rvchima

Greetings,
 
I happy to say the BlueJacket 80' ELCO PT Boat is finally finished after a little over two years!    
 

 

 

 
Cheers,
Tim

Hi Tim,
 
I noticed in your post on my Arleigh-Burke build that you had built several Bluejacket kits, and I finally got around to looking at your build logs. Now I'm sorry I waited so long! I got so many great tips:
Bondo glazing putty Krylon textured shimmer paint The Glue Looper PE bending tool I'll be following this liberty ship build closely to see what else I can learn.
 
One question - have you found any spray paint that matches the Model Master haze gray sold for the Bluejacket kits, or are you using an airbrush now?
 
Rod

More of the Deckhouse
 
After glueing up the lifts it was time to add the thin laser cut facing pieces. 


 
While test fitting them it quickly became apparent that the superstructure was taller than the facing pieces, as confirmed by the plans. The facing pieces are the correct height but the lifts are too tall, about 6mm total when all are stacked. After removing 1.5 - 2 mm from each level everything fit together.
 

 
One of the odd features of the liberty ships was what looked to be concrete slabs around the pilot house and gun tubs like you can see here:
 

 

 
While visiting the SS John Brown I learned that it is not concrete but a British invention called Plastic Armour which is really just road paving material like asphalt. You can read about it here if you are interested:
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_armour
 
As you can see in this pix it varied in its appearance even on the same ship; the nearest slab is smooth, the ones next to it rougher and the slabs protecting the gun tub in the background look like a sloppy job of adding foam insulation:
 

 
I decided to add it to my model. I cut thin wood to shape, drilled out the porthole lights larger than the portholes for the distinctive “stepped” look. I then sprayed them with primer and while it was still wet pressed them into some fine sawdust. A few more coats of spray primer reduced the fine granularity.
 

 

 
I then used the non-working end of a drill bit to press down to create the discs that worked like upholstery buttons to hold the armor in place:
 

 
Here’s the finished product (Additional airbrush coats of the final color will reduce the granularity even more):
 


 
Next up will be adding the gun tubs and some more detailing that is easier done before the deckhouse is mounted on the hull. 

Done at last!
 
I'll post some pix in the "completed kit models" section soon.
 
In case you are wondering (no pun intended) the all - acrylic case in the last pix was custom made by Abordage.com in remarkably short time. If you decide to use them make sure you specify the thickness of the plexi you want (I used 1/8 inch) they also provide base boards although I made my own.

Bridge level details
 
The kit provides pelorus’ for the bridge wings, they look good but when fitted on the model they are too tall (6 ft at scale). Although it would have been a simple matter to trim them by 3/32 or so I happened to have some smaller ones from Bluejacket in my spare parts kit that fit just fine. 
Here’s the finished bridge level. Kit provided items include the deck gratings, vertical ladders, railings and the 2 lockers on the port side. The WTD's (without windows) are aftermarket, everything else is scatch made.




 
Next job will be installing the stanchions that run between the main deck and the 01 level.

Main Mast
 
The mast is fabricated out of brass tubing, rod, some PE and laser-cut plastic.
 
I’m not great at soldering so I wasn’t looking forward to this part of the build but I did find something that helped a lot. This may not be news to anyone but me but they sell solder paste that has both the solder and flux combined in one. It goes on easily, you can easily control where you want it, it stays in place (unlike tiny pieces of solder), heats up quickly with a flame jet, doesn't run when it melts  and has no slag that needs to be cleaned up. I don't know if it would work for high-temp soldering or how strong it is compared to other methods but it worked fine for this application.

The kit provides a very handy jig that ensures that the 3 legs of the mast are properly spaced - very important since it’s proper location on the signal bridge places the 2 rear legs on the deck edge so there is no room for error. I recommend that you solder the 3 legs together and then test them on their final location before adding the rest of the stuff to the mast - you may have to re-do it like I did. The bottom of the jig has an extra piece of wood that I added to match the depth of the main leg’s hole on the model. Here’s the extent of my soldering - everything after this is glued.

The plans call for the support braces to be made of  .020, 1/32 and 1/16 brass rod - I did that except I substituted 1/16 plastic rod since is is easier to shape than brass. The upper platform was replaced with a wider piece to better accommodate the motor on the base of the SPS-10 radar.
 
