Been working on the 16" gun turrets and after doing Trumpy's North Carolina I knew what to expect...I found out that sanding the mating surfaces where the turret sides attach to the turret body made for a good joint...I made sanding sticks from wood coffee stirrers and glued strips of 220, 400 and 800 grit sandpaper to them to sand between the rows of rivits on the turret top which worked pretty good...After the sanding was done I detailed the turrets with PE ladders and in the case of turret #2 a PE basket (from the Tom's set) and supporting brackets were built useing styrene sheet and round stock....the Mk 51director tubs were made from strips of brass cut from a old PE set and bent to shape useing my Flip-R5 bending tool...I then glued the AA gun tubs and MK 51 director tubs to turrets 2 and 3.
The gun blast bags were from the kit...I covered them with Kleenex facial tissue coated with white glue and used a piece of fine wire to sculpt wrinkles in the tissue to give the bags a more realistic apperance...then I painted them flat black...BMK version 1 brass barrels finish off the turrets.
Turret sanded and ready for primer
A primed and sanded turret ready for final paint and assembly
Last edited by Dave Hill on Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:22 am, edited 2 times in total.
"There is no problem which cannot be solved through suitable application of naval artillery."
Beautiful job on those turrets. If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have believed it. You certainly have more patience than I do. I really like your added detail to turret #2.
Thanks!, pre-sanding the mating surfaces of the turret pieces really helped close the joint and made sanding the area that much easier...the use of the small sanding sticks helped getting in between the rows of rivets and made for a cleaner look...I used the same procedure with the turrets on my North Carolina but I didn't sand the pieces before assembly and the filling and sanding was a big job.
It seems your taking a differant route with your turrets...can't wait to see the results!
Dave
"There is no problem which cannot be solved through suitable application of naval artillery."
Great work, Dave. Love the extra detail under Turret #2.
Martin
"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne
rtheriaque wrote:I'm going to Fall River this weekend. Does anybody need pictures of anything in particular?
If this doesn't seem to stupid...could you get a few shots of her rigging...especially where the mainmast lines connect to the deck, bulkheads etc....Thanks!!!
BTW...It was nice of you to ask!!!!!!!!
Dave
"There is no problem which cannot be solved through suitable application of naval artillery."
Just an FYI - there are already two Massachusetts walk around features on this site. Go to the main page, then features, then 2007.
There was one walk around published in September and one in July.
Martin
"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne
Wow, I thought I would be clever and take a Hasegawa 1/700 South Dakota and a Trumpeter 1/700 Washington and kit-bash a full hull Sodak... These 2 have no similarity at all around the hull. The Hasegawa Sodak hull is far wider than any other 1/700 BB kit I have in comparison. Is Hasegawa's shape correct ? I was expecting to merely shorten the Washington Hull and insert the notched belt detail and install the Sodak Superstructure, but that's not going to cut it. Any links or "How -To's" in doing such a conversion?
Jeffcsr wrote:Wow, I thought I would be clever and take a Hasegawa 1/700 South Dakota and a Trumpeter 1/700 Washington and kit-bash a full hull Sodak... These 2 have no similarity at all around the hull. The Hasegawa Sodak hull is far wider than any other 1/700 BB kit I have in comparison. Is Hasegawa's shape correct ? I was expecting to merely shorten the Washington Hull and insert the notched belt detail and install the Sodak Superstructure, but that's not going to cut it. Any links or "How -To's" in doing such a conversion?
Hi Jeff,
The two hulls are not even close. The South Dakota and North Carolina classes had the same displacement and the same beam, but different lengths. That means that the hull broadens faster and goes deeper to make up the same internal volume. The stern form was totally different. Because of the shorter length for vitals, the South Dakota's had a unique shape aft. The beam held at full width until a lot closer to the stern. Underwater, the skegs were on the outboard shafts, while the North Carolina's had them on the inboards. South Dakota's inboard props were further forward than the outboards. It would be easier to scratch build your lower hull or modify the old (crappy) Revell 1/720 hull bottom.
As for the Hasegawa kit, it has issues. I have tried for years to correct them, but have not gotten an acceptable result to date. Trumpy has announced 1/700 South Dakota's as a future release. They might become available quicker than you could modify the North Carolina hull bottom to fit the Hasegawa South Dakota.
"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne
After completeing the main turrets,I started on the twin 5" mounts, but they are so poorly engineered I gave up and ordered the resin ones from L' Arsenal...in the meantime I've been working on the PE cranes, catapults and the Mk. 8 Fire Control radars...as soon as they are painted I'll get some pics!
Dave
"There is no problem which cannot be solved through suitable application of naval artillery."
Some update pics...cranes, catapults and fire control radar...all GMM parts built per instructions eccept for the aircraft crane which I added extra pulleys to more closely resemble the Massachusetts crane.
Dave
"There is no problem which cannot be solved through suitable application of naval artillery."
"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne
