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1:200 USS Missouri Build Log - Trumpeter w/ Pontos Detail Sets


steinerman

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Here's post #2 of this set:

 

A lot of people have asked me what I'm going to do with this ship when I finish it? Truthfully, I have no idea! I definitely am going to enclose it in a protective case to keep the dust off, but other than that, I haven't decided. I'm thinking of possibly displaying it for a while and them possibly donating it to the Veterans Home here in Grand Rapids. Who knows - that's a long ways down the road.

 

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The light gray deck is in place just so you can see where turret #2 is located. Nothing has been done to this part - it's just as it came out of the box. Aside from all the brass parts, the entire ship was this color. Everything except the decking (which is real wood, by the way) has to be painted either Haze Grey or Deck Blue.

 

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Here's a closer look at the foredeck and anchor chains Adding the 6 chain stops was a real pain in the you know what! The little red things with white handwheels are high pressure fire suppression water valves. As I said before, the deck railing has not been added, nor has the 20mm AA guns and flagstaff at the prow.

 

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This is a close-up view of the foredeck just behind the anchor chains, showing the various detail on the main deck. First are the windless and brake controls, then the (2) 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns, various hatches and vents, and then the (2) quad 40mm Bofors gun positions, along with their respective gun directors. The storage boxes are ammunition lockers for the respective guns, and the torpedo shaped things behind the 40mm gun tubs are the (2) paravanes

 

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This is a shot of turret #1. There is a structure that is located between turrets #1 and 2 on the main deck that has not been added yet. It won't be added until Deck #1 is glued in place. I glued fender washers under the deck and magnets inside the turrets to hold them into place. That way they can be rotated and removed if necessary. The gun barrels are brass, believe it or not.  Yeah, I know, why would you pay for brass gun barrels and then paint over them.  I'm sure all of you know why!!!

 

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This shot shows the back side of the breakwater and the equipment located there. Also, note the helmets for the gun crew and the loudspeakers mounted on the rear of the 40mm gun tubs. A lot of this detail was added by me and did not come with the kit. I have a set of plans for this ship that are 9 feet long that shows all this extra detail.

 

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Here is turret #2. It has a 40mm gun position on top of it where turret #1 does not. You can see why!! Also note the 20mm AA guns on either side of the ship. The small diagonal tubes mounted on the front of the splinter shield are spare gun barrels. Cooling tubes for hot expended gun barrels are located inside the splinter shield, as are more crew helmets. The two valves just aft of the splinter shield are refueling ports for when the ship is refueled at sea. all this is extra detail that does not come with the detail kits.

 

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Overall view of the starboard side of the fore main gun battery

 

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This is the part I'll be working on next. There is a ton of brass detail that gets added to the sides, along with wooden decking similar to the main deck. I also plan to grind off some of the doorways and show them open with brass doors. The (4) rectangular protrusions along the sides are where the 5" gun mounts are located. There are 10 of them on this deck and the one above.

 

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This is just astern of Deck #1 and the location of turret#3. There's a lot of detail around here including 20mm and 40mm gun positions, winches, hatches, vents, hose reels, and fire suppression equipment. The long, grey device on the side of the ship swings out and ladders lower to dock small boats that come alongside.

 

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OK, this is another 10 photos.  There are 6 more which I will post in the next one - #3

 

 

 

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OK, here are the last 6.  Are you bored yet?

 

There are over 80 separate parts mounted on this splinter shield including helmets, cooling tubes, spare gun barrels, phone boxes, and tool boxes. The long baskets alongside the shield (and on the backs of the big gun turrets) are floater net baskets. They contain netting with flotation around the perimeter and are used mostly in conflict to aid those fallen or knocked overboard.

 

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Overall view of the aft deck.

 

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View of the stern showing the catapults and recovery crane. The ship carried (2) "Spotter" float planes whose job it was to search out enemy ships and to also "spot" where the big 16" shells were landing. The big 16" guns could fire a 2300 pound projectile a distance of over 20 miles, meaning the gun crews could not see where their shells were landing. The float planes were shot off the catapult by dummy 5" shells and were retrieved by the crane at the stern.

 

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Close up view of one of the catapults. These two were nightmares to build! The cradles for the float planes are mounted, but I have not built the aircraft yet.

 

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Close-up of the stern. The crane was another %#$@ to build! All the framing had to be built up piece by piece. You might have noticed the rows of slotted racks around the insides of the 40mm gun tubs. These are ammo racks that hold the magazines for the 40mm guns.

 

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Here is the stern. I really don't like that ladder up the hull. It's not professional at all.  That whole area looks tacky, plus, I need white letters, not black  I have to do something about that - but not till later!

 

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OK, so that's what it looks like now.  Thanks for looking!

 

Larry

 

 

 

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  • 7 months later...

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.

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 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.

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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!)

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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:

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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.

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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!

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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!

 

 

Edited by steinerman
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