1/200 USS Iowa 1943

[Fliger747]

Jason:

Your ship's stern looks good, see that you are getting the knuckles in there. Interesting quad copter video, you would get shot down, arrested or at least surrounded by a SWAT team at Pearl! Would be great to get in close and photograph some of those inaccessible details! Interesting she had two of her radars rotating!

Cheers: Tom

[Fliger747]

Jason!

Yes life gets busy which is one reason these things seem to take forever, or longer. Your hull looks terrific, one item you might check out is there should be a short centerline keel skeg at the start of the stern tunnel. You can see it in the cutaway cross sections of the ship, apparently to help support the weight of turret three when in dry dock. If you have Garzke-Dulin p149, final body plan. Also shown at frame 160 1/2 crrossection through turret three, page 145.

Cheers. Tom

[Channell]

Thanks for the heads up Tom... I didn't know there was a third skeg way under there. I'll check to see if it's feasible to do at this point, as I didn't exactly measure the length of the tunnel and just let it end where the curve meets the flat.

[Fliger747]

Pretty easy to add, I posted a couple of drawings showing it over in the CASF thread. You can just add it with a couple of pieces of strip material. Called a docking keel, I guess to take the weight of turret three.

[Channell]

I found some new USS Iowa documentation and realized I've really screwed up on my hull... looks like I did it all completely wrong:




Luckily I think I can salvage it with a table saw, a heat gun and a giant-sized bucket of Bondo. Anyone know where I can get a 1/3 scale anime babe in a cute dress?

[Goodwood]

If you don't mind subtitles and want to see some WWII-inspired future sci-fi weirdness, watch Arpeggio of Blue Steel, which is available on Netflix's streaming service.

Imagine Kirishima or Takao with neon-accented paint jobs and run by good-looking AI girls...

[Fliger747]

No wonder when I saw that girl in Nagoya she wouldn't give me the time of the day... I was wearing my USS Missouri, Pearl Harbor hat...

[Angeliccypher]

Jason, you are quite skilled in my opinion. I am not too sure you could hand that level of curvature or articulation that would be needed to properly display an anime girl. Although it would be funny as hell to watch anyone from this site actually do a WIP on something like that.

[Channell]

Meh, anime babes are easy. The hard part is trying to explain to the wife why there is box full of small plastic naked women parts hidden deep within in your stash... and in a box that should have really boring tank parts in it according to the box art. Luckily, I have a teenage son and a contingency plan.

I know watching this log might give one the impression that I'm dinking around, being that we're now into month 4 of the build and I'm STILL on page 1 of the instruction manual... and you'd be right! This is a hobby after all and I'm in no hurry.

But it wasn't all for nothing... presenting the world exclusive unveiling of the virtually completely reshaped Trumpeter 1/200 Iowa class hull, now looking far more sexy and Iowa-ish than Trumpeter could muster for us before :















My mods (and my fixes for my mods) have left the maindeck a desolate wasteland that will require some extensive work of their own in the near future





... but at least everything is smooth with just the slightest hint of camber, hopefully another new feature that will add realism later on.

I've also been working on the anchor hawsepipes; in kit form you could see straight through port to starboard and could not get the anchors to fit inside as per the real thing. Likewise, the center hawsepipe was too low and just a hole that was not connected to the deck. It's taken some substantial putty and careful reaming out with a dremmel but they now look and function as they should and will add some more realism missing from the stock kit.



I also added the paravane chain padeye on the bottom of the bow bulb:




Finally, I started working on the bow 20mm platform; it's basically a blob of plastic out of the box that bears little resemblance to the real thing and is identical to the platform in the Missouri kit, which is wrong for the Iowa anyway. I've done a bunch of reshaping but I'm thinking I may need to start over again from scratch, as Iowa had a platform that was shaped differently from her sisters... probably too different to tease the right shape out of the kit piece.



Anyway, the fun continues... as always comments, critique and banter are always welcome!

