USS Arizona by DocRob - FINISHED - Eduard - 1/350 - PLASTIC

[Canute]

Rob, that's a vast improvement to the basic plastic superstructure.

 

The shot damage would have been a 16" shell with a hardened nose cap penetrating the armor, but as mentioned that was a short range, point blank test shot. We still use the technique for some aerial bombs, putting a nose cap on and fuzing it with a tail fuze only Of course, there are other methods of penetrating thick armor, but I can't cover them here.

[DocRob]

23 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

WOW   -   what a  difference  night and  day   -   shaping up  now.

 

Thank you OC, nightmare and day would fit even better , but I've not even started to feel comfortable with the build. I hope, I will settle in a bit with more practice.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

I continued with the funnel, another delicate construction. The casemate housings on the side where annealed for easier bending the radii. Luckily the PE parts are very well designed and the general fit is great. The Eduard manual lacks a bit especially with continuation. The exhaust hole on top was drilled out, using my relatively new Tamiya conical file for the first time. A great tool, which will also help a lot for my wooden ship builds. 

 

 

 

Cheers Rob

[Knocklouder]

This is some amazing work,  Rob. I will be following along it's  going to be fantastic to see when done   0

[mtaylor]

6 hours ago, Snug Harbor Johnny said:

  Some of the tanks had open hatches so a visitor could get inside (which I did).  There was also an indoor museum of all sorts of military items, but I don't know if anything seen decades ago has been maintained or is available for viewing these days.  One would have to check before attempting a visit.

 

I was there back in the 70's on a business trip.   It appears the museum is closed or about to close as it's being moved.  Here's the link:  https://www.ordmusfound.org/'  

 

    

[DocRob]

On 1/29/2023 at 7:38 PM, Knocklouder said:

This is some amazing work,  Rob. I will be following along it's  going to be fantastic to see when done   0

Thank you Knocklouder, it's a complicated and tempting build and it's my firs ship build with these amounts of PE. I don't expect, everything to be perfect, but will try my best. This project is more about learning, than to have the perfect showcase in the end, which suits me, because I don't display my finished kits.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Doesn't look like much, but I worked a lot on these subassemblies, put in the brass columns for the rangefinders, rectified the angle of the top deck (sweat) and am about to determine the location points of the brass columns for the flying bridge, which I pre-assembled and left it on the turret base. There are no location marks on the plastic deck,  nor the wooden deck, but some measurements in the manual.
I re-cut the places of the wooden deck, where the superstructure and the funnel will be placed, because I will not remove the un cut carrier film before the final assembly stage.
The upper and the underside of this deck and the deck below, where cleaned of all casted structures, to accept their PE substitutes later. I used every tool able to cut plastic to do this, Dremel tool with different saws and grinders, cutter, chisel, scalpels, micro saws, you name it. My bench is powdered now with plastic scrap and needs to be cleaned before I continue.

 

 

Cheers Rob

[Toolmaker]

This is coming along really well Rob. Your etch work is very sharp. I’ve done some heavily etch based builds and know how much effort is involved thinking ahead trying to make it all come together. I’m enjoying following along.

 

Thanks

 

Paul

[DocRob]

15 hours ago, Toolmaker said:

This is coming along really well Rob. Your etch work is very sharp. I’ve done some heavily etch based builds and know how much effort is involved thinking ahead trying to make it all come together. I’m enjoying following along.

 

Thank you Paul, you put the most difficult part about these kind of builds in one sentence. It's all about preparation and understanding the sequence of building and painting, which makes it a challenge.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

What started a bit crazy, suddenly turns into madness. The flying bridge construction causes a lot of headache, because it is built up with lots of components to align correctly, but even more because it needs to be removable for painting and applying the wooden deck. 
I cut the brass tubes according to the measurements in the manual, drilled holes into the plastic and wooden deck and glued in short pieces of brass rod for alignment.
A third rod was glued into place on the superstructures top deck for the front post. The three tubes are not glued, I only checked, if the mating distances on top were ok, to accept the flying bridge.

 

 

To enhance the rigidity and add the possibility of wiggle the flying bridge in place, I glued some bent and cut Albion Connecto brass parts into place onto the underside of the flying bridge, that will later accept the brass tubes.

