1/350 USS Arizona DaLiGeJian Model

[Jeff Sharp]

Here are the statements from AMM1/c Donald "Turk" Graham and S1/c Steven Lukasavitz about how they took down the small life raft from barbette #3 port side and why the big one was left behind. I would imagine that it would take more than two men to handle the large raft.

[Jeff Sharp]

If you are looking for a quick/easy kit of Arizona, then this is NOT the kit for you! This one will take a lot of time to complete. If you enjoy photo-etching, then this is your dream kit. This kit requires someone with advanced photo-etching skills and a ton of patience! If you have neither, then I highly recommend you shelve this kit until you gain more experience with photo etching.

Here is where I'm currently at with this build. I've been detailing the Main Deck with chocks/bits/ boat cradles/deck hatches/fire ports/degaussing cables. Also added the stern catapult and the stern crane. Both the cat and the crane consist of multiple photo-etch parts. The base of the catapult is way too thick and needs to be filed down. I filed more than 2/3 of the thickness off from underneath.
The two large mushroom vents just forward of the catapult are NOT the kit supplied vents. The two vents you get with the kit are way too small and completely wrong, so I replaced them with these.
Her 1940-41 refit included many vent reconfigurations and relocations including these two vents.







This next step will definitely challenge my patience! I will be tackling the two boat cranes. There is a total of 50 pieces per crane!! UGH!

[ModelMonkey]

Looks really good! I'm on my second bag of popcorn.

[Jeff Sharp]

I finally got the boat cranes done and I'm really happy with them. They build into a very nice/accurate replica of the real cranes.





Time to tackle the Mainmast now.
Starting first with the fighting top. Oh boy! The amount of photo-etching to complete each level of the Mainmast is mind boggling! The fighting tops are no exception.
I do have some issues with the fighting top! The biggest issue is the WAY over-scaled access tube/post that connects the machine gun platform to the fighting top.
It's simply.......BAD and WRONG!





I decided to cut that post completely out and scratch build a new one to the proper scale. This also means a new roof on the fighting top has to be scratched as well.
Another issue with the fighting top is that none of the windows come with shutters. They are all wide open. I had to scratch shutters. At least this way I can show some windows open and some closed.
Finally, I'm not happy with the shape of the machine gun platform. The real platform did not have four rounded corners like the kit depicts. The aft most corner was actually squared off.



Also, of the few crew members that managed to get up in the fighting top on 12/7 before the ship exploded, they all commented that there was no ammunition for the .50 cal machine guns stowed up there!
She did not have ammunition lockers up in the machine gun platform. Why? I have no idea! It seems crazy that there would be no ammo up there.

Here is one of those statements from Harvey Milhorn G.M. 3c about not having any ammo up in the mainmast.



The kit's four rounded platform also has molded on the ammo lockers.
I decided to completely scrap this platform all together and scratch build a new one.





These corrections are a ton of work if you choose to correct them!
A simpler alternative would be to replace the fighting tops with Model Monkey's 3-D printed tops. Steve did a very nice job with these.
Here is a comparison of my heavily modified top with Model Monkey's top. This photo also shows how big the post on the kit was before I cut it out.

[Dan K]

Love the cranes.