The following pix show the mast as per the kit plans except the railings have not been added to the platforms yet. 



My next post will cover scratch details. 

Finished Product
 
Being used to wood kits that take me 1-2 years to complete this was a very quick build.
I’m pleased with how it turned out although resin & plastic kits don’t really float my boat, I prefer actually making things rather than just “gluein n’ paintin.” For this build I was after the end result more than the process, I wanted a model of a ship I served on 30+ years ago to replace one from a different manufacturer (White Ensign Models) from about 10 years ago which is shown in the last pix.
 

ASROC Loader
 
The loader was used to pick up ASROC missiles from a dolly or container and ram them into the box launcher.
The kit provides several britannia metal pieces and 2 brass PE pieces (not shown). I won’t be using the PE on my build because the long loading arm was usually stowed away except when actually loading. 
Here’s the brittania parts:
 

 
Here’s what the loading arm with a missile looked like:
 

The loader had a real rat’s nest of hydraulic lines that I would like to include an impression of so I’ll scratch build the loader out of plastic, brass wire and paper.
 

Here’s what I ended up with:
 

DASH Drone
 
The DASH was used to deliver torpedoes or nuclear depth charges at ranges beyond what the ASROC could reach (always a good idea when dropping a nuclear weapon)

The kit provides a brittania body and several pieces of PE, the only details I’ll add will be some of the push rods below the rotor blades.

Here’s what it looks like assembled
 

And here it is painted (red and green sides so the operators could figure out what side they were looking at) . Fortunately I had some 1/700 decals which worked great for the dash insignia and warning stripes at this size.

More Non-skid
 
Finished the non-skid tracks on the rest of the decks and the final waterways and scuppers. All the superstructure pieces are just dry fitted at this point.
 
Flight deck markings are a combination of:
- Spray paint (landing circle)
- Dry transfer decals (numbers)
- Pin striping tape (deck edges)
Finished up with a coat of dull-coat.
The lines in the center of the flight deck are etchings in the laser cut deck to represent the plates covering a collapsible replenishment kingpost. Only scratch adds are 2 escape scuttles.
 



 
Next item will be adding striping to the deck edges to cover up the I-beam ends and add deck coamings. 

MK37 Gunfire Control System Director
 
Very simple – consists of a resin main piece, Britannia radar dish and optical range finder arms and PE supports .

The only scratch additions are the RF feed horn in the center of the dish, canvas bloomers on the range finder and a simulated retracted canvas cover behind the Director Officer’s position. Hard to believe they fit 7 guys in that little box, when I served as the D.O on a slightly smaller director there were only 2 of us in there and it was still a tight fit.

Operations Office and Signal Shelter
 
The kit comes with a resin signal shelter that accurately represents the shelter on 95% of the FRAMS – about the size of 2 phone booths (I know the younger half of the readers of this post are asking themselves “What the Hell is a phone booth?”)
Unfortunately Basilone and a couple of her sisters who received their FRAM upgrade at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard had a much larger structure installed: a rectangular Operations Department Office with a u-shaped signal shelter wrapped around its aft end. The mainmast went thru the center of the Ops Office.
Not sure who came up with that bright idea – the higher above the keel the greater the effect of the ship’s rolls and FRAMS rolled a lot. Given that the Ops office was located at the very top of the ship and had no windows it must have been a real vomitorium.
I made the structure out of sheet plastic, although wood would probably have been easier. The doors on the signal shelter portion needed to have rectangular windows (not available from the commercial PE frets) so I had to scratch those from plastic with bits of wire for the dogs.

Waterways
 
I decided to add waterways on the main deck, they run just inboard of the deck edge and serve to direct rainwater and saltspray to overboard drains (scuppers) to keep the sides from looking dirty. Thin .01x.03 plastic strip edge glued to the deck worked fine. They will have the advantage of serving as good anchoring points for the bottom rung of the PE railings when those are added later.