[JimVarnellABH2USN]

Jason,
If and or when I get this kit, I'll just send you the hull and you can fix it up for me, it really looks great, looking forward to more progress on this beast.

[BB62vet]

Jason,

You've really done well on this - VERY impressive!!!

I'm esp. interested in your treatment of the 3 hawse pipe holes up forward - that will need attention on my build, as well.

Hank

[Channell]

Jason,
If and or when I get this kit, I'll just send you the hull and you can fix it up for me, it really looks great, looking forward to more progress on this beast.

You bet!

... but you'd better take out that second mortgage because I ain't cheap!

[Channell]

Jason,

You've really done well on this - VERY impressive!!!

I'm esp. interested in your treatment of the 3 hawse pipe holes up forward - that will need attention on my build, as well.

Hank

Thanks again Hank!

If it's not too late, you'd be smart to grind out the inside top aft corner of the hawsepipes before assembling it all; unless you are a dentist it's gets tricky to do afterwards. On the deck side of the hawsepipes, the chain ramps (not sure of the correct name for them) are too shallow and need deepening too.

After grinding I just packed the whole interior void around the hawsepipes with Squadron putty and carefully formed out the interior of the hawse with a wooden kabob stick before it dried, then cleaned it up with a needle file after.

The center hawse got the same basic treatment; I made the ring around the pipe with a solid piece of .020 styrene cut to the right outer rim shape and then glued over the hole. After drying, I drilled out the center of the styrene piece and ground/filed the inside to create the ring, then packed it with putty and poked the hole though +filing afer it all dried.

Also, not sure if I mentioned it yet but the kit prow is wrong; it's way too stubby and flattened. Luckily it's fairly easy to reshape it with putty and some judicious filing/sanding.

Here's a couple earlier in-progress pic to help illustrate:





I could use some help on the deckside shape of the center hawsepipe; I haven't been able to find a decent picture of it and I suspect it isn't the oval shape I currently have...

[BB62vet]

Jason,

Thanks for the info re. the hawse holes, etc.

As for your question - the center hawse hole IS an oval, see photo:

As you can see, the oval changes INSIDE to a more circular opening up to the deck above.

Hope this helps.

Hank

[Channell]

I mean the other end of the hole, where emerges onto the deck under the 20mm platform...

[BB62vet]

Jason,

OK, I'll check that out and compare to the MISSOURI Plan Book - those drawings are quite accurate.

Hank

[chuck]

I mean the other end of the hole, where emerges onto the deck under the 20mm platform...

For whatever it's worth due to oblique angle, here is one:

http://navsource.org/archives/01/061/016130b.jpg

It appears the deck opening for the center hawse hole is a long oval.


Note the anchor chain ramps on the deck opening for the anchor hawse holes seem to be a lot taller than trumpeter's depicted them, also, each of them is higher on the outboard side than on the inboard side.

Note the pulley wheels for the paravane chain.

[Channell]

I've got that pic; it's hard to tell on the center hawsepipe because it's got that cover plate on it.

You're absolutely right on the chain ramps though; Trumpeter's version is completely wrong. I planned on reworking them too.

I suspect that will be par for the course... the deeper I dig, the more accuracy issues I find. Still, it will be fun to fix them!



Hank, I'd be grateful... I don't have the planbook.

[Channell]

I gave in to peer pressure and added the third hull skeg:



One things for sure... Iowa is a girl. I admit I was skeptical about it but I rechecked my resources and sure enough, it's there on the real thing... so I guess that means it belongs on my Iowa.

And here's a couple of final 'Wow, what a difference!" shots to help condemn my fellow big Iowa class modelers to a 50+ hour crazy sidetrack on their builds:





Yea, it was worth it.

It's nearly time to turn her right side up for good. Next up are the hull plates/plate lines; I've done some research/experimenting and have a plan, though there's no guarantee it will work.

Stand by for more drama, terror, lewd naval engineering jokes and a fool being parted with his money all for the sake of a dream... to build the perfect big model of my favorite ship.

[Goodwood]

I like your style, ya mad bastard!