1/200 Arizona finally DONE!

[Jeff Sharp]

Changes complete. Things are finally starting to come together on the quarter deck.

[JimVarnellABH2USN]

Looking great there Jeff, keep up the good work......

[MuseumGeek]

Nice, Jeff! I will add those details tonight.

For the large door, I will use two of the larger doors in the Tom's USN Doors set and just cut them down the middle to make a double opening door. Maybe not 100% correct, but it will certainly look right. I hope.

[Jeff Sharp]

Here's another one for anyone that wants to get insanely detailed with this kit.

There was some pipework up against the bulkhead on the port side seen here in these shots.





Even in this scale it is very small. Here is my version.



Now, if you want to take it to another level of insanity, the bulkheads around the casemates were littered with lights with switches and wires. Somehow I want to try to represent as many of these lights as I can but I haven't figured out how I want to do it yet. They are soooo damn small. Here is one on the starboard side. I think I need a photo etch manufacturer to mass produce these things!!

[J. Soca]

What a great attention to detail!!



Jose

[Elvis965]

Are you going to add 1/200 figures of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien????

Crazy attention to detail!!!

Bob

[Jeff Sharp]

Are you going to add 1/200 figures of James Cagney and Pat O'Brien???

Great idea Bob! Definately not Gloria Stewart though! For some reason though I can't get my hands on any 1/200 figures yet. Hopefully soon the supply will catch up with the demand.

[Jeff Sharp]

I'm starting to research the proper railing patterns for each deck and came across this. What in the world is going on here? Looking for some help here. That is the center pole of the mainmast with the bell.
What is going on with this railing? Any help is appreciated.

[Jon C Ryckert]

Jeff,
The best pic I could find would be the Jan 41 refit ( two page spread?) in Stillwell's book where the ship is tied to the pier on the starboard side. It gives you an ideae of what may be going on. This is just a WAG, but maybe it is how they rigged the awning. Like I said, just a WAG. BTW, your build has inspired me to get my kit back out. But it is on hold until I finish the display case which may be a few days as the weather in Kansas is going to be too SH*^#Y to work in the garage for the next several days. Great job you are doing though.

[Jeff Sharp]

Hi Jon,
Thanks. I think the shot tricked me into thinking this was all one railing. Now I believe we are looking at both port and starboard together. Still, there is more going on then just a three bar rail. I've never seen any picks of an awning spanning in between these two rails but I see no reason why it couldn't have been done. It seems unlikely to be a connection point for the awning that extended to the sides of the ship (unnecessarily high) but.....
Gotta keep looking for another view I guess.

[Jeff Sharp]

This one almost snuck past me. Underneath the mainmast there are some antenna trunks. The kit depicts 2 on the port side, 2 on the starboard side and 1 in the middle. There should be a 3rd trunk on the port side by the landing that leads into the passageway that I constructed above.


This one is a little different than the other 2 on that side of the ship. It appears to be not up against the bulkhead like the other 2 are. In this shot you can see what I mean. Notice the support brackets extending to the bulkhead and the shadow of the trunk.

Now, if I can only find some time this weekend to work on the kit.

[Jeff Sharp]

I was wrong about the kit supplying the center trunk. I had to fabricate that one as well. Here are a couple of pics of all the trunks in place. I also changed the look of the platform deck again! First I painted it deck gray, then linoleum, and now I teaked it. The photo I posted earlier showing the vents on the bulkhead also suggests that the platform was planked. I guarantee I had it right at one point
Things are really starting to get cluttered in this area. Adding the stairs and rails and the crane posts will really clutter things up.

[Leftie]

Jeff, where are you? We all need an Arizona build fix.

[Jeff Sharp]

Jeff, where are you? We all need an Arizona build fix.

Hi Leftie. Still here. Just cant find much time lately to work on her. It's funny how life gets in the way all the time. Hopefully this weekend I can make some progress.

[Captain pugwash]

'Whew Jeff', Sharp is the name and sharp is the nature of this build.

Great work so far matey.

Life is a beach when you really want to get on with the model.

But I am sure you will get there

Nice work so far

Cheers Capt-P

[Jeff Sharp]

I've pretty much got the quarter deck finished. Now I want to focus on the focsle.
First I'd like to focus on the three areas I have arrowed here:


The smallest arrow shows a three pronged chock. The kit's version only has two prongs. I added a third to make it more like the actual one on the ship.
The center arrow shows where the anchor plate is slightly wrong. There should be an elbow right at this large chock. Instead you can see the elbow is a bit further aft of the chock. I think I'll let this one slide and not do any surgery to correct the problem.
The last arrow shows the large vent. I'm not so sure Arizona retained this vent after her '41 refit. As a matter of fact, I can find no evidence of the vent after 1936. Her sister indeed still had a vent in 1941. But did Arizona?
Check out these two pics.



This one also shows no vent in between the two hatches.


Was this vent permanently removed prior to 1941? The plans that Tracy presented says a vent was there but I don't see one.

[Jon C Ryckert]

Jeff,

I like the work you are doing. Can you tell me where you found the video footage that you have shown in the above post? In regards to the vent, I cant say for sure as every pic I have of the ship in 41 is either too distant or the area is covered by the awning.

[PetrolGator]

Jeff,

Wonderful work! I hope you don't mind us saving this as good reference material for our own ships!

[Jeff Sharp]

Can you tell me where you found the video footage that you have shown in the above post?

Thanks Jon. You can get a copy here:
http://www.militaryvideo.com/index.cfm? ... il&search=

Chris, of course I don't mind! Hopefully all future builds will make these same changes.

Here is another view of the three pronged chock just above the sailor on the right:


And here are two more views of the area where the vent should be. In this first pic both hatches are up and no evidence of a vent:


Then two sailors come along to close the hatches which exposes two much smaller vents in the place where the large one is supposed to be:


Conclusion: No large vent was there in 1941. I wonder how that large vent made it onto the plans

Here are the proper vent types and locations on the kit:


The kit also has three vents around this hatch:

By 1941 all of these vents were also removed as seen here:


Also worth noting! None of the hatch covers have port holes. This is another thing that must be fixed on the kit.

[MuseumGeek]

Jeff,
Just having had to go through all sorts of fun trying to find brass wire long enough to make the av gas line with, what did you make yours with? I was playing with .025 music wire, but it turned out to be way too stiff to follow the curves of the hull with. I finally found three foot sections of brass wire that I could use. Thanks, Amazon!

Also, while you are working on the foc'sle, don't forget to replace the small brackety things near the chain plates. I will post a picture of my replacements when I get home tonight.

Matthew