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


steinerman

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I very rarely use tweezers for PE like this, as I rapidly tired of trying to determine where a piece may have pinged to. My "go to" tool for this sort of stuff is a blunted toothpick moistened with saliva. Then my only problem is that often the saliva is stickier than the minuscule amount of glue required to attach the PE to the work - patience...... I also use the toothpick to hold PE when making the bends required.

 

The PE work on this is stunning! I'm also amazed how well you have preserved an enhanced the detail with painting. I always struggle with not getting the detail smothered by the paint. Those directors and quad bofors are mind boggling when you look at their size. Great stuff!

 

Mike

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On 6/19/2019 at 11:09 PM, steinerman said:

I don't know how the moderators of this site are about listing other forums, but another invaluable source of information on the Iowa Class battleships can be found at www.modelwarships.com.  They have a forum called "Calling All Ship Fans" and if you go there and click on "Battleships", they have a thread called "Calling All USS Iowa class (BB-61) fans". Right now there are 197 pages of reference material regarding these 4 ships (Iowa, Wisconsin, New Jersey, & Missouri).  Be warned that a lot of the earlier posts are missing pictures due to Photobucket's asinine pricing structure last year, but there is still a ton of valuable information there just from reading through it and looking at what photos there are.

 

It shouldn't be a problem at all. I'm a member there too, with several (stalled) projects in the works in progress area.

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I'm breaking out in a cold sweat looking at all those P/E frets and the complex builds made up of tiny pieces! 

 

It look fantastic though.  This ship is going to be very impressive when completed.

 

I'm wondering if you are going to try and emulate an "oil canned" look to the hull plates.  

 

When I stood next to the USS Iowa, the highly imperfect, dented appearance of the hull was the first thing I noticed.  The second thing I noticed was that the ship was freaking GIGANTIC!

 

 

 

uss-wisconsin.jpg

Edited by ringleheim
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20 hours ago, ringleheim said:

I'm breaking out in a cold sweat looking at all those P/E frets and the complex builds made up of tiny pieces! 

 

It look fantastic though.  This ship is going to be very impressive when completed.

 

I'm wondering if you are going to try and emulate an "oil canned" look to the hull plates.  

 

When I stood next to the USS Iowa, the highly imperfect, dented appearance of the hull was the first thing I noticed.  The second thing I noticed was that the ship was freaking GIGANTIC!

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the comments, but no, I'm not going to oil can the sides.  I'm not even going to emulate the hull plating.  I tried to scribe the plates but it turned out to be a total disaster, so I puttied it over, sanded my goofs down and repainted.  I figured that with all the detail above deck, nobody would notice the hull anyway, and so far I'm right!

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Hi peoples, 

 

Guess it's about time I posted a few more pics of my "Monster Mo" and let you see what else I've done on this beast.  Still working on sub-assemblies which are in reality little kits in themselves.  The first thing tonight are the 5 inch gun turrets.  There are 10 of these on the Missouri, 5 on either side, and they are used for close-in artillery.  As far as the model goes, each turret contains 45 separate parts, 14 plastic and 31 brass parts.  A lot of these are the grab-irons used as ladders.  These buggers are tiny, and are bitches to glue in place so they line up properly.

 

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The chutes you see on the back are shell ejector chutes and are not supplied with the Pontos Detail set.  They are, however, included in the Eduard Big Ed PE set.

 

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The gun barrels are brass.  You have to cut the plastic ones off and glue the brass ones in their place.  Then you paint them so you can't see the brass.???????  The gun barrels do elevate separately, but I decided I wanted then to elevate together, so I glued them together.

 

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Once those were finished, I turned my attention to the big 16" gun turrets.  These guns can fire a 2300 pound projectile a distance of over 20 miles with amazing accuracy.  Quite an accomplishment when you consider this was 1944 and computers were unheard of yet.  This next photo shows the start of the assembly, with the life rafts, periscope and range finders attached and detailed.  Also, the attachment rings for the "Bloomers" were added.  "Bloomers" is the Navy term given to the flexible rubberized canvas blast bags that is around each of the big rifle barrels.

 

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As with the 5" guns, the kit supplies plastic barrels and you have to cut them off and replace them with brass barrels from the Pontos kit

 

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Then you paint the damn things so nobody can tell they're brass.  But you know, so I guess that's what's important!

 

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OK, you're probably wondering why there are magnets glued to the insides of the gun turrets.  When I assembled the main deck onto the hull, I glued large fender washers to the underside of the deck where these turrets go.  Once the turrets are finished, they will be held in place by the magnets and will rotate without falling out.

 

This is 9 pictures and 10 is the max.  I'll continue in the next post after I go take my shower.  Later, Friends

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OK,  I had my shower and I'm nice and clean (relatively speaking!) so I'll post another set of pictures. These 16" gun turrets will be the last of the subassemblies before I start work on the   hull.  I'm not going to bore you with all the construction detail photos of the assembly of these turrets.  You can see the detail on the final pictures.  Suffice it to say they took a lot longer to complete than I anticipated.  But, I finally made my way through all three turrets and when I sat back and took a look, I decided they were worth all the hard work.  Here are the completed 3 turrets:  Note that Turret #1 (the one closest to the bow) does not have a 40mm gun platform on top of the turret.  This is because of the relative location of turret #2 to turret #1. As #2 traverses from one side to the other, it's gun barrels would strike anything that was mounted on top of #1.