 

 

Than, I glued the lower brass deck to the front post, added the upper brass deck and when the CA half dried added the back posts and glued them into place. While the CA settled, I bent the whole construction into it's correct shape and after drying, added some more CA from the undersides for rigidity. Needless to say, that during preparation, the construction disintegrated a lot of times, while adjusting .

 

 

Now I have to finish the flying bridge assembly and then glue it on top of the posts.

 

 

Cheers Rob

[Canute]

Excellent work with all the PE, Rob. The PE you've installed so far really improves the looks of the old girl. 👍

[DocRob]

Thank you Ken, the downside is, 1/350 rigidity , I'm afraid about blowing parts away with my airbrush later. This build starts to test my patience seriously, but I'm still motivated. The problem with this kit, is most structural plastic parts are substituted by PE, which complicates alignment and lowers the stability.

 

Cheers Rob

[king derelict]

That is a real maze of PE. Congratulations on a spectacular result. It's very neat and will look great

E

[Old Collingwood]

Superb work,  that PE  so  brings her to an extra dimension,    was  you  ever  tempted  to  show  her how  she is  now?

 

OC.

[Toolmaker]

Still cheering and willing you on from the sidelines.

Your words about the integrity and how delicate the build is, bought back uncomfortable memories of my own efforts. I actually did experience blowing parts from the build with an airbrush and did also lose parts only to find them up a finger nail. 

If you remain determined to continue this madness for years to come you may also conclude that taking soldering to an art form becomes a must. Like yours, my Arizona etch to etch was all held with super glue as it was also my first ship build. However, after that, any subsequent etch to etch build was going to be soldered. After some practice I found I could solder the tiniest of pieces and the smallest of diameters. Once learned, the stress levels plummeted.

 

You are also on the money when noting the demands of planning for painting. Unlike many modelling subjects, ships have a lot of fine detail above decks, requiring careful planning. Many detail parts need painting off the model and adding after.

Enough waffle from me, keep up the good work.

Cheers

Paul

 

[DocRob]

On 2/3/2023 at 2:49 PM, king derelict said:

That is a real maze of PE. Congratulations on a spectacular result. It's very neat and will look great

 

9 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

Superb work,  that PE  so  brings her to an extra dimension,    was  you  ever  tempted  to  show  her how  she is  now?

 

Thank you E and OC, the PE parts lift this kit into another dimension, detail wise and more challenging. It's a steep learning curve, maybe to  steep, let's see.
I never thought about presenting USS Arizona in her actual state. When Eduard released the kit, I had the immediate urge to buy and build it. By this time, I didn't know all about the abysmal plastic of the kit, though.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

4 hours ago, Toolmaker said:

Still cheering and willing you on from the sidelines.

Your words about the integrity and how delicate the build is, bought back uncomfortable memories of my own efforts. I actually did experience blowing parts from the build with an airbrush and did also lose parts only to find them up a finger nail. 

If you remain determined to continue this madness for years to come you may also conclude that taking soldering to an art form becomes a must. Like yours, my Arizona etch to etch was all held with super glue as it was also my first ship build. However, after that, any subsequent etch to etch build was going to be soldered. After some practice I found I could solder the tiniest of pieces and the smallest of diameters. Once learned, the stress levels plummeted.

 

You are also on the money when noting the demands of planning for painting. Unlike many modelling subjects, ships have a lot of fine detail above decks, requiring careful planning. Many detail parts need painting off the model and adding after.

Enough waffle from me, keep up the good work.

 

Thank you Paul, and actually, I can't get enough waffle, as it helps me a lot to learn from others, who are far more experienced than me with these kind of builds.

I considered soldering, which I'm able to do and have done on less delicate builds in the past. The problem with most of the subassemblies on this build is, plastic is mostly too close to solder. Soldering needs a bit more of preparation, as the parts have to be clean, ideally slightly sanded, bent even more precisely (you can't just push the parts together for the last fraction of millimeters, like with CA) and if you start with CA, you can't solder close by.
I really appreciate my builds to be as rigid as possible. In the case of USS Arizona, I use two types of CA to hopefully fulfill so. 

