Come on Texas! (1/350)

[mconnelley]

Hello:

I'm starting to work on the Trumpeter 1/350 USS Texas. Having just built Trumpeter's Enterprise (CV-6) and dealing with those hull issues, now building Trumpeter's F-14 and dealing with those issues, I must be a glutton for punishment. It just wouldn't be a Trumpeter kit if there weren't a few things that really make you scratch your head.

So, to start things off, here's the 'stuff on the bench' photo. The kit took some damage in shipment, the box got pretty beat up and some of the sprinter shields on the decks are bent. I'll have the Pontos detail set, and one of the Eduard PE sets is on its way.

Mike

[mconnelley]

Hello:

The first issue with the hull that I'm tackling is the top edge of the side blisters, and the lack of tumblehome on said blisters. I found a video on YouTube showing how to fix this problem, and I'm mostly following that method.

The photo below illustrates the nature of the problem. I've fixed the lower (starboard) side, but the upper (port) side is original. I decided to make the top edge of the blisters 2 mm wide, which is much less than the kit has, especially around the rear turrets.

I made a horizontal cut just below the top edge of the blister for nearly the whole length of the blister. The cut was made using a cut off disk in a Dremel, but not all the way through. I used the Dremel until I could see light through the plastic, then finished the cut with an exacto blade so that only a narrow cut goes through to the outside of the hull. I then made vertical cuts to make 'panels' that I could individually bend inwards. I trimmed the edge of the top blister edge to be 2 mm wide. I made a Dremel cut at the base of each panel, where the tumblehome tilts inwards, also not all the way through, so that the bend would be on a well defined line. I then bent the 'panels' inwards to match. A lot of sheet plastic was inserted to fill the gaps.

On the inside, I added a number of ribs to help the hull hold its new shape. The panels are bent and will stay at their new tilt on their own, but I wanted something to add extra ridigidty. I also added plates to tops of the plates on the inside to tie them together and ensure a flush finish on the outside.

Mike

[FFG-7]

how many docking keels are on the bottom of the hull as should be 8 of them?
BB-35 USS Texas Booklet of General Plans (1944) https://archive.org/details/bb35bogp1944v2/mode/2up

[Killerbeans]

Nice solution. I have one of these in the stash. Would you say this is an "A" team, or "B" team kit?

[FFG-7]

"B" team

[mconnelley]

Trumpeter has an 'A' Team? Where did they go?

Work on smoothing out the hull is going well (more on that later). Another part of the hull that needs some *cough* help is the bow. Like several other Trumpeter kits, they seem to have taken inspiration from an oil tanker rather than a warship.

I drew a grid of lines on the bow to highlight the contours as they are molded.

There are a few issues here. The biggest is that the sides aren't concave enough. If one were to take a waterline cross section, that cross section would be convex rather than concave, especially right at the bow. From deck to keel, the sides are nearly straight. I printed out the hull plans to scale and cut them out to make templates. Here's how the kit compares to the templates:

In the view from above, we see that there are big gaps at the bow and at the front of the blister, illustrating how much the waterline is too convex. Looking forwards, we see that the kit' profile is too straight with not enough flare near the deck.

Mike

[Joelle]

Hi Mike.

This looks like an interesting build report. I'll definitely stay tuned.

[FFG-7]

Mike, be careful of that profile morskie drawing as there has been errors found in there drawings. I have the body plan of that class pre-blistered if you need but at 11mb, is to big to post here so can email it if you want.
how thick is the hull plastic & how much does it have to going in to look somewhat correct?

[Killerbeans]

While I applaud trumpys prolific selection, many of us 1/32 aircraft builders rate kits as "A", "B", or " the other guys". A fast comparison shows that 1/32 aircraft from Revell and Hasegawa are generally more accurate in shape and geometry. It is accepted that all trumpy kits have errors of varying complexity.
As for ships, I'm learning a great deal. I have a fair few 1/350 trumpy ships, and I think (hope) that most are "good bones" so to say. As mentioned, I have this in the stash, so this build will be informative, to say the least.

[mconnelley]

Hello:

I compared the two sets of hull drawings I have. The bow part is fairly consistent, except that the drawing with the bulges has more flare towards the deck. Below the waterline, they pretty much overlap.

