The Ship Model Forum

Started on the Very Fire USS Montana. Nice looking kit!





She'll be on pedestals...


...to better display her shapely armour belt:


Quite promising so far.


More to follow.

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Andrew P, PBFHS
Chesapeake, Virginia
www.PBFHS.org

Very nice ship model. Best with paper designs is you have a free hand at painting it. Nothing is wrong. Enjoy the build and post updates!

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- @Shipific on IG
my gallery

Hull paint: Primed (rattle can grey primer) and base coated with the primary color, then masked at the full-load waterline for the boot topping and shot with rattlecan flat black.



Base colors are PS Acrylic 5-N and MM Acryl 5-H:


Unmasking after painting the lower hull (MM Acryl Hull Red). Note the tape spacers I used to mark the width of the boot topping. Note that if you choose do the boot top this way, you must account for the larger width of the BT where the hull is sloping inward at the stern. (I did it by eye).


The kit comes with a very nice PE set. it is not the finest I've seen, but very complete. I shot the PE with an automotive self-etching acid primer (rattlecan).


Here she is after a couple days painting. Hull colors are PS Acrylic 5-N and MM Acryl 5-H:


Work continues.

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Andrew P, PBFHS
Chesapeake, Virginia
www.PBFHS.org

how straight is the blue camouflage stripe? In some pics it comes off as if it is drooping down a bit than kicks up at the bow in the last few mm....

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- @Shipific on IG
my gallery

The "droop" in the line between the Navy Blue and Haze Gray is a part of Measure 22, but the uplift just under the stem is probably not intentional.

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Sean Nash, ACG (aircraft camo gestapo)

On the ways:
1/200 Trumpeter HMS Nelson
1/700 Tamiya USS Yorktown CV-5

In the stash:
1/35 Italiari PT-109
1/35 Tamiya "Pibber" Patrol Boat
1/350 Trumpeter USS Yorktown CV-10

Looks pretty good to me,

Matt

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In the yards right now:
USS Utah AG-16
On Hold
1/350 USS Portland CA-33 1942
1/350 Trumpeter Texas with a twist

I just got this kit. It looks like a nice set.

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The most attractive project, to me, is the one that I've just heard someone say can't be done.

You have a keen eye! I noticed too and was trying to convince myself that no one else would notice. Fortunately, I lost that argument with myself and re-did the Haze grey above the sheer line. Here she is with a couple more shots of 5-N and 5-H, plus a gloss coat of Future as a substrate for decals. Better now (not perfect, but the opposing voices in my head are appeased):





The MONTANA nameplate on her bum is from the kit decals, but I found the white hull number decals too small for my liking, so I replaced them with larger numerals, and added draft marks (GMM decals from my spares box):



I also drilled out the chain pipes and hawse holes and painted the chain plates black (anachronistic, but I like it)…




…installed the kit’s pre-cut wood deck veneer...


...and closed up the hull:


PE work to follow.

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Andrew P, PBFHS
Chesapeake, Virginia
www.PBFHS.org

My kit did not come with wood deck veneer, nor is it listed among the contents

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The most attractive project, to me, is the one that I've just heard someone say can't be done.

Mine did. I don't know if it was a special deal, but the wood deck was included, all the way in the bottom of the box:


Oddly, and like you pointed out, the wood is not mentioned in the instructions or on the box, nor on the built-up model images on the box.

Sorry that your kit doesn't include the wood deck. It fits like a glove.


FYI, I ordered my kit from Hobby Easy in HK for $59 (including shipping) on June 9 and received about July 1, just outside 3 weeks.

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Andrew P, PBFHS
Chesapeake, Virginia
www.PBFHS.org

I did not know this kit yet existed Andrew. Your build log has inspired me to want to get it. From your pictures, are the gun barrels turned aluminum?

I'm excited to build the kit, having been fascinated by the Montanas forever. As for the wood deck, I think I read somewhere that it was a limited run for the first kits out the door and really it isn't a huge deal for me since I've gotten pretty good at painting simulated wood decking with a base of enamel and then dry brushing with acrylics and accenting with colored pencils and standard pencils. Topped off with flat clear coat and I'm happy.

Depending on which paint scheme I go with the deck might end up being blue any way.

Nice work on your kit, by the way.

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The most attractive project, to me, is the one that I've just heard someone say can't be done.

Looking very good, nice sharp build! I'll be following to see this monster finished. Actually, you've tempted me somewhat to look into getting this kit, it is a very interesting "what-if" and a huge long model to boot.

Having said that, I'm not a fan of Very Fire's choice of Iowa style bridge. I know this is a valid interpretation and since the ships were never built it can't be "wrong", but it looks weird on Montana. I prefer the pilot house above and behind the armoured conning tower (North Carolina style) which appears in several drawings, art works and the big concept model for the ship. This doesn't detract at all from the workmanship of your build, but I would be tempted to chop that area up and convert it if I were to make one myself.

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Vlad

I think that by the time they would have been constructed, it is at least not out of the question that the ships would have used sub-assemblies for a lot of parts, as other shipbuilding was doing, so superstructures resembling the Iowa class seems appropriate since they were the other class that would have been building at the time.

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The most attractive project, to me, is the one that I've just heard someone say can't be done.

Yes, it's definitely plausible. But consider that the enclosed bridge on the Iowas was an after-thought added at the request of officers. If the USN was backtracking on the open bridge design intruduced with SoDak, why would a new design just copy something that was only a "quick fix" in the first place?

Sorry for the thread derail

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Vlad

I might build mine with the bridge of an Essex class carrier, just to mess with people.

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The most attractive project, to me, is the one that I've just heard someone say can't be done.

I'm loving this so far!




Jose

I do wish the planes were molded in clear plastic.

I may have to raid my stash because that's one of the better inventions in modeling

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The most attractive project, to me, is the one that I've just heard someone say can't be done.

Just ordered my Very Fire Montana. I'm probably going to use the Louisiana hull numbers since that's my home state, but I prefer the Iowa style bridge so I opted for the Montana model.

Did you keep the deck natural wood? I know its probably "incorrect" (as much as a paper ship can be) but I think the natural wood looks so much more striking against that gray and blue hull.

Love this, looking good, any chance of an update?