WIP: 1/350 Pre-War USS Honolulu (CL-48)

[Dave Hill]

Lookin' good Tony!!!...the scratch built stuff is outstanding

Dave

[Elvis965]

Excellent work, Tony!

Bob

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
Almost finished with The fwd MBD tower and tub. In my excitement to move forward, I forgot to add on the p/e doors to the tower. Good grief!
Here's the latest...

Another view....

Some more changes will be made to this sub-assembly, and will be made within the next few days.
Then it will be obvious.
Tony
ps thanks for the support and enthusiasm. It does make a difference!

[Gilbert]

Impressive scratchbuild Tony and good luck with your Gun Directors

Cheers

Gilbert

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
Gilbert,
I'll do the gun directors later; that can be put off for some time.
I've dug into the fwd superstructure and will stay here till all necessary details have been added or corrected.
Look at all of the perforated beams beneath the fwd s/s decks!

I mentioned this before, but sooner or later I'll have to do some painting.
I was going to add on the p/e ladders and railings to the aft s/s then decided to add on after the paint work was done; then touch up paint as needed. There is more than one way to do this to be sure.
Tony

[Dave Hill]

I was going to add on the p/e ladders and railings to the aft s/s then decided to add on after the paint work was done; then touch up paint as needed.
Tony

Hi Tony!,

For me that's the best method...I paint the assembly or part...then while it's drying I shape and paint the PE then attach the painted PE last...if I'm carefull with the tweezers I usually don't need to do any touch-ups.

Dave

p.s. that aft assembly is really taking shape...it's going to look sweet in paint!

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
The latest on the forward s/s.
The perforated beams were in at least 2 sizes, so I used the smallest size at the trailing edge of the 03 and 04 levels. The above picture clearly shows the perforated beams at the trailing edge of the 02 level of greater height.
I also noticed the 02 deck underside beneath the lower bridge windows had some overhang and perforated beams going fore and aft. I have noticed differences between ships of this class in this area. Honolulu only had a few holes in this beneath the overhanging 02 deck detail.
I'll let the pics show the latest detail additions,,,,,

and...........

More soon..........
Tony

[Dave Hill]

WOW!....very cool!!!!!

Dave

[nick]

Great job Tony!

One q, where did you get those beams? Were they supplied with the kit??

Thanks,
Nick

[Dave Hill]

Nick,

The beams are a new release from L'Arsenal...http://www.larsenal.com/Source/catalogu ... 350_72.jpg you can get them from Tony at L'Arsenal USA!...HTH!

Dave

[Elvis965]

Excellent!

I will have to get some of those beams for when I drag the Arizona back out on the table. Many shots in Battleship Arizona show them underneath the platforms on the mainmast.

Looking good, Tony!

Bob

[David Sandifer]

Hi, Tony. Simply outstanding! What material do you use for the 03 and 04 level wind screens - is it Evergreen Scale Models 2.0mm Half Round? Regards, David

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
David,
The wind screen/deflectors are made from .040 square stock from Plastruct. First I just barely butt-lapped two rows and bonded them; first with plastic cement and then with CA on the back. After cutting to length, I sanded away at the back of this, "pair", of now adjoined square beams till it resembled the kit wind screen/delfectors; then attached where shown.
I have a pretty good supply of both Evergreen and Plastruct. I tend to use it whenever a kit part is out of scale in thickness and the task is not too over-whelming. Another build accessory is a dial caliper. Also, I go through my share of 240/320/400 sanding sticks.
A perfectly straight, "surface plate", is also needed for "trueing" and "squaring" parts; particularly with a resin kit. I'd say a necessity with resin kits!!!!
Tony

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
The armored conning tower is finished. The kit came with a resin armored conning tower that was not cylindrical and had a 2 x 20mm gun tub as part of its base. The pre-war Brooklyn's had a cylindrical armored conning tower that had nothing more than, "slots", to look out through from the inside. On this project, I replaced the incorrect armored conning tower with a contoured piece of resin; then glued in place. The problem was, I did not have the outside diameter of the, "cylinder", large enough. Also, I had not added any detail to it. The armored conning tower was undersize by about .020", so I added a strip of .010" styrene with the viewport, "slots", cut into it and then this, "facia", piece was then added on..........simple but effective.

and..........

Here is a wartime picture of Honolulu, but the armored conning tower remains unchanged.

Hopefully,I'll get to do some painting this weekend to the finished aft s/s assembly and the bridge s/s assembly.
Tony

[Dave Hill]

Man I'm loving this!!!!!

Dave

[Elvis965]

Very nice, Tony.

Question....what are those oval PE pieces you used for viewports on the base of the director?

Bob

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
Hi Bob,
Those oval shaped, "eyes", on the fwd fire control tower are sanded down and slightly re-shaped 1/72 p/e a/c seatbelt buckles.
It was easier to use something exsiting in p/e to re-shape than try to do this with a small strip of pre-drilled .010" styrene.
Believe it or not..............I want to finish this thing!
Tony

[J. Soca]

Nice job on the conning tower Tony!


Jose

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
Thanks Jose' et all!
I did some painting..yeah...however small. Testors MM Acryl marine colors.

Both the standard deck grey 20 and the standard navy grey 5 can be seen here. It won't look like this after being dull coated and with a couple of filter coats though. It will look better! Flash was used for these indoor pics. The sun is outside; not in here.

Tony

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
I missed a day at work, cuz I over-strained my back at work.
I sat and measured, sanded, cut, filed and glued till I had built up the tops of the funnels, replaced the large piece of external piping on the aft funnel. Also, there was a ventilator on the stbd side of the aft funnel deckhouse and a locker of sorts on the port side same assy.
Hard to believe that this is 4 hours of work.
port side.........

starboard side......

The bridge and aft deckhouse have the deck color painted and are drying.
Tony