1/700 West Virginia 1941 & USS California 1941 (Pit-Road/TR)

[Pieter]

Gravity and ship models..tell me about it...at least the airgroup on my HMS Glory manage to really fly once -:)
It looks like you are on your way back though. I'm sure it will look better once everything is in place again.

[ModelMonkey]

The recovery is looking terrific so far. Here's some encouragement:

[Dan K]

Yep, that's me to a T.

Bridge wing repaired.

[marijn van gils]

Aaargh, that's painful indeed!


But glad to see you back on the horse already. The bridge wing looks as if nothing ever happened.

If you need a break before tackling the cage masts, I wouldn't mind seeing more of your Hiryu...

[Dan K]

Thx, Marijn.

Yes, in fact, I have been hearing Hiryu calling me as of late.

But, I needed to address the foremast to keep on a roll. It turns out that just one level was destroyed, so I cut a replacement section. Admittedly, it was not a duplicate section, but from elsewhere in a used mainmast stack. I painted and attached it to the loose foremast, but it never sat quite right on the ring below it. It was a bit wobbly. For once, I mustered enough patience to wait for a proper replacement piece to arrive.

I replaced the replacement, and fortunately, this one sat correctly upon the remaining foremast. Even better is that I managed to re-attach the mast in perfect alignment. And, was able to remove the old rigging from the flag bags with debonder, a razor and a file, all without destroying the surrounding area. Not that this wasn't stressful.

In fact, it was very stressful, as was re-rigging the mast over an entire weekend. The concentration required was draining and exhausting. But, I did finished the foremast. I'd say it was 99%+ of what the old one was. Some things better, some not.

Now, I'll take that break.

[Vladi]

Looks awesome, Dan!

[JIM BAUMANN]

Good works, and good repair job!

@ Dan K-- I had a thought...

Those 3D printed cage masts...

On the real thing the inside would be in shadow/ darkness
the lower planes of the rods would be slightly in shade;

how about painting the inside and the outside of the masts dark/ mid grey

and then high-lighting only the outer planes in white; would that make them appear thinner/ more delicate?

worth an experiment ?

( on another mast on another ship!!

cheers
JIM B

[marijn van gils]

Now, I'll take that break.

You earned it! Congrats!

Jim's suggestion makes a lot of sense. It works very well for making thin details like railings look thinner than it actually is; it should work on cagemasts too. I mostly like to do this kind of highlighting by hand (brush), but for cagemast the airbrush would be better indeed: easier, faster, and giving a more even effect.
But indeed, on another project!

[Chris G]

Dan,
you have my sympathy but more ...you have my admiration and respect. Well done. It is not easy to re enter a place on a project we have achieved thru blood, sweat and tears without knowing if we can do as well or better. I had that happen three times on a large 2 plus year project myself, and each time it came out better. but.....

amazing work. truly remarkable. It does remind me of the salvage work that went on in Pearl long ago, they and you have my greatest respect.

Praying for success.

Chris

[Dan K]

Thank you, Chris.

Unsurprisingly, I have been dabbling in the repair while working on other things. Aside from some more guy wire (black) rigging, the mainmast is pretty much done. I wanted to reuse the original mast, but the damage to the yardarms and their mounting locations was significant. Plus, the location of the cagemast damage was problematic. Like the foremast, it broke at only one level, but piecing it back together with 3D printed parts introduced too many stability issues. Easier to use most of a new mast.

I also realized that the birdbath has .50cal ammo boxes mounted on the outside, like MD and TN. So, I used the kit birdbath part plus a 3D MP secondary base this time around. It actually made for a cleaner build with a more secure mounting point for the yardarms. Lastly, I used black Lycra instead of Dai Rikki line, to put less stress on everything. Threading the Lycra into the anchoring holes was challenging, to say the least.

I have decided to add a slightly smaller ring from the mast remnants to stabilize the lowest section of the new mast, which has no bottom ring, and is therefore less stable when placing it atop the stump of the original mainmast. The new ring fits just inside the bottom of the new cage mast section. Test fits are promising.

If nothing else, WeeVee is ready for aircraft. Which have to be built.

[Dan K]

Those last two pics were of WeeVee; I�m not sure if I was clear about that or not.

I was successful in rebuilding, aligning, re-gluing, and re-rigging the mainmast. Or, so it seemed.

[Dan K]

I, of course, managed to damage CA yet again. Though not quite as badly as the last time.

It must have happened during filming a scene from �The Curse of the Prune Barge�, pending release from Universal Pictures.

[Dan K]

I finally fixed the offending yardarm yet again, and re-rigged that as well. Followed by raising her flag and flat-coating her. CA and WeeVee are now temporarily (and safely) under plexiglass, awaiting their Kingfishers. Which I have yet to start.

[maccrage]

Beautiful. The pre-war fit Big 5 are my favorite battleships.

[Vladi]

Fantastic, Dan!

[MartinJQuinn]

I knew you'd be able to save her. Great work!

[Chuck Bauer]

Ditto.

[Dan K]

Thanks very much, friends.

[Pieter]

Excellent. That last picture really captures the silhouet of these ships.

[marijn van gils]

Congratulations Dan!

... for the technical aspect of the repairs (excellent job!), and even more for overcoming the mental implications of the accident.