Trumpeter 1/200 USS Missouri Build Log (Sept 2015 - ?????)

[robertmelvin]

Also, build it to your satisfaction, there is a lot of people that build trying to impress others and loss the joy of building these huge kits, so take it day by day part by part and it will all come together in the end.

Well said, Jim, very well said. The joy of building should be the primary thing since it is, after all, a hobby and therefore supposed to be fun. I'm satisfied that if you could build the "perfect" model of any ship, there would be those who would find nits to pick. The only nit I have to pick is with those who would are so focused on complete accuracy for a ship in such and such a period in its career that it kills the fun in building.
Of course, for them, maybe that impossible quest for an unattainable degree of accuracy is the fun, but I don't think that holds true for most of us. Just my opinion.

And Larry, while I genuinely appreciate your suggestion that I join in the madness of building one of these monsters, I think I'll pass for the sake of my wallet, my eyesight and my sanity. I got a taste of building in big scales with Revell's 1/144 Fletcher and discovered that the big kits bring their own particular set of problems, and that was just with a DD! If its all the same to you, I'll content myself to live vicariously though your experiences.

Bob

[Channell]

Evening Gents...
...The reason I bring this up here is that I found this website where a guy named Peter Shaw built a 1/6 scale replica of this gun. This model is incredible, and if you want a good definition of the term "Insane Modeler" I urge you to check this out. This guy's wife must've given up on him years ago!

http://www.vonabt.co.uk/models/Dora/DoraBuild.htm

About halfway down the page, there's a place where you can click that takes you to his photo gallery. It blew my mind!

Have a nice evening Gents! I gotta go water my wife's flowers and plants!

It's a sure sign you've crossed the true madness threshold when you'd need a pickup truck to tow your giant artillery model around.

Anyway, what Hank was talking about with the porthole shields (aboard the USS Iowa):

The Pontos kit includes the round "circle with an x through them" covers but it would be inaccurate to glue them on the outside... you'd have to do some creative grinding or porthole replacement from the inside of the porthole to make 'em look right.

There are those roughly oval shaped covers on the tower which both Trumpeter and Pontos curiously forgot about but the round ones operate from the inside.

[steinerman]

Hey Jim, Thanks for the shout - and the welcome. I've been following your build and if you say I've got my hands full! Good grief man, you're building a whole community! But then, if I had the size room you have, I'd be building an HO layout instead of this ship! Great work, by the way. Think you'll ever get it finished?

And thanks Jason, for the clarification. Now I understand what you were talking about. I may try to fabricate the tower covers myself - I'll see when I get that far.

Now onto my build. I think I have the anchors looking about as good as I'm going to get them. In looking at pictures of Iowa Class stowed anchors, I saw one thing in all the photos: The shank of the anchor was resting in the hawsepipe at a very large angle from the flukes, almost 90 degrees, to be exact. The problem with the anchors on this kit is that the shank can't be positioned at much of an angle, maybe 10 degrees at most. So, the only thing to do is to increase this angle.

The first thing I did was to get the smallest rotary file I had and use my Dremel to very carefully grind away a part of the anchor body at an angle so that the shank would have a little more angular play. You have to be careful not to grind away too much - need I remind you these are small parts and this kit costs mega bucks!

Now we have a little more play, but not enough to achieve what we need. So, again using the Dremel with the small rotary file, I ground a small depression in the side of the shank. Make sure you get the correct side!

This gives us even more play, but still not enough. We're getting there, but I was afraid to cut any more away from the anchor itself. Besides, I'd opened up the angle between the shank and the flukes to about 4 times what it was when I started.

The next thing I did was to grind away the excess plastic from the inside of the bow where the shank will rest.

This whole process is a cut and fit operation, where you grind a little, test fit, grind some more, test fit again, and so on until you get the whole thing to look right. I think I got it about where I want.

Now, all I have to do is putty the inside of the hawsepipe so it looks like a real ship and then off th the races!

Side Note: How long does it take TFD to fill an order? I sent it in over a week ago and got an acknowledgement the next day, but not a peep since.

[BB62vet]

Larry,

Typ. USN Stockless Anchor has a 45 deg. swing in either direction. As shown -

How long does TFD take to fill orders? Well, do you remember the episode of Seinfeld where they go to the Chinese Restaurant and ask the manager how long a wait? His reply was "Oh 5, maybe 10 minute" - Well, TFD sends out their orders in "OH, maybe 5, 10, 20 day - You wait!!"
Don't despair, it'll get there!

When I get to the anchors on my build, I am planning on showing them in a released position; at least one of them.

Conning Tower ports/covers:
Larry wrote:

And thanks Jason, for the clarification. Now I understand what you were talking about. I may try to fabricate the tower covers myself - I'll see when I get that far.