Non-Skid
 
Steel decks are very slippery when wet, add some oil, grease or even accumulated salt and they can be impossible to walk on in any kind of sea so Navy ships lay down rough, textured paint to provide safe walking areas.
I wanted to try to include it but wasn’t sure how. I experimented with 400 grit sand paper cut to shape and glued to wood then spray painted the appropriate color. It came out looking really good but I was concerned that it might peel up at some point down the road.
Looking around some plastic modeling sites for ideas I ran across this stuff, it is sold at hardware stores and sprays on as a texture, you can hear it crackling as it dries. I have no idea what anyone would use this stuff for but it works well for non-skid.

After masking off the areas where it won’t be it was sprayed on, then a coating of flat black primer was added since the texture paint has some shine to it. It would be hard to get it "wrong" since there was no standard pattern for putting it down so each ship was different and even the same ship might change non-skid patterns every time the laid it down.
 
Here’s what the upper superstructure looks like with non-skid, the MK37 Director and the Ops Office/Signal Shelter dry fitted.

Modifying the forward 01 level deck
 
I ended my last post about the possibility of trying a new way to make portholes. It comes from the Waterline Warships book I listed on my first post. Basically a punch is used to punch about 2mm deep into the wood, a solid rod is then pushed against the circle, depressing the circle by 1 mm or so. The punch is then used to punch out discs of painted and glazed paper. The discs can then be glued into the depressed holes giving a pretty good simulation of a porthole with out the tear-outs associated with drilling them. Bottom line: I could not make it happen, I needed a 2mm hollow punch to get the right scale. The only thing I could find online for less than $50 was a leather punch set. It worked fine for making the paper discs but the outside diameter was too big.  The technique is worth remembering if you can find (or make) the right punches. I couldn’t so I’ll be going with some aftermarket PE for mine.

During my photo research of the FRAMS I noticed that the overhanging portion of the forward deck was made of perforated metal.

At first I assumed it was for drainage, but after a little more rumination I realized it was for drainage, but upward, not down. When green water came over the bow and hit the front of the superstructure there had to be some means of releasing the hydrodynamic pressure or the deck would have been peeled up like paper Mache, hence the holes. I wanted to incorporate that if I could but I did not want to have to drill a boatload of little holes. Once again, Google is the best modeling aid ever. I found this stuff used by needlepoint folks and was able to find it at the local arts and crafts store.

After cutting off the portions of the deck that formed the overhang I used the cut off pieces as templates to cut out the perforated material. After some trimming and adjusting it worked OK. The holes were a little over scale but I figured that after a couple of coats of spray-paint that they would shrink enough to be a good match.

The other thing I noticed was the small I-beams used as stiffeners under the over hanging decks.

Using some Evergreen Plastics I-beam material I added those, easy to do but repetitive.
 
After adding strip plastic along the deck edge to cover the I-beam ends and extend a little above the deck to form a coaming I’m satisfied with what I have.


Next up will be fabricating the Pilot House. 

After adding the MACK, the rigging and the HF whip antennas this one is ready to go on the shelf. Time to get back to making sawdust on a wood model.

After being down for a couple of weeks due to some "kid crud" brought home by my wife the school teacher I was about ready to spray the big parts of the model but had to find a part for my air compressor but I finally got it done. It was a bit of a learning experience. The paint & primer stuck fine to the hull but on several areas of the deck and vertical surfaces it came away in sheets. Apparently all the fitting work involving sanding on the hull left enough "tooth" for the primer to adhere to but the other areas were just too slick. After some light sanding where the paint came off I tried again with better results. Wish I had known that before all of the masking but at least I do now.
 
I'll be doing some of the painting of the details  that are cast onto the superstructure and then start adding the doors and other PE.
 
For anyone thinking about buying this kit it is a bit of a mixed bag - what they include is very detailed but obvious items are left off, kind of like it was designed by a committee with everyone doing their job right but no one making sure everything was farmed out to some one.  Some bulkheads have cables cast into them, but not all, there are no firestations or hose racks included, etc. It is still the best FF kit out there but a little research and aftermarket PE and scratch building is still needed - more than should be at this price.
 

