The Ship Model Forum

Greetings, folks,

While I sit here waiting for my eyes to uncross from rolling up 20mm ammunition drums and bending 20mm range finders/gun sights that end up being about the size of a grain of sand, I'm reading the instructions for the Veteran Models quad Bofors 40mm assemblies for the USS Iowa Class. I'm gradually understanding what goes where, but I do have a couple questions. I know Jason has put these together and I assume several others of you have done the same. My sets came with the Pontos Advanced Detail set, but I'm assuming the instructions are the same regardless of where they were purchased.

Question #1: If I'm looking at the pictures correctly, the case chutes (Items A04) have a slight radius to them if you look at their cross section.
However, the actual PE pieces of these parts have no way to get this profile. Those of you who already built these mounts, what did you do here? Did you put this radius in and, if so, how did you do it and still keep from distorting the piece as you put the front to back curve in the chutes?

Question #2: This involves Step 3 of the instructions, where it describes forming the gun sights (Items A07 & A08). Where and how to fold and bend is about as clear as mud.
Can somebody please walk me through how these pieces are to be bent? I don't understand the pictures at all, and if you bend them the wrong way, they're likely to break when you rebend them.

The 20mm guns are coming, but then, so is Christmas. My big problem is that I only get to work on them about an hour maybe 4 nights a week. Fall in Michigan means leaves, leaves, and more leaves, and having a southwest wind blowing means all my neighbor's maple leaves end up in my yard. And even if I do manage time to work on the ship, many times I'm tired and start making mistakes, which is a sure sign that I need to pack it in and do something else. But, they're coming along and I'm almost ready to start putting all the sub-assemblies together. I'm following Jason's advice and using an assembly line approach, where I perform the same step to all 50 guns before moving on to the next sequence. I shudder to think of how much time I have tied up in these little guns. But, isn't that what this hobby is all about - having fun, enjoying yourself, and doing the same damn thing over and over 50 times!!!

Have a great week, friends.

Conveniently, Channell is making a post here with step-by-step instructions on how to make the Veteran 40mm Bofors!

Timmy C wrote:Conveniently, Channell is making a post here with step-by-step instructions on how to make the Veteran 40mm Bofors!

Yay Me!

I had this idea months ago but never got around to it. Got ya covered Larry, hope it helps...

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=160867&p=672725#p672725

Wow Jason! I sure didn't expect this level of detail! Thank you! I had pretty much every thing else figured out, but the sight bars were driving me nuts. I couldn't figure out why all the bends when the pictures I see on line didn't show them. Also, I wasn't aware of the seat and pedal error. You saved my ass, buddy! Did I tell you I love this forum!!!!

I'm probably getting way ahead of myself here, but it seems like every time I start exploring pages of this forum I find new ideas that I might want to try.

Such is the case here. I was browsing through the photo gallery of completed models here and happened to run across this model of the 1/200 Trumpeter USS Missouri by Hyun Soo KIm:

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... /index.htm

I hadn't given any thought to simulating the hull plating on my model other than adding the hull plate kit from Eduard, but once I saw this build I couldn't get out of my mind how fantastic this hull looks. It's nothing short of perfection. If you look closely, you see the photos say "Etching Design by Sang Hyun Park". Wanting to know more about his method, I looked him up in the member's list, but apparently he's not a member of this site.

I've looked at Paul Budzik's video on simulating hull plates, but, if you look closely at this build, it looks to be like this was done by scribing lines in the plastic. I don't see any buildup or overlap at all. Plus, it says "Etching design by...." Have any of you gents had any luck with simulating hull plating by scribing lines in the hull? To me this looks like a lot easier method than trying to add umpteen coats of primer one line at a time. If I can get the level of realism as seen by this gentleman's build, I'm certainly going to give it a try. But, rest assured, I'm going to practice on something else first!!!!!

One more thing to add to my list! Geez, if I keep this up, I'll be 95 when I finally finish this monster.

OK fellas, I'll bet you think I've been sitting on my ass and that I've already given up on my "Monster Mo". Well, I haven't, and here's proof.
The first 25 of the 50 20mm Oerlikons are finished!!!!

I think they look pretty good. The gun barrels, handles, cartridge drums and wiring are flat black. The base, shield, receiver, and sight/range finder are grey. They're not perfect, but when they're mounted on a 53" ship with so much other stuff, I don't think my errors will be too noticeable. Anyway, here they are:

You did such a good job on those, you need to do ANOTHER 25 just to make sure!

Hollywood has The Terminator, now Ship Model Forum has.......The Oberlikoner

One of these big ships is an ultra marathon. Sometimes the real ship was completed in less time! Keep up the good work! T

Hi friends,

I hope all you people here in the States had a nice Thanksgiving - and didn't spend TOO much on toys during Black Friday. I ate way too much but, hey, isn't that what you're supposed to do? Now I guess I'm supposed to exercise to work it all off, but we don't even have any snow to shovel! Sure is a far cry from last November when we were buried in the stuff!

OK, I suppose you want an update on my Monster Mo. Finally, I have all the 20mm Orlikons done and safely tucked away, awaiting the day years from now when they can be mounted. Thank God they're done. Talk about nasty little buggers! Now I'm starting on the 40mm Quad Bofors. All I have done so far is to glue the gun barrels onto 20 of the receivers. Thank Heaven for Jason's clear, concise tutorial! I printed it out and have it right here in front of me. So far, it looks like these will be a lot easier than the 20mm Orlikons were. By the time I was on the last ones I was about ready to trash the whole damn project and go back to driving trains on Train Simulator.

