1/200 USS Arizona (Trumpeter)

[Jockster]

One way to look at it is that even during construction different bits are painted at different times with different batches of the same paint. And even different shipyards. Touching up throughout her life would see even more patchwork paint areas. You have a great looking model already.

[EJS]

Ships this large, unless painted at the shipyard or dry-dock, painted on a large scale, usually had different shades of paint. On my ship, areas that had weathered severely, rusted or water rust streaks were often overpainted at the pier by the deck force. All these paints had a tendency to fade in the sun and sea, so re-painted areas were always a somewhat different shade, usually darker than the surrounding older paint. To me, this is what looks realistic. Similar to what Airplane modelers do by shading all the different panels on the model. The deck blue on the flight deck faded the worst. It was a "non-skid" stuff, very rough, but wore off or chipped off in big pieces, was then re-applied and sometimes over-painted. Therefor, not only was the color a different shade, the texture often was as well. I try to paint a slightly lighter shade on the hull and superstructure than what the "book" says is correct (faded) then mask off sections that might have been repainted slightly darker. Sometimes the new paint was sprayed on, but very often it was done with rollers. With rollers, the color demarcation was more pronounced. The men worked from "punts" or small barge looking boats, especially when refreshing the black boot-top, and sometimes from bosons' chairs or long narrow platforms hung from ropes. Not something I've done since my Navy days. So I don't really worry about color matching too much. It's kind of like weathering a tank I guess.

Edited January 16, 2017 by EJS

[Jaggy]

Weekend update:

 

I have a number of things to share tonight.

 

In my airbrush booth I have a home made lazy susan.  I bought a large ball berring mechanism from a woodworking shop for about $20 (its rated for 500 pounds and silky smooth) and built a simple wood base and top from scrap.   It's been a handy painting tool for years, but now it has new purpose.   In working on this giant ship I have found moving it, and especially rotating it, is tricky.   Just picking it up, moving it 180 degrees and putting it down again requires a little planning.   So I thought, why not put it on my rotating base?

 

 

I have marked where the base must be on my desk and the ship on the base with tape.   As long as everything is lined up just so, I can spin it round and round and hit nothing!   It sits high enough to clear most bottles (glues, paints), but not thinner (I buy in bulk), so it's a huge convenience. 

 

Spinning the ship:

 

 

On to real progress:

 

I've been thinking about my comments above, the PE situation, and the deck paint and have decided to paint the decks after all.   There no reason for me to skip this.  It's not hard to see the contrast, I was just talking myself into being lazy.   Given that I've already paid a price for this, in not building with all the PE in place, I'd be foolish not to make the most of it.   So, below you can see my first coat of freehand deck paint:

 

 

There are some touch ups needed (easier to spot in the images below) but on the whole I'm quite happy.   Vallejo paints brush well, and without a flashlight the brush strokes are pretty well hidden. The contrast is striking and it is accurate for the scheme I'm using.  

 

 

 

I've also been busy adding windows.  In the image below you can see some that are dry and others still wet.   There large ones on the superstructure are visible and well worth the effort, but I'm not convinced about the hull. I've done perhaps 50 of the 300+ hull portholes, but when I went to resume the effort I had a very hard time identifying which ones were done and which were just holes.  That being the case, I may opt to not continues with the lower ones, it's fussy work with little descernable payoff.  Still, OCD may get the better of me. 

 

 

Finally, I've been making steady progress with the midships bits and bobs.  The deck clutter really adds to the look of the thing:

 

 

Thats all for now!

 

 

 

Edited January 16, 2017 by Jaggy
Fighting iOS autocorrect, as ever.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

She's looking great so far, amd every time you encounter a problem you seem to find a way round it.  I'm late, but i'm in!

[Jaggy]

Today I started on fitting PE to the funnel and a turret.   Funny, it really does not look like hours of effort versus the previous images, yet it is.   

 

The funnel is still missing 2 ladders and a railing, but I'm waiting on those since they have to bond to the superstructure as well.

 

Here's the funnel in position (most everything is dry fit only)

 

 

I also added PE to a turret.  I'm worried that it has very little purchase, as these railings are bonded only by pin point sized attachments.   I'm contemplating spraying the finished turret with future and then a matt to help bond the PE in place.   Any advice?  The airbrush may blow the railings off.   Each turret has six railings, plus ladders.

 

 

in the above you can also see the new dry window glass.  I'm happy with the effect.

 

im less happy with the base of the turret.  I painted a section with a slightly lighter shade, to create the look of a repaint job, but I think it's too stark.  Weathering plus details yet to be installed should help mitigate it though.

 

Thats all for now.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

What are you bonding the railings on with? I use medium CA applied with a needle (acupuncture, as I've written elsewhere on the forum), a tip I got from Park SangHyun, the guy who used to design for Pontos Model and now designs for Infini Model. I had asked him how they build the instruction manual models with such neat glue joins and that was his answer ...

