1/200 USS Arizona, with the works

[AlbertD]

19 minutes ago, Squizzy said:

Albert if you create a build thread for your 1/350 uss Arizona, I'll definitely be following it, and I can only recommend that you jump on board in getting the 1/200 ships as well. I also have the 1/200 uss Missouri, which my wife got for me!!!! And that is a beast of a model! 

When I start mine I will definitely start a log.

 

Have you seen the 1934 movie Here Comes the Navy with James Cagney? It features Arizona and there are some great shots of her at sea and aboard ship. It's a corny movie but kinda fun but it's worth watching as an Arizona fan. It's available on ebay for real cheap.

 

Oh, where the shafts exit the hull are called stuffing boxes.

Edited June 1, 2019 by AlbertD

[Squizzy 78]

With a few new posts on this forum, I've gone back through the whole build thread, got home from nightshift, and I found myself with my Arizona on the desk. I hope to have some updates with progress photos posted within a week. I guess there's quite a bit of interest on this subject, I only hope that I can do it justice. 

[Out2gtcha]

On 6/1/2019 at 9:26 PM, Squizzy said:

With a few new posts on this forum, I've gone back through the whole build thread, got home from nightshift, and I found myself with my Arizona on the desk. I hope to have some updates with progress photos posted within a week. I guess there's quite a bit of interest on this subject, I only hope that I can do it justice. 

 

 

And with the current restoration of the Pearl Harbor National Memorial,  I agree, I think there is a lot of interest!    Seems a bit poor form to take as long as they have to fix the memorial considering how important it is to PH, and how much of a tourist draw it is.

 

Looking forward to more progress! 

[Squizzy 78]

So, it's about time I got something done on my battleship!

It's just a quick update, but I've been going pretty hard on this over the last week. Before I put this kit on the back burner, I'd had a go at the steel bracing that runs along the anti torpedo belt. I've attached a photo from the Paul Stellwell book showing what I'm trying to do.

 

 

My first attempt didn't look quite right, which may have helped the kit to a six month break, so the first thing I done was using a knife, strip the plating off, putty any divits left behind, and sand the side back to a nice smooth finish, take two.

 

 

 

 

I'm very happy with the way this has come up, the plates are very smooth and appear to curve with the hull, and to me, the front of the torpedo belt looks the same as the photo, which was taken in the mid 1930's. I don't have any photos f the rear of the blister, but I've done the bottom two plates in a similar fashion to the front, but it looks right for the shape of the hull.

Next is I'll be hoping to get some more strine strips, more tape, and complete the port side straps. I'm also thinking of how to complete the water ways. Trumpeter have made the decks level with the top of the hull, with a small curve on the side. In reality the hull goes up higher than the deck, a then has a roll on top. What I'm thinking of doing is sanding the curved edge off the side, extending the height of the hull with strine strips, and then use strine rods on top of that for the rolled top. This will enable a perfect fit with the timber deck, the hand rails and the turn buckles.

[steinerman]

Nice going Squizzy!!  What you've done looks super!  These big battle wagons are a lot of work, but the fact that you can add so much detail really makes them special! Only problem is even with ships this size, a lot of the PE parts are still minuscule in size.  Takes a good magnifying glass and lots of wine to build one of these baby's! 

[Squizzy 78]

Very true Steinerman, the other thing is that you also become very accustomed to doing sections that are very repetitive, currently I'm building the aviation fuel line which was on the port side of the ship. The fuel line was supported by what I'd describe as saddles, which I'm building out of drink can aluminium. Pieces that are probably less than a millimetre by 3 millimetres, but I think that it adds so much to the look. 

I hope to have an update within a week or so. 

Thanks for the interest in this build. 

[Squizzy 78]

It's been a while since my last update, but I've been working pretty hard on my Arizona, even though it may not look like much.

