The Ship Model Forum

OK, Here's another 10:
OK, now you can start to see some of the crew. They are so small that you have to get in fairly close in order to make them out. You do know that the Japanese surrendered on the deck of the USS Missouri in 1945. Trumpeter has issued a surrender kit that simulates this event. I have tried to duplicate this as best I could. More of the crew and officers. Sure are a lot of them (I ought to know - I painted every damn one!) Here's a closer shot of the surrender site. You can see people sitting or standing everywhere to watch the ceremony. Here's more of the crew and some of the rigging. Here's more crew and more rigging. I used EZ-Line for the rigging. That stuff is fabulous. I love it!! It has a slight stretch to it, but doesn't bend the mast. More pictures on next post:

Here's the next 10:

I gotta say that for a battle wagon, there's a LOT of rigging on this monster. I probably don't have the exact layout, but it's close. And besides some of you rivet counters, who's gonna know?? People all over this ship! Some sailors have to work regardless of the historic event taking place down below. Lots of activity everywhere! The red flag at the very top with 5 white stars indicates a 5 star general (Douglas MacArthur) is on board. All sorts of activity here too. There's always work to be done when you're on a warship at sea. Some kind of a discussion going on here. Wonder what it's all about? Some sailor do something wrong? Some workers starting to do some work on seaplane #11. Or at least they're standing there thinking about it. Most of the crew, though, are at the surrender ceremony. According to a book I have, the table is one from the galley and the crew threw a green tablecloth over it to hide it. The tablecloth is actually a piece of tissue painted with glue and then green paint. The three signature documents are tiny pieces of Evergreen plastic strip. General MacArthur is at the microphone stand while the Japanese delegation is standing off to the right. The viewing platform in the foreground is scratch built. I don't think you can see it, but there are two cameras on tripods on the viewing platform; a video camera and a still frame camera. They are in front of the two sailors in blue. These are also scratch built. In this picture I placed a US quarter to show the relative size of the sailors and officers. They're damn small!! Would you believe that every one of these people were the grey color of raw plastic. OK, there are 4 more pictures. Next post coming up!

OK, Here's the last 4:

The ship now rests under a Plexiglas enclosure where I don't intend to touch it for quite some time. It seems like every time I even look at the boat, I break something off. It is an extremely fragile model. And naturally, I have to toot my own horn just a little: OK, folks, that's it. I wish I would have kept track of the hours I have in this. I'm not sure I even want to know the dollars I've spent on it. But, all in all, it's been a really enjoyable build and I've learned a tremendous amount in the process. Would I tackle it again? Probably not unless some dude offered me $10.000 to build one for him. It was a huge job!

So, what's my next project? I'm not exactly sure. I do know that I don't want something nearly as complex as this was. It's time for simplicity!!! Actually, I'm trying to decide on one of two kits, either Tamaya's F-15E Strike Eagle or the Meng M911C Heavy Equipment Transport. I'm done with ships for a while!!

Congratulations on completing a long construction. Funny that our ship models usually take longer to construct than the originals. I put some 1/120 figures on my ships, that I scaled from some 1/35 figures. Where did you get your variety of figurines?

Cheers. Tom

Larry,

Excellent job - quite a unique rendition of the VJ Ceremony - I don't think I've seen another model done this way. Your model has turned out extremely well - kudos all the way around!! I like the way you did your case also - very much like mine. Yes, it's nice to be able to sit back and enjoy many years of effort!!!!

Hank

That's a first-class build. Very nice.

Timothyo wrote:I really don't know who would have the gall to insult your build, but I bet they are all outliers on the statistical scales........ I think this is a gorgeous model that I would be very proud of! So glad you are back and showing progress. COVID sucks......

Regards,
Timothy

Somehow I missed the post where you said people were giving you sh*t in private messages. F**k those people. I agree with Timothy here, and am glad you persevered and kept sharing photos with us.

Very, very nicely done. Congratulations - she looks great!

Thanks, gentlemen! Much appreciated! Tom, you asked where the figures came from Trumpeter makes two sets - a WW2 US Navy figures set, and a WW2 US Military Accepted Surrender Ceremony.

The US Navy set has 60 figures - 10 each of 6 different characters. The surrender ceremony has the same as the Navy characters plus 10 Japanese characters plus some PE (table, chairs, & Mike stand. On this ship I uses 6 sets of the US Navy figures plus 1 set of the Japanese surrender. What makes mine look so varied is the different ways I painted them. The picture is from Sprue Bros web site.

Wow! Jaw dropping!
I love the many vignettes taking place in different locations on the ship. You did an amazing work. All my sympathy for enduring and completing such a long time project, your own way, without giving up. Way to go!

SG

Very nicely done.

Nobody can speak ill of that which you've accomplished. That is such a massive feat, and you deserve 'kudos' and recognition. I like the level of detail that you've done, and even moreso your attitude of 'how can I make this better'? You've done well!

Sean