Photo Etch
 
This kit has a LOT of PE. It is incredibly detailed but also very thin and will not stand up to more than one or two attempts to fold it before that junction gives way. Some of it is very tiny, including 2 sets of counter rotating propellers for the torpedo on the ship’s helo, they are less than 1mm in size. 
Some of it is frankly over-engineered, for example the railings on both levels of the MACK have tiny extensions at the bottom of each stanchion which are supposed to fit into corresponding tiny holes - hard enough to do in a straight run but with multiple bends in is simple impossible. I ended up filing them off and even cutting the railings into smaller sections to make them workable. 
The kit instructions have NO text and very few sequential “how to” drawings of how to assemble some very complicated PE assemblies so they require a lot of study before snipping the first piece. 
 
Bottom line: I recommend that you not attempt one of these Orange Hobby kits unless you have a fair amount of PE experience above and beyond mere railings. These kits are pricey and you may easily find yourself in over your head with little hope of getting replacement parts to fix mistakes.
 
The MACK (mast & stack)
 
Here’s an example of the PE I was referring to, these are the first 3 pcs of the air search radar antenna, 12 more will be added before it is done:

 
Here is the completed MACK which took me about 10 hours of work over 5 days, usually in 10 minute increments so I didn’t lose focus with the tiny parts. There are just under 90 pieces, almost all of which are PE (the wood and plastic domes are scratch additions to reflect a superseded EW system whose antennas stuck around for years after the system was replaced):




 
 

Superstructure        20 days, 53 hours
 

Much of the superstructure is roughed out and she's starting to look like a real ship. Of course the components are just laying here and are only primed, not painted.
 
The model is listed as one of Bluejacket's most difficult kits but it is coming along surprisingly quickly. I know I still have a million little parts to attach, but I would say that it has been pretty easy going so far.
 
Forward Superstructure
 

Building the forward superstructure was fairly straightforward. All the decks are laser-cut basswood. They are removed from the carrier board, glued along the centerline, then stacked vertically. After a layer is glued up, the angles are sanded with the piece upside down on a disk sander. Laser-cut angle jigs are included to set the table.
 
IMPORTANT NOTE: YOU MUST HAVE A DISK SANDER TO BUILD THIS MODEL.
 
Then several layers are stacked to complete the forward superstructure. Sounds easy, right? Well not always. Although the instructions show several views of the stacked pieces, it isn't usually clear how they all go together and line up. Some of the pieces are not cut to quite the right profile, and it's hard to get the right profile off the plans.  One of the pieces is sanded upside down and 0.01" undersized to make room for windows. Not easy to do.
 
After everything is stacked up you apply lots of photo-etched and cast metal detail pieces. There is a whole page of instructions like the following: "Mark the location of the FAS brackets (FAB-39) on the forward angled face of the 03 level and glue them in place." WTF does this mean?
 
I have no idea what a FAS bracket is, so that's no help.  The instructions refer to level 01, 02, 03, but nowhere on the plans are the levels labeled.  You can try to guess, but it's just not clear where the levels spit.
 
The parts are all labeled with a code. F stands for Fabricated, or cast metal, PE stands for photo-etched, etc. AB stands for Arleigh-Burke, so (almost) every part has a redundant AB in its name. The final number is the part number. The photo-etched carrier sheet has part numbers all over it and they are relatively easy to identify. The several hundred cast metal pieces are sealed in lots of plastic bubbles in no obvious order. They are not labeled anywhere. The only way to identify them is to find the part number on the plans, then identify the part by its shape. There are several problems with that idea.
 
1. Some of the parts seem to be mis-numbered in the instructions.
2. There is no obvious cast metal counterpart for some of the parts shown on the plans.
3. Most of the parts on the plans are not labeled at all.
 
After struggling through the page of instructions there were still dozens of parts on the plans that had not been attached. Maybe they'll show up on a subsequent page, but I just decided to find parts that looked like the plans and glue them in place.
 
Aft Superstructure
 

While the forward superstructure is all made up of solid stock, the aft superstructure is glued up as an angled box of laser-cut pieces. This piece would have been much easier to make from stacked solid wood.
 
The back end of the aft superstructure is a mount for the Gatling gun made out of cast resin. There is a similar piece on the forward superstructure. Both pieces are basically angled boxes with a notch cut in them. They would have been so easy to make with wood. I can't imagine why Bluejacket decided to cast them.
 