 

Anyway, I've been doing that for a while now and for railings like those I just apply a little more medium CA with the needle once it's stuck in place. These boats (1/350) have been well handled, including being stuck upside down onto Tamiya tape by their roof railings so I could spray their undersides. They're remarkably robust actually

It never hurts to think of PE parts as being fragile, but they're likely to be a bit tougher than you might fear. The only times I've had parts blow off under an airbrush was when I failed to glue the join properly in the first place, which was fairly common when trying to work with other gluing techniques which I personally never quite mastered.

 

Your Arizona is looking great and I wouldn't get overly concerned about those turret railings. You're being careful handling the model anyway, it's clear to see and I believe the risk to those parts from your hands is rather small.

[snapper_city]

She is going together well. The paint work is nice. 

[beefy66]

Wow your progress is really fast on this build looking good

 

beefy

[Jaggy]

Today I worked on this upper platform.   It's nice and neat since it was all airbrush and maskng, and not brushpainted on with all the parts in place.  

 

I drilled out those windows, and then squared them up with a tiny file and made glass with micro-sol Crystal Clear. The kit had them as a solid mass to be painted black.   In retrospect, the kit part with gloss black and a dab of Crystal Clear may well have ended up looking the same.

 

I'm not sure I'm happy about the seams on the panel in the foreground.  They are more visible in the photo than by eye, but it still sticks out to me.  The thing is, the thing is maybe actually supposed to be this way, as that metal "wall" is a separate object IRL.  I've also not been able to find any reference images this close up, as they would have needed a helicopter and a telephoto lens to take the same shot back then.  

 

I could do a bead of CA glue to close the gap and then hand brush some grey in there, but it may just wind up looking the worse for it.  Thoughts?

 

 

 

After:

 

 

Edited January 19, 2017 by Jaggy

[Jaggy]

I have some PE progress!  

 

 

 

Many little ladders, pre clean up and final paint spray.

 

Ladders, and some railings, installed.  These seam lines will be hidden by the funnel.

 

 

 

Note the searchlight, forward on the third level.

 

The body is transparent plastic, the exterior painted gloss black with a blue grey top coat such that when viewed through the lens it has a shiny blackness with depth.   It looks almost silver in this photo, but that's just my light reflecting.

 

Beginning to remove detail from the kit part

 

Ready for PE

 

PE applied to sides and bottom.  Those supports were tricky!

 

Test fitting, because it's a fun way to end the session.

 

 

[EJS]

Very, very, nice ladders. I always struggle with those. Railing I'm getting better with.

[Jaggy]

Foremast painted:

 

 

 

Washed

 

 

More PE applied (44 pieces on the mast so far)

 

 

 

 

 

 the whole assembly dry fitted:

 

 

 

Some premature glamour shots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jaggy]

@EJS My trick for ladders is to use a toothpick (cocktail stick) that I have carved to resemble a flat head screwdriver to rotate the steps  The soft wood is less prone to mar the PE or take off paint, and the wide surface (relative to a knife tip) puts the pressure over the whole step.  I've found that if I rotate them with a scalpel tip I inevitably put too much pressure in the middle of the step, and then push them out of alignment.  

 

@Beefy I've had an unusual amount of free time of late, but that ends tomorrow, so the build will be slowing down now I'm afraid.

Edited January 23, 2017 by Jaggy

[longshanks]

Like the 'Glamour Shots'

 

Kev

[Thom216]

She's looking fabulous!

And yes, great glamour shots.

[EJS]

14 hours ago, Jaggy said:

@EJS My trick for ladders is to use a toothpick (cocktail stick) that I have carved to resemble a flat head screwdriver to rotate the steps  The soft wood is less prone to mar the PE or take off paint, and the wide surface (relative to a knife tip) puts the pressure over the whole step.  I've found that if I rotate them with a scalpel tip I inevitably put too much pressure in the middle of the step, and then push them out of alignment.  

 

Got to try that. Working on a 1/520 fleet oiler that had quite a few ladders and a mile of two bar rail. Thanks for the trick.

[bbudde]

Beautiful. 1 m lovely battlewaggon.

[Jaggy]

Hello, 

 

It's been 16 months since I last posted, however, this build is not over yet!

 

In the intervening time the company I worked for went bankrupt, I sold my house, moved to a temporary condo while waiting on a US Green Card and then moved to a rental in Texas, then bought a house in Texas and moved into it- about 6 weeks ago.  Last week I unpacked my modeling stuff, and the Arizona survived the move (Unlike my HMS Hood and USS Independence).  I seem to have one missing part, and some paint chipping on the barrels, but that aside all looks well.   I hope to resume the build soon.

 

James