Tips on making a waterline 1/225 Oregon needed

[Eric Bergerud]

Time for a battleship. This time it will be the Glencoe 1/225 Oregon embellished with Tom's PE and heaven knows what kind of scratch. I'm looking at a major decision before opening the glue bottle. I do like the look of pre-Dreds, but looking at the pictures of the kit on this thread and others leads me to believe it's going to be a little tubby. A waterline build, however, would give the thing a kind of menace (going to be in Santiago dress) as shown in her trip back to New York immediately after the cease-fire in fall 1898:



Here's the problem. I'm not a heroic modeler and have only done one big ship. Cutting this thing in half looks like it might be a major task - perhaps I'm not up to it. The hull appears to go together pretty well. However, the plastic is quite thick and there's no waterline marking on the inside. There are also several support pieces put in on the bottom which may say something about keeping the deck on properly. Any tips on how best to cut a model in half? (Actually I think it will be more than that on the hull.) I've got a razor saw and most devices made by Xacto. Not sure how to get a clean cut though: it does appear that a major mistake could wreck model and I put nothing past myself. Advice from styrene surgeons would be appreciated. (Also a little in the dark about some of the colors: I'm going to do a separate post in general but if anyone has any data on how a properly uniformed US warship would have looked like at Santiago, I'm all ears.)

Eric

[Timmy C]

If you're going to be putting her in a simulated water base, you can make an indent in the base to hide any roughness that was incurred during the cutting process - you won't have to worry too much about an exact and clear job in such a case.

[Pagodaphile]

When I "waterline" a hull, I always cut a little lower than where I expect the final bottom line will be with the heavy cutting tools (razor saw, dremel with serrated metal blade, samurai sword etc.) then go back again and go slow with files, sandpaper etc, as I get closer to the waterline.

BTW you may have some more heavy cutting in your future with that Glencoe kit. Unless the molds have been corrected in a new release, (which I doubt) it is infamous for a number of errors in the superstructure and deck. It still makes a nice looking ship as is, it just depends on your personal preference.

I remember a few years ago, I did a small research project for a guy in South America who did an excellent waterline conversion and correction job on this kit. If interested, let me know and I'll try to dig up the info on his build.

[Eric Bergerud]

Well, Pagodafile, that solution is simply too good for me to have come up with it. Wouldn't you know it: I've got a Dremel and haven't really gotten much out of it. Here's a perfectly good use for it and it's in California and Oregon is in Minnesota (figure that one out.) I expect to do surgery on a kit designed before the war it fought in. At least there's only about 100 parts. I did an ICM Konig and it had 500 parts that didn't fit. You bet I'd be interested in any tips you can pass on. The thing sure has potential. And it was history. The world wars obscured it, but the US naval victories over Spain were almost like the end of the Civil War and also notice to the world that there was a new Navy on the block. Same time as Japan was making the identical point a bit more dramatically. The seeds of Pearl Harbor. Waterline it is.
Eric

[Pagodaphile]

quote..."And it was history. The world wars obscured it"
The tragic thing about the Oregon is that she had already been preserved as a museum ship, but was unecessarily sent to the scrapper by order of a headline hungry Governor of Oregon. The hull survived as a barge through WWII and then was ironically cut up in Yokohama after the war.
The main mast, funnels, vents, and bow herald survive in Portland.

Check out Marcos Serra's (callsign ..panzerserra) 2009 Oregon build article on the MSW site: http://www.modelshipwrights.com/modules ... rd=&page=1

[Eric Bergerud]

That link is just what the doctor ordered, even if he didn't cut the hull in half. Not so sure that I think my guns look all that dam low and I know nobody that looks at them will. Might as well try the surgery though: kit has few parts and almost no rigging. Sure could use the practice. I can get metal barrels all around: all for only $60 - I may pass. I'll never tell where it came from.
Thankee much
Eric

[JIM BAUMANN]

Eric have a look how Bill Livingstone cut his Mikasa....

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=93381&start=20

same as I do when I build a plastic model
"
.....I removed the lower hull using a dremel-type circular saw blade�...." .

[Eric Bergerud]

I pretty much tried to learn by doing. I split life between Minnesota and California - which is just fine when I'm in Minnesota. I have more modeling stuff in California though and that includes a Dremel. To be honest, I've never really figured out what to do with it. I haven't found it a magic wand for sanding. And I'm not a tool guy so I don't think I'd use it for cutting a piece this size. The hull is about 19" long and maybe a yard wide and the plastic is thick. Thought I'd just take off a hunk and sand it down. That was dumb. So I put a double dose of Dymo plastic tape along the bottom of the waterline. This stuff is considerably thicker than masking tape - aircraft guys use it for scribing sanded lines. Started with a scalpel and very slowly made a line under the tape. Then did the same with a #11 Xacto. (I do like scalpels.) Then finished things with a very small razor saw that I think I bought from White Ensign. That still left some sanding, so the project took a night. I reinforced it with sprue, preshaded it and put on a styrene bottom. It's actually pretty straight. (Thanks much for the tip on the build over at the site that has no name. I think some of the techniques used by that gent are way over my head.) Here's the patient on the way to OR. Note how much of the hull is coming off:



Here's how it looked after surgery but before sanding. It's sitting on top of a file which makes it look as though pretty uneven. Actually, I did more sanding reducing the width of the bottom piece than I did on the hull. Note the lack of tools.




Here it is after proper sanding, preshading and the bottom sanded and attached. It needed very little filler so I was able to use acrylic gel. The bottles are on there to help the bottom bond: gives you an idea how big the thing is:



Right now I'm fairly pleased. Just got the WEM Slate bottle so I know the color (a lot like RLM 2 - a dark, muddy gray with a bit of green. On our gallery Peter Fulgoney has a 700 scale Combrig Olympia that I wish I could claim as mine: the color looks very good to me.) But this kit is very crude and there will no doubt be many opportunities to screw things up. I have Tom's PE for it: it comes with six pages of instructions that tell you what you must cut off and replace just to use the PE. No wonder I have more tanks than ships. (Armor fans live a sheltered world. A "classic" tank would be something Tamiya put out in the 70's that lack some detail but assemble beautifully. This kit may be twenty years older.)

Eric

Eric