Stacks
 

The stack are made like the aft superstructure, by gluing up a box of laser-cut pieces. There are still LOTS of grills, doors, and pipes to be attached.
 
 

US Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis MD
 
Last weekend my wife Cinda Williams Chima and I went to the Baltimore Bookfest. She writes fantasy novels for young adults. I took a day off and visited the US Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, MD. The first floor of the museum has a history of the US Navy with plenty of ship models. The second floor houses the Rogers Ship Model Collection with 108 ship models from 1650 to 1850.
 
Azzoun gave a great description of the museum on MSW back in 2014, so I won't repeat everything here. I'll just state that this was one of the most amazing collection of ship models that I've ever seen. It made me want to go home and try harder. This spectacular model of the USS Maury might give you an idea what I'm talking about.
 

 

US Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis MD
 
Last weekend my wife Cinda Williams Chima and I went to the Baltimore Bookfest. She writes fantasy novels for young adults. I took a day off and visited the US Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, MD. The first floor of the museum has a history of the US Navy with plenty of ship models. The second floor houses the Rogers Ship Model Collection with 108 ship models from 1650 to 1850.
 
Azzoun gave a great description of the museum on MSW back in 2014, so I won't repeat everything here. I'll just state that this was one of the most amazing collection of ship models that I've ever seen. It made me want to go home and try harder. This spectacular model of the USS Maury might give you an idea what I'm talking about.
 

 

Superstructure        20 days, 53 hours
 

Much of the superstructure is roughed out and she's starting to look like a real ship. Of course the components are just laying here and are only primed, not painted.
 
The model is listed as one of Bluejacket's most difficult kits but it is coming along surprisingly quickly. I know I still have a million little parts to attach, but I would say that it has been pretty easy going so far.
 
Forward Superstructure
 

Building the forward superstructure was fairly straightforward. All the decks are laser-cut basswood. They are removed from the carrier board, glued along the centerline, then stacked vertically. After a layer is glued up, the angles are sanded with the piece upside down on a disk sander. Laser-cut angle jigs are included to set the table.
 
IMPORTANT NOTE: YOU MUST HAVE A DISK SANDER TO BUILD THIS MODEL.
 
Then several layers are stacked to complete the forward superstructure. Sounds easy, right? Well not always. Although the instructions show several views of the stacked pieces, it isn't usually clear how they all go together and line up. Some of the pieces are not cut to quite the right profile, and it's hard to get the right profile off the plans.  One of the pieces is sanded upside down and 0.01" undersized to make room for windows. Not easy to do.
 
After everything is stacked up you apply lots of photo-etched and cast metal detail pieces. There is a whole page of instructions like the following: "Mark the location of the FAS brackets (FAB-39) on the forward angled face of the 03 level and glue them in place." WTF does this mean?
 
I have no idea what a FAS bracket is, so that's no help.  The instructions refer to level 01, 02, 03, but nowhere on the plans are the levels labeled.  You can try to guess, but it's just not clear where the levels spit.
 
The parts are all labeled with a code. F stands for Fabricated, or cast metal, PE stands for photo-etched, etc. AB stands for Arleigh-Burke, so (almost) every part has a redundant AB in its name. The final number is the part number. The photo-etched carrier sheet has part numbers all over it and they are relatively easy to identify. The several hundred cast metal pieces are sealed in lots of plastic bubbles in no obvious order. They are not labeled anywhere. The only way to identify them is to find the part number on the plans, then identify the part by its shape. There are several problems with that idea.
 
1. Some of the parts seem to be mis-numbered in the instructions.
2. There is no obvious cast metal counterpart for some of the parts shown on the plans.
3. Most of the parts on the plans are not labeled at all.
 
After struggling through the page of instructions there were still dozens of parts on the plans that had not been attached. Maybe they'll show up on a subsequent page, but I just decided to find parts that looked like the plans and glue them in place.
 
Aft Superstructure
 

While the forward superstructure is all made up of solid stock, the aft superstructure is glued up as an angled box of laser-cut pieces. This piece would have been much easier to make from stacked solid wood.
 
