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Revell 1/570 USS North Carolina


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I've been working on this one for a year or so and I'm starting to see the light at the end of tunnel on this essentially scratch build. The original kit superstructure wasn't terrible but had some clunky details (like gun houses, range finders, AA suite, funnels) and poorly represented areas ( around the bridge and forward funnel) that I wanted to change to be a little more prototypical of the actual ship, some thinking later and it was time to start from a blank slate of .5mm evergreen. 

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I apologize about the very grainy first few photos those were taken on a very old phone. 

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After the decision to replace the super structure came the acquisition of several different reference books and asking the museum itself for pictures of hard to see or under represented areas. 

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Everything was build up out of .5mm styrene sheet and with careful down scaling of the drawings I started to have a superstructure.

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Here I have placed the basic superstructure onto the hull, still fairly spartan but it was thrilling to have it look like a battleship on the slip way

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To fill in the giant hole in the front where the armored citadel should be I carved the forward fire control tower and citadel from balsa as I didn't feel brave enough to use plastic.

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Splinter shield and platforms

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The very stern of the kit was rather blunt and I will be the first to admit that it was user error that blunted it, but, I fixed it. 

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I had the old set of 3d printed gun houses in fine resin, these would be replaced by a latter dark grey set from Model Monkey

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The main battery barbettes were made by laminating plastic and putting it inside the lid of a TET brush which had a roughly similar diameter to what I needed. 

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This was my first go at the 5inch 38 turret ring, I figured I could sand them down to shape, that was not a terribly good idea as it just ripped off the deck, there were just replaced with disks that are the proper size, 3D print funnels were sourced from Model Monkey.

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Probably the hardest parts to build and make were the bases for the amidships gun director towers, there were very few photos of this area I could find and resorted to communicating directly with the museum to get good references.

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Finally starting to look like a battleship, most of her AA that was added at a later date has yet to be manufactured.

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The break water had to bend in about 6 different ways, but I got there eventually.

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More Splinter shielding. 

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The first set of 40mm gun tubs on either side of the superstructure were too large and were subsequently removed and remade. Bases for the catapults were put in place at this time. 

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Tom's Model Works photo etch really enhanced the look of the fantail with the cats and aircraft crane. 

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Boat handling cranes and flag bags, the cranes now have their booms. I just need to document it. 

This is as far as I have gotten, I'm at a point where I will need to start turning masts from brass and get the really fiddly bit made up and installed before paint work. 

Edited by Knb.1451
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Gidday Knb, way back in 1974 (my last year of school) I made a model of this ship out of balsa, matches etc. My sole reference for the build was a plastic kit of the ship that I scaled up to get a beam of six inches, two widths of balsa sheeting. I can no longer remember the brand of kit or the scale, but your kit looks like it could be the one. Those slats/rafts? on the main turrets and the incorrect shape of the 5-inch turrets look very familiar. I had no idea what anything looked like. A small cube of plastic became a larger cube of balsa, without knowing what it was.

     I'm very interested in following what you do here. I think you've done very well to date. And may I ask how long ago you bought the Kit? I've done a Bismarck and Scharnhorst in 1/570 but I haven't seen any of that scale here in this part of the world for a long time. (I've got one in 1/700 I think but I prefer the 1/600-1/570 scale for the size).

    I can post a couple of photos if you like but this is your thread, not mine and I don't want to hijack it. There are a couple of photos in the "New members / Put a face to your name" section, page 5, about 40% of the way down the page. I'm sorry but I don't know how to create links.

     Anyway, enough about my model. I'm very impressed in what you've done with the plastic card. And as I said, I'd like to follow what you're doing with this. Regards, Jeff.

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Fine attention to detail in this rebuild. It's good to see people being ambitious with these old kits and rehabilitating them to modern standards 👍

 

Alan 

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   Hello Jeff, I apologize for the late response I work the late shift. Thank you for the kind words, this has truly been my biggest challenge, both in building and sourcing of parts in roughly the right scale lol.

.   I originally purchased the kit in 2017, but it is the 2000 boxing I found on Ebay. Like you I like the slightly bigger scale that the 1/570 and 600 kits have, it's just big enough to really get the detail on without needing to resort to a magnifier. 

   I don't mind at all if you post a few photos of your kits! 

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I had some time today to be able to sit down at the bench, I got the wind deflectors and tub for the Mk 57 40mm gun directors on the 04 level. In the first picture are the raw parts before bending and gluing the .25 mm outer sheeting to give the shape. For the wind deflectors I used the same .25 mm sheeting and had it cut to 3mm tall, I needed around 4mm tall in the front and drop down in the rear, so I added a 1mm tall strip to bring it up to height. Some fine tuning on the tops of the director tub will happen after the glue cures. 

