The Ship Model Forum

James M wrote:
What paints / colors did you use on the hull?

James

James,
I used Tamiya TS33 dull red, TS8 Matt black, TS32 haze grey and AS8 Navy blue. All of which are rattle cans. I used these on my earlier Missouri and like the colors. How accurate they are I'm not sure. The haze grey has a bluish tint, which I believe was indicative of the color during the war years. The hull red took about 1.5 cans. I swear that is a big hull. I do a lot of painting on the sprue and the PE by the sheet as well as some assemblies. Speaking of which, the acid etch primer I reviewed works great. You can make bends and paint is still adhered. You have to work to get it off. It was worth the 20.00 for the can.

Lovely work, Scott. I believe you are working on the creation of a real showpiece.

Bob M.

Been finishing up some loose ends first of which was the compressed gas cylinders. After pouring over pictures on the navsource website and books I found there were many grey cylinders and the others were black. Not the color code found on the web.so I painted them black and some grey ones. They don't look too bad I think they will work fine.

Painted the waterways and like Hank i did not care for the look. Maybe if they had been applied prior to the decking. Now comes the task of painting the waterways deck blue. Not a fun task as it takes 2 coats to cover. I can say I will be masking the hull with paper and airbrushing the waterways prior to attaching the decks. Oh well hind sight is 20 20. After the waterways I can get to the railings.

I also found looking at navsource life rafts were different colors depending where they were on her trip to Boston. It seems the rafts under the cats were black or a dark grey. Could be as to not outline the cats I suppose, however in any event they were different. It seems like I find a subtle nuances every time i think I have a plan.

Will post pictures when I have some real progress to show.

The life rafts are definitely darker but I don't think they are black or dark grey. They could be a dark blue.

Looking at the photos it looks like the crew is working on the life rafts.
It looks like they have been painting them and are in the process of putting them back in place.
Some are still unpainted.

If the life rafts have just been painted they will be a lot darker than everything else because they are made of balsa wood and it will absorb a lot more paint.

They were painted blue when she was working up and her decks were unpainted. I have a photo of them at that time.
Send me an email and I will send you the photo.

James

Took a small break plus im out of haze grey till tomorrow. I did manage to suffer through completing the required 19 Bofors and 30 of the 53 Oeriklons. Doing some touch up on the paint applied to the bare deck turning it to blue as well as cutting in the main deck area to deck blue the wood deck does not cover. I guess I am making progress though its hard to tell.

On a side note, i was wrong when I told the boss (my wife) that 1:200 would be easier than 1:350. She thinks I'm a complete idiot with my tv tray / portable work bench complete with light in living room. Yes I like to listen to the tv when working, plus it's cooler than the garage. Yes, the plastic parts were bigger, but the PE has more than a ton of small parts, read 14 large frets. I would be afraid to try to count the amount of parts to the basic Pontos kit. Hell, I think I used a combination of almost 100 port hole brows and hatches. Each Oeriklon I think is 11 pieces. Anyway, my skills are improving daily. Maybe when I'm finished with this I'll be ready to try a bit of scratch building.

That's about all for now, it's been a couple of weeks since my last post, and I wanted to let folks know, I'm still plugging away.

Been a while, so I figured id better get up to date. Finished 13 of the required Bofors tubs. Finished 5 or the required 5" mounts. Added railing and ladders to the super structure. Almost ready for the foreyard to be mounted and rigging. Need to find a way to practice on some old sprues first. Floater baskets are ready to be attached. I have the main decks now painted, trimmed and all the small bits removed ready to be attached. I originally planned to be finished by mid next year. If I continue at this pace I may make it by Christmas.

I still have much to learn, but I can tell my skills are improving or I'm becoming more patient.

Till the next time.

Looking really good, love the Bofors in the bin!