The back end of the aft superstructure is a mount for the Gatling gun made out of cast resin. There is a similar piece on the forward superstructure. Both pieces are basically angled boxes with a notch cut in them. They would have been so easy to make with wood. I can't imagine why Bluejacket decided to cast them.
 
Stacks
 

The stack are made like the aft superstructure, by gluing up a box of laser-cut pieces. There are still LOTS of grills, doors, and pipes to be attached.
 
 

US Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis MD
 
Last weekend my wife Cinda Williams Chima and I went to the Baltimore Bookfest. She writes fantasy novels for young adults. I took a day off and visited the US Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, MD. The first floor of the museum has a history of the US Navy with plenty of ship models. The second floor houses the Rogers Ship Model Collection with 108 ship models from 1650 to 1850.
 
Azzoun gave a great description of the museum on MSW back in 2014, so I won't repeat everything here. I'll just state that this was one of the most amazing collection of ship models that I've ever seen. It made me want to go home and try harder. This spectacular model of the USS Maury might give you an idea what I'm talking about.
 

 

Superstructure        20 days, 53 hours
 

Much of the superstructure is roughed out and she's starting to look like a real ship. Of course the components are just laying here and are only primed, not painted.
 
The model is listed as one of Bluejacket's most difficult kits but it is coming along surprisingly quickly. I know I still have a million little parts to attach, but I would say that it has been pretty easy going so far.
 
Forward Superstructure
 

Building the forward superstructure was fairly straightforward. All the decks are laser-cut basswood. They are removed from the carrier board, glued along the centerline, then stacked vertically. After a layer is glued up, the angles are sanded with the piece upside down on a disk sander. Laser-cut angle jigs are included to set the table.
 
IMPORTANT NOTE: YOU MUST HAVE A DISK SANDER TO BUILD THIS MODEL.
 
Then several layers are stacked to complete the forward superstructure. Sounds easy, right? Well not always. Although the instructions show several views of the stacked pieces, it isn't usually clear how they all go together and line up. Some of the pieces are not cut to quite the right profile, and it's hard to get the right profile off the plans.  One of the pieces is sanded upside down and 0.01" undersized to make room for windows. Not easy to do.
 
After everything is stacked up you apply lots of photo-etched and cast metal detail pieces. There is a whole page of instructions like the following: "Mark the location of the FAS brackets (FAB-39) on the forward angled face of the 03 level and glue them in place." WTF does this mean?
 
I have no idea what a FAS bracket is, so that's no help.  The instructions refer to level 01, 02, 03, but nowhere on the plans are the levels labeled.  You can try to guess, but it's just not clear where the levels spit.
 
The parts are all labeled with a code. F stands for Fabricated, or cast metal, PE stands for photo-etched, etc. AB stands for Arleigh-Burke, so (almost) every part has a redundant AB in its name. The final number is the part number. The photo-etched carrier sheet has part numbers all over it and they are relatively easy to identify. The several hundred cast metal pieces are sealed in lots of plastic bubbles in no obvious order. They are not labeled anywhere. The only way to identify them is to find the part number on the plans, then identify the part by its shape. There are several problems with that idea.
 
1. Some of the parts seem to be mis-numbered in the instructions.
2. There is no obvious cast metal counterpart for some of the parts shown on the plans.
3. Most of the parts on the plans are not labeled at all.
 
After struggling through the page of instructions there were still dozens of parts on the plans that had not been attached. Maybe they'll show up on a subsequent page, but I just decided to find parts that looked like the plans and glue them in place.
 
Aft Superstructure
 

While the forward superstructure is all made up of solid stock, the aft superstructure is glued up as an angled box of laser-cut pieces. This piece would have been much easier to make from stacked solid wood.
 
The back end of the aft superstructure is a mount for the Gatling gun made out of cast resin. There is a similar piece on the forward superstructure. Both pieces are basically angled boxes with a notch cut in them. They would have been so easy to make with wood. I can't imagine why Bluejacket decided to cast them.
 
Stacks
 

The stack are made like the aft superstructure, by gluing up a box of laser-cut pieces. There are still LOTS of grills, doors, and pipes to be attached.
 
