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U.S.S. Pennsylvania BB-38 1944 - 1/700 Dragon Modern Sea Power Series


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Here is my fifth completion of the year, the Dragon Models 1/700 U.S.S. Pennsylvania in her 1944 configuration:

 

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I built this for the upcoming Scottish National Model Show in Perth at the end of the month to take part in the Sovereign Hobbies giant 3D all-singing all-dancing all-time Battleships game* - Jamie has done the rest of the US fleet and Gill has done the Imperial Japanese Navy ships and I imagine it will end in scenes of bloody violence not seen since the actual Pacific War.

 

Building it was quite a strange experience as I rarely deviate (and I use the word after careful consideration) from 1/72 aircraft kits. The kit was a collection of mostly tiny, tiny parts, about half of which were marked on the instructions as 'not for use' but this fortunately meant there was a fair supply of spares for when the less co-operative tiny parts pinged out of my tweezers never to be seen again. Anyway in keeping with my policy of posting every kit I finish regardless of quality, there she is and I am happy enough with how she turned out.

 

The kit is finished in Colourcoats US10 - 1942 Revised Deck Blue 20-B for the decks and US08 - 5-N Navy Blue for just about everything else. I did paint the little Vought Kingfisher in Non-specular Sea Blue, Intermediate Blue and White, because I am a bit funny like that sometimes.

 

Anyway thanks for looking, thanks to Jamie for the model and the paints and if you are passing the Sovereign Hobbies stand at the model show, please feel free to drop by and watch the mayhem - I shall be keeping as far out of the way as is practicable because I suspect Gill has a ruthless desire to win that will not scruple at using violence to achieve that end :lol:

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

* Actual game may not include singing, dancing or time and may not be giant according to most accepted definitions.

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Haha! Being an avowed aviation modeller I thought I'd drop by to look at the ships on BM for the first time, and what do I find, an aircraft modeller swanning with the water-thingy people!:D

 

Nice looking ship there.

 

DennisTheBear

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1 minute ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Depends on the ship mate!

I mean, in the sense that everything I know about modelling (and not much at that) is based around building aircraft, and all the tricks to make things easier, or the stages I build in, are focused on that. That's what's stopped me from doing nautical models; I'm at least as interested in ships as I am in aircraft otherwise.

 

40828426504_f7bfeb0db9_h.jpg20180418_094602 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

40828426524_da319d8d5d_h.jpg20180418_094552 by Edward IX, on Flickr

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The basics are transferrable. You're right if I deduce correctly that you think there are differences.

 

I'd suggest just giving it a go. The biggest differences are that ships look a bit pants without some detailing, and that the requirements of painting and attaching fiddly bits are somewhat contradictory.

 

If you get a good kit that fits together well, it's possible to build and finish a ship as sub assemblies.

 

Instructions, and especially Trumpeter's, usually direct you to assemble it in the absolute last way you'd want to assemble a Trumpeter kit - e.g. add all the fiddly bits to superstructure to deck, then glue the deck to the hull to be reminded it's Trumpeter and doesn't fit without an angle grinder and a hammer.

 

I won't comment on scale but I do have personal preferences.

 

I know you want to be a Brit when you grow up ( :D ) so if that extends to ships I will suggest something barmy and recommend you give Peter Hall's "Atlantic Models" a look and consider his resin (yes you heard that right) Royal Navy destroyers. The castings are superb and need no remedial work. 

 

I'm on my phone and hosting is a PITA. I'll send you a few pics on Facebook Messenger.

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3 hours ago, Procopius said:

Stew, one plane guy to another, how tough is it to do a ship?

 

It's a bit weird to be honest, but I imagine it gets easier with practice. You know how you mostly build an aircraft and then paint it? You don't do that so much with ships, like Jamie said it's all sub-assemblies being made, painted and then stuck together.

 

That said, it wasn't tough to build, partly because I only had to use two colours of paint, so it wasn't that involved, and partly because Jamie already told me I didn't have to make a display-model job of it so I could be quite relaxed about it. It took a suprisingly short time to complete it (probably not so with 1/350 scale) and the only parts that felt like an effort were assembling the 53 x 2-piece 20mm AA guns, each part tiny enough to inhale without noticing*.

 

You could do it with ease, trust me, but what you would make of it as a pastime I'm not sure; I can't imagine being seduced to the maritime side of things myself, I like aeroplanes too much :D

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

* I exaggerate. A little.

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Neat to see a maritime build Stew, and it caused me to read up on the Pennsylvania's war time career (I mainly know it as being bombed in dry dock during the Pearl Harbor raid). Wow, it served from Alaska to the central Pacific, to the Philippines and Okinawa.

 

On 4/15/2018 at 1:51 AM, Stew Dapple said:

Sovereign Hobbies giant 3D all-singing all-dancing all-time Battleships game

I must know more! I built (very loose use of the term) a few 1/700 scale warships when I was young, and spent many hours daydreaming of having whole fleets of them to square off against one another.

 

Have a great time at the Scottish National Show!

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3 minutes ago, Cookenbacher said:

and spent many hours daydreaming of having whole fleets of them to square off against one another.

 

In my imagination that is exactly what it will be like but in reality... I have no idea. Hopefully we will get some pictures and if it looks impressive enough I'll post them :D 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well... here it is:

 

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It was a mixed success - nobody actually sat down and had a game the whole weekend :( - but it did draw a lot of attention and smiles so as an advertising aid/attention grabber it fulfilled the requirements and justified the effort (expecially for me as I put very little effort into it myself) :) 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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