1/200 Arizona finally DONE!

[ArizonaBB39]

Beautiful work. I need to get back to working on mine.

[Jeff Sharp]

Could that hut have housed the binacle? On photo's previous to the addition of the hut, there appears what looks like a binacle in that spot.
Nice touch with the "I" Beam.
Mark

Not sure if a binnacle would be in the hut. There was definitely something erased from the plans there and the hut drawn in its place.

As far as the I-beam goes, I'm still playing around with it. I now have a good idea what they had to do to accommodate the front ballistic shield and range finder platforms. They did a lot of hacking with little regard for esthetics. Just forward of the front ballistic shield, they had to square up the existing shield. It previously was a half circle shape down to the "I-beam" just like the deck below it.

[Jeff Sharp]

Starting to add detail to the forward fighting top and the MG platform just below it.

Not sure what the purpose of those bars above the MG's were, but they look like role bars to me. Also, once again, Trumpeter got the dip in the shields in the wrong place! The dips should actually be over one more panel inboard, facing more forward than off to the side like the kit has them! The overall shape and height of the shields in general is just wrong. Oh well! To late for me to fix it? Hmm...


Here is my attempt at replicating those bars. I also added a third towing light to the fighting top in between the two MG's.




Next on the "to do" list are the yardarms. Check out the nice detail this shot shows us. Gotta figure out a way to recreate that netting somehow.

[el Cid]

Nice work! I suspect those rails behind the machine guns are "stops" to prevent the guns from bearing on the ship's structure or on each other (physical no-fire zones).

HTH,

Keith

[Angeliccypher]

Next on the "to do" list are the yardarms. Check out the nice detail this shot shows us. Gotta figure out a way to recreate that netting somehow.

I would not bother attempting to create it. Head to a local fabric store and look at the section with tulle. Depending on where you live the best place I have found is G-Street Fabrics, followed by Hancock's, last resort is JoAnne's.

[Mgunns]

Nice work! I suspect those rails behind the machine guns are "stops" to prevent the guns from bearing on the ship's structure or on each other (physical no-fire zones).

HTH,

Keith

Hi Jeff: I agree with Keith. It would appear as if they marked their respective zones of fire. I was thinking "What structures would be in the way?" The rigging, the antenna array etc. and as Keith pointed out to prevent them from shooting each other. They may have also doubled as a place to hang things to dry or hang a piece of canvas to cover the guns when the guns were in use. The netting must have been made of material like a chain link fence as it survived the intense heat of the fire. Not sure in that scale it would enhance but it will be interesting to see how you do it. On the dip in the shields, unless one had a photo of the foremast in hand, I doubt that would be a noticeable flaw in the overall presentation of the model. Your attention to detail in this area would certainly distract anyone from noticing a misplaced dip.
Inspirational and outstanding work.

Mark

[Jeff Sharp]

Thanks guys! I'll definitely try tulle for the netting.

After stewing for a couple of days over the incorrect shields on the MG platform, I finally got enough nerve to carefully rip apart the forward mast and correct the shield.


There are a couple of things that have to be corrected.
First, the height of the shield is way too short. Looking straight on you can see almost all of the MG's. What good is that?


Second, the front of the shield sticks out too far forward making it too wide.


To start, I removed the existing shield and reshaped the front.


Add a little taller shield and put the dip in the proper spot.




This is how this shield should look.

[Jeff Sharp]

Here's my attempt to replicate the netting on the yardarms.

[GazzaS]

Dude, that looks mad-good!

[Mgunns]

Hello Jeff:

It looks like you nailed the Machine gun platform shield as well as the netting. I was a bit skeptical of the netting, but it looks good to me.
Are you going to add the metal field of fire dividers for the machine guns?

[Angeliccypher]

Looks great! What did you ultimately do for the netting?

[Jeff Sharp]

Are you going to add the metal field of fire dividers for the machine guns?

Yeah, now I can be more accurate with the shape of them because the shields are now more accurate. I'm just trying to determine if the bends we see in the above pic were there prior to the explosion.

As far as the netting goes, I lucked out and found this mesh on an old halloween mask. It was mesh to cover the eye holes on the mask. Not perfect, but its the finest stuff I could find so far.

[Jeff Sharp]

Workin' hard on the yardarms. They're getting closer to how I want them to look.

[dsk]

My goodness, this build of yours is looking sweet. I completed mine a few years ago, but to be honest it took so long that it burned me out and I haven't built any models since.

BTW it's probably too late to point this out, but another mistake Trumpeter made was the fact that the windows in the Navigation Bridge wrapped all the way around the front, including looking directly ahead. On the kit it's a solid wall.

[Jeff Sharp]

BTW it's probably too late to point this out, but another mistake Trumpeter made was the fact that the windows in the Navigation Bridge wrapped all the way around the front, including looking directly ahead. On the kit it's a solid wall.

Not too late at all to point it out! I'm glad you did. Even though it is glued down now, this should be an easy fix still. Thanks for the heads up.

I've started on the mainmast. So far, things look pretty decent. At least until you get to the birdbath on top. The birdbath was also installed during the January refit. One unique feature of this thing was the corners. Three of the corners were rounded and the fourth was at a point. Here you can see a decent pic of what I'm talking about.
viewtopic.php?f=47&t=12942&start=1220

Trumpeter attempted to replicate this feature but there is a couple of issues. First, they didn't bring that fourth corner to a complete point. Although not as rounded as the other corners, it still is rounded.


Second, it's backwards! They have the point facing forward. It actually faced aft. So the tub needs to rotate 180 degrees.


I also drilled out a hole for the access hatch. Now I need to carefully square off that fourth corner.

[Tracy White]

Hey Jeff, you can link directly to a specific post if you click on the "subject: " link at the top of each post.

The advantage to this is that if the mods whack posts and clean up threads (it used to happen) the link to the POST will still work where the link tot he PAGE might not if the post moves up a page or two.

[Jeff Sharp]

Hey Jeff, you can link directly to a specific post if you click on the "subject: " link at the top of each post.

The advantage to this is that if the mods whack posts and clean up threads (it used to happen) the link to the POST will still work where the link tot he PAGE might not if the post moves up a page or two.

Thanks for the tip.

Here is the fix. Pretty quick and easy.

[Jeff Sharp]

Today is the 1 year anniversary of my first post of this project. Wow, I can't believe it's been a year! Talk about milking a project! If it takes another year to finish it, then I should probably find a new hobby! I'm too antsy to start a new Pearl Harbor subject to allow another year on this one. Unless there is something wrong with the boat cranes, I have probably come to the end of correcting the flaws on this kit. It started with the anchor hawse and ended with the birdbath corrections. With many unexpected surprises in between the two.
I'm going to try my damnedest to get the rigging at least 95% correct.
Then I can focus on giving this ship some life by adding some boats, figures and those beautiful (and very short lived) yellow winged kingfishers! I can't wait to add those!

[Mgunns]

Hello Jeff:

I have read every page of your build to date. It is really inspiring. I think most builds start out that way, "I am just going to make some small corrections" and then it is off to the races. You have done yeomans work here and it is all truly outstanding. I am looking forward to being along for the rest of the voyage.

Best wishes

[Leftie]

Jeff,

As you're finding out, the errors with this kit are endless. But you are doing a great job pointing out in detail what Trumpeter overlooked or ignored. Sloppy research on their part makes your job that much harder. If you want to finish it in the next year, do like I did, just tell us what's wrong and move on. Life's too short