rvchima

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.

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.

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.

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.

A few pieces of railing here and there, a few small parts here and there, a little touch up paint, and maybe some rigging thread/flags. That's about all that's left to do before I call this one finished.
 

For those who might be following or just reading through this thread, I thought maybe some of you might be unfamiliar with photo etch (PE) and particularly the micro small stuff. Lots of times, PE must be folded to represent a 3D object. When folding is required on micro small PE, some special tools come in very handy, maybe absolutely necessary to get an accurate fold. I wanted to show you a couple of the tools I use and how I use them.
 
1st is a magnifying light combination. I am sure most of you have something like this but if not, you will need to acquire one if you are going to work with small PE parts. My daughter bought me this one quite a few years ago for my birthday (what a sweetheart).
 

 
The next essential tool is a photo etch bending device. It measures about 6" x 4", is made of a machined aluminum plate with a spring loaded steel machined plate that slides up and down by turning a set screw (the large black knob). This tool I acquired about 15, maybe 20 years ago. I am not certain it is production anymore as it was a cottage industry product when I bought it. In any event, this or a similar tool is a must.
 

 
Next I am going to show you how to use the tool. The PE is slid under the steel plate precisely where it is to be bent. It is then clamped down and using a single edge razor blade to slide under the part, then bent up to a 90 degree angle (or whatever angle is required). If a second bend is required as in the case of my example, it is unclamped then repositioned where the second bend is required and the folding process repeated.
 

 
 

 

 
The finished product looks like this. These are ammo box racks that are glued to the AA guns. A little plastic ammo box fits inside the ammo rack.
 

 
At the present time, I am still laboring to finish building the AA and secondary guns. Next post, I will take some photos of the built, unpainted guns. Man, these things are so small! It's very tedious work to say the least, but quite fun in a certain masochistic sort of way. 

Hello all,
 
      We all lost a dear friend, great supporter and member of our Shipbuilding family when Augie Bruno passed in December.  No one was as proud of his work or shared in his enjoyment of the hobby more than his lovely wife Diane.
 
    After being contacted by Popeye, Diane expressed how helpful and wonderful it would be if someone were able to finish Augie’s work on the Confederacy – both as a tribute to Augie, and as a way to keep us all connected with his memory. As Augie and Diane’s home is only about 15 miles from me, I was asked if I would be willing to take over Augie’s build.  
 
    I had the pleasure of sharing a cup of coffee, some delightful cookies, and even more delightful stories with Diane – and she assured me that this is indeed what Augie would have wanted.
 
     So, it is with a warm heart, and substantial amount of humility that I’ll pick up where Augie left off.
 
     Thanks already - and in advance to Anja, Popeye, Mark and Sjors for their support. I’ll do my best give Augie’s build justice, and do right by Augie and Diane.  
 
    As it stands – I’m embroiled in research, as this is my first American built ship, and I feel it’s important to get to know her as much as I can before I continue the build. Hope to have some actual progress to show soon, but in the meantime – here she is in her new shipyard.
 

 
 
- Bug

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.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ready for Paint - 50 hours, 25 days

I have completed construction of U-Boat 47 and am ready to start painting. The sailor, flag, and guns are complete but unattached. The conning tower and periscope are also unattached.
 

I love the sailor in the conning tower with his tiny binoculars. Moments after I took this photo I breathed too hard and the little loop antenna broke off at it's weak resin attachment point. I drilled it out and reattached it with a tiny brass pin.
 

I think that the brass saw teeth on the bow must be for ice cutting, but what do I know about submarines?
 

The props and rudders are made of several different materials. The props are polystyrene and had embedded nuts, probably for some other model because there's nothing here to attach them to. The other green parts are soft resin. The tan parts are also resin but are stronger and much better made. The drive shafts are polystyrene tubes. There is one photo-etched brass brace on the bottom. The only instructions are an exploded view on the large plans, and there are no holes or registration marks for alignment. However, once you locate any one piece, everything else pretty much falls into place.
 
It's about 10 degrees F (-12 C) here. I have to wear a jacket to paint in my unheated basement. I hope the paint doesn't freeze!
 

Resin Parts
 
Yes, the resin parts may have shrunken. But in my opinion they aren't very well made for a kit as costly as this. I would expect to see parts comparable to a good plastic model.
 

Here's a photo of the plans and resin parts for the aft gun. The resin parts have huge pieces of excess plastic that have to be removed. The scrap is often much larger than the part itself.
 
Conning Tower and Forward Gun - 33 hours over 15 days
 

The conning tower came out nice, and the supplied sailor is a nice touch. Those brass rails were really hard to attach since, again, the holes in the resin didn't quite match the brass parts. The curved rail around the sailor is a single photo-etched part with 13 loose ends that had to be glued in place. I was almost afraid to breathe while I was working with it.
 

The forward gun has an unbelievable number of tiny resin parts that are all butt-joined with CA. It went together OK but it seems terribly delicate.
 
I'll paint the conning tower and guns separately and attach them at the last minute.

Lots of Brass Parts, 20 hours over 11 days
 

I repainted the superstructure gray since the brass deck is full of holes and the gray paint will get inside anyway. Then I glued all the photo-etched brass decking to the wooden superstructure using CA. I soldered the joints between the vertical sides and the horizontal deck.
 

I thought I was pretty good at soldering until I tried to join these edges. No matter how much I cleaned and fluxed the joints the solder just wouldn't go where I wanted it to. I ended up grinding and sanding off lots of surplus. I still have a little work to do with putty. Useful Italian word: "Stucco = putty."
 
Surprisingly, the kit did not include the brass tube for the cleats.
 

The photo-etched parts have beautiful detail.
 

