USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 by Hank - FINISHED - Trumpeter - 1:200 - PLASTIC

[Steve2838]

  Hank,

  You are doing a great job with the build. She is beautiful. I am doing the same ship from the Tamiya Might Mo kit. I was wondering where I could find the dimensions of the tripod mast on the stern smoke stack?

[Spaceman Spiff]

Looking great so far! How are you going to weather it?

[Jimz66]

Someone knew FAR in advance that I was coming to this forum. Ha ha ha. the NJ is one of my favorite ships. She's looking mighty fine there Hank. 

[Hank]

Steve, Spaceman, Jimz - thanks, so much! I do appreciate the comments.

 

Hank

[dgbot]

Hank I have always been a Steel Navy fan but never had the courage to tackle one.  The few I have done by Tamiya and Revell left much to be desired and were lets just say they will never see the light of day. Fantastic work I am envious,

David B

[Hank]

Latest work - on two fronts - Decking and Hull modifications:

 

1) I finally got my special order decking from Pontos just before Xmas - 5 weeks in transit from ROK. They did a fine job on it - a bit yellow in color, but it will work. I'm going to use a spray poly finish on it and that's all. I had originally considered staining, but have ruled that out. Here is a shot of the fwd deck section:

 

2) Fwd Hull Modifications - I'm going to do this by manual method in order to get the lower bow area modified correctly. Here is a shot of the station templates on the hull (mtd in stands and secured to the work surface) before any work is started. They don't fit correctly due to the thickness of the ext. hull needing to be shaved down:

 

That's it for now.

 

Hank

 

[Hank]

DavidB - I do appreciate the comments. I had not considered another plastic kit, but this was like a magnet!!

 

Hank

[uss frolick]

Hank lives!

 

Huzzah!

[Elia]

Hank,

 

She is looking mighty fine.

 

On that Pontos decking - is that laser etched wooden decking?

 

Cheers

 

Elia

[Hank]

Frollicky One - Yea, still croakin'!

 

Elia - I'm not sure about the etching. The artwork is CAD, but how it's printed is a mystery at this point. Thanks for the kind remarks!

 

Hank

[SawdustDave]

Any chance you will be able to bring this to the Fayetteville exhibit in April Hank?

[Hank]

Dave - Not impossible, but highly doubtful.

[Hank]

I got started with the bow area modifications last night. I had a starter pack of various Plastistrut samples and taking the 8”x3 ½”x 1/16” thk piece of styrene, I ripped it into 1/8” wide strips on my Jim Saw. Using Plastistrut Bondene Styrene & ABS Plastic Solvent Cement, I began gluing strips to either side of the bow from the flat keel downward, not covering the actual bottom of the hull since it does not need to be altered in depth. Unfortunately, this sample pack has only 1 sheet of each size of their pre-cut parts, so the next sheet (3/64” thk.) will be used for further additions once the strips of 1/16” thk. Have been used up. I check with the station template after each additional strip has been added to ensure that I’m not exceeding the max. width of the hull at that point. Before adding the next LAYER of strips, I will sand down the first layer to get rid of any debris that was left over from the ripping process.

 

This weekend I ordered 2 tubes of Squadron Products White Putty and that should be in this coming weekend. I wanted to stay with one color on this project and since some of the orig. green putty will be hidden by this modification, I am going to use the white from here on throughout the build.

 

I also sprayed the Pontos decking with Floquil Flat Spray Finish #130015 and have set it aside to dry. I may spray one further very light coat of finish tomorrow night and that will conclude the deck finishing and it will be ready for installation, as needed.

 

Lastly, my close-up lens came in, so this picture was taken with the Vivatar 2x close up lens in addition to the std. 55mm lens that came with the camera.

[Kevin]

Hank, I am led to believe the new hulls in the trumpy 1/200 range are not to bad, but I continue to watch your progress getting yours correct

[dgbot]

Hank, where did you find the Florida finish?

David B

[popeye the sailor]

I like the Plastruct products.......we carry the evergreen line up here as well.   what is that bottle next to the hull?   nice start on the mod....

[Hank]

Thanks, Kevin - much appreciate it! I don't know about the current 1:200 scale hulls from Trumpy, but the IOWA kit hulls seem to be identical (with flaws) to the MISSOURI hulls. They really need to retool their molds - they simply are not correct.

[Hank]

Update on build:

 

I've now got most of the 03/04/05 Levels on the superstructure (fwd) complete and assembled. Next week the addition of the conning tower will complete the main structure. Paint, railing touchups and addition of whip antennae will get this part of the build well in hand:

 

I will then turn my attention to the lower fwd. hull corrections - I've got styrene strips in place with white putty to enlarge the "bulb" at the fwd. extreme bow and hope to correct the misshaped kit hull

 

 

[Hank]

This week's work:
 
I've now got the conning tower assembly mated to the bridge assembly (03/04/05 Levels) and am currently working on the 02 Level superstructure assembly (modifying as necessary, adding PE parts, vents, ladders, etc) and will finish with the wood decking. Scrutinized by fellow IOWA Class modelers on The Ship Model Forum (LOTS of Battleship nuts over there , as well as bonafide BB volunteers on board the WISCONSIN/IOWA museums) I will need to check on a couple vert. ladders that may need modifying on the 03/04 Level Nav. bridge. Here are a couple shots of the work:

 

I would add more, but I can't see where the photos location is in the edit box (is something screwed up here?) so I don't know where any further commentary will end up.