 

Progress, Frustration, and more Progress       4 days, 21 hours
 
The first step on the Arleigh Burke kit, cleaning up the hull, was easy. I trimmed off the attachment points freehand on the band saw, removed the rest with a gouge, and cleaned up everything with a palm sander. The hull shape was nearly perfect but I had to remove a little material aft to match the deck plan. The back step on the aft deck is cut square but should be sloped inward a few degrees. I cut that on a table saw.
 
Then the project became frustrating.

The cast resin prop shaft attachments were some of the worst cast pieces that I've ever seen. Not only were they full of pits, but they were covered with extraneous nubs and debris. Bluejacket should be embarrassed to include them in such a high-priced kit. I spent several hours sanding, filing, and filling and still was not happy with the result.
 

The prop shaft assembly consists of the resin attachment point, a flexible styrene shaft, and a cast pot-metal strut. The strut looked OK until I realized how soft the metal was. I could just imagine the flexible metal strut and flexible styrene shaft bending over the first time I bumped the model.
 
There is no indication on the plans as to where the strut attaches to the hull, whether it should be vertical or angled. A short search on-line showed that the Arleigh-Burke has two angled struts on each prop shaft. I gave up on the resin/styrene/pot-metal construction and built my own prop shafts.
 


My prop shafts are made out of brass tubing with wooden struts. I spun the egg-shaped bearings on my drill press and sanded them to shape. There are two struts on each shaft. One is nearly vertical and the other slopes inward to the hull center line. The whole assembly is rock solid and looks so much better than what came with the kit. The rudders were also cast resin and were flawless.
 

The sonar unit is contained in the bulbous bow of the ship that reduces wave drag. On the model the bulb is made of cast resin. It had a few pits but was usable. I had to carve the bow to get it to fit into the slot in the bulb. I still need to do some sanding on the filler at the edges.
 
The anchor chain will go through a hawse pipe drilled through the bow. The hole is lined with more styrene tube. I expected a cast metal fitting for the bow, but the instructions said to use a "suitable filler" to build my own.  I used 5-minute epoxy putty that I rough-shaped by hand, then carved after it was solid. I guess it looks OK, but still another disappointment from an expensive kit.

USS Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyer
 
I recently took a trans-Atlantic cruise from Rotterdam to Norway, Scotland, Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Boston. I saw so many unusual ships, both models and full sized, that I had to start another model. I was intrigued by the Aeronaut Bismarck model, but I couldn't find any useful reviews. Please let me know if you've had any experience with their kits.
 
Bluejacket Shipcrafters has a couple of WWII kits, but their kit of the Arleigh Burke guided missile destroyer caught my eye and I ordered it. It is by far the most expensive kit that I've ever bought. Please don't tell my wife. Is it worth the price? Well, lets see what's
 
Inside The Box

The model came in a large box packed full of styrofoam peanuts. It was a pain to separate the parts from the junk.
 

Here's what was inside.
 

The hull is machine-carved from a single piece of basswood.
 

The hull shape looks very good, but there are still attachment points that will have to be carved away.
 

There is a 65-page instruction manual that seems to be very thorough. Bluejacket offers a CD of build photos for an additional fee. I didn't order it. The kit includes hull templates printed on self-adhesive paper, a guide for painting the helicopter landing marks on the deck, and a big piece of styrene for God knows what.
 

The kit includes 5 pages of plans. You should be able to see the titles in the photo.
 

There are 5 sheets of laser-cut parts. The cut lines are crisp and nearly free of char. All of the deck superstructure will be made from these parts.
 

The instructions say that there are over 600 photo-etched parts. Whew.
 

The kit had a tiny box packed full of beautiful cast metal parts.
 

There are also a few cast resin parts. These don't look so great. I will be doing a lot of cleanup on them.
 

There is a small bag of wood strips, a bag of metal strips, and a spool of rigging thread. The brass pedestals were extra. You'd think that for what this kit cost they could throw in the pedestals.
 

I also ordered the optional paint kit. It came with a dozen bottles of Testors paints. I will probably spray most of the model gray and use the red and black for details. We'll see.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

US Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis MD
 
Last weekend my wife Cinda Williams Chima and I went to the Baltimore Bookfest. She writes fantasy novels for young adults. I took a day off and visited the US Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, MD. The first floor of the museum has a history of the US Navy with plenty of ship models. The second floor houses the Rogers Ship Model Collection with 108 ship models from 1650 to 1850.
 
