The Ship Model Forum

Sounds Good Jason! I have heard about someone applying the Pontos decking by spraying an acrylic or some such over the adhesive on the back of the decking so as to be able to use an adhesive allowing some positioning. I have not used this material so may be full of it, but worth investigating. If I was going to do the deck edge again I would use 0.015 or 0.020 steel wire. One side of my ship has steel and one brass in 0.030".

Cheers: Tom

Jason,

Thanks for the info - I'll make a copy of that. IF I were to build another 1:200 kit, I would want to do a "what-if" of the MONTANA in 1960's appearance. But, the hull, superstructure, etc. would all have to be scratchbuilt; turrets, mounts, radars, etc. could all be purchased.

I need to measure the high "E" string on my last set of old guitar strings - might just be right for the rounded lip on the upper hull.

Hank

Hank

Looking fwd to the next progress photos! Slowly working your way down from the top. A usual method of model building but opposite of most shipbuilding. Very satisfying to recreate your ship as you served on her.

Cheers. Tom

Likewise! I recently picked up a copy of Robert Sumrall's Iowa class battleships their design, weapons and equipment and can finally appreciate how much work it's gonna be to get an accurate Vietnam era New Jersey out of the trumpy kit. Hats off to ya!

Tom,

Working on it!! Things are going slowely right now, but steady.

Jason,

Thanks much - Sumrall's book does point out a lot things (I also have that - it's one of the better ref. books) that changed in NEW JERSEY. I'm more and more convinced that the individual shipyards took a lot more liberties with the ships they were building than sticking to the std. plans as drawn up. Another factor and maybe more importantly, was the availability of steel in the sizes and shapes needed at a given time in construction. I know from personal conversations with a couple of the Philadelphia Shipyard workers on NEW JERSEY that their guys upon occaasion "stole" freshly milled HRS steel for NJ that was designated for IOWA (New York Shipyard) right off the loading docks at Bethlehem Steel - so, those days during WWII were chaotic, at best - in the end, the ships got built, maybe not exactly to the plans.

I forgot my utility flashdrive this week, so any pix will be next week at the earliest. I might add, Jason, that I too used the kit bridge parts and have "windows" made from Testor's Clear Cement and it worked very well. The Pontos Brass PE bridge parts would have been fine had there been a bit of strength to them. I also had to reshape some of those parts and the plastic lent itself to this task better than the PE.

I'm also waiting for delivery of my special order Pontos decking and it's been 3 weeks yesterday since it was (hopefully) mailed out. Keeping my fingers crossed here....

Hank

Jeez Hank, hope the decking shows up. Wonder if there is an issue with customs as it being a "wood product". The old joke entering Australia was the guy with the hardest time would be a South African farmer with a wooden leg as he had to answer yes to the three main questions...

Looking forward to the photos! Tom

Hello Hank:

I too am looking forward to your next photo update. I hope that the Pontos materials you ordered arrive and that they don't take your money and run. I may just dust off my 1/350 New Jersey and see if I can fix it up following your mods to the 1/200 kit.

Tom, Mgunns -

Thanks for the comments, much appreciated.

Yea, I'm hoping the decking arrives soon - it wasn't cheap. Did a bit more bridge work last night - I've got a couple whip antenna bases to create and am about 60% there on those.

Hank

Hank

Be interested to see how the bridge area is coming. I realize holiday season and ship building interfere. Don't they realize "there's a war on"?. I do hope thanks giving was good for you and your family.

Going visiting for a bit so my ship progress will be on hold for a while. Too many photos beget insane small detail, I keep finding more and more small stuff to add. I would imagine careful research through your cruise book reveals much!

Regards. Tom

Tom,

Thanks so much - yes, the holiday went well - bird and all. Visiting in-laws so didn't have to cook. Will fire up the grill tonight for us to split a T-bone! I hope your Thanksgiving was/is a good time for you, as well!

Probably the worst part of holiday season is the fact that for the modeler, there can be NO holiday. Whereas for the spouse, it's Why are you working on THAT???

Needless to say, I will be heading down east after lunch tomorrow - Yea, Honey, I really need to see the Panthers play today!!!!! - AND back to the model shop!!!

Well, amid a family crisis that is in progress, I decided to upload the latest. I may be absent from the forum so I'll begin the week with these photos:

Here's the overall superstructure (Note - major pieces sitting in place only): Closer view of bridge & conning tower: Closer view of bridge: I'm still waiting on the decking set arriving from Pontos so at this point I'm going to s-l-o-w-l-y begin basic hull & main deck work since only some minor superstructure work can be done at this point.

And all depends on the home front situation.

Hank

Hello Hank:

Outstanding work on the tower and the ECM gear. Looks the business, clean and tidy. Good luck with the family crisis and hopefully PONTOS will come through with the deck. Looking forward to the next update.