Well, they are DIFFERENT from the round ports on a bulkhead - these are oval openings in the conning tower that have an EXTERNAL cover which can be opened/closed as conditions dictate:

This is WASHINGTON's conning tower showing the openings described. Since the kit parts are molded with only the opening represented, you could simply drill out the oval opening and add a piece of plastic the same shape below the opening to represent the cover. Depending on how "detailed" you want to be, taper the cover at 45 deg. along the inside edge as this is a thick sheet of steel - but, I think that's a bit of over-kill and probably would not attempt it.

Hope this helps!

[JimVarnellABH2USN]

Hey Jim, Thanks for the shout - and the welcome. I've been following your build and if you say I've got my hands full! Good grief man, you're building a whole community! But then, if I had the size room you have, I'd be building an HO layout instead of this ship! Great work, by the way. Think you'll ever get it finished?

Hey Larry,
Well I am certainly going to give it my best to finish this monster, I feel like the remaining phase's are going to go a lot easier now that I have all the mistakes out of the way. I guess we'll see in about 2.5 more years where I end up at and how much is left. Also, Thanks for following along with my build as well.

[steinerman]

Patch, sand, inspect. Patch some more, sand and inspect. Patch again....................

Close your eyes and run your finger lightly along the length of the hull. If you can feel where the bow seam is, you're not done yet!

This hull was large without the bow, but once you attach it, this ship is mammoth! I will say, though, that the shape of this hull is sleek and really nice looking, even if it isn't totally accurate.

[steinerman]

Howdy,

I'm still able to spend a few hours a day on this project, but it'll soon be time to start putting things away for fall, cutting back flowers and perennials and then - ugh -raking leaves. But then, I've got all winter to play with this ship. Well, when I'm not out blowing snow, that is!!

I didn't get a lot done on the ship this past few days. I have the hull all sanded and patched where the parts attach to it, but mainly, I've been building the stand. I chose not to mount it on pedestals, but instead on a series of wood blocks to simulate ways. The base itself is oak and the ways are black walnut. It's now routed, sanded, and stained with a couple coats of satin poly over the top. I haven't screwed the boat down yet - I need to mount the rudders & props, then paint the bottom. I'm still waiting on the two detail kits - they should be here this week, and Lord only knows when I'll get my order from The Floating Drydock.

Here's where I'm at right now:

[robertmelvin]

Larry, definitely a good choice on the mounting base. Not only more stable and thus safer for the model, but it has a certain sturdy look that befits this grand floating castle of steel.

Bob

[steinerman]

Hi Guys,

Look what came in the mail today!!

Yeah both of them! Now I can go to work - well, if my wife doesn't have other plans, that is. I haven't had a lot of time to work on it this week. I did put a coat of primer on the hull to see where my imperfections were. Then, after I corrected them, I wet sanded it with 1200 paper and put a second coat on. I do have the curved strakes along the sides glued on (not sure what they're called) and the seams all filled & sanded. I dry fitted the deck in place tonight and taped it down prior to sanding the top of the hull even with the decking. Then I get to sit back and try to figure out how to glue a 2mm strip of 1mm thick styrene to the top of the hull to simulate the top lip of the hull. And if you think that's going to be fun, wait till I try to glue a 2mm round rod on top of that lip!!! I'm sure if you gents open your windows and listen carefully, you'll be able to hear me swear!

So far, though, it's looking real good, but let me tell you, the name of the game is patience!! If you try to hurry it up, you may as well pack it away and go play with dolls. (And speaking of that- I saw on Facebook today that they have a doll out now that - get this - has her period!! How sick is that!!!!!)

Some of you were wondering about the brass screws that comes with the Pontos Advanced kit. Here is a shot of them side by side with the plastic kit ones. Between you and me, I think they look just great, and I can't see spending more for another set.

As to what's in this Advanced Detail Kit, here's a list:

(20) Veteran Model 40mm Quad Bofors Gum Mounts (Less Barrels)
Each gun mount has 7 resin pieces and 21 brass parts
(20) MK51-Mod.2 Gun Director
Each has 1 resin body and 4 brass parts
(5) 36" Searchlights
Each has Resin light & Mount (2 Pieces), clear glass lens, & 6 brass parts
(9) High Angle Blast Bags (Resin) for mounting the 16" guns elevated
(2) Brass 4 bladed screws (1 each right & left)
(2) Brass 5 bladed screws (1 each right & left)
(6) Pelican Hook Chain Stoppers
Each has 1 resin part & 1 brass part
(10) Loudspeakers (Resin)
(8) Fire Angled Petcock (Resin with brass wheel)
(16) Fire Petcock, Straight (Resin with brass wheel)
(2) Frets PE parts (Mostly for Bofors 40mm guns)
(1) Instruction Sheet, 8-1/2 x 11 double sided

If you have a compelling desire to see any of these parts, let me know and I'll stick photos up on my Flickr page.