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

4 hours ago, Toolmaker said:

You are also on the money when noting the demands of planning for painting. Unlike many modelling subjects, ships have a lot of fine detail above decks, requiring careful planning. Many detail parts need painting off the model and adding after.

Sometimes, it's not enough, developing a cunning plan, sometimes it's physics and reality which knock you off .

 

I had a yeah moment, when I added the mostly finished flying bridge onto the posts, after I added railings, ships clocks and other details and two hours later, that changed into a meehh moment, when I found out, that the capilar effect of the tubes led the CA to flow to the bottom, gravity was involved too, and adhered to my brass alignment rods on the deck. 
Very bad, because I need to remove the flying bridge alone or with the superstructure for painting, which is not possible anymore. I may have to cut the brass rods carefully and insert new ones . Some angles look a bit strange on the pics, but aren't in reality.

 

 

 

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Today, finally, I got something done with the USS Arizona build. I drilled two 6,5 mm holes into the hull, to accept screws later, if I decide to use a stand and don't display her in acrylic water. The nuts were glued into the inside with two component epoxy and after everything cured, I glued the top half of the hull onto the lower part and rubber banded and clamped all.

 

 

After I glued the nuts into the hull, the upper half of the hull was glued into place. To my astonishment, the fit wasn't bad at all, leaving only a tiny gap. Next, I removed a lot of later to be substituted details  from the decks, like ladders, bollards, winches and lifeboat racks, again mostly using a chisel or rounded blades.
The fit of the decks was ok, the minimal gaps don't need to be attended, because of the wooden deck, I apply later. 

I'm not very keen about filling gaps and had mediocre results at best in the past. I decided to try different materials for filling the small gap of the halved hull. Black CA doesn't work for me, as it takes forever to dry and mostly replicates the gap on a slightly risen level. With Green Putty, I was not able to spread the stuff and thrust it equally into the gap. I haven't tried thinning it and will try it another time. Finally I used Perfect Putty, a white past, of which I applied tiny amounts onto the gap and smeared it with my rubber gloved fingers into the gap. First impression was good, but let's see what tomorrow brings, after curing.
Last, I build up the middle artillery by cleaning up the housings, cutting off the barrels and insert the supplied brass barrels into 1,1 mm holes, I drilled before and glued them in with CA.

Cheers Rob

 

[DocRob]

After many distractions, back to the USS Arizona. I sanded the hull, where the seam of the meeting halves was and it does look good. I will give the final verdict on the Perfect Putty, when primed.
Then it was time for the midship artillery and the casemates. I glued the provided metal barrels into 1,1 mm holes and needed to cut away some material on the stubs of the deck, which are casted there for positioning the turrets. The barrels are to long and the guns wouldn't sit flush without cutting the stubs.
On reference pics, I found, the middle artillery is mainly directed to the front, which I didn't replicate, because it would have been difficult to insert the casemates PE 
On the picture you can also see the prepared PE casemates and the deck, where all the plastic was erased.

 

 

After gluing on the upper deck, the PE-casemates where glued into place and they look so much better, than the plastic with a centerline and halved portholes. I then carefully removed the front superstructure, which stuck unwanted too the deck, due to running CA, some steps before. The wooden deck, was also glued to the plastic deck in these spots and I managed to remove the wooden deck  with the help of some large sharp blades, between the decks.
 

Now this is where I am with the Arizona and it looks, like the first priming and painting is not to far ahead.

 

 

 

 

Cheers Rob

 

 

[yvesvidal]

5 hours ago, DocRob said:

 

This is more like a brass model with plastic addenda. :-)

 

Yves

 

[DocRob]

12 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

This is more like a brass model with plastic addenda. 🙂

 

Above the decks, you're absolutely right, Yves and there is more to come. Actually I'm working on two cranes and then it will be the back superstructure. The PE is mostly great to work  with and the fit is exceptional. With worse fitting PE, it would have been a nightmare and most of the parts fold up relatively easy, given you use the right tools. The rounded parts are more difficult, where annealing helps a lot, to get the fit right.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Patience is the key to this build. While having Youtube videos on about esoteric hifi discussions - sigh-, I spent some hours with these two cranes. Again the fit of the PE is very good luckily and what's left of the plastic needed a heavy dose of cutting and sanding The roundels where annealed, an absolute must to my eye. The deck starts to look busy with all the sub assemblies joined together, at the same time it becomes more difficult to plan ahead considering the later wooden deck application. Every part has to be checked, if it fits into the pre cut deck openings.

