USS Missouri by wglasford - Trumpeter - 1/200 - PLASTIC

[wglasford]

I chose this model because I built the USS Constitution, what I consider to be one of the first US battleships and this is the last US battleship.  I strive for museum quality construction so I needed a model with plenty of add-on kits and large enough to show the fine detail of the ship.   In addition to purchasing the kit itself I purchased the following:

1) Pontos 23002F1 - which includes the wooden deck.

2) Pontos 21002F1 - which includes the bofor detail.

3) Eduards Part 7 - which I got specifically for the air intake grills.

 

[wglasford]

After gluing together the hull I oil canned the sides.  With a model this large you want some realism and not large smooth sides.  I included pictures of the original oil canning bow and stern.  To accomplish this I drew grid lines on the model with a pencil and then used a large curved Exacto blade just like a cabinet scrapper, adding a burr to the blade.  I like the effect with the lines sanded off.  Once I start layering up the paint it will be a subtle detail.   

[wglasford]

I added the hull plates using leftover styrene strips.  You can see I used .010" x .188" strips cut down to about 2mm wide.  The longer ones are 7mm long and the shorter ones are half that.  First I drew pencil lines every 35mm along the hull, using those lines to position the long ones.  I then made a jig to place on the long ones and the top deck edge to draw an angle positioning mark for the smaller ones.  Each side took about an hour to complete.  

[S-boat 55]

Not seen canning done like that before - great idea, 

Edited July 23, 2022 by S-boat 55

[SteveLarsen]

Great subject and nice work.  Have popcorn in hand.

[wglasford]

 I found this idea on another site, you don't have to glue the main guns to the deck.  You can get them to swivel by gluing a magnet to the bottom of the gun and glue a fender washer under the deck.  I did this before the decks were glued on.  BTW, the decks fit perfectly.  No trimming or Bondo needed.  

[wglasford]

As I am waiting for paint to arrive I have been looking forward, planning the next steps.  I see where Pontos and Trumpeter disagree on the placement of the forward bollards.  Sure enough, I need to remove plastic from the deck to get them to fit.  

[wglasford]

There are always those decisions as to what order you add parts to the model.  I base my decisions on how delicate the part is and how accessible the area will be later on.  In the case of the stern ladder it is a no brainer given the size of those little rungs and how accessible the stern will be later on.  I will add this detail much later in the build.  

[wglasford]

Just finished making the 16 bitts, not bollards, my mistake.

 

[wglasford]

I have started painting the hull.  The band above the waterline is supposed to be a dark navy blue for the WWII era version of this ship.  The blue is so blue it gets lost with the black band.  I have found 3 builds on-line that all came to the same conclusion.  One guy painted this part a light grey, good for the modern version, but not the 1940s era ship.  Another was medium grey and another was a darker blue, but much lighter than navy blue.  Now waiting for 3 more blue paint jars to arrive... I was able to paint below the water line and added some subtle panel lines. 

[wglasford]

Got some blue paints today and mixed up a few possibilities.  I ended up with XF-50:2 XF-8:2 XF-2:1 which gives a dark grey blue, but not so dark the black line is lost.  I now need to paint the upper part of the bow a light grey and start some weathering.  

[wglasford]

I ran up against the first parts of the model that don't fit correctly, the anchors.  I had to open up the holes in the deck a bit with a drill and carve out the hole from below to get the the shaft to fit.  The anchors were modified a bit to get more angle to them.  Note that the one in front was the extent of the angle with the one in back has been modified.