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10 hours ago, Knb.1451 said:

Hello Jeff, I apologize for the late response I work the late shift.

Gidday Knb, no need to apologize. different people have different work hours and shifts etc, plus we live in different time zones.

     I won't repeat the photos in the 'face to a name' post (I really must learn how to do links) but here's a photo of the midships section. Everything I made was enlarged from the kit and enlarged by a factor of 8/3. An awkward magnification you might be thinking but this increased the beam to 6 inches - the width of two sheets of balsa. The overall length was 40 inches.

     These photos are digitalized (by my son) from old slides my dad took in November 1974.

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The photo was taken outside in broad daylight, hence the severe shadows As you can see, it's rather rough. The 5-inch guns are match sticks I sanded round, 20 & 40mm guns are from tooth-picks, the 40mm gun tubs (and the radar scanner at the top of the foremast) are from wood shavings taken off the school woodwork floor. Paint was slapped onto the bare balsa. Still, as a school kid I was proud of it.

     I'm very interested in what you're doing with this kit, which I haven't seen in the shops since I bought mine. While the majority of my model ships are RN, Australian and German you've rekindled my urge to do some USN and IJN ships in 1/600. In fact I've always had a hankering to build USS Alaska in 1/600. I've started her twice now in different sizes, in balsa. Third time lucky?

     I'm looking forward to your next post. Regards, Jeff.

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I didn't have a lot of patience today, my mind was on other larger 1/1 scale things, but I still sat and did a few small details. I installed the 40mm director tubs to the forward tubs, and got the forward 20mm splinter shields at the very bow and a set just forward of the aft bofors mounts.

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On 3/17/2021 at 8:59 PM, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday Knb, no need to apologize. different people have different work hours and shifts etc, plus we live in different time zones.

     I won't repeat the photos in the 'face to a name' post (I really must learn how to do links) but here's a photo of the midships section. Everything I made was enlarged from the kit and enlarged by a factor of 8/3. An awkward magnification you might be thinking but this increased the beam to 6 inches - the width of two sheets of balsa. The overall length was 40 inches.

     These photos are digitalized (by my son) from old slides my dad took in November 1974.

NC jm10

The photo was taken outside in broad daylight, hence the severe shadows As you can see, it's rather rough. The 5-inch guns are match sticks I sanded round, 20 & 40mm guns are from tooth-picks, the 40mm gun tubs (and the radar scanner at the top of the foremast) are from wood shavings taken off the school woodwork floor. Paint was slapped onto the bare balsa. Still, as a school kid I was proud of it.

     I'm very interested in what you're doing with this kit, which I haven't seen in the shops since I bought mine. While the majority of my model ships are RN, Australian and German you've rekindled my urge to do some USN and IJN ships in 1/600. In fact I've always had a hankering to build USS Alaska in 1/600. I've started her twice now in different sizes, in balsa. Third time lucky?

     I'm looking forward to your next post. Regards, Jeff.

That model looks fantastic, it seems to be around 1/200 scale just based on the beam, have you thought about rehabilitation for this model? Maybe not a full rebuild, but something sympathetic. 

 I hope you can do the 600 scale Alaska, she's a handsome ship, and fairly large, even in 600. 

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Gidday Knb, aprox 220 scale I think, although I built it to a size rather than a scale. The reason I made it so big was because I wanted to (and did) make the 16-inch and 5-inch guns elevate within their turrets. I wasn't into micro surgery back then. I don't think I'll ever try to do anything with it - too much 1/600 stuff to do and at age 64 I've probably only got about 50 years left (don't I wish 😁) to do them in.

     Those gun tubs, director tubs, splinter shields etc you've done look very good. Very clean workmanship. I think the kit I had was as-built, but you seem to doing a later version, with more 20mm Oerlikons? 

        Regards, Jeff.

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Last night's work was in getting the 20mm splinter shields in place, all 14 shields and their associated supports. I'm looking for 3d printed ammo lockers because I'm not super interested in manufacturing about 80 individual boxes. 3d printed 40 and 20mm guns are in my waiting list for the next little bit. 

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Gidday Knb, this is coming along in leaps and bounds - all those ribs on the gun tubs and shields. Seeing them I would have thought this was a 1/200 build, not one a third of the size. Those turrets and directors look good. The kit 5-inch turrets weren't particularly accurate, these are much better. Looking forward to seeing more progress. Regards, Jeff.

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On 3/21/2021 at 12:34 AM, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday Knb, this is coming along in leaps and bounds - all those ribs on the gun tubs and shields. Seeing them I would have thought this was a 1/200 build, not one a third of the size. Those turrets and directors look good. The kit 5-inch turrets weren't particularly accurate, these are much better. Looking forward to seeing more progress. Regards, Jeff.

