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PostPosted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 5:34 pm 
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Posts: 25
Trumpeter has had a long history of releasing models that have glaring errors. Their most awful release was a few years ago when they put their 1/32 Wildcat on the market. The fuselage was so misshapen that the outcries made Trumpeter recall the kits and remake the molds to more accurately represent the aircraft. There are several other examples of Trumpeter's failures but none as obvious as the Wildcat.

That said, I was thrilled when I heard Trumpeter was releasing a 1/200 Arizona. At no time did the errors in Trumpeter's past dampen my enthusiasm to purchase a well detailed dreadnought. At three feet long, this Arizona could be the centerpiece of any modeler's collection. With over 1040 parts plus PE, how can it be a loser? And overall, its not a loser. But I'm a long time old detail freak and if something doesn't look right, and could be easily corrected by the mold maker, it really gets under my skin. Again don't get me wrong, this is one beautiful large battleship when completed. But it should and could have been so much better.

I'm not going to point out every error in detail but I will show what I find troubling. Hopefully these tips will help you out if you choose to build one of these. Just a side note; whenI saw the test shots three years ago, I notice some of the hull portholes were oval shaped rather than round. I said, " That's the first thing I'm gonna correct". Never did after discovering all that I was up against.

1. The hull is off in many dimensions. I'll leave it to the experts to give you the exact problems. Many have said Trumpeter did this to make it a stable R/C model. That explains a lot.

2. The deck has the wrong plank pattern and should be recessed at the perimeter.
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3.The cutouts in the turrets are too high, giving the turrets the 'surprised' look. I filled them in to be lower.

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4.The shape of the anchor holes need to be corrected, if you can. And the hull is void of detail. Needs horizontal braces and a fuel line on the port side.

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5. The cutouts for the 5" guns isn't high enough. The barrels are just about hitting the top.. I lowered the guns mount by drilling down the deck.

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6. The propeller shaft housings should be rounded not flat.

7. The number two turret doesn't have the two telescopes. I scratch built mine.

8. The pilots is missing the window at the front. I found this out too late and made mine with a square decal.

9. The rear aircraft crane has braces in the middle of the oval cutouts. Even the aftermarket PE got this wrong also. I removed these and moved them to the cranes centerline where they should be.

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10. The antennas on the rear tower are totally wrong. I scratch built mine. Still not 100% accurate, but better.

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11. The taxi boats have no portholes. Why Trumpeter? How hard could it be to get that right? I had to drill mine.

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12. Trumpeter's PE stairs/ladders are too short for some areas. I bought several sets so I had the right lengths.

13. The turrets have molded ladders on both sides but they should be only on the port side except for the ladder going to the Catapult's deck.

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14. The catapults detail is over-simplified. I chose to get the railings right.

15.The boat cranes have a molded ladder in the wrong location. I sanded it off and put a PE ladder in the correct location.

I'm sure you'll see some other mods I did if you compare my Arizona to one built OOB. some of my work got pretty sloppy towards the end of this build but I was determined to finish this monster, so I took some shortcuts.
I spent two and a half years of my limited free time on this challenging kit and often I was tempted to take a hammer to this kit and beat into a pile of plastic splinters. I think I'm through with Trumpeter kits unless they get great reviews.


Last edited by Leftie on Wed Jan 01, 2014 9:15 am, edited 4 times in total.

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PostPosted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 9:11 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2012 10:16 am
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This is my finished 1/200 Arizona
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 Post subject: I Forgot The Crane
PostPosted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 9:16 pm 
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 15, 2013 5:00 am 
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Joined: Fri May 31, 2013 1:10 pm
Posts: 581
Other modifications needed:

-Prow is not sharp enough by a very long way, and thus not pinching enough the bow's top "flare" near the deck.

-Hull "lower corners" too square -need rounding off which entails re-dpoing the strakes.

-Many prominent bottom keels not represented...

-Upper deck too low by at least 4.5 mm(!!!!): Should match next lower deck height, if not more: Entire forward 2/3rds of ship deck need to be raised 4.5 mm...

-Stern lacks sharply defined vertical edge in the middle.

Gaston


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 15, 2013 5:50 pm 
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Thank you Gaston. There's plenty I didn't mention but I welcome all to add what's wrong with this Trumpeter Arizona.


