The Ship Model Forum

OK, you gents like pictures, so here are a few. The first ones are the catapults. Dang little critters are sure delicate. Ya can't hardly pick them up without bending a railing (or two). And by the way, the coin is a US dime - placed there to give you an idea of the relative size.
Here's the Crane.
I really don't like the plastic dual upper pulleys that comes with the ship kit. It makes a very nice looking part look bad. I'm going to keep my eyes open for something else I can use to replace this clunky looking part. You also might wonder about the two cylindrical looking parts on top of the crane. I have no idea what they are, but they appear on TFD's plans and in their plan book on this ship. They also show up in Stefan Dramnski's book of 3-Drawings of this ship
I'm not sure how many photos you can have in one post, so I'm going to break this up into 2 posts. More to follow -

OK, here's part 2:

Here we have the Crane Control.
Next comes the two 5" dummy loaders. I'm surprised that the Pontos kits for this model doesn't provide any added parts for these. The 2 pieces of PE used on each loader comes from the kit itself.
Here are the load carts for the catapults. I said earlier I wasn't going to put the tow bars on them. I lied. I also have a dummy car done, but I don't see a lot of point in showing it here.
Here are the Paravanes. These were really nasty little buggers - to me anyway!
And last, here's the cable reels. For the bigger ones, I used fine copper wire I got from a coil out of an old TV set I tore apart. For the small ones, I wrapped a couple layers of this same wire around a toothpick and after I painted it black, I coated it with clear Krylon to keep it from unraveling when I cut it into small pieces.
And with that, I guess that's it for right now. Now I'm going to go back to work on the hull. Lots to do there yet before progress any further.

Are we having fun yet? HELL YEAH!!!

Larry

If you download page 13 of the 1/200 Iowa instructions from Pontos' website it shows the practice loading machines and the sky lookouts. I think all of this photo etch is in the Missouri detail set sheet #6, parts 376-379 for the loading machines and part 314 for the sky lookouts.

Then on page 9 of the Iowa instructions parts 751 and 752 are used on the MK 51 directors and they are on Missouri sheet #12.

I tried sending you the Iowa pages but I can't seem to copy and attach them to this post.

Hope this helps.

It's looking good and it's sure a marathon, took me roughly 3 years.

Lloyd

Larry

Here are pages 9 and 13 of the Pontos Iowa set.

Hope this works.


http://i.imgur.com/rF9mNBv.png

http://i.imgur.com/7ZwJlFD.png

Lloyd

Very impressive Larry. I might have to sell my 1/350 Missouri and go with the 1/200 scale. You can include so much more detail!

Looking forward to seeing more as you progress!

Awesome! Thanks Lloyd. I never thought to look at any other ship's instructions. I couldn't find them in the latest versions of the "Mo" sheets, so I just assumed they didn't exist. I'll look closer at things from now on.

I'm getting ready to do some stuff to the outside of the hull. I've noticed on pictures of the real ships that all the individual handholds (ladders) are bent down.
So, I bought a sheet of parts that you can bend from Eduard. One sheet looks like it will be enough to do the entire ship. Then I have to figure out a way to put the anti-corrosion bars on the rudders and shaft supports, etc...........

Larry,

!st - Very nice work!!! Your model is coming along really well.

One comment here - while you are correct in that the hand rungs are bent and the Eduard set reflects this, I think it would be advisable if you used photos of the ship for reference from the time period you are building her - not modern photos which may or may not reflect the ship in your build. Here is a photo of MISSOURI in 1944 showing the bridge WITHOUT those hand rungs: Hope this helps!

Wait till you start counting the grab rails.

Evening Gents - and Ladies, too.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I don't have anything to show you tonight in the way of photos. I'm working on several small items, plus correcting an error on the hull that I messed up, but nothing to show for it yet.

The problems with the hull, you ask? Well, it's like this. I was going to try the primer and tape method of simulating the hull plates. Big mistake. No, let me rephrase that: HUGE mistake! It didn't look like plates at all. So, I sanded it down and then next tried to scribe fake lines to simulate plates. I started at the bow and when I sat back and looked at it, it looked terrible. Really bad! Another big mistake. So, I slathered the bow with green putty, sanded it down to cover the scribed lines, and repsprayed the red bottom of the hull. Now I'll wait a couple days till the paint sets, then mask the red off and spray the boot topping.

So, that's my tale of woe. I figure that there is going to be so much detail to see above the deck that it won't matter whether the hull plates show or not. I'd rather forget them totally than to try to simulate them and have it look crappy. Yeah, this failure probably kicks me out of the elite class of modellers here and puts me in the 2nd or 3rd tier, but ya know what? I don't give a rat's ass! It's my model and I know when to cry 'Uncle".