I guess that's it till next time. (Jason, How in the hell did you glue that strip on the top of the hull?? You're talking about 100 inches plus here!!!!)

Peace, Friends

[Channell]

All it will cost you is a couple bags of evergreen strips, some styrene cement... and your eternal soul.



Seriously though, it's a bit tricky to pull off. On mine I first sanded and puttied the edges of the hull smooth with the deck and made a sharp 45 degree angle between the deck and hull. Then I carefully glued a couple bags worth of .010X.020 evergreen strips vertically along the edge (and at a matching angle with the hull on the bow) with styrene cement a few inches at a time and as close to even with the hull edge as possible. Next I puttied/sanded/filler primed the outside seam several times until I worked it seamlessly into the hull. Finally comes the rod; Brass .020 thick is probably best...carefully glued on top (leaving a constant thickness overhang on the outside hull so it doesn't look wavy) with white glue or CA if you are really good at photoetch.

You absolutely NEED to use putty that melts itself into plastic too (Tamiya or squadron white/green putty).

It is a giant PITA and will make you drink heavily and/or question the existence of the creator but in the extreme model shipbuilding world, that's what we call 'fun".

[robertmelvin]

You guys are making me seriously consider taking up base jumping!

Seriously, Larry, if the rest of that Pontos set looks as good as those props, you have hit the mother lode. I've not personally taken on a Pontos set yet. I'd probably get their Indianapolis set, but I already bought LionRoar's detail up set for that one. Still....... Please keep us updated on how you find it to be to use.

It looks like you are sharpening the bow just a bit as you install the bow piece, Larry. The base kit piece does look like it could use it.

Keep on keepin' on, brother.

Bob

[steinerman]

Well, it's Sunday night and since it's cloudy outside and I can't see the eclipse of the Blood Moon, I guess I'll take a minute and update you on my Monster Mo. I haven't done much this weekend because Wifey wanted me to finish up a job in the basement. She saw this light fixture on Pintrest and said to herself "My Hubby can make one like that." So I did. And, for those of you that are wondering, I did all the tile work too.

I did get the red anti-fouling color on the hull this weekend. I was sort of surprised at the color - it looks a lot more brown than I figured, but that's the color the color chart said to paint the bloody thing. When I get the black, blue, and grey on it I suppose it will look alright. It really does resemble the lead based anti-fouling paint they used to use on ships, though. I'm using Tamiya acrylics as I've always had excellent luck with Tamiya paints. This color happens to be their "Hull Red". Should be more like "Hull Reddish Brown".

I haven't used an air brush in ages and I had to practice a bit until I figured out what I was doing. I'm used to my auto touch-up gun and my big HVLP spray gun so this little thing felt like a toy. I will say this - it's a lot easier to clean out!

It's going to be another busy week on the home front, so I'm not sure how much I'll get done. I'm going to work next on the stern - prop shafts, screws, couplings, and sacrificial anodes. More pictures when I have something to post. Until then, have a great week and stay happy!

[Goodwood]

The color that Tamiya calls "Hull Red" really isn't, at least not in any navy I've ever heard of. To get the right kind of red, I suggest going over what you've got down now with a relatively thin coat of Tamiya Flat Red; that kind of base and top seems to work fairly well for me, at any rate.

Nice work on the light fixture, too!

[steinerman]

Hi Guys,

Time for an October 1 update and I've run into a problem.

First, the update: I didn't like the color of Tamaya's "Hull Red" so I sanded it down with 1200 grit paper and resprayed it with a mix of 1 part Hull Red and 3 parts flat insignia red. The result is exactly what I wanted so I'm a happy camper right now. The only other thing I've done the past few days was to glue the deck on and sand the top of the hull even with the decking in preparation to gluing the .01"x.02" styrene to simulate the hull lip.

I also glued 1-1/4" steel fender washers to the underside of the deck under the 16" gun turret locations. I'm going to glue rare earth magnets to the bottoms of the turrets so that they will be secured but yet turn and can be removed if necessary.

Now, my problem: I'm totally confused as to the width of the boot topping. One post I found says that the width at the bow should be 6' - 1-1/2" and at the stern, 29-1/2" [W.L. Upshaw]. Divided by 1/200, this is .3675" and .1475" at the bow and stern respectively. The other post I found says the topping is 7' wide at the bow and 3' at the stern [James]. Again, this is .420" and .180" on a 1/200 scale model.