Azzoun gave a great description of the museum on MSW back in 2014, so I won't repeat everything here. I'll just state that this was one of the most amazing collection of ship models that I've ever seen. It made me want to go home and try harder. This spectacular model of the USS Maury might give you an idea what I'm talking about.
 

 

Superstructure        20 days, 53 hours
 

Much of the superstructure is roughed out and she's starting to look like a real ship. Of course the components are just laying here and are only primed, not painted.
 
The model is listed as one of Bluejacket's most difficult kits but it is coming along surprisingly quickly. I know I still have a million little parts to attach, but I would say that it has been pretty easy going so far.
 
Forward Superstructure
 

Building the forward superstructure was fairly straightforward. All the decks are laser-cut basswood. They are removed from the carrier board, glued along the centerline, then stacked vertically. After a layer is glued up, the angles are sanded with the piece upside down on a disk sander. Laser-cut angle jigs are included to set the table.
 
IMPORTANT NOTE: YOU MUST HAVE A DISK SANDER TO BUILD THIS MODEL.
 
Then several layers are stacked to complete the forward superstructure. Sounds easy, right? Well not always. Although the instructions show several views of the stacked pieces, it isn't usually clear how they all go together and line up. Some of the pieces are not cut to quite the right profile, and it's hard to get the right profile off the plans.  One of the pieces is sanded upside down and 0.01" undersized to make room for windows. Not easy to do.
 
After everything is stacked up you apply lots of photo-etched and cast metal detail pieces. There is a whole page of instructions like the following: "Mark the location of the FAS brackets (FAB-39) on the forward angled face of the 03 level and glue them in place." WTF does this mean?
 
I have no idea what a FAS bracket is, so that's no help.  The instructions refer to level 01, 02, 03, but nowhere on the plans are the levels labeled.  You can try to guess, but it's just not clear where the levels spit.
 
The parts are all labeled with a code. F stands for Fabricated, or cast metal, PE stands for photo-etched, etc. AB stands for Arleigh-Burke, so (almost) every part has a redundant AB in its name. The final number is the part number. The photo-etched carrier sheet has part numbers all over it and they are relatively easy to identify. The several hundred cast metal pieces are sealed in lots of plastic bubbles in no obvious order. They are not labeled anywhere. The only way to identify them is to find the part number on the plans, then identify the part by its shape. There are several problems with that idea.
 
1. Some of the parts seem to be mis-numbered in the instructions.
2. There is no obvious cast metal counterpart for some of the parts shown on the plans.
3. Most of the parts on the plans are not labeled at all.
 
After struggling through the page of instructions there were still dozens of parts on the plans that had not been attached. Maybe they'll show up on a subsequent page, but I just decided to find parts that looked like the plans and glue them in place.
 
Aft Superstructure
 

While the forward superstructure is all made up of solid stock, the aft superstructure is glued up as an angled box of laser-cut pieces. This piece would have been much easier to make from stacked solid wood.
 
The back end of the aft superstructure is a mount for the Gatling gun made out of cast resin. There is a similar piece on the forward superstructure. Both pieces are basically angled boxes with a notch cut in them. They would have been so easy to make with wood. I can't imagine why Bluejacket decided to cast them.
 
Stacks
 

The stack are made like the aft superstructure, by gluing up a box of laser-cut pieces. There are still LOTS of grills, doors, and pipes to be attached.
 
 

US Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis MD
 
Last weekend my wife Cinda Williams Chima and I went to the Baltimore Bookfest. She writes fantasy novels for young adults. I took a day off and visited the US Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis, MD. The first floor of the museum has a history of the US Navy with plenty of ship models. The second floor houses the Rogers Ship Model Collection with 108 ship models from 1650 to 1850.
 
Azzoun gave a great description of the museum on MSW back in 2014, so I won't repeat everything here. I'll just state that this was one of the most amazing collection of ship models that I've ever seen. It made me want to go home and try harder. This spectacular model of the USS Maury might give you an idea what I'm talking about.