The hull plastic isn't thick enough to accommodate how much material I intend to remove. Anticipating this, I put a wad of milliput between 1/8" and 1/4" thick on the inside of the hull. I have gotten things close to the final shape, and I've ground well through the kit plastic but not (yet) through the milliput backing.

Mike

[mconnelley]

...meanwhile, in the superstructure...

I'll replace all of the gun tubs with brass sheet. The Eduard set for the deck is on order, but that leaves the superstructure up to me. Here's what it looks like with one side of the O1 level done. I was initially copying what was there, but then I noticed that the shield around the middle 3" gun didn't have the aft curved part. While the eagle eyed will no doubt spot a few mistakes, it went pretty well and I'm onto the port side.

Mike

[Killerbeans]

Where do you source the brass? The shields/tubs look the part.

[FFG-7]

Mike, what I used to build up the bow area of the hulls of some of my OBB models was 1mm thick plastic before grinding, carving & sanding that area to shape.

[mconnelley]

Where do you source the brass? The shields/tubs look the part.

I'm using 0.005" thick sheet brass. It's thick enough that it's reasonably stiff and durable, but thin enough to be cut with scissors.

I've had it for years, so I don't recall where I got it. I think you should be able to find it at a craft or hardware store. They often have a display of K&S brand rods and sheets, made of brass, steel, aluminum, etc. You can also order online.

Mike

[rtheriaque]

Brass sheet is often used as shim stock in manufacturing. If you have a contact at Grainger, McMaster-Carr, MSC, etc, you can get it a hell of a lot cheaper than the stuff sold as craft/hobby.

[mconnelley]

Mike, what I used to build up the bow area of the hulls of some of my OBB models was 1mm thick plastic before grinding, carving & sanding that area to shape.

A long time ago I made the old Revell USS Arizona kit, and I built up the side of the hull in just that manner before smoothing things out with milliput. This time, I had made a blob of milliput to smooth out the sides of the hull of Texas, and I had a bunch left over so I just smooshed it into the bow. So far it's worked ok.

Here's a picture of the starboard bow with the shaping close to finished. The yellow-ish oval area near the middle is where I ground through the kit plastic to the milliput on the inside. The yellow-ish area below is where I added milliput to the outside to get the shape of the lower hull closer to the template profile. The red spots are the Bondo putty I use for smaller filling jobs. At this point there is still a bit of smoothing to do, but overall the shape is pretty close to where I want it.

Mike

[Killerbeans]

Nice work. I'll look into the brass
Any chance you have another Texas to illustrate the amount of change to the bow?

[mconnelley]

Any chance you have another Texas to illustrate the amount of change to the bow?

Unfortunately, I only have one. I'll do a before-and-after comparison once I finish the shaping and get a layer of primer on the hull.

In other news, the shields around the superstructure AA guns are nearly done. They're all in place, I've puttied and sanded the joint, and gave it a first coat of primer to see what it looks like and to look for gaps that I missed. Of course there are a few spots needing a second helping of putty. Some of the railings are also starting to go up.

Mike

[Killerbeans]

What is your approach to painting this?
I'm working on arguably one of the easiest 1/350 ships, USS Saratoga. The planning for paint seemed straightforward. I'm really wondering about this.

[mconnelley]

What is your approach to painting this?

It really depends on the paint scheme you want to go for. If you choose MS. 21 (overall 5-N), then it's super easy. Just prime and paint it all one color. It's very tempting to just go for MS. 21, but it's all one color and so visually (to me) it's not as interesting.

I think I'll paint Texas in MS. 31a 8B, which has 5-H, 5-O, and 5-N (pretty much the same as deck blue). It takes quite a bit of planning to make things as easy as possible. I'll try to keep as many of the deck layers separate to make it easier to paint the deck, so that painting the deck doesn't affect the walls and vice versa. Also, in places like the superstructure and the main mast, painting has to happen before assembly or else I won't have enough access in between the decks to paint them. However, some things are already on the decks, like the splinter shields, so those get brush painted. Eventually I'll need to add things like ladders that go from one deck to another, so that will call for careful brush painting as well.

Cheers
Mike