1/350 USS Arizona DaLiGeJian Model

[Jeff Sharp]

I think this replacement decking is going to work just fine. Upper deck is cut to shape. Working on the Main deck now. Here you can see the kit supplied Main deck also has a ton of deck lights.
My biggest challenge with the Main deck will be figuring out a way to replicate the the deck plates on either side of the vegetable locker.

[FFG-7]

are you painting, staining or untouched?

[Jeff Sharp]

I will be leaving it untouched.

[Jon C Ryckert]

I think this replacement decking is going to work just fine. Upper deck is cut to shape. Working on the Main deck now. Here you can see the kit supplied Main deck also has a ton of deck lights.
My biggest challenge with the Main deck will be figuring out a way to replicate the the deck plates on either side of the vegetable locker.

Maybe cut it out and place it on top of the new deck but being that there is a difference in the type of wood used in the decks, it would stand out too much.

[Jeff Sharp]

The manufacturer of this kit did not skimp on the photo-etch. There is an amazing amount of photo-etch sheets included with this kit. Here you can see there are two sheets of photo-etching almost entirely dedicated to super detailing the inside of the casemate compartments. This will be detail that no one will ever be able to see once the exterior casemate bulkheads and the boat deck are in place. I can't fault them too much for doing it because I did super detail these compartments on my 1/200 Arizona. Even in that scale though, you can't see any of the interior detail.
So, this step in the build is purely for self enjoyment if one chooses to complete this step.

[Tracy White]

Along the long strip of plating, there were vertical braces every few feet along this plating.

For what it's worth, these braces were known as straps in Navy terminology:
https://www.shipstructure.org/pdf/91symp11.pdf

My biggest challenge with the Main deck will be figuring out a way to replicate the the deck plates on either side of the vegetable locker.

Since you're working on it before there's any protrusions in the way, how about penciling them in?

[Jeff Sharp]

Yeah, I will probably just draw in the deck plates.

[Jeff Sharp]

The wood decks on the main and upper decks have been laid down. I decided not to put too much effort into the interior of the casemates. I did not use the provided photo etch for the interior bulkheads, instead I simply painted the plastic.



The exterior casemate bulkheads are now roughed in and the Superstructure deck is now in place as well.





Now, I can finally start detailing the different decks and the hull. First up is correcting the shape of the anchor plates. By 1941, the anchor plates were slightly a different configuration than they were during most of the 1930's.

These still shots from April '41 gives us a look at how they were configured.





This photo is a comparison of my scratched built plate on the left to the kit supplied plate on the right.

[Jeff Sharp]

Here's a neat little deck detail.
This is a still shot of RADM Willson exiting his stateroom for the final time on January 23, 1941. He was being relieved of his duties by RADM Kidd. Ensign Carl Weeden captured color film footage of the ceremony.
In this shot we get a glimpse of the "Red" fire port that was just on the portside of the Admiral's hatch on the maindeck.



On the plans, you can see the position of the fire port which is identified as F.P.

[Jeff Sharp]

There is one thing I want to figure out before I start detailing the different decks. I want to figure out the shape of the awning that was forward of turret #3.





It is a very complex awning with a lot of cut outs in different areas around the break in the deck to accommodate the Vegetable locker, the Main mast legs, the Boat crane posts, ladders to different deck levels, the 1.1" Gun Tubs, and the gun director platforms for those gun tubs.

I think I have the basic shape figured out with the exception of the cut outs around the backside of the gun tubs and director platforms. Specifically, the cut out for the director platforms has me scratching my head a little bit. How is that cut out on the awning keeping its shape? I can't imagine the awning was actually attached to the backside of the platform. The director platform was right at the same height as the top of the gun tub, so to me it seems too low to have the awning directly attached to it.



Here is what I have come up with for the basic shape before addressing the cut out for the director platforms. The gun turrets and Main mast you see in these photos are NOT the kit supplied parts. They are aftermarket parts "filling in" to help me visualize what I'm seeing in the attack photos.

[Dan K]

Nice research and work, Jeff.

It's not inconceivable that the awning is one large piece, draped over a high line running fore and aft down the middle and secured around the edges. Or two halves secured to said line. Could be a cable. FWIW.