The conning tower is resin with lots of little brass parts. Unfortunately the brass deck did not fit into the tower and the ladder rungs were wider than the holes in the tower, so I had to do a bit shaping and drilling.

A Little Progress, 7 hours over 7 days
 

I started by making a temporary stand from poplar. The kit came with nice brass pedestals. I found some bolts that fit them, drilled holes in the hull and epoxied nuts in place.
 

The laser-cut parts for the superstructure popped right out of the surrounding wood, but they didn't quite fit in the space atop the resin hull. I had to do some cutting and sanding to make them fit. The resin hull seems solid but it sands like Styrofoam and is very easy to shape.
 
And that is the end of the wood work on this model.
 

The superstructure will be covered with photo-etched parts with lots of holes, so I painted the interior black.
 

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.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Model Complete - 80 hours, 35 days
 

The top of the hull was painted with Krylon Fusion light gray spray and the bottom with Rustoleum colonial red. Seam lines were drawn with a 1/2 mm black Faber-Castell artist's pen.
 
The deck is supposed to look like gray, weathered wood so I put a very thin coat of Testors' flat black over the gray. I'm not crazy about it. I used a very thin wash of Testor's "rust" color for, what else, rust. The first try was far too conspicuous so I sanded everything lightly with 3M 220-grit foam sanding pads. I put a couple of coats of Krylon acrylic matte finish over everything. The weathering still feels totally overdone. This was the first time I ever tried to produce a weathered look on a model, and I have a lot to learn.
 

It as fun attaching the antennas over the deck - almost like rigging a sailing ship! And I really like the stand. I made it out of purpleheart wood that looks great with the deep red hull.
 

The only hint of the forward torpedo tubes are some panel lines that I drew. There plans show a large array of holes in the bottom of the hull (not visible here.) I couldn't figure out how to draw a neat array of holes so I just painted the area black.
 

The props, rudders, and aft diving planes are a little more interesting than the rest of the ship.

Ready for Paint - 50 hours, 25 days

I have completed construction of U-Boat 47 and am ready to start painting. The sailor, flag, and guns are complete but unattached. The conning tower and periscope are also unattached.
 

I love the sailor in the conning tower with his tiny binoculars. Moments after I took this photo I breathed too hard and the little loop antenna broke off at it's weak resin attachment point. I drilled it out and reattached it with a tiny brass pin.
 

I think that the brass saw teeth on the bow must be for ice cutting, but what do I know about submarines?
 

The props and rudders are made of several different materials. The props are polystyrene and had embedded nuts, probably for some other model because there's nothing here to attach them to. The other green parts are soft resin. The tan parts are also resin but are stronger and much better made. The drive shafts are polystyrene tubes. There is one photo-etched brass brace on the bottom. The only instructions are an exploded view on the large plans, and there are no holes or registration marks for alignment. However, once you locate any one piece, everything else pretty much falls into place.
 
It's about 10 degrees F (-12 C) here. I have to wear a jacket to paint in my unheated basement. I hope the paint doesn't freeze!
 

Resin Parts
 
Yes, the resin parts may have shrunken. But in my opinion they aren't very well made for a kit as costly as this. I would expect to see parts comparable to a good plastic model.
 

Here's a photo of the plans and resin parts for the aft gun. The resin parts have huge pieces of excess plastic that have to be removed. The scrap is often much larger than the part itself.
 
Conning Tower and Forward Gun - 33 hours over 15 days
 

The conning tower came out nice, and the supplied sailor is a nice touch. Those brass rails were really hard to attach since, again, the holes in the resin didn't quite match the brass parts. The curved rail around the sailor is a single photo-etched part with 13 loose ends that had to be glued in place. I was almost afraid to breathe while I was working with it.
 

The forward gun has an unbelievable number of tiny resin parts that are all butt-joined with CA. It went together OK but it seems terribly delicate.
 
I'll paint the conning tower and guns separately and attach them at the last minute.

Model Complete - 80 hours, 35 days
 

The top of the hull was painted with Krylon Fusion light gray spray and the bottom with Rustoleum colonial red. Seam lines were drawn with a 1/2 mm black Faber-Castell artist's pen.
 
The deck is supposed to look like gray, weathered wood so I put a very thin coat of Testors' flat black over the gray. I'm not crazy about it. I used a very thin wash of Testor's "rust" color for, what else, rust. The first try was far too conspicuous so I sanded everything lightly with 3M 220-grit foam sanding pads. I put a couple of coats of Krylon acrylic matte finish over everything. The weathering still feels totally overdone. This was the first time I ever tried to produce a weathered look on a model, and I have a lot to learn.
 

It as fun attaching the antennas over the deck - almost like rigging a sailing ship! And I really like the stand. I made it out of purpleheart wood that looks great with the deep red hull.
 

The only hint of the forward torpedo tubes are some panel lines that I drew. There plans show a large array of holes in the bottom of the hull (not visible here.) I couldn't figure out how to draw a neat array of holes so I just painted the area black.
 

The props, rudders, and aft diving planes are a little more interesting than the rest of the ship.

Summary
 
Amati's kit of U-Boat 47 is an interesting build. It is a lot more complicated than a plastic model but a lot easier than a wooden model. The photo-etched brass parts are beautifully made, but the resin parts are disappointing. They have almost no detail and they don't quite fit to the brass parts. I really wish that the hull had a little detail molded into it.
 
Like a plastic model, this kit doesn't offer much chance to build anything from scratch. The stand is the only thing I can point to and say "I made that out of a piece of wood." The model is also less visually interesting than any of my other models. There just isn't much to see on the outside of a sub.
 
Finally, it only took 35 days to build this model. Winter isn't half over and I don't have anything to work on!