 

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The "bloomers" are the flat black boots around the base of the 16" rifles.  Some folks call them "Blast Bags" but the official term is "Bloomers".

 

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All 3 turrets have floater net baskets attached to the rear. These are nets with floatation devices around the perimeter.  They are used in the event of damage during conflict and are thrown overboard to assist crew members who are in the water

 

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Here is an in-close shot of the detail of the bloomers, the attachment rings, and the shell hoists.   This is turret #2.  It has railings around the top which the other 2 do not.

 

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Here is a detailed view of the starboard side of turret #2.  Here I have added the life raft hold-downs,  ladders, and all necessary railings and grab-irons.  Also note the MK51 gun director for the 40mm gun platform. In combat a crewman will enter the small enclosure from the rear and man the director.  Also, note the hook on the outer end of the shell hoist.  I had to scrounge in my spare PE to find hooks for these hoists.

 

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One thing to notice in this shot are the crew helmets on the side of the 40mm gun tub.  They aren't in the kit and they don't appear in the Pontos set.  But, if you study the plans from The Floating Drydock, they indicate where the helmets are stored, as well as the locations of the loudspeakers, phone boxes, stokes litters, and all kinds of minute detail. I've added as much as I can and the overall effect is quite pleasing.

 

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To show just how you have to improvise, the crew helmets are made from the tops of 1:200 scale gas cylinders that I bought from Model Monkey at Shapeways.

They are very close to the size of a helmet.  I just broke off the little teats at the top, painted them dark grey, and cut them off with a razor blade.

 

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The floater nets are made from a small piece of toulle, a fine open weave fabric used on veils, etc.  I sprayed it light brown, rolled it up and placed it in the bottom of the basket.  Then I placed small pieces of Evergreen plastic rod, (also painted brown) on top to simulate the floatation.  The black rectangles at the bottom of the turret are ventilation grilles. I just noticed I have to straighten up the right hand lower catwalk.  It's all wonkey.

 

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Here is a close-up of the 40mm gun tub atop turret #2.  The perforated detail around the inside of the gun tub are ammo racks.  THere are 3 rows of them and every 40mm gun platform has these racks around the inside perimeter.  Also note the inside ladders (partially hidden).  Just in case you're interested, turret #2 has 41 plastic parts and 137 brass parts.  And yes, the handles on the MK 51 gun director are indeed painted brown!

 

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OK friends, that's all I have for now.  Next, we'll be working on the hull and the main deck.

 

Take care, and thanks for stopping by!

 

Larry

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by steinerman
Censors *****ed out a word. Had to replace it with "Teat"
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amazing work

 

not a ship guy as I hate PE and the thought of railings and radar gives me nightmares

 

shame, because I actually like the idea of making some big ships in a large scale

 

your work is fantastic and a pleasure to read through

 

thank you for sharing

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21 hours ago, LSP_Ron said:

That's an insane amount of detail, and in such a short period of time.

 

Hey Ron, I'm not that fast a worker!  These are photos I've been taking right along as I work on my build.  It's taken me over 2 months to do the 3 big gun turrets, but I've actually been working on the ship for 2-1/2 years so far.  The next photos I post will show the hull and the detail on the main deck.  That took me months to do!

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Howdy Ladies and Gents,  It's been a while since I posted pictures of my battleship. I thought I'd update you on where it stands now so I got out my tripod, cranked up the f-stop on my camera, and took some decent pictures for once. NO, I didn't do all this since my last post!  This series of pictures (26 in all) will bring you up to date to where I currently am.  From now on however, my posts will be a lot less frequent because a) it took me 2-1/2 years to get this far, and b) I AM working on my Monogram 1:48 B-17 at the same time.  I just don't have anything interesting to post yet.

 

So, here is my "Plastic Toy Boat" as it stands today.  Hope you find it worthy:

 

Here it is - 4-1/2 feet of pure enjoyment. At least for me. I love doing this.  My big thrill is building models.  Once they're finished, yeah, I take pride in them, but sitting there looking at them isn't like the work of building them, right!

 

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There are (2) 20mm antiaircraft guns and a flagstaff that are supposed to be at the very bow of the ship. Because I keep the ship covered with plastic for dust purposes, I haven't mounted these yet for fear of knocking them off.  Note the railings along the hull are also missing. They won't be added until the ship is almost complete.

 

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In this next photo You can see where I made a big mistake. There is supposed to be a ladder made up of individual grab-irons up the hull at the stern. With the handling and messing around, half of them have been knocked off, reglued, and knocked off again. I'll fix this, but I'm going to wait until near the end so it doesn't get damaged again.

 

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The screws are real brass and the silver rectangles are anti-corrosion plates.  On the Iowa Class battleships, the inboard screws were 5 bladed and the outboard screws had 4 blades.  Also, the starboard screws turned clockwise while the port screws turned counterclockwise.

 

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You always thought a battleship was gray, right? These are the actual colors of the USS Missouri in September 1944, when Japan surrendered on the deck of this ship

 

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The chain hanging down from the bow is called a "Paravane" chain. Paravanes are towed from the ship and are used to bring floating mines to the surface where they can be detonated by gunfire.

 

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A view of the foredeck up to gun turret #1. The deck in front of the capstans is steel and the remainder of the decking on the ship are teak boards.

 

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OK, that's 10 pictures for this post.  More coming on post #2 of this set.

 

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