[Jeff Sharp]

I'm a firm believer that it was one large awning or two that met in the middle. In this photo you can see where the awning attached to the large vent just forward of turret #3, to the vegetable locker bulkheads, and to the Mainmast leg.



I'm starting to think support lines ran from the deck railing to these attachment points on the vegetable locker and vent. That could explain how the cutouts for the director platforms kept their shape.

[Tracy White]

The awnings definitely had sections that resting on lines in between points. There was one generally from the after airplane crane forward to keep the aft awning off the #4 turret guns and provide a good shape to shed water and not let it pool.

[Jeff Sharp]

Here is another photo that shows the awning "brackets" attached to the vent.

[MartinJQuinn]

Nice detective work, Jeff. I am of the mind that they were two awnings, one port and one starboard.

[Jeff Sharp]

Thanks Martin!
Hopefully more photos of this area with the awning(s) get discovered some day.
It is very much a unique feature on the ship.

[marijn van gils]

Great work! The awnings will make it a unique Arizona, and also attract the viewers eye.

[Jeff Sharp]

Thanks Marijn!
I want this build to be a tribute to the all the brave men that suffered and died on that horrific morning!
As I proceed though this build, I will be quoting survivors accounts of that day. As I finish up constructing the Maindeck (sometimes referred to as the Quarterdeck) awning, I'm reminded of the amazing chain of events that BM2c Thomas Arthur White described in his statement of events. The first of which talks about that particular awning.


To help you visualize where he tried to enter the ship to get to the engine room, he entered the double doors on the starboard side into the Marine compartment, which is labeled as "Crew A-704" on the plans.



This statement also tells me that all the Maindeck hatches were open before the attack started, so I drilled out all the hatches on the kit so that I could present them as being open.

I will be quoting Mr. White some more and many others as I proceed with this build.
The fire hose that Mr. White references has quite the story attached to it as well that I will touch on later.

[Jeff Sharp]

I've decided not to use the kit supplied 1.1 aft gun tubs and director platforms. For some reason, very few manufacturers over the years have been able to get these two things right. This manufacturer is no exception. Not only have they OVER engineered these two parts by making them multiple photo-etch pieces each, but they also got the looks wrong on both.
Just because the technology allows to produce these parts in photo-etch, it doesn't mean it's a good idea. These two pieces should have been simply 3-D printed parts.



I will be using aftermarket tubs and scratch built director platforms.



I fear that the entire kit will be OVER engineered. We shall see!

[Jeff Sharp]

Small update. I've been detailing the Main Deck from the break in the deck to turret #3. This was a very busy area on the ship. It would turn out to be the main gathering point for survivors of the explosion as they scrambled to escape from the forward part of the ship. This area (particularly on the Starboard side) would turn into a very gruesome spot and many acts of heroism would take place here in the moments following the explosion.







There are a few things in this area that I still need to tweak, including the appearance of the hand and foot rails around barbette #3.



By 1941, oval life rafts were very much an added feature to the appearance of all the ships. Oddly, USS Arizona's raft count was quite a bit lower than all of the other battleships. I'm able to identify just 12 (maybe 14) rafts on her. Six large and Six (maybe eight) small rafts.
Barbette #3 seems to be the only place that rafts were stowed on the Main Deck. Some survivor's accounts describe taking these rafts down from the barbette. There is no other account of any other rafts stowed anywhere else on the Main Deck.
Space around barbette #3 was limited however. There was really only two spots on the barbette that had enough room to accommodate the rafts. This was the space just forward of the barbette vents on either side of the ship. In order to put rafts there however, the crew needed to cut away the foot railing so that the rafts would sit flush against the barbette.



The crew positioned the rafts vertically on the barbette which minimized the amount of foot railing they had to cut away.

Here is a shot of the port side. You can see the ghost of the large raft on the barbette positioned vertically.



Here is a shot of the starboard side. Again, you can see the ghost of the raft positioned vertically.



Here is the account of Ensign Guy Spalding Flannigan about one of the Rafts on the Starboard side of Barbette #3.



There does however seem to be more of the foot railing cut off of the starboard side compared to the port side which makes me wonder if there was maybe more rafts there.



Also, I can't figure out what this feature is on the barbette. You can see that the turret hatch landing has separated from the bottom of the turret and it's remains are pressed up against the barbette, but I have no idea what this highlighted piece is.