USS Luzon, 1/700 scale **COMPLETED**

[Devin]

Because I don't have enough projects going on (currently 4 underway, 2 of which are ships), I thought I'd add a thread on the Niko USS Luzon. This is the first 1/700 kit I have built in over 20 years. Man, this thing is tiny!

Out of the box this looks to be a really nice kit, but upon closer inspection there are some issues. The copy I have is rough in places, the decks in particular had a lot of scratch marks, sure signs of sanding the master with a coarse file or sandpaper, but not following up to sand them smooth. The sides of the superstructure have some roughness as well, but it's mostly passable as long as you aren't looking at it though a magnifier or through macro digital photography. I primed, puttied and sanded every deck at least three times to get rid of the scratches. Another issue is that while the main hull seems fine, the upper superstructure and the stacks do not want to hold paint. I've cleaned them with Bleech White and straight lacquer, and still masking tape pulls away the paint and primer.

The captions on the photos tell the story so far.

[Quincy]

Looking good Devin!






Bob Pink.

[Roscoe]

Man, that is tiny, pretty cool though. I can see why you had to take breaks working on this, my eyes were crossing just looking at the pics.

Looking really good!

-Dean

[MartinJQuinn]

Show off!

Looks good!

[Devin]

Thanks guys.

I've made a little more progress. I have to admit that when I started working on the masts I thought I was done with this build. Holy crap what a pain working with these tiny tapered brass wires. I cheated a bit on the forward mast and put in a lookout platform as extra bonding surface for the two vertical brass pieces and the cross member. The after mast I made from a single piece of wire, I'm done dealing with making two-piece vertical assemblies until I get a resistive soldering setup!

Also added are the 3" gun mounts, and the ventilators. There are a few more items, such as searchlights and ammo lockers to add, and then I'll gloss coat everything so I can do a wash on the portholes and doors on the superstructure. I want to do that before I put on the railings, boats, davits and machine guns, as it'll be too tight with all of that on the decks to get a brush in there without snapping a ton of stuff off.

[Devin]

I've slowed down a bit on this build. Started a new job late last week, so the learning curve is taking a lot of time, even though it's a work-from-home position.

Basically all that I've accomplished is a little paint touch-up here and there, and a couple of small items added. There's this screen roofing bit that goes on the stern. Not sure what it is. I also added the line spool and painted the "rope" a tan color. The spool has a little shape issue on the inboard side, as you can see, but it's passable. I have a GMM 1/700 PE set with these things in stainless steel, but I spent a half-hour to an hour trying to assemble even one of the things, and it was beyond my patience level and it just wasn't any fun.

Looking at this photo I can see how bad the superstructure windows look. Oy. It looks like maybe I can score/clean them with a fine needle, though, before I do a wash to darken them.

[Dan K]

Still, it;s coming along nicely.

[Captain pugwash]

Yep agree it looks very good so far.
I know the feeling on leaveing a project for a time and continueing with something else.
It could be that you have not enuff information to complete your project and so move on out of Needing something else to keep the grey cells active .

This works

[DanCinSD]

I really like the China gunboats and have this kit in my stash, so it is nice watching your build of her. Keep up the good work.

[Devin]

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

I'm at the PE railing part. Man, do I HATE doing railings in 1/700! I have to admit, though, that I haven't put PE on anything this small in over 25 years, so there was definitely a learning curve. I initally started with really long runs and using CA glue (things I know not to do even in 1/350th or 1/200th scale), but have started making more cuts in the rails and am using Gator Glue to attach the. I've also started on the base, using Jim Bauman's method from the Tips section of this board. I didn't get the swells very well (rhyme!), but that's because the paper I bought is more of a cardboard. Next time I'll go thinner.

[drdoom1337]

Excellent work so far Devin. I don't know if you're coming to the meeting tomorrow, but I'd like to see that base so I can try it myself one day! As far as the windows go, you might want to scrape them off an use some 1/400 PE ladders to replace them?

[MartinJQuinn]

I don't know if you're coming to the meeting tomorrow,

He is out of town at a drinking convention.

[Dan K]

Railings looking good.

[Daniele]

Very very nice job . First time i saw this post i start to think that this ship was familiar to me .... in 1989 i was in a trip from Shanghai to Wuhan on the Yangtze river ( carrying rapeseed on a small bulk carrier ) and on the way there i saw some ship that looks very close to this Uss Luzon ( they were kind of passenger ship ) i dont remember very well ....but i remember that i had taken some picture , so i will start a research in my home ( will be like to find a needle in a haystack but i will try and post them )

[Devin]

WRITING convention. Sheesh.

I don't know if you're coming to the meeting tomorrow,

He is out of town at a drinking convention.

[Devin]

Thanks, guys.

Daniele, if you can find those photos, that'd be cool. It's amazing how many boats they built like this, and while they all look similar, they're all quite different.

Jon, I'll bring it along to the next meeting, but it'll be built up then. I'm not sure if what you wanted to see about it will be so apparent then. I'm going to do a 1/600 U.S.S. New Ironsides and uses the same plexi and watercolor paper method. I'll bring that one to a meeting while it's still in-progress.

[Devin]

A couple more photos. I've finished with the railings, also added the anchor cables, as well as life rings (not sure they should be orange, but I wanted some color) and the machine gun positions.

She's ready for gloss coat (I'm holding off on the davits and boats until after gloss coating), and then weathering and rigging. I'm also trying to scrounge up a few figures to put on her; I know I have a set of them around here somewhere.

[MartinJQuinn]

Looks nice! You going to paint the windows?

[Devin]

I'm going to go heavy on the wash with the ship laid on its side for the windows. The full sized one shows the frames the same color as the superstructure, fortunately.

[Dan K]

Coming along.......