Yet another 1/350 USS Arizona, or "Kit from Hell"

[Sten Ekedahl]

"skyking" asked me to show some pics my USS Arizona. Well, here they are.

I have been working on and off on this kit at a slow pace for a couple of years. Normally I build 1/72 aircraft, and have done so for the past 50 years. But I've always also had an interest in naval things. Lately I have decided to build a few interesting (to me, at least) ships. The criteria I have for choosing ships are that they must be BIG, have many BIG guns and have met a dramatic end. That means I have aquired USS Arizona, HMS Hood, HMS Prince of Wales and Yamato - so far. (I must admit that I am very tempted by the new Revell 1/350 Bismarck, and it also falls within my criteria...)

USS Arizona is my first ship model ever and it might not be the best model to start with. It is a pig of a kit! But I have 50 years experience of aircraft modeling and that helps a lot. Besides we also have a very skilled ship modeler in our local IPMS chapter here in Stockholm, and he has given me lots of good advice.



OK, she is a filler queen! Most of the deck detail has been removed and will later be added from PE (WEM and/or Eduard), resin or scratch built.



One of the worst part of the kit! The torpedo bulges should in fact be deeper continue below the bottom of the ship. The stern is about 3-4 mm too deep making the (surprisingly correctly shaped!) rudder sit too low and protrude deeper than the bottom of the ship! The stern is also grossly assymetric! Notice I have filled in the port side, but in reality that should have continued another 10 cm (four inches) furhter forward. Or... is it the port side that is correct and the starboard side that is incorrect? I don't know. I have however decided not to do anything about it, because otherwise I would have to scratchbuild a completely new hull.



Portholes filled and re-drilled in the correct locations. Vertical strengthening strips on the hull below the main deck removed and new ones added in the correct locations.




Rear bulkhead facing the quarterdeck completely rebuilt from scratch using PE and PC.



Casemates and bulkheads on deck level 1 is built from scratch. I had considered to use the Eduard PE bulkheads, but decided to scratchbuild them instead. Once the bulkheads are in place I will cut off the rear of the plasic tubs (see the forward casemate on the port side). The casemate openings will later be cut out and the WEM resin guns glued inside. Notice that the catwalks have just been fitted on each side of the level 1 deck.



The support structure underneath the catwalks was very fiddly to fit, but proved to be just as strengthening on the model as on the real ship!

I'm getting closer to the point when the first coat of primer goes on the hull - just so see where the next round of filling has to go.

[Sr. Gopher]

Looks pretty good to me!

[mark_sch]

Outstanding scratch work. I'll be following your build. Thanks for sharing.
Mark

[ArizonaBB39]

Good work, keep us updated.

[Sten Ekedahl]

Thanks for all the encouraging words! I'll be needing that with this kit!

[Dave Rowe]

Just to echo the other guys Sten, great work so far

[Sten Ekedahl]

I have always been a slow modeller, and I think I always will be. So not much has been done to during the past week.


I have completed the port casemates, apart from the actual openings that I haven't cut open yet. I 'll do that at a later stage. The bulkheads inside the casemates have also been done. Very little of this will be visible through the openings, but these bulkehads are important for supporting the next deck level.



Time to repeat the same work on the starboard side, and then add the portholes and doors to these bulkheads.



I was not satisfied with the molded structures on level 2. These "walls" should be vertical, but are very much angled inwards (molding reasons?). So I decided to remove them and build new ones from plasticad.



So far I've done the rear one and added one that was missing on the kit.



I've drilled the portholes on these but not added the PE doors yet.

If the weather continues to be rainy, more work will be done on the Arizona during the comming days. If the weather turns sunny, I'll be on the golf course!

[aleccap]

JIM BAUMANN once wrote that he uses a model as a base to build his project, he basically strips away everything and scratches everything which, okay looks stunning, but as for myself that regards this as a hobby, I wouldn't know stem from stern, I could easily buy a model and apart from mould lines find nothing wrong with it, build it and be ''quite'' happy with it .
Apart from a ton of research and the skill to undoubtedly go with it, unless you're selling this onto an expert, why do people do what you're doing to this model ? (a quick story) We visited a steam railway, here they stripped away just about everything on this cart ? Anyway I asked what was the point as you can't buy original parts, you either scavenge for parts or make new, either way wouldn't it be best to simply build a whole new cart ? But it wouldn't have original parts was the answer. And to this day I still don't understand it.
You're doing a fantastic job on the Arizona, but from my point of view, would it not be as easy especially with your expert eye and skill to simply build this completely from scratch ?

[Sten Ekedahl]

You're doing a fantastic job on the Arizona, but from my point of view, would it not be as easy especially with your expert eye and skill to simply build this completely from scratch ?