 

Cheers Rob

 

 

 

[DocRob]

More PE-madness was on todays schedule. I wanted to finish the basic construction of the back masts and flying bridge. 
First was creating the masts, using 2 mm brass tube cut to length like mentioned in the manual. Luckily the manual contains a precise drawing of this subassembly with measurements added.
The single aft mast was used to mark the height of the different decks with a pencil and then glue on the first deck, using a steel angle for orientation.

 

 

Then I added the two decks above with just a drop of CA and put the assembly in it's designated place on the deck and added the other two masts. I tried to do this step as quick as possible, to have some wiggling time, before the CA cured. Later, all was secured with more CA .

 

 

After all was aligned and the CA had hardened, I added all the traverses to the decks undersides, leaving a very delicate construction.

 

 

The flying bridge was bent and the circular or rounded parts got bent using a rubber mat and some steel rod, after annealing the brass. Not all looks totally clean after the CA mess, but keep in mind, these pics are heavily macroed and everything will hopefully look proper under primer and paint.

 

 

Cheers Rob

 

[DocRob]

The aft mast section took me three days to get there. First the basic construction, than the traverses and finally the railings, which were very complicated to form, following the shape of the masts decks. Without annealing, I couldn't have done it. Half a liter of CA later, the tower construction misses only some antennas, the searchlights and AA-guns and some other minor details, which I will add later.

 

 

The entire midship section starts to look busy now. There is not that much plastic left and there is more PE to come, along with the boats, davits,...

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers Rob

 

 

[Edwardkenway]

Superb work with the PE Rob! It's looks great!

Again there is that Steampunk look of the array while unpainted, very HG Wells

[Toolmaker]

You’re really knocking this into shape fella, it’s hard to see that and not be impressed. Great stuff.

 

Just to add another level of awkwardness, when I did mine (in the easier 200 scale) I found during some research that the demarcation line for the paint colours wasn’t always as helpful as it could have been.

 

Keep going, it’s fab to follow.

 

Thank you

Paul

[DocRob]

16 hours ago, Edwardkenway said:

Superb work with the PE Rob! It's looks great!

Again there is that Steampunk look of the array while unpainted, very HG Wells

Thank you Edward, I do like the look of the whole brass as well. I will hesitate for a second, when it comes to priming. On the other hand, gallons of CA and annealing doesn't make the brass prettier.

 

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

14 hours ago, Toolmaker said:

You’re really knocking this into shape fella, it’s hard to see that and not be impressed. Great stuff.

 

Just to add another level of awkwardness, when I did mine (in the easier 200 scale) I found during some research that the demarcation line for the paint colours wasn’t always as helpful as it could have been.

 

Thank you Paul, sometimes, specially in the nighttime, the demarcation line haunted me a bit . I decided to think about it, when I'm at this stage, maybe do a combination of brush painting and masking and airbrushing.
Your mast section looks absolutely fantastic, so clean and well detailed. Is there a build thread somewhere around?

 

Cheers rob

[Toolmaker]

5 hours ago, DocRob said:

maybe do a combination of brush painting and masking and airbrushing

Hi Rob, yes spot on, that’s what I did in the end. The top half of the legs are hand painted although I had painted those curved railings prior to fixing them on.

It’s at this point you end up thinking why didn’t I just stick to armour, ha.

Ship building is so much more challenging. I went to 1/700 scale for a short while before moving to the wood stuff. That sure demands a steady hand.

Regarding my own Arizona, at the moment there are just a few pictures in the gallery here. I did a build log on another forum some years ago but it has since gone. I may eventually repeat it on MSW as a retrospective log, but for now I will happily continue to enjoy yours.

cheers

Paul

Edited February 24, 2023 by Toolmaker