 

 

[dgbot]

Fantastic work Hank.  You are fortunate to  have access to knowledgeable resources to hep you with your build.  With so much information out there you would think Trumpeter would go to the trouble of making the kit more accurate instead of what they had at the time.  Not everyone has access or the no how to find useful info.

David B 

[Elia]

Hank,

 

Outstanding. The level of detail and how you've integrated all of the tiny pieces (photo etch?) is eye catching. That antenna mast is something else. I live just west of Philadelphia, drive I-95 into the city, and see the New Jersery across the Delaware river (on the NJ side) often - and she has nothing over your ship. Very sharp!

 

Cheers,

 

Elia

[Hank]

David B - Thanks so much for the remarks!! The research is a necessity for building this era ship - there IS info out there and some people who know things - finding it is the key.

 

Elia - Appreciate the reply! The antenna structure is the 2nd - the 1st was close, but no cigar!! Once again, another source of info (in this case someone who worked on NJ in the '67-68 refit) was able to steer me in the right direction. Of course, today's NEW JERSEY has been radically modernized from what my model is representing and I agree - I think the older version was a bit more impressive overall (biased opinion, of course!)

 

Hank

[dgbot]

I have seen photos of the the Wisconsin and the Iowa underway and with those 16 inch guns and armor they look like they could take on any one foolish enough to take them on. A friend of mine at work is a battleship lover who has read everything out there. And he said that the reason they were retired was the cost to keep them running when they were no longer able to engage with modern vessels with moder weaponry. I doubt if they could be sunk by a cruiser or destroyer outside her range but the super structure could be damaged making her blind and vulnerable.

David B

[Hank]

David B wrote:

And he said that the reason they were retired was the cost to keep them running when they were no longer able to engage with modern vessels with modern weaponry. I doubt if they could be sunk by a cruiser or destroyer outside her range but the super structure could be damaged making her blind and vulnerable.

David,

Well, your friend is only partially correct, the IOWAs were retired first, due to the operational cost at the time, and secondly, (and this is my opinion here) due to the IOWA Turret 2 Explosion in 1989 from which the Navy never fully recovered it's support for the ships (PR - and they have only themselves to blame for that). Their superstructure construction (which includes the 17" thick armored conning barbette) has very little to do with their combat survivability.

 

In the 1990s munitions were changing, but when you consider that the IOWAs were built to withstand 16" armor piercing projectiles and keep fighting, the missiles in use would not have had the power to knock those ships out of action - and the Russians very well knew this (well, the Soviets, at the time) and steered clear of them.

 

IMHO, our ships today look more like cry-babies than actual menacing warships - we are NOT on the right track with our warship development.

 

Hank

[dgbot]

When the Guild had their conference at Newport News we were able to take a cruise through the area where they kept the ships.  We were passing the Arleigh Burke destroyers and after touring the Wisconsin they looked very wimpy.  I am sure in combat they would be crushed.  

David B

[Hank]

Well, here are some photos of the After 02 Level/Midships 02 Level superstructure that I've been working on lately. Since I AGAIN can't see the attachment info in the edit box, I'll make my comments here rather than after the photos due to the reason just stated - I have no way of telling where the photos end to continue my comments.

 

This area of the superstructure is modified from the kit in that NEW JERSEY had her center (6) 40mm mounts removed and replaced with (4) Zuni Chaff Rocket Launchers and a Mk. 56 Fire Control Director platform in the center tub area. The Mk. 56 Directors were added in the mid-50s but were relocated on this central athwartship platform in her 67-68 refit. The Mk. 56 FC Directors will be scratchbuilt at a later time, as will the various life raft racks that were located throughout the superstructure. I have these drawn up in CAD but haven't created the brass PE sheets that they will come from. 

 

The after 40mm tubs were refitted with Ready Service Lockers and a hose/cable reel just to the after wall of each tub. The center photo shows the refueling/high line transfer tripod also added during this time period. As well, various equipment along the bulkheads have been added/modified for this configuration. One of the other modelers on another forum to which I also post this build has mentioned a problem with the deck level around the (3) 5" gun mount bases. I will research that prior to continuing any other work on the 02 Level so that if this also needs to be rectified it can be done before anything gets put in the way of those open areas. This issue will also possibly affect the 01 Level 5" mounts (2).

 

I hope to do further work by adding the forward superstructure unit next week to this assembly and then move on to the 01 Level which will also require various modifications. I have also done work on the lower bow to bring it closer to the actual "bulb" that was not present in the kit hull. As I've mentioned before, the kit hull "sucks" - it simply isn't correct and will take further work to correct the after 20" or so which is not shaped properly. Various methods/schemes/modifications are under investigation so nothing has been decided upon at this time. It will NOT remain out of the box I can assure everyone of that!

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Great work Hank  lots of lovely detail showing its self,  i have not long started my HMS Warspite build have a nose.

 

OC.

[Hank]

Thanks, OC! Much appreciated!

[dgbot]

I agree with CC your patience is and attention to detail is astonishing.

David B

[popeye the sailor]

commitment to the build is paramount!  your doing some seriously nice work to the bow keel......the superstructure is coming along nicely as well.  it's progress Hank........the main thing is that your satisfied with your concept of the build