My problem is this makes no sense when I compare it to the photos of the builds I see here of the Iowa class ships. No way are they that narrow at the stern. In fact, on most of the builds I sees, the boot topping are practically the same width from stem to stern, and it is a lot wider than 1/8" or 3/16".

What width is the boot topping - really? Since the folks at The Floating Drydock have decided to wait till Hell freezes over before sending my order, I don't have the actual plans to figure out what is actually correct. Can you kind folks enlighten me?

Thanks.

[Channell]

Thought I'd try to help as I have the TFL plan broadside hanging on my storage room wall but I'm afraid it's not particularly useful for the boot topping...





Honestly if it was me... (and someday it will be me) I would keep the width the same bow to stern... while it may not be technically accurate (and what IS accurate... the Mo's boot top has been painted who knows how many hundreds of times!) there's a good chance a varying width will come of as a bad paint job on a miniature.

Interested to see what you come up with!

[James M]

L Upshaw is correct on the dimensions. I just rounded them up because the difference at this scale is too small to notice.

The dimensions came from the BuShips drawing.
The tapered boot top has to do with the amount of reserve buoyancy an Iowa has.
As she the fuel tanks empty the bow rises faster than the stern, it's narrower and has less buoyancy.

I don't think anyone has ever seen a Iowa from bow to stern out of the water in one picture.
The dry dock photos are optical delusions as there is no overall perspective of the whole hull like you get from a scale replica.

The stripe looks taller at the stern because its curved. The height is not the actual width of the stripe.
It's the height of the top of the stripe from the keel and the height of the bottom from the keel.
The top of the stripe is parallel to the keel.



I would say paint it the way you want and the way you feel it should be.


James

[Channell]

Another point... the Trumpeter hull is not quite the same shape as the real Missouri Hull, so scaled down real boot top dimensions will not look the same. Seems like "artistic license" is in order...

[Fliger747]

The boot topping height to use is the one from the drawings for the period in question. The boot top has change many times over the lives of the ships and was even changed radically during reserve and museum periods. The iowa hulls lacked volume aft and reside near the design waterline aft when empty and rise as much as 15 feet at the bow when in a similar condition. For war loading a certain loading range was anticipated for operations and the boot top wider at the bow to allow for expected variations.

Some fun and games marking the waterline, especially if it is not parallel to the baseline. I used a heavy machinists base with adjustable arm, holding a soft pencil and ran around the ship on a smooth flat base. Masking at the stern with the angles and curves is extra fun!

T

[BB62vet]

Larry,

The last 3 posts should give you a clue - this topic has been discussed at length in prior posts either on the WIP or CASF/Battleships/IOWA Class, etc.

James M. mentioned something that is a bit hard to realize, but entirely true - the boot topping is NOT parallel as far as the lower extent of it is shown - it curves with the hull therefore not really being a straight line in reality.

The other comment regarding time period or era of the model is very important. My boot topping is wider than that of the ship during WWII or Korean War/50's - and I have plenty of photo documentation to go along with TFD drawings as well as other drawn plans.

Spend some time looking thru the forum for this discussion - it is worth reading.

Hope this helps,

Hank

Weather update - NC is in the middle of steady rain - not cats & dogs, but steady. Hope tomorrow is a bit dryer!

[steinerman]

Good morning gents,

Just checking in to say "Hi" and to let you know I'm still upright and sucking air. I've been busier that a hooker on bargain day this past week on real life issues of maintain a house and keeping the wife happy and haven't had a whole lot of time to play with my big toy. But, I did learn two valuable lessons:

1: Don't try to cut corners and rush things.
2: Don't work on your ship when you're tired.

Impatience got the better of me when I was striking the waterline and I used an unstable makeshift jig that didn't work for beans. I made a heck of a mess and it took forever. Plus, I wanted to be cool and make a tapered boot topping just to show the world I could. Well, 80% of the bottom line looks OK, but the stern is a disaster. The whole thing looks so bad I'm going to sand the edges down and start all over. Actually, to be truthful, it isn't as bad as it sounds, because I found a couple spots on the hull that were rough and needed a little work. I'm still going to taper the boot topping (Try to, anyway), but I think that around the stern I'll just gently transition it to a straight line even with the keel. Trying to make it look right the other way is a pain in the keester.

On another topic, I got hold of Tom at Floating Drydock to find out what the hold-up on my order was. Turns out the anchor chains are on back order and he was holding the order until they came in. So now he's going to send the remainder of the order, plus some PE hatches and handwheels I also ordered and then send the chains when they arrive. So, all is well, and TFD is once again in my good graces.

And with that I'm going to go work on my "Honey-Do" list for today. Take care all, and remember the Engineers motto: "If it ain't broke, take it apart and fix it!"

Cheers