It's good to know that I can still surprise myself at how dumb I can be at times.
After painting the upper-two tones on the hull, I decided it was time to paint the AF-red on the bottom. I actually had the paint
mixed and in my brush before realizing that every single Iowa - even the Missouri - was built with FOUR screws, not two. D'oh!
So I've spent a good amount of time correctly locating the outboard shafts - this is something I should have done in the 3D model but somehow overlooked - and then upgrading the kit parts. The flange on the inboard shaft has been causing me fits, but I think I've almost got it. The outboard strut is as close as I can get without actual builder's drawings, and is to scale per FDD plans and photos. I decided to post a raw in-process photo in case someone sees something really out of whack. I haven't had too much time to work on this lately, but hope to spend most of tomorrow at the bench, so if you see something, please chime in.
To Mike Connelley: I am not willing to part with the native SW files - too much sweat and blood invested. However if the STL files are not reverse-engineer-able that would be fine. The printer I use is also a 10x10x10 and it takes two runs to print all the parts (the overall length of the replaced section is 19.0").
I would also be happy to print a set for you at cost (which is not much - the tray and the raw material only). There are several others in line already, and please note that the current total time to print the parts is three days... and I still need to make some final changes (adding the outboard shaft for instance).
Send me a PM and we can discuss timeline.
Randy