The Ship Model Forum

Tom:

I have both the MISSOURI Stillwell book and the book Strike Able-Peter, the story of Big MOs grounding. Monday I am ordering the drydocking plan and some other details from Floating Drydock. 1/4" sounds about right. The arrangement of the blocks is very interesting - not a single straight line.

Neal:

I'll try to get some kit photos uploaded next week. There are three boxes of parts, in no certain order, and then the major portion of the hull.

The hull fits very nicely with the deck pieces and that was good to find out. I've started work on the underside shaft and rudder parts and hope to have them in place next week. I may add shafts to the rudders as the kit parts don't include those - you just sort of jam the pieces together and glue in place which I'm not keen on doing. If so, I'll provide some photos/guidance on that facet of the model. Where parts are fitted to the hull, I plan to use Green Stuff to fill in the separations in ordere to achieve a smooth finish.

Hank

I did shaft my rudders and linked them via a control horn. The idea was to RC this at one point, but the ex wife disposed of the RC stuff many years ago. Wasn't of much use to her! It is interesting to look at some of the internal structure plans for the Iowa's, one can see where the internal structure is setup to support the weight. The structure supporting the internal inclined belt carries to the bottom and is probably the location of the outer blocks. the inner blocks appear to follow the structural line that emanates fed from the skegs. Be interesting to see the plan! Some of the Bismarck guys have been super detailing the hull fittings, including the quite bizarre large condenser inlets at the turn of the bilge. One guy is mounting it on top of a mirror....

I will be interested in seeing if you are able to do the pad eyes along the bow! If you run out of the green putty, your local auto parts pavilion has a red glazing putty that works very well and can be thinned with lacquer thinner slightly if necessary. Garzeke and Dulin have a pretty good set of hull sections if your plans don't have them.

Nothing like making a model of ones own ship! I am sure it will be first rate.

Regards: Tom

A not so great photo of the loading scuttle under the #1 turret. As far as I can tell there are six of these though three of the six on BB63 are currently covered with junk.

Loading scuttle at the base of Turret 2

Hank:

My pass at scratch building the wiley fire fighting gear at 1:200. I think this could be refined a bit, but it is only a small part of the ship.

Regards: Tom

Tom,

Very nice work - at 1:200 who would know that it was not manufactured? And thanks also for the pix of the scuttles. I believe NJs were in the same location, but the pictures will tell me so!

I'm about to leave for Selma, NC (2 1/2 hrs. east) for the week (I work in Clayton, NC near Selma)and will catch up with all later this week.

Hank

Hank:

If I had been thinking I would have zeroed in on the hatches for a photo. Even after going on board and taking hundreds of photos, still not everything. Making mine out of strathmore, punched with a leather punch which raises a bit of a lip, cutting out the rim shape and pushing the original disk back in, which gives a decent hatch look. Thin enough to glue to the deck in the appropriate places. These do have a wood rim around them in the decking. Far too late for me to do this!

Many (not all) of the main deck lifelines are of a small I beam crossection, which it appears could be laid flat for action. As I will be doing the old school drill a hole, install a post and rig the lifelines technique, wondering if you have ever seen any really small square brass section? Maybe Song Gun has the right idea using split bamboo? I believe some of these had a top section that could be attached for rigging the awning in certain areas?

No ship model is perfect, the more I learn the less perfect it becomes!


Looking fwd to your progress as YOUR ship takes form.

Regards: Tom

Tom,

Main deck stanchions - you are correct, most are of "I" beam in cross section, slightly tapering to the top. To the best of my knowledge, they were never laid down to fire, although they could have been. At various points along the ship, the lifelines tie into chocks that are placed directly in the path of the lifelines, so the lines are tied off to the chocks with turnbuckles & eyes. I don't know if any of the commerical pre-formed plastic stuff is small enough to use - I haven't measured the size of the stanchions so I don't know whether there is available material without having to make your own.

The awnings ususally were held up at the deck's edge with removeable steel posts (round). They were ususally only set up when entering port. We actually had a HUGE Singer sewing machine located in the Bosun's Locker up forward that did the sewing of canvas and herculite awnings, boat covers, vent covers, etc. That sewing machine was probably 5-6 feet long and was simply an extra-large size commerical black Singer sewing machine. Boy, did it work great!!!

I hope to get the plans unrolled, paints put up, and back to modeling tonight. Hopefully!!

Hank

Last night was more shop area cleanup and so actual model work was off the table. Tonight (Tues.) I hope to get the bow area assembled with putty and then continue with my main deck CAD drafting.

Here are a few shots of the pieces that make up the hull & main deck:

Thanks for the photos, Hank.

Now I'm curious as to why Trumpeter would provide the main deck as a single piece and yet divide up the hull. Mould limitations perhaps? Or maybe that's the only way they could figure out how to do such a big hull without that infamous banana shape. I suppose even so-called "professional" modeling companies have to go through a learning curve.

