1/200 Arizona finally DONE!

[Goodwood]

She's really starting to come together now, Jeff. Keep up the awesome work!

[GazzaS]

This is a very nice build.

[kylewoody]

This is just shaping up awesome! The research and detail is so precise, and it looks great. Especially that water in the background of photos!


Kyle

[WingRider68]

Looking great..it is definately amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jeff Sharp]

Thanks guys!
I'm not too happy with the look of WEM's photo etch representation of the flag bags inside of the flag lockers. Right now it looks more like a carton of eggs than a flag locker. I'll probably scrap these and do something else.

[Angeliccypher]

Your research and attention to detail are nothing short of awesome. I would rank this among some of the best in those categories of everything I have seen on these forums. It makes me ashamed to even think about starting my 1/350 version of her.

[Jeff Sharp]

Your research and attention to detail are nothing short of awesome. I would rank this among some of the best in those categories of everything I have seen on these forums. It makes me ashamed to even think about starting my 1/350 version of her.

Thanks Gabriel! I don't know about all that! The amount of talent on this board never seizes to amaze me. Hopefully this thread helps you with your Arizona build.

[Christian M.]

Absolutly great and awesome work and detail orgy showing even the smallest corrections necessary to be done!
I plan to make ne day in nearer future this ship too (around place 3 or 4 on the to do list).

One single question I have, because I did not find the explanation for it in this thread here (maybe I oversaw it?):

You made only turret B and D with red top, why didn't you made turret A with red top too? As far as I know had turret A a red top too ... but maybe I'm wrong?

[Jeff Sharp]

You made only turret B and D with red top, why didn't you made turret A with red top too? As far as I know had turret A a red top too ... but maybe I'm wrong?

Hi Christian,
For some reason both the Arizona and Nevada only had their #2 turrets painted red through at least the first part of 1941 whereas the rest of the fleet had both 1 and 2 tops painted by then. You can see pics on page 1 and 9 of this thread.
So, I would question if either Arizona or Nevada ever painted their #1 turrets red before the attack on Pearl. Right now, there is not enough proof that either did. The real question is what happened to turret top #1 when the ship was painted into MS-1.

[Christian M.]

You made only turret B and D with red top, why didn't you made turret A with red top too? As far as I know had turret A a red top too ... but maybe I'm wrong?

Hi Christian,
For some reason both the Arizona and Nevada only had their #2 turrets painted red through at least the first part of 1941 whereas the rest of the fleet had both 1 and 2 tops painted by then. You can see pics on page 1 and 9 of this thread.
So, I would question if either Arizona or Nevada ever painted their #1 turrets red before the attack on Pearl. Right now, there is not enough proof that either did. The real question is what happened to turret top #1 when the ship was painted into MS-1.

Hi Jeff,
sorry, but picture on page 1 wasn't visible for me yesterday.
I don't find in moment the source I found ... maybe I become slowly old ... but as far as I can remember the flag ships of the squadrons had later 3 turret tops painted in colour (beside red others in blue and white).

Anyway, another question: You know for sure this huge (1/96 ?) scale model at Arizonal memorial. What do you think about this model?

[Jeff Sharp]

Anyway, another question: You know for sure this huge (1/96 ?) scale model at Arizonal memorial. What do you think about this model?

Yes, I know it well. Don Pruel did a nice job on it. Unfortunately it has a few inaccuracies but none that the general public would pick up on.

[Tracy White]

For reference to those that might not be familiar with the model being referenced, Don Pruel's 1/96 USS Arizona BB-39 on display at some place I hate the name of.

Don's admitted to some of the issues himself, and not just when grilled by packs of angry accuracy police - he's been up front about a couple of them. I don't build lists of other people's kit flaws, but from what I remember, he has the aviation gas line on both sides of the hull as opposed to just the port side, the degaussing cables are missing, and each set of the empty gun tubs have minor problems (forward tubs shouldn't have a metal deck, aft set has the director pedestal wrong, but there's still a lot unknowns about those pedestals, so no one really knows what's 100% right). I'm sure there's more, but honestly, it's a great build and I hate to spend time looking at it looking for things that are incorrect as opposed to looking at it to better understand the ship and crew.

At one point when he first re-assembled it on site he put the forward fighting top on backwards and the radar platform was on the FRONT. Thankfully he caught that one before all of the assemblies had arrived so he still had plenty of time to spin it....

Got unsubscribed or missed an update at some point and might have some comments, but will have to see when I can get time to chase a couple of things down.

[Christian M.]

Thank you for all these informations guys

[Tracy White]

Thats when I noticed that Trumpeter accidentally put two shields on the wrong side of the ship. The third shield back on each side should actually be on the opposite side.

This made me think of something when I read it yesterday and I've confirmed it on the ship. My kit's mostly packed away and I haven't had a chance to see if this is correctly replicated on the model or if they made the same mistake that they did on the 350th CA-38 San Francisco. Both have the same feature, I can confirm, and it's a subtle but potentially annoying one for those that want to fix it if it exists on the 200th Arizona.

The Navy, in its wisdom, decided that the splinter shields that were to be added to ships during the King Board upgrades in 1940-41 were to be essentially the same shape for ease of construction. That means that the shields on the port side were rotated 180 degrees and installed on the starboard side (or vice versa, depending on your point of view). So, the "point" on the outboard side was FORWARD on the starboard side of the ships and AFT on the port side. Trumpeter had them all forward or aft on the San Francisco, and I'm wondering if the Arizona kit has the same issue.

For reference, Plate III on San Francisco's Guadalcanal damage report and Page #6 (boat deck / superstructure deck level) of Arizona's Booklet of General Plans.

[Jon C Ryckert]

I appears to me when looking at my kit that they are in fact mirror images of each other. Jeff, hate to say this but you may have to redo one side of the kit that may have been correct Hoping that you don't have to.

[Jeff Sharp]

Holy crap! I can't believe I have to back the bus up again on these splinter shields! No wonder the shields on the plans appear the way they do! When I initially noticed it, I said to myself "Nah, no way were they really like that. Must be a mistake!" Got to get creative now to make it right. Does anyone have any extra shields they are not using? Anyone doing a pre '41 version?

[Tracy White]

Sorry I didn't think to look at that earlier =/
It's probably like that on the 700th scale BBs as well.

[Jeff Sharp]

Sorry I didn't think to look at that earlier =/

No worries! I'm glad you brought it up. All this discovery and pain we are going though to get it right should make the next build of her go smooth as hell

[Tracy White]

It's also what's great about working on projects like this with a bunch of eyes. Who'd think that 70 years later there were still mysteries for us to discover, and that there's so many blasted details that it's impossible for one person to know and see them all!

[Jeff Sharp]

Ok, so this may not be as bad as I initially thought. The port side is in good shape. On the starboard side I just need to reposition the point on the 3rd and 4th shields. Hopefully I can do a little scoring and bending to reshape these two shields.

Back on the flag bridge, I fabricated a couple of saluting rifles, scraped the WEM photo etch on the flag lockers and added the KA etch detail. No more egg cartons!