Last edited by Leftie on Mon Apr 11, 2016 3:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Sun Feb 07, 2016 1:56 am 
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As I am now working on the Trumpeter kit and also as I don't have the book that everyone else has been going on about, I am using the ancient but I feel accurate drawings that Tracy put up on his Researcher @ Large site.
Having spent about 20 years as a draftsman I am more comfortable using good scans of original ancient vellum, tracing paper, and drafting cloth drawings. (The Oklahoma General plans appear to be originally on drafting cloth)
I also use a program called Canvas that is a technical illustration program as well as a publishing program. I can import photos and scans into it and then accurately measure and then scale said photos quite accurately.

Here are 2 photos from my build posts:
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I made myself a set in 1/200 scale and the side view above is from a set I did that will print out on legal size. In the case of the side view it only needed to be rotated so it would be square in the program and then only a slight (and I do mean VERY slight) stretch in one dimension once it had been sized to the dimensions. As far as I am concerned THIS drawing is accurate and matches with the dimensions given in sheet one of the Tracey's General Plans Booklet.

So there is supposed to be 4.5mm height difference between where the upper deck on the hull is supposed to be and where it actually is on the model.

I decided to check this against the side view in Tracy's General Plans booklet. How I went about this was to take the hull (top and bottom assembled) and set it up on a flat surface outside. (plenty of light) I got back as far as I was able to zoom my camera and still have the hull fit reasonably in the frame. I took several photos directly from the side as close to straight on as possible. Then imported the best and clearest photo into canvas.

The photo was rotated until it was level with the drawing and then resized (without changing the proportions) until the lengths matched. Here is what I ended up with.

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There is a touch of difference in porthole locations on the lower deck and 3 obvious differences between the kit and the drawing that are circled in green. HOWEVER, I must call bunk on the 4.5mm deck height issue. This isn't a 3rd party drawing I used but Tracy's scans of the shipyard drawings. It matches as close as could be reasonably considered overall.

In looking over the old drawings and cleaning them up I also resized and aligned the deck plans with the side views and the side views were corrected. There were some issues with the deck plans that I attribute to them being originally drawn by hand with scales and that the paper had probably changed sizes slight due to age, humidity and other factors. Usually it stays fairly proportional and only needs to be rescaled in x and y dimensions.

I will be glad to give these cleaned up and rescaled to Tracy, but they have not been uploaded anywhere for general consumption.


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 10, 2016 7:41 am 
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H. Eagle. The height issue as I understand it is the sides housing the five inch guns. That's why most of those who model this Arizona have to lower the guns so they have the proper clearance. Also if you look at the guns opening, they're shape is too rectangular due to the lack of height. HTH.

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PostPosted: Sun Jun 19, 2016 12:42 am 
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I worked on the 5 inch guns a bit and added the Eduard PE as well. I found the biggest errors were in the bases of the mount. Once modified the leveled barrels are almost at the correct height. I also believe the interior of the superstructure isn't supposed to have any wood on it. I am planning to skim that area down to remove the plank detail which will make the 5 inch guns just the right height.

In addition the openings have some big issues as they come from Trumpeter. I won't go into what I have pieced together until I get ready to do the mods there. The last couple of weeks I have been working on the upper crane assemblies and there is another bag of worms but it is slowly working out. Eduard, Trumpeter and the KA Models PE set are all wrong in how they detailed the truss, and the main boom (also in all 3) has some big issues as well. My biggest problem at this time is the fact I don't have a working printer as the old printer won't work with the new computer. Augh!


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 19, 2016 7:48 pm 
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Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2013 2:06 am
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Thanks for all the tips! I have already built one and have another in my stash. This information will be very helpful!


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2016 8:16 pm 
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DavidP wrote:
Heavens Eagle, what windows & what printer?


Sorry it has taken a long time to come back and visit here. I am not sure what you mean by what windows and what printer, but I will give a guess.

Currently I am using Windows 8.1 (which I really hate compared to XP, can we say dumbed down without too much sarcasm?) (NAHH!) The Canvas program is still the old version X (10) which lucky for me will run on Win8.1 the current version 16 is a total screwup and very user UNfriendly! I did finally get a new printer though. It is the Canvas Ip7820 which is a 6 ink, 5 color printer that can print sheets up to 13 inches wide in photo quality. WOOHOO! Black has 2 tanks, one an ink and one with pigment.

If I can figure out where to put it I will try and start a thread on my Arizona build. Have done some hull work and figured out a neat trick using resin for reshaping the hull.

The main reason I have not started my Arizona thread on here before is the wait for posts to be reviewed by the moderators. Ugh! So far there are some reworks on the hull, some detailed rework on the ten 5 inch guns. (amazing how much better they look with the changes I did) Some more heavy rework to the cranes. The truss and caster at the top of the mast have been completely scratchbuilt, the kit parts are junk. That is mostly where it sets at the moment while I work on finishing some other builds.


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