Thanks for your kind words. When eventually finished I estimate that it will be about 50% scratchbuilt - out of necessity! Since it is my first ship modell and the kit beeing so bad, a lot of time is spent on thinking, studying references, figuring out methods and finding the best modelling sequence - what must be done now and what must wait till later.
But I'll let you in on a small secret; whenever I start getting too frustrated over this kit I take out the Trumpeter 1/350 HMS Hood and do a bit of carefree modelling to regain my sanity.

[Dave Hill]

Great progress Sten!...your scratch built fixes are impressive!...please keep the updates coming!!!!!!!

Dave

[Sten Ekedahl]

After a bit of further work on deck 1 and 2, including a few of the Eduard PE structures, a dry fit looks like this:







Still a LOOOONG way to go...

[MartinJQuinn]

Stan,

Outstanding work. I'd like to do the something similar with the Dragon 1/700 Arizona.

Looking forward to more updates.

[ArizonaBB39]

That looks very nice, keep us updated

[Sten Ekedahl]

Slow going! Despite a lot of time spent on the Arizona, not a lot of visible progress. Most of the time spent has been on studying drawings and photos trying to figure things out. It is amazing how many times you have studied a particular photo, and not until the umpteenth time do you discover that so very obvious feature that just has to be included on the model!





Since last time I have lined the edges of the main deck and level 01 deck with .010 x .040 (0.25 x 1.0 mm) strips. This has highlighted yet another error in the kit. Both at the bow and at the stern the two sides are different! Compare the radius of the curves over the previous hull casemate gun positions and how they differ between port and starboard... Well, I have resigned when it comes to the shape of the hull. There is nothing I can do about it other than scratchbuild a new hull, and I've come too far to start all over again. Besides I also excuse myself by trying to convince myself that when the model eventually is finished, people will look more on everything above deck level, rather than what's below it, and hopefully not notice all the inaccuracies on the hull. Please, promise not to tell anyone so I can get away with it.



I have also added new mooring bits and widened the edge with short pieces of .010 x .020 (0.25 x 0.5 mm) strips, where the fairleads will be fitted later. Also that small nicely curved piece of bulkhead, made from .010 (0.25 mm) PC, has been added on each side at the step in deck levels, replacing the way too thick kit parts removed earlier. Five skylights have been scratched and added to the 02 level (My inability as a photographer unfortunately prevents the details on them to be seen. )



Both sides of the 01 level bulkheads have now been completed with portholes drilled and PE doors added. Cutting the openings for the 5" guns, and installing these, will have to wait untill the wooden deck is painted. The bridge is anything but completed and is just dry fitted.





The different bridge houses, here the emergency bridge and the navigation bridge, are PE from Eduard. Although a 200% improvment over the kit parts, they are not completely accurate. I have had to move a few doors and portholes and rebuild the side bulkheads of the emergency bridge slightly.

A few weeks ago I thought that I was getting close to putting the first coat of paint on the hull. But I have since discovered a lot more details that have to be added before I can start painting.

[ArizonaBB39]

Sten, Amazing work! Thanks for sharing. Keep up the good work I'm looking forward to more.

[Sten Ekedahl]

I think I've forgotten to give credit to Charles Landrum. His "bible" on how to build this kit, published on the Roll Models website is absolutely invaluable! I have printed it out and am constantly referring to it. I would not have been able to build this kit without it.

[Quincy]

Bob Pink.

[Sten Ekedahl]

Christmas came early this year! Recieved a package today from WEM containing Sea Master's turned brass barrels for all the cannons on USS Arizona, WEM etched USN cable reels, l'Arsenal 12" signal lamps, photo CD with pics from Pearl Harbour, red paint for the turret tops and blue 5-S for the whole of the ship. Unfortunately the l'Arsenal WW2 bridge equipment set was sold out, but hopefully that will follow later. The brass barrels are a vast improvement ofer the kit parts. They can not even be compared on the same day! So I hope to make some progress from now on. Still a lot of details on the hull that has to be made and fitted. The more I look at photos, the more details I discover that are missing in the kit. Will submit a photo report soon.

[BFR4570]

I was planning to practice on one of these, but the amount of work needed to make it right is daunting. I think I will just wait for the new Trumpeter 1/200 to arrive. Then I will start comparing it to Charles Landrum's and yours for accuracy. That should save a lot of time and duplicate effort if the released model is even half as good as I think it will be. The work you are doing on this model is incredible! And you say this is your first ship model? You have an excellent eye for detail, sir! I am looking forward to future updates.

[Sten Ekedahl]

The work you are doing on this model is incredible! And you say this is your first ship model? You have an excellent eye for detail, sir! I am looking forward to future updates.

Well, close to 50 years of aircraft modelling and some 20 years of experience as a judge at modelling shows has taught me one or two tricks...