SF

Mark,

Thanks so much - I really appreciate the comments. Seems to go slow at times, but all adds up.

Hank

Sorry to hear about your family troubles; god knows I've had my fair share of family messes so I feel for ya.

The Big J looks great though; she'll be one of a kind... and in a good way!

Jason,

Thanks - so far, status quo. At work as usual.

Hopefully, tonight I will get the roll of drawings out (Booklet of Gen. Plans - 1967-68) and start looking over the frame details for hull plate info (see current thread on CASF - IOWA Class).

Hank

Hank

I know the family crisis has been a psychological burden, but sometimes having our projects can take us away long enough to cope better. Hope things are better at least for now.

NJ is looking very NJ like, interesting to see both the differences in the individual ships and era wise as well.

Chuck mentioned using primer to simulate plate lines. I did this for my waterline 1:192 Alaska hull and it worked out well. High build auto body primer, available at many parts stores comes in rattle cans and is good for this. Not a technique I invented but had read about somewhere many years ago. The primer is soft so as to easily sand and hide imperfections, so might take a coat of harder lacquer or enamel to protect it before much additional progress. Golden makes an airbrush extender for acrylics which might be the ticket for Randy as it increases the flexibility of the paint film. Such additives are also commonly used to top coat airplane fabric which flexes a lot.

Looks as if the bridge windows came out well. Did you leave any open?

Best regards. Tom

Tom,

Thanks for the kind remarks re. the family, etc. I do appreciate it.

Tom wrote:

Looks as if the bridge windows came out well. Did you leave any open?

The windows at the aft end of the bridge (you can't see them) that are perpendicular to the bridge house (one window, one door) are open. After reading Jason's comments on CASF IOWA Class regarding the size of the Trumpeter bridge windows, I recall earlier threads on this subject - CliffyB had measured WISCONSIN's windows and after comparing the Pontos PE brass bridge windows with the Trumpeter, I decided to go with the kit plastic - they are very close to what they should be and if I had thought about it BEFORE beginning to work on this, I would have taken the time to gently filed the kit window openings a tad bit larger in both directions. But, given that oversight, I'm not all that displeased with the results.

Last night I got out the roll of BB62 Booklet of General Plans (1967-68) and started looking over the hull sections - to be honest, way too much very fine print and I decided that perhaps the hull plating will be achieved without losing my eyesight by other methods. The drawings are back in the tube and I will approach this from another angle. I think in some cases modelers tend to get carried away with overthinking these items - in this case we're looking at 2D orthographic drawings to realize several arcs on a 3D surface. So, after searching thru ref. mat'ls, I found a rendering of BB61 by Paul Bender in Warship Data #3 that depicts the IOWA with hull plate lines and I will scan this and scale this to match the 1:200 plan I have of NEW JERSEY. I will overlay this and place points on the NJ plan and then using a French Curve, add in the arcs - 3 forward, 2 aft. Somehow, I'll transpose those to the hull (after making the necessary hull correction modifications, etc.) and that will be that. The plating arcs will be scribed onto the surface also using the French Curves. I think this should produce the desired effect.

Tom has brought up the subject regarding the various hull intakes (sea chests) and I will look at this once other hull work has been done. I have not specifically looked at these on the plans, so this is entirely new area of study.

Hank

After a rather sad month of Dec. 2014, I welcome the start of the New Year! And being back at the shop and work on the model!!

Here are a couple photos of the Pontos Decking that I had on special order which came while I was home: As you can see all the 20mm emplacements are gone, as well as the catapult cutouts and a few other items that were not present on NEW JERSEY in 1967-69. I am planning on doing a bit of color experimentation on some of the scrap material to possibly get a more brown look than the yellow look. However, overall I have no complaints - Pontos did a great job working w/me on this.

I also intend to finish the decks with some flat or satin treatment - see the discussion Wooden Decking on the Main Forum. But this will take place AFTER whatever modifications to the hull are made and I watching two other builds at this time which have made modifications to the basic 1:200 Trumpeter IOWA class hull.

This week is devoted to modifying a couple items on the fwd conning tower to improve their appearance and correctness for the period.

Hank

Wishing you an improved and less stressful year to come. The deck looks great and happy that (1) mr Kim was willing to work with you on this (2) it came out well. Will be interested as to the deck finish and how that comes out. I agree the yellow is a bit over the top and not too represenative of an as installed deck, maintained or not.

Regards. Tom

Tom Wrote:

Wishing you an improved and less stressful year to come. The deck looks great and happy that (1) mr Kim was willing to work with you on this (2) it came out well. Will be interested as to the deck finish and how that comes out. I agree the yellow is a bit over the top and not too represenative of an as installed deck, maintained or not.

Tom,

Thanks for the kind remarks. I don't want to remove the deck parts from the sheet if possible, but I think there is enough spare mat'l. to make several test strips for various shades of coloring. The yellow is a bit too much and needs correcting.

Hank