Sean,

Thanks for the comments. Re. the main deck:

The main deck is not in one piece - it is two pieces. See where the superstructure opening occurs? the wide piece of plastic from side to side is the split between the fore and after deck sections. They do fit nicely, without any distortion.

Hope this clarifies it for you!

Hank

Ah, I see now. Thank you, Hank.

Methinks I'm gonna need a bigger workbench if/when I finally get hold of one of those monsters.

Nice work area, especially the building ways! A little bit interesting to shaft the rudders and hopefully link them up. May take some precise drilling. As far as the deck goes, around the hatches etc the deck will be cutout to slip over them? Would require very accurate measuring!

Without the bow attached it looks a lot like Kentucky when the lopped the front off.

I tried using to smallest I beam for the Stantions on the 01 level but they are a bit over scale. Not sure yet what the optimal solution is. Something square might be about the best one can do. I presume the waterway is deep enough to make a good anchor for PE rails

Cheers. Tom

Tom,

Thanks for the nice comments!

The table the hull is sitting on is one I made from the HP plotter leg assemblies. Works very nice, indeed. I hadn't thought about connecting the two rudders, but that is a possibility - if only to keep them in sync.

I will probably take my first printout of the main deck, cut it out and all the openings, and see it it actually fits or I need further CAD work on it. I want to get it correct before I start on the 01-04 level drawings.

Yea, I was thinking the same thing about KY - now there's a project that wouldn't take any time at all!!!

Well, if you've determined the "I" that beams available are unsuitable for stantions, then I won't waste the time to do the same research. I may have to see what brass shapes K&S Engineering has that might be small enough. I'll consult the MISSOURI Plan Book and see what size they are calling for on the stantions. If nothing is available, it may be possible to make a square the proper size, and then with a file or saw blade cut out the unnecessary material to form the "I".

Later,

Hank

I experimented at hammering brass rod flat, not the optimal solution. I suppose it could be etched out but would require a thicker stock. If one wanted to be really fussy a brass etch sandwich could be made. Probably a square section would be close enough at this scale. Thin strips of paper or styrene glued on either side of a thin wire? Cliffy posted some close up photos of the Stantions a while back. They straddle the waterway, in my recollection.

Did you have the nettings on the fantail instead of the lifeline? I suppose I will have to make a jig and loop brass then apply the same gauze I used for the radar and radar platform.

I wonder if scale decks can make the wooden bridge gratings?

The examples just using the PE look pretty good, if not quite correct for wire lifelines.

Cheers. T

The stantions are located IN the waterways. They are tapered "H" shapes 3'-8" long, 6" square at the base and 4" square at the top. the flanges are parallel to the side of the ship. If I have time to draw one up and post it, I will try to do so. They are hinged at the base and can be lowered either fore or aft (not athwartship).

At 1:200 this would be a 1/4" high piece - possibly something that could be resin cast with care.

I'm thinking that the lifelines were used at the fantail, not the netting. I've also noticed that the crane control module was modified and relocated in NJs 67-69 configuration. I think that the Pontos PE for that will still work, perhaps with minor modifications.

Bridge deck gratings - we only had them on the after end of the bridge at the signal bags. It's possible that the grating could be purchased from one of the model lumber vendors or Model Expo (depending on the grating size). Actually, that's some information Cliffy B could provide from a field trip - i.e., the grating opening sizes and thickness.

Progress on model -

After cutting out the forward part of my main deck plan, I had to make quite a few adjustments in opening locations, etc. I've reconciled 2/3 of the plan and hope to fiinish checking/redrawing the stern section tonight. I've re-printed it and will go recheck tonight - hopefully with better results.

With the bow sections mated, I filled in the minute holes in the bow and the seams w/Green Stuff and later sanded, etc. The bow section is now mated to the hull and tonight I will apply Green Stuff to hide the seam. Hopefully, I will post pictures tomorrow - I forgot to download them from the camera.

Hank

Hank

Sounds like good progress. I did find a source that has 1/32 square brass which works out to six inches, slightly over scale at the top. Missouri ( I have photos at home) had gratings in the aft half of the bridge wings. I tried hand tapering some very small similar Stantions from the smallest H shaped Styrene I could get. Have those on the 01 level at least temporarily. To place those I glued in a fine piece of brass wire on the back side. I think I could taper brass square with the stationary sander. I do think they could be carefully cast with a brass pin inside, but that would be a lot of castings! Maybe 40 or more?

The deck system you are refining sounds good, probably just about what they would have to do to produce a product. Uniquely suited to your talents and equipment.

Cheers. Tom

I can't get shots of Turret 1 or 2's loading hatches on BB-64 as they're sealed up and covered. However Turret 3's is visible so here goes (Starboard side).



Some inspirational shots. I love the end of a Winter day

Thanks Cliffy, much clearer shots. Around the turrets seem to,be collecting areas for various junk on board...

Cheers. Tom

Last night I basically completed the hull assembly and puttied various areas. I still have the shaft housings to putty and will get to that in Jan. 14. I'm away from the shop for the next 2 weeks.

Hank