Thank you! Monkey Models has some truly wonderful items that turned this kit into something else, luckily I was able to get into contact with a 3d printing person who has, searchlights, assorted mooring stuff, ships boats, ect. Once I'm done with the masts, it's literally down to the details. 

 I had meant to respond to what you had said about building your North Carolina in the scale you did, it sounds like something I would do lol, if I could get away with it in this scale I would try to make them elevate, I've considered putting magnets in the turrets and barbettes to allow my turrets to turn. No precise drilling needed. 

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Well last night I discovered something quite troubling, my forward fire control tower was no centered, so after a bit of pondering I decided to remove it and rebuild the wheel house completely as the bottom edge was all boogered. 

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  • 4 months later...

 Well, after a very long break to do some job searching and moving around and moving back, I finally have some time to do some work on North Carolina. First thing was a coat of primer since she looked less like a battleship and more like a hodgepodge of parts World of Warships style. With the addition some great 3D printed parts by 

Grzegorz Moczko (blacman is his store name in Shapeways.) I can resume work. I simply cannot gush enough about the quality of the prints, I'm going to need to get another set of 20mm AA ready lockers printed however. 

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 Well, after a very long break to do some job searching and moving around and moving back, I finally have some time to do some work on North Carolina. First thing was a coat of primer since she looked less like a battleship and more like a hodgepodge of parts World of Warships style. With the addition some great 3D printed parts by 

Grzegorz Moczko (blacman is his store name in Shapeways.) I can resume work. I simply cannot gush enough about the quality of the prints, I'm going to need to get another set of 20mm AA ready lockers printed however. 

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9 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday, good to have you back. Regards, Jeff.

I'm glad to be back Jeff! It's is the home stretch now. How are things down under? I heard yall are in another lock down 😕

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Somehow missed this one up 'til now, but I have to say I love both the project itself and your stunning work on her thus far. Like many a young modeler, I cut my 'maritime teeth,' so to speak, on these ancient Revell box-scale beauties, and still love them to this day, for all their many faults. To see one being lavished with such love and attention -- not to mention artistry -- warms the 'eager-12-year-old' soul that still dwells in this increasingly-broken-down 65-year-old frame.

 

Kudos on a magnificent job thus far, and I look forward to her slipping from the ways in all her finished glory.

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1 hour ago, Knb.1451 said:

I heard yall are in another lock down

Gidday, not over here in the west at present. but it's not so good on the eastern side of Oz.

 

1 hour ago, thorfinn said:

'eager-12-year-old' soul that still dwells in this increasingly-broken-down 65-year-old frame.

You make me feel positively young. I'm 64.   And 1/2. 🙂 

       But yeah, I agree with your sentiments and comments about these vintage models in general and this build in particular.     Regards, Jeff.

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On 8/18/2021 at 6:34 AM, thorfinn said:

Somehow missed this one up 'til now, but I have to say I love both the project itself and your stunning work on her thus far. Like many a young modeler, I cut my 'maritime teeth,' so to speak, on these ancient Revell box-scale beauties, and still love them to this day, for all their many faults. To see one being lavished with such love and attention -- not to mention artistry -- warms the 'eager-12-year-old' soul that still dwells in this increasingly-broken-down 65-year-old frame.

 

Kudos on a magnificent job thus far, and I look forward to her slipping from the ways in all her finished glory.

Thank you for the kind words, when I purchased the original kit I was fine with the detail, I just bought new turrets for it, but the longer it went on and the more reference photos I collected, I knew something had to be done to really spruce up this kit, and do the ship justice. I have a few more bits and bobs to get and then it will be into paint and powder before I realize. I wish I could find some 600 scale American water tight hatches and portholes. So it might be time to experiment with some home made photo etch. 

 

23 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday, not over here in the west at present. but it's not so good on the eastern side of Oz.

 

You make me feel positively young. I'm 64.   And 1/2. 🙂 

       But yeah, I agree with your sentiments and comments about these vintage models in general and this build in particular.     Regards, Jeff.

I'm glad to hear yall are doing well. My dad has some friends over in Melbourne and they are getting hit pretty hard. 

 

22 hours ago, Goji308 said:

Very nice!   Following with interest.  Keep up the great work. 

Thank you 😁 it has been a journey for my modeling skills. 

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  • 1 month later...

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After a while away, I have some updates, I soldered the catapults and cranes since they were so delicate. I started the main mast which was laminated to be 1 mm thick with a .5mm brass rod in the middle. Platform's for the mast were made from .25mm styrene stock. The first photo is a support for the foremast, I will need to widen the part just a bit to be able to drill a hole to accept the mast without breaking. As for the air search Radar. I need a second chance. The dang thing is just to tiny and easy to crush, definitely a 4 tweezers sort of job. 😅

 

 

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