The first thing I done since my last update was to finish the torpedo belt straps on the port side, and then move straight into the aviation fuel line. This is something that I've seen modelled wrong before. For the Arizona, the fuel line is only on the port side. The USS Pensivannia has the fuel line on the starboard side, (right side) I guess that people try to get as much information about the subject, and get photos on sister ships, but in this case there are differences. 

 

I'm pretty happy that the styrene strips are matching between the two sides, by the eye anyway!

 

The fuel line was built using styrene rod, and then a lot of time was spent working out how to build the straps or saddles that secure the fuel line. I mucked around using Tamiya tape, wire and anything else I could think of. In the end, drink can aluminium. I cut the top and bottom off a drink can, sliced it down so I could flatten out the aluminium, and with the use of a gillatin, I was able to get a nice flat sheet, which I then sliced thin strips and with the use of pins and photo etch snips, I made what you can see here. The saddles would be over sized for scale, but I'm happy with the look.

 

Ive also removed the rolled edge that Trumpeter modelled, glued in the front and rear sections of the deck and started the waterways. The first stage is complete. Being the strips to create the higher the the deck hull sides, next will be the styrene rods to create the rolled tops of the waterway.

 

I also cut the very rest section of deck off, and built it up with styrene sheets as this section is above the waterways as I can see it in reference photos.

I hope to have some more photos up soon with the rolled tops of the waterways complete, and the start of some additional details due to a new photo etch set I just got from KA Models.

 

Thanks for looking.

[sassgrunt]

Starting this Sunday, 1 September, visitors will FINALLY be able to access the memorial from the landing dock for the launches.  It has been long overdue, but well worth your time, if you are planning a future visit.  -Mike

[ringleheim]

It's looking great so far Squizzy!

 

All that effort with the soda can and the fuel line "saddles" has paid off.  I agree, it does add quite a bit to the look of the ship.

 

They may be too big for scale, but I would argue the eye doesn't see that; you just see the detail and overall, this adds a lot to the ship, it doesn't detract.

 

By the way, your modeling area looks very organized and tidy!  

[Out2gtcha]

Lovely work for sure! 

[nmayhew]

following with interest!

[Squizzy 78]

Thanks for feedback, I'm currently on a short break from the Arizona, and have my 1/200 Uss Missouri sitting there, that thing is Huge! Why build 1 large battleship when you can build 2? 

I think that when you're building big kits you need a clean area. As you can see I've used the Hobby Zone sets, and I can't recommend them enough, absolutely fantastic. 

I plan to work on my Mighty Mo for a few months, and then I'll be back on my Arizona. It was my wife that bought me the Uss Missouri after our last trip to Hawaii and Pearl Harbor, and I was feeling pretty bad she'd spent so much money on me, and it was sitting in the stash, I had to make a start on it, thanks babe! 

[Squizzy 78]

So it's been about 12 months since I posted an update on this build, and for good reason! Late one night I was working on the rolled top of the waterway near the end of the quarter deck, and I knocked a jar of Tamiya cement over the side of the ship. Quickly getting a damp rag to try and clean up, the mess was bad, really bad! So my Arizona made its way to the top of the book shelf, not to be seen again, for about 11 months.

At this point, my curiosity on exactly how bad it was got the best of me, so for about an hour a week I'd work on the cleanup. Drilling out portholes that were full of glue, sanding down the side of the hull, digging glue out from around the fuel line, and after a few weeks, it was looking pretty good and was back on the desk full time and things were full speed ahead!

I finished the waterways with styrene strip and rods, and started using the Ka photoetched set that details the torpedo bulges.

 

 

 

At this stage I'm very happy with how it's going, on only sign of the glue disaster from 12 months ago is some discolouration of the plastic, no real issue at all now. 

I've ordered the open cleats for the Arizona from Model Monkey, but with the way things are at the moment, it could take some time to get to me. So next I'll be working on reshaping the rudder and get that area finished off.

 

Thanks for looking!