder rungs. Luckily Pontos gives you a drilling template, as you see here. Drilling is done by hand with a 0.3mm drill in a pin vise. The next step is to glue in the porthole rings and the “eyebrows” above the portholes. You can select the portholes as being either open or closed. There is enough brass photo-etch supplied with the detail kit for whatever pattern you choose (providing you don’t screw too many up!) This next photo shows the porthole rings glued in place. As you can see, some are open while others are closed. How you want them is entirely up to you. Also, note that I added are brass hand wheels on some of the hatches. Yeah, I had to buy these extra, too. Dang boat is costing a fortune! All the side detail is removed with an X-acto knife and sandpaper. This includes fire hoses, life preservers, and vent pipes. I’m going to add my own detail since it’s much more realistic than molded on items. Now we’re ready to paint. The sides get a coat of primer and a final coat of Haze Gray acrylic paint. I'm using Model Masters here because I don't like Tamiya's Haze Gray. It's too dark. When dry, this is masked and a coat of Deck Blue is sprayed on the tops of the 5” gun platforms and the deck itself. Next comes the waterways, or “scuppers” as they are called in the Navy. These are strips of brass photo-etch (PE) that have been primed and sprayed Deck Blue. The plastic part has an embossed deck pattern but the Pontos detail kit I have includes an actual wooden deck. It’s extremely thin and very fragile, which for my clumsy fingers is not a good combination. If you take your time and work carefully, things turn out OK. A glass of wine helps, too The wood deck is adhesive backed, but many model ship builders on the ship building forum I belong to have complained that it does not stick down properly and comes up over time. To prevent this, we instead spray the back of the wood deck with a clear matt spray (I used Krylon) and then glue the decking down using artists matt gel medium. An 8 ounce bottle like this costs around $14. Ship building is expensive! But then, I'm guessing so is building large scale aircraft! We kill the adhesive on the back of the decking with Krylon clear spray and then slather on the matt gel, making sure every bit of the surface on both parts is covered. The gel doesn’t dry right away so we can position the deck where we want it. Then we make sure there are no bubbles or air pockets underneath, and using a soft brush and water, we clean all the excess off and set it aside to dry overnight. Now we’re ready to start adding detail to the sides of the deck. I’m using a set of plans for the ship from The Floating Drydock that shows the deck in accurate detail as to what should be placed where. Yep, these plans cost extra too, but they are a little over 9 feet long and worth every penny! Unfortunately though, a lot of the detail shown on these plans are not included in either the ship kit or the two detail kits and must be hand made. Here's an example of what these plans show: Space is limited on a battleship and consequently, every foot of unused space in utilized as storage for equipment of some type or another. Which means, there’s a ton of crap hanging off the sides of the decks. Here I've placed a dime next to this part so you can get a relative idea if the size of small parts I'm dealing with. Now, mind you, this ship model is 53 inches long. That's 4-1/2 feet! A magnifying glass is a must! I'm not exactly sure of how many pictures you can have in a single post, but this is a good place to end this one as there's 14 shots here so far. I've got a total of 45 to post, so I'll break this part here and continue in Part 2. Don't go away!

Gorgeous!!! I wish you would write a tutorial on how you achieved this weathering look. Hell, I'd even pay for it!

Man, I'd grab up a 1/32 B-29 in an instant. I love big models, and a big B-29 would be absolutely awesome. That bomber had beautiful lines and, in my opinion, was the most graceful of all the WWII bombers. Now, if you want big, consider a 1/32 B-36!!! That sucker would be 60" long with a wingspan of a little over 7 feet! Now that would be an awesome build!!