Now, I have a question for you all and I need your input. When I bought my Pontos Detail-Up kit, I bought it with the teak deck. Now, after studying and looking at various photos, I'm seriously wondering if I shouldn't have bought it with a blue deck, simulating the 1945 paint scheme.

My question: Has any one of you ever tried to put a blue wash on a teak deck, and, if so, how did you do it? Or, should I just forget trying to make my teak deck blue and just leave it like it is? I'm really in a quandary here - not really sure which way I should go. I do know that the deck was holy-stoned back to it's original teak color after the surrender on it's way back to New York, so maybe a teak deck wouldn't be so out of line after all.

Anyway, what do you think I should do? Comments, please.

Have a great evening, friends,

Hi Larry

When I built my Mo I originally went with the Pontos blue deck. Bad move as it's totally the wrong color, too blue and the wrong shade of blue.
I tried lightly sanding it to no avail and I even tried bleaching some of the spare pieces, don't do that as it ends up being white with no wood grain.

I finally resorted to buying the Pontos teak deck and then spilt a bottle of superglue and glued it to my desk, aaargh!! So I ordered the second teak deck
and Pontos must have changed something as this one is lighter and less yellow than the first and the wood grain is more noticeable. Happy with this one so I used it and built the Mo as she appeared on Navy Day in New York in October 1945 when President Truman visited. They had already painted the hull back to overall blue so the gray stripe is gone on the bow and the deck was holystoned back to teak. After all was done I did give the deck a light wash of gray to darken it just a bit, it wasn't brand new wood after all.

The only other changes worth mentioning is that the tops of the 5" turrets were painted back to gray from 20-B and the 20mm guns and tubs were removed on the main deck abreast "B" turret. I like the 5" turret bit, saves a lot of masking but I left the 20mms in place as I didn't know how to patch the wooden deck if I removed them. I thought buying 3 decks was enough. I also didn't paint the huge "MISSOURI" sign on the sides as they did for Navy Day, I know the ship's name.

Hope this helps,

Lloyd

Larry,

I had the same problem with my Mo, as I am building it as for a day of Japaneese surrender. I also bought Pontos set with teack wooden deck and was considering number of options of colouring it.

First, I wanted to use proper blue color with places of natural abrasions. I covered few left-over parts of deck I have from previous models with varnish and then with blue paint on the top. Unfortunately, the result didn't make me happy - it looked kind of unnatural...

Then I used well-thinned Navy Blue from Mr Hobby and the result is astonishing! I am very happy with that and this is the solution which I highly recommend! I will only use in the future some weathering washes from Mig and that will be all...

Don't give up on Your Mo I am cheering for You and Your build!

Dang, you guys are really keeping me on my toes. With all the excellent battleship models being built I've got to work my butt off to be able to even partially impress you, and then I don't now if I've even come close. Great work gentlemen, and I mean that sincerely.

Now, for those of you who are crazy enough to attempt to add a lip to the top edge of the hull and then top it with wire to achieve an added element of realism, I have a couple comments and suggestions.

1: If at all possible, do this before your final finishing of the hull. With all the sanding and handling of the hull, I guarantee you, you will mess up your paint job.

2: Be prepared for a LOT of filling, sanding, filling, sanding, filling......... No matter how careful you are the seam between the top edge of the hull and the strip you add to the top will need to be filled and sanded. I used Squadron Green putty and wet sanded with 600 grit wet/dry paper. Then I reglued the places that sanding broke loose and did it again. And again. And again.

3: Don't be in a hurry gluing the strip in place. Patience is a virtue here. Go slow, and if it doesn't look right, cut the strip out and do it over. I used Evergreen #00101 styrene strip (.010" thick and .030" high). This gave me a scale lip of 6", which is slightly more than actual, ( I think about 5"), but it's the best I can do.

4: Make sure your wire is straight. I used .020" copper wire and put one end in a vise and stretched the wire until I felt it give as it shrunk slightly in diameter, leaving me with a perfectly straight length with no kinks or irregularities.

5. When gluing the wire, work slowly and carefully. Do about 2 inches at a time, holding the wire in place until the glue sets. I use Gorilla brand super glue (not the gel) and apply it with one of my wife's sewing needle that I've filed down to a sharp point.

The whole process is a big pain in the you-know-what, but the results are worth it. Like anything on a model of this size, patience is the key to making all this added detail look good. Here's a few shots of where I'm at now. I have the wire glued down on one side, but not the other yet. Still have some filing and sanding to do first.

It really does screw up any painting you've already done! Take your time and realize this isn't going to be done in one evening The wire goes on fairly easy if it's straight and free of kinks. Put one end in a vise and stretch it till it's straight. The hardest part is gluing the styrene strip to the top of the hull. Lots of puttying and sanding. Here, I'll use a needle file to get the corner clean before I glue down the wire. Thanks for visiting, and have a great night, folks. (It's 12:30 AM and I'm hitting the hay!)

