1/700 USS Pensacola 1942

[Vlad]

It's been a while since I've done a really big conversion project. I've taken a knife to a kit and made a start... but I'm not going to tell you what the end goal is (yet). I doubt this game will last very long but let's see who can work it out first?

Disclaimer: I'm not aiming for a 100% accurate conversion here, just seeing what I can get done with the donor kit and minimal scratchbuild.

[taskforce48]

Turning a Tamiya Indianapolis into a Northampton class? This oughta be good!

Matt

[Vlad]

Well, the donor kit was pretty obvious and there's not a whole lot of places it could go from there. It's quite hard to tease more without giving the game away because the changes involved are pretty extensive. But I don't think this picture fits your answer, Matt.

[taskforce48]

Wow, a Pensacola class, very ambitious! Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Matt

[Quincy]

I can't wait to see the next installment!



Bob Pink.

[Vlad]

Thanks all for the interest

Vlad, are you cutting the foredeck down to get rid of that step?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words:

[taskforce48]

Very impressive!

[ModelMonkey]

Superb!

[Vlad]

Thanks Steve, sorry I chose to cut up the kit turrets rather than buying yours 3D printed but I couldn't resist the challenge.

David, wow, that sounds like a huge project! How far did you get? Wouldn't mind seeing a picture or two if you have them.

I decided to try to do the difficult bits first on this project so I can get them out of the way rather than putting them off and making "empty" progress. I should admit at this stage that I'm "cheating" slightly since I'm using one and a half Tamiya Indianapolis kits. The extra "half" consists of spare parts left from my conversion to Portland, where nearly all the superstructure was replaced with 3D printed parts. The double copies of certain parts have come in incredibly handy! Also there will be contributions from my spares box.

To that end, I've cut, sanded and generally beaten into shape some of the kit bridge parts. Here are the lower and middle bridge levels. Still some sanding to do to get them to line up, then the REALLY hard bit, making the upper bridge level with its wings!

[Vlad]

Got some forward superstructure progress done

[Vlad]

Sorry for changing the thread title again I was actually bouncing back and forth trying to decide which ship this conversion would end up as. I initially settled on Salt Lake City in 1943 (Battle of Komandorski Islands) because I thought the refitted open bridge would be easier to convert from the late war Indianapolis kit. However, I found a convenient way to make the upper bridge level in the original enclosed form, which I prefer visually anyway, and most of my references are of Pensacola, so now this is settled as USS Pensacola in 1942.

It's been full steam ahead this weekend. Major superstructure construction done. Just three difficult things left to tackle, the aft tripod, the searchlight tower, and that awesome iconic forward tripod. Then the tedious stuff, dressing her up with AA, boats, rafts and any other appropriate fittings I can scavenge.

I have a question about the build. Where on the bridge are the directors for the forward set of 1.1" quads located? Can't seem to find these in photos, there are actually some 20mm mounts where I expected them to be.

[Steve]

I'm in the throes of finishing a 1942 Portland from the Tamiya Indianapolis using MM replacement parts and have a spare Indianapolis kit which I would love to do as a Pensacola/SLC. To accomplish that, can I PM questions about measurements, etc., so I don't go off track? Mostly and so far your pics require little added info to do copies from the Indy kit and plastic stock.

[Vlad]

I'm in the throes of finishing a 1942 Portland from the Tamiya Indianapolis using MM replacement parts and have a spare Indianapolis kit which I would love to do as a Pensacola/SLC. To accomplish that, can I PM questions about measurements, etc., so I don't go off track? Mostly and so far your pics require little added info to do copies from the Indy kit and plastic stock.

Sure, feel free to PM me your e-mail address and I can send you the drawings I'm working from (although they're easy to find online if you want to scale them yourself). I didn't annotate much because I wasn't sure people wanted walls of text with the pictures. Also because I do a lot of measurements on the fly just by putting the part down on the scaled drawing, especially when sanding is involved. If you want extra detail let me know where and I'll cross-reference with the Indianapolis kit instructions and tell you which parts I used (or chopped up) for what purpose.

[Quincy]

Great progress, Vlad!



Bob Pink

[Vlad]

So, this stalled a bit during the week but so far today I've managed to tackle all the three major bits of work I mentioned above. Lots of help from the spares box in these areas. A little bit messy with making holes to line up the tripod legs, this is the last time I'm scratchbuilding a tripod mast for a while!

At this stage this is essentially all major construction/conversion done, just fitting out to do now!

[taskforce48]

Very impressive, she certainly is looking the part

Matt

[maxim]

Really an interesting conversion! I would not have thought about that starting point.

[Vlad]

Thanks. As I said I'm not aiming for superderail and correct to the last rivet, just to do something different and hopefully generate some inspiration as this class is badly represented in kit form.

Nobody noticed (or was too polite to say) my tripod forward leg is rather wonky in that shot (too straight)! I've now corrected this and done most of the AA and fittings but stalled again during the week.

I'm hoping to finish the upper masts, scrape some radar sets from PE spares and take some final pictures before priming this weekend.

[Dan K]

A great, smart project. I'll bet it's been a lot of fun so far.

[Vlad]

Yup, it has been fun. I enjoy seeing what can be done and focusing on big changes rather than getting stuck into superdetailing.

I managed a nice burst of progress this morning, at this stage I'm happy with the details and clutter and construction is complete barring some major revelations. I'm hoping to rattle my can and prime this tomorrow but any last-minute feedback would be appreciated in case I missed a 20mm somewhere.