Sounds to me like you lived in the upper midwest. Living here on the west side of Lake Michigan I certainly can relate to the cloudy sky all winter. That and "Lake effect" snow. And you're right about idiot drivers who seem to forget that driving a 4 wheel drive SUV doesn't mean that you can stop any better. But, aside from that, Fall is gorgeous with nice crisp days - if you don't mind the leaves, and summer is absolute pure heaven. We don't have the fires they do out west, no danger of hurricanes or Nor'easters. No drought, no floods, and only very rarely do we have a threat of a tornado. I love the change of seasons and the fact I can do different things at different times of the year. I don't like driving on slippery roads, but since I'm retired I can sit by the window with a cup of coffee and laugh at the poor souls out there. Truthfully, I don't think there is any place else I'd rather live. Lake Michigan is 30 miles away, Chicago, Detroit and "Up North" are all about 3 hours from here, and yes, I was raised "up north" - near Traverse City. Now, if you really want winter.........

I can log in fine. No problems whatsoever.

I have my Kindle nearby and am reading a couple paragraphs waiting for the pages to load. Slower than trying to pour molasses out of a bottle in January.

Hi Kev! Well, I'd say "Play with it". Since you didn't pay any money for it, let the kid in you out and have fun. Me, I'm using mine as sort of a test bed. Since my modeling to date has been mostly ships, I'm trying different things with this and kind of experimenting. Like now, I'm trying different metal finishes trying to find one I like. I'll never enter this in any contest or anything so I'm sort of "honing my skills" before I tackle my big, expensive Tomcat! It'll look OK when I'm done, but it will be far from perfect.

Hi Friends! Yeah, I know, I haven't been around much as of late. I do check this site out every day but since I don't do a lot of constructive modeling during the summer, I really don't have much to post. And, as I'm pretty sure you don't want to see pictures of me mowing the yard or painting the side of the house (Damn 1:1 scale modeling is for the birds!), I haven't much to report on. However, now that the weather has cooled off a bit and it isn't time to start raking the dang leaves yet, I've been spending a little time working on both my USS Missouri and also this B-17. Since I haven't updated this thread since June, I figured I'd start with this. Besides, I don't have a lot to show you on my ship yet - I'm not at a good stopping point yet. So, here's where I'm at on this bomber. First, I put the wings together and mounted the main landing gear struts. I had to do this before the wings were glued because I had Eduard PE glued in there that was in the way. The fit between the top and bottom was OK, but as any of you know who build this kit, the seams at the engine nacelles is a big pain in the a$$! Lots of filling and sanding before it starts to look right. The rear stabilizers went together fine with just a slight amount of sanding at the seams. Then I gave the wings and stabilizers a black spray to see how well I did on the seams. Not good! So, more sanding and filling, and sanding and filling and rechecking until I got it to where I liked what I saw - or couldn't see, rather! Then I shot all 4 pieces, along with the engine cowlings, with gloss black and Alclad aluminum. To be honest, I'm not 100% sold on Alclad paints. To me, they're too finicky and too hard to get to come out right. I don't think I'll use them on any more models I build. In addition to the Eduards exterior PE set, I also bought a set of resin wheels and tires. Right now I can't remember the vendor, but they look sharp and when sprayed with Tamiya "Rubber Black" they look great. Right now I'm working on the fuselage and I'm in the fill and sand phase. Fill, sand, spray and examine. Then do it all over again, and again - and again. I'm sure you all know the drill! Up until now I used Vallejo 100% acrylic plastic putty and had fairly good success with it. However, I was reading Chuck's latest "KIcked Up a Notch" thread on his F-5 last night where he mentioned that he used CA to fill seams, along with an accelerator. So, I decided to try it and see what success I have. I can't say for sure because I just tried it for the first time today and I won't spray the seams until tomorrow. I can say that it looks good under a bright light and it feels good when I run my fingernails over the seams. I do hope this works because when I'm done with this kit, I'm going to start on my old Monogram 1:48 B-29, and there are a lot of seams on that beast. So, there you have it. Not a lot to show for 4+ months, but hey, I have a house and a wife and both of them have a lot higher priority than my hobbies. I will try to post more often - with the key word being "try". Take care, friends, Larry

Thanks for the advice gents! I bought some "Incredible White Mask" Liquid Frisket.

Mel, for your information, decibels (db) is measured on a logarithmic scale. That means that for every 6 db roughly the noise level is double. For example, a unit that produces 46db is twice as noisy as a unit that is rated at 40db