The Ship Model Forum

Hello all!

This is my first real post here, been a long time lurker. I've recently started work on a Tamiya USS New Jersey kit depicting the ship in her modernized configuration from 1983. I've made a fair bit of progress but I wanted to start posting here because this community seems like a great place to get feedback and just to get to know other people in the hobby. This is my first model ship in several years and I'm trying to take it slow and learn from mistakes I had made on previous kits when I was younger I value any and all feedback you guys can give along the way so that this model comes out as good as possible in the end.

Anyway thank you, and without further disruption I'll post a few pics of what I've done so far and where I'm at now.


The ship out of the box. The smaller battleship is my Trumpeter USS North Carolina which has been in the state it's in since 2008. I may start a thread about her if I pick her back up at some point but for now she's one of the models I'm trying to learn from before I finish.




Painted the hull.




Paint touch ups and decals. My first attempt at weathering a hull and I feel like it came out alright. Can only get better.


Forward deck painted. I hand painted the anchor chain area by hand with no masking tape...very nerve wracking.


A mockup of the hull about a week ago. The wood decks you're seeing in the pictures that aren't glued down are from scaledecks.com. I like them a lot and they look amazing, no complaints really. I've had to edit them just a bit so as to get the best possible fit; tight sanding and trimming, etc; but otherwise they're great. I'm just a bit scared to glue them down because I don't want the glue to damage the plastic and paint. I've ordered a set of Pontos decks which I read have their own adhesive on the bottom so I'll likely go with those, I just want to see them and compare before I do.


Finally the masking on the aft deck to get it ready for painting. The finished procduct can be found on the mockup below:


Just need to touch up some of the details and then I'll glue it down and work on the center deck section. Otherwise this is where I'm at now while I wait for the Pontos decks to come in.

Any comments or feedback you guys can give is welcome and appreciated, I look forward to hearing from you guys as things progress. Thanks for looking!

I've never used a wood deck myself (only because of lack of discretionary funds, really), but they seem to me like really excellent time- and effort-savers when it comes to two things: detailing the "natural" wood of the deck itself (as opposed to painted decks, a la U.S. Navy during WWII) and so you don't have to mask off all the bits and bobs that poke up out of the deck of a ship—you paint them first and then lay down the wood veneer.

One thing that's become clear from reading posts by wood deck veterans is that the adhesive on most decks is not very desirable as it tends to bond very quickly and can be very difficult if not impossible to re-lift the deck without damaging or destroying it, leaving one with only limited time to ensure the fit is right. Some have completely neutralized the adhesive and simply used Future or white glue to bond the deck to the model when they're finally ready to do so, letting them "play" with the veneer and work out any kinks.

YMMV, however, and you certainly look to have a good start!

_________________
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

Thank you!

Yeah I have heard both sides of wood deck issue, I'm honestly not sure which I'm going to like more so I'm waiting for the Pontos set to get here before I move on. I do have plenty of plain white glue laying around so I could always use that if I decide to keep the non adhesive deck I have.

I do have a question in regards to painting certain smaller details by hand. What's a good technique to eliminate brush marks in the paint and assure a nice even coat? Some of the areas I've touched up by hand I haven't been to happy with cause they don't look as even.

Hi, ArtFan88.
For nice result you can used # 4000 or #6000 sand paper from Mr. Hobby.

Thanks for the reply! I was able to get some super fine sand paper from my local hobby shop and I sanded out and repainted a few troubled areas, I like the results a bit more.

A few more pictures for this update:

I got the Pontos decks in and fell in love with them over the scaledecks ones. They went on great and I like that they have adhesive already on them, made my life a bit easier as far as application. I've only done the aft deck but will soon do more. I'm not ditching the previous decks I bought, either. As my next model will likely be the modernized USS Missouri I figure I can just save them till then.

Anyway as always thanks for looking!

More progress today! The main deck is secure, the Pontos sheets look great. Starting on the deck details now. Aside from the deck this is a pretty standard, out of the box build. Tamiya did throw in some PE parts for it which I'll apply going forward, I plan to start those tonight and will hopefully have some pics of that progress by then as well.

So, I started working on the PE flight deck that comes with the Pontos deck and it was going really well till disaster struck. Observe:

When doing the dry transfer decal it ripped up the paint something aweful. Till now I'd never worked with PE on this level so it's my bad for not properly priming the part or sealing the paint before applying the decal. I was pretty bummed at first, but I realized I still have options.

Option 1: I have the flight deck decal that comes with the original kit (I'm much better with water slide anyway), so I could strip and repaint the piece and apply that minus the risk of losing the paint.

Option 2: I could totally scratch build the flight deck. I know from reading this forum over a fair amount of time that New Jersey has a raised flight deck. I found some styrene I had laying around and cut this out of it:

Problem with this option is I've never scratch built anything before so I'd have to take it slow, probably work on the rest of the ship first.

Option 3: Repaint the PE deck and use the alternate decal it has (after properly prepping the piece, that is). This is what I'm talking about:

I've seen pics if the New Jersey with her flight deck in this configuration, which I know was more common on her sisters. There's even one on the cover of the pamphlet that comes with the kit:

I'm not sure what configuration New Jersey was in when she had that pattern; weather it was early in her Reagan era refit or later on, closer to her decommissioning. Nonetheless it does seem that she had it at one point so it would be accurate, but I'd want to make sure I get her general appearance and paint scheme right if I'm going to do that.

So what's the point in all this? Well, I'd really like to hear your thoughts. You all are far more experienced than I am and I'd really appreciate guidance here. I want this kit to be as good as I can possibly make it, that's why I came here because I know this community can help. How can I get the PE part ready so the paint doesn't get ripped off when I work with it?

I hope to hear from some of you and thanks in advance for any advice offered!

I had the same issue with Pontos dry transfer on the deck of my green bay.

While I cant offer you a solution per-se, here is what I can tell ya-

I primed the hell out of my PE deck with tamiya spray primer, one of the best on the market. I then applied my normal tamiya acrylic deck paint with an airbrush, and sealed that with a couple coats of future. After all of that, the dry transfers lifted off along with a lot of paint just like you had happen.

My thoughts are that the pressure from burnishing down the dry transfer makes the metal of the PE deck flex, and it loosens all the paint on the deck, as mine stripped right back down to the bare metal in a lot of the places.

Since the set I was using did not have any spare/alternate deck markings, I could not try any other techniques and had to go with the kit decals.

If I ever run into this situation again, my plan (if I HAVE to use the PE deck and dry transfers) is to burnish the transfers onto a piece of clear decal film, then cut them out and apply them just like regular decals.

Good luck, she looks great!

_________________
Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

Hi guys! Been a while since I posted, the holiday season really slowed me down between work and family so I haven't been able to work much on the model till now. But now that I am I'm pleased to say that I've made a ton of progress!

Much of the superstructure is done, the aft part in particular is pretty much complete. I'm currently working on the smaller details for the forward structure so that I can get that finished and sealed with some dull coat (for whatever reason some of the paints I use for hand touch ups have a gloss to them despite the bottle saying they're flat, so Ive been dull coating it as I go along to hide it). If there's one thing I'm not really happy with its how the forward mast came out, there's a ton of imperfections in the paint job from having to strip and repaint it. Not that any will show up in the photos or that you'd notice, but it's just the kind of tiny thing that will bug me once it's all finished. Otherwise, the model is coming along well, a great kit and a pleasure to put together!






Next thing I'll tackle after the structure is done will be the big guns and deck details, stay tuned!