That's the one thing I didn't like about my hull. Every picture of the real ships has that rounded lip. Now you go and do it.....crazy!

That's some serious patience and smooth work. Definitely will be looking the part once you've finished.

Greeting friends, I have a question for those of you who are building this ship with the Pontos detail set. On the lower right corner of Page 6 of the instructions we find the details of the MK57 bases. On the "Fore Bridge" picture of the base for the MK57, there are 3 pieces of PE that are not identified anywhere in the instruction sheets.

Can anyone tell me what these are and what frets these pieces are located? I might be able to guess, but I'd rather be sure.

Thanks, gents,

Larry,

You will find them on a page 9 with 'Navigation Bridge'.

Stand under the small platform - 529
small railings - 527 (x2)
ladders - 532 (x2)

Pontos has terrible instructions... It is really hard to follow their ideas...

Hey, Thanks a million Wojtek! I really appreciate the help, and yeah, Pontos instructions leave a lot to be desired.

Have a great day!

Hi friends,

I'll bet you thought I died - or at the very least have given up on my "Monster Mo" by this time. Well, rest assured I'm still kicking - although not without a few minor problems here and there. First off, we had some family issues that took up a tremendous amount of time to solve. Then came the holidays and with it all the issues that it entailed. I'm a Deacon of our church and during the month of December there are a LOT of activities going on that require the building being opened other than just Sundays. Also during that time my laptop took a dump and the Geek Squad at Best Buy had to perform surgery on it to get it back in operation.

Then came the new year. Now, I'm 75 years old and I have bad knees. In fact, they've been giving me all sorts of problems for a couple years. So, I went to my friendly orthopedic Doctor, who took X-rays and politely informed me that my left knee was bone on bone and the right one was not much better. Solution: On the 10th of January I had my left knee replaced - the 1st stage of my Bionic Transformation. Since then you can imagine how much time I've spent on my ship. Just the past few days I've been allowed to go upstairs to the loft where my work table is, but I cannot let my foot hang down for more than 15 minutes 6 times a day. That means I spend the majority of the days doing my exercises and sitting in a chair with my leg elevated, either watching TV or reading. Can you say Bored out of my mind!!

Hopefully, in another week or two, I'l be at the point where I can get around without too much pain. But - and this is a big one, as soon as my left knee is healed, we're going to replace the right one, which means I get to do this crap all over again. The way I see it, maybe, just maybe, along about June I'll be able to mess around with my plastic boat again. I haven't given up and I read these forums at least daily - seeing what great things you guys do and feeling more and more inferior.

So, take care folks. I'm thinking of you. and let me tell you right now - Physical Therapy is a real pain in the a$$.

HELLO Everyone!

Guess what? I'm back from the dead - at least as far as you all are concerned anyway. I had my first knee replaced in January and the second one the end of April. Let me tell ya, that was one hell of a ordeal. Between the physical therapy and the fact I couldn't get around for umpteen weeks was a real pain. But, that's all pretty much behind me and aside from some residual pain when I try to do something I shouldn't, I'm back to normal. It sure is nice to be able to walk without constant pain.

And, I've started back to work on my "Monster Mo". My work station is up in the loft and for months it was really painful to climb up and down stairs. I don't have any pictures right now, but I'm working on the 5" gun turrets. I cut off all the plastic gun barrels and drilled out the remaining portions with a #57 drill - it's as close to 1.1mm as I could get. I used a small drill press and a machinists vise to insure the holes were straight and aligned properly. Things seem to be going well - at least the Pontos gun barrels look good.

I did assemble (1) 5" turret with all the brass detail to see how it went together. It was OK, at best. I started out using the Eduard grab irons as I planned to bend them downward like the real ones. Well, they were so thin and flimsy that even with tweezers I had an impossible time with them. After fighting with them over a couple days (and ruining 8 to attach 6) I decided to give up with the bending idea and use the ones from Pontos. These are more sturdy, but the hole spacing is sightly different from Eduard's, which brought on a whole nother set of problems! The final result leaves a bit to be desired, but this gun will be placed on the opposite side of the ship so it won't be so obvious. Live and learn, I guess.

OK, I just wanted to check in and say "Hi" to all you guys out there. And to let you know I'm still gonna finish this beast - someday!

Glad your back at it Larry. Looking forward to seeing pictures.

Is there ANYTHING on this ship that isn't difficult? I finally finished five of the 5" gun platforms - only 5 more to go. The first one took me close to 8 hours because of a big screwup, but each one went a little bit better as I gradually figured out how to build them. The grab irons aren't perfect, but with my 75 year old eyes and fingers, in my opinion they're just dandy.