Cheers, Jabb

Getting back to work on the Iowa. I know it's been a while, got the wood deck painted and installed. If I can find a cable for my phone to PC I'll post some pictures. Anyway I'm back so, this is not another big one that went to never never land. Some how I'm missing G26. Hopefully someone doing a later version will have one to spare.

Here are a few pictures. I dry fitted the superstructure to the hull. I finally have an idea of how big this thing really is assembled.

Looks really sharp to me. 200 dwarfs my 350 New Jersey!

Brett M wrote:Looks really sharp to me. 200 dwarfs my 350 New Jersey!

Thanks Brett. I thought my 350 Missouri was big before I started this monster. One would think the PE would be easier to do. Wrong, they just give you more minute parts. I considered building the side boom with ladders that hung over the side aft. But when the PE parts are so small your tweezers wont hold them, let alone you can barely see them with the optivisor its time to omit that PE feature.

Finally finished the second cat. I am awaiting the EZ line to start on the halyards and antennas.

Scott, the model looks fantastic so far. The work on the AA guns is exceptional. You might add this to your list: https://www.uschivdr.com/products-in-detail/rigging/

It's a line like EZ line but is round in cross section. I didn't like the EZ line because on long runs, you can spot it's a bit flat.
Randy

Received my EZ line today. Made some insulators from scratch and rigged the antennas. Considering this was my first attempt at rigging, I feel somewhat satisfied. Now on to the halyards.

Scott, the rigging looks great! The model looks really good..

The EZ line is pretty easy to use, thanks to Hank for suggesting it. Finished the halyards and they were not as hard as I expected. The biggest issue I had was not enough hands. The other thing I learned is to finish what you need to get to the rigging portion but not to attach fragile parts that may get damaged if your hand slips such as directors. I was lucky as I did bump some things, but no damage. I searched and read yesterday on flag decals, and while it took some time I did find the answer. I used the foil method using a Hershey's Kiss wrapper. All and all for my first time at rigging, I feel I did pretty good.

Thanks again to Hank, James M for pictures and diagrams for rigging and halyards. James send me some really detailed drawings of the fore and rear yards antennas and halyards. The rear yard could use some halyards on it, but I don't want to push my luck any further. There will be a next time.

Here are some pictures of rigging.

Finished the superstructure. I dry fitted the 5" mounts. The Bofors and Oerlikons are glued in place. I started on the railings on the main deck. That's going to take a while with adding the stanchions. I'm not sure how many I need to add, but I'm sure its going to be a lot.

Its time to start making the case as I am past covering the hull with a sheet. I found a lamp company that sells turned brass fittings to use to mount to the base. Much cheaper than Pontos.

can see the end in sight now, I just need to keep motivated as now progress is slow and not readily apparent after a session.

Scott

If I remember correctly I think it is 170 stanchions for the main deck railing. Sure is a pain but goes quickly after the first 100.

It's coming along nicely.

Take care,


Lloyd

Scott,

Your model is really shaping up, and good pix by the way!

One thing I'll point out - the dual 5"/38 cal mounts in the kit are not correct for the IOWA class. I brought this up a year or so ago on another thread, but it's a fact. Now, Model Monkey has replacements available if you want to go that route - not cheap, but....correct. The 5"/38 mounts in this kit are appropriate for 2250 ton destroyers from WWII, not the BB55, BB57, or BB61 classes of battleships. I'm only pointing this out so that you're aware of yet another aspect of this fine Trumpeter kit.

Hank

Thanks Lloyd and Hank.

I will check out Model Monkey. In regards to the pictures, My new smartphone works better than my Nikon, though if I had a macro lens.....

Iowa is now mounted to its base. The superstructure is now permanently attached. The deck railings and stanchions are in place a chore I dreaded but was not as bad as expected. I think I'm going to go with the 5" mounts from the kit. I have all the turrets completed just saving them for last.

This was a learning experience as it is my second model in forty five years. Here is one picture, don't mind the clutter in the garage. Having to work on saw horses for now. Ill post some additional pictures in a week or so. I should be finished by then.