The last order I placed with Floating Drydock I ordered a set of Tom's 1/192 scale plans for the Missouri. They came just before Thanksgiving and when I unrolled them I was pleasantly surprised and how clear and how detailed they are. They're a hundred times better than I expected. Tom, if you're out there, Kudo's to you on such a fine job. Since the scale of my kit is 1/200, I thought it'd be nice to have them reduced down to 96% so they'd match my build. I went over to m local Staples store but they can only copy things up to 4 feet long. Then I called Office Depot and they didn't have any copies that could handle paper that size either. Both places suggested I try FedEx Kinkos, so I gave them a call. Yep, they'd be glad to do it - for the low, low price of only $29.95 for the 4 sheets. Yeah, like that's gonna happen! Bandits!! Needless to say, I'll work with what I have.

You guys have been talking about Paul Stillwell's book so much I told my wife that I wanted it for Christmas. Amazon has the soft cover edition for $42 so that's what I told her I wanted. She went on EBay though, and found a used hard cover edition in excellent, almost new condition for $40, so she got that instead. I've been trying to figure out a way to get her to let me see it before Christmas, but so far no luck. But that's OK, I'll probably be working on guns till then anyway.

Sorry I don't have any photos to show you this time. I've been going back through the thread on the Iowa Class ships and collecting shots of plating details, just in case I decide to plate my hull (simulated, of course!). LIke Jason, I try to do a little bit every night, but with the holidays coming on, it doesn't always happen. I am doing a lot of studying and learning, though, plus a lot of day dreaming as well!

Before I go, though, I do have one question for all you folks who have already built the Veterans 40mm Quads. In addition to the mount itself, you have an MK-51 MOD.2 gun director for each mount. On this director, where exactly does part A18 go? The instructions are really poor on the placement of this part. They don't give you any hints at all.
OK, I'm outa here until next time. Just remember: He who farts in church must sit in his own pew.

From this picture it looks like it will be waist/stomach high.

Been enjoying your build and will be stealing ideas for my own.

Good to hear progress is being made! Also good to hear my name spoken so kindly... but be careful 'cause it might go to my head!

Plastic Habit: Thanks for the picture. It's copied and saved to my Missouri folder.

Jason: Don't worry. The next time I'll cuss you out so you won't feel so big headed! Progress is slow and will probably be for the next few weeks. I was going to work on it this afternoon but the Boss lady wanted to tree put up instead. Guess which happened? I want to paint the recoil springs and the muzzle flash suppressors on the barrels black, so I'm going to paint the gun assemblies before I glue them to the mounts. Other than that. I'm following your tutorial to the letter. You can't know what a help it is - or can you...

Hey steinerman,

Just wanted to let you know that that pic is one of the MK51 directors aboard USS Texas.

Between the PE piece and the pic I believe it was what you were looking for.

Hi Larry,

Hope your build is coming along for you. Looking forward to the next round of pics.

I have a question for you regarding the Pontos "Advanced Add-on" set.

I was taking inventory of mine and notice that there are only enough arms for the MK51
directors to do 20 complete directors. Plus one extra arm.

Did your set come out the same?

I am just curious as the kit calls for 32.

Thanks in advance,
PH

Greetings friends,

I figured it's about time I posted something so you will know I'm still alive and kicking. I hope you all had a great Christmas and that you didn't do as I did and eat way too much. I'm already making use of the treadmill and trying to fit into my jeans again.

Now, on to news regarding the "Monster Mo". I'm slowly making progress, with "slowly" being the operative word. The holidays are not a good time to spend working on models around the Steiner household. Waaay too much other stuff that takes priority! I am, however, trying to follow Jason's philosophy of doing something every week, and while things aren't coming as fast as I'd like, I am making progress.

Several places here I've read that on a big ship like this one, you should tackle the boring, mundane, things first, which means all the damn AA guns on this beast. So that's what I've been doing. The 20mm Orlikons are finished and I'm probably halfway done with the 40mm Quad mounts. I'm doing all 20 at a time and I'm up to the point where I'm attaching the elevator cranks. I have them done on the right side, but I have the left side cranks to do yet. I'm following Jason's tutorial step by step and man, it's a life saver. There are places where I had trouble determining where things went, but I found a drawing on-line that helps a lot.
These gun mounts are little kits in themselves - 26 parts on each mount, and some of them are really small. And yes, PH, my set only has 20 sets of arms as well. Are you sure the kit requires 22? I thought that each 40mm quad mount required a MK-51 but that was the only place they were needed.

One thing that I did have a problem with was that on four of the mounts at least 1 of the carriage arms that the gun receivers mount to were broken off when I took them out of the bag. I'm going to have to try and scratch build something to simulate these arms.

My wife got me Paul Stillwell's book for Christmas. She found an excellent condition hard cover used copy on E-Bay for $40 and it look like new. My old Dremel was wearing out so she also got me a new cordless one with a charger.

Guess that's about all I have to say for now. Take care, everybody and I hope you all have a really Happy New Year!

Mk-51s were added to control the 5"/38s as backups. The whole fleet didn't get them though I don't think. Off hand I believe The Iowas did but photos and plans would be needed to be 100% sure.

Greetings friends, I just thought I'd check in and say "Hi" - and also to let you know that I'm still plugging away, slow but sure, with "slow" being the operative word. Whoever mentioned that it was best to get the AA guns out of the way first, didn't count on how boring it was to do the same thing over and over. I'm still working on the quad Bofors and so fer haven't run into any serious problems - other than those @&^$##$* elevation cranks are a bloody nightmare!

My problem isn't the difficulty of the model, but rather the priorities my wife sets on my time. Right after the holidays she informed me that "we" (meaning guess who) were going to repaint the utility room. Not a major task, except that 2 walls were wall papered and that damn stuff was the hardest wall paper I've ever seen in my life to get off. I'm in the process of priming the walls now, so the hardest part is done. Now she informs me that when I'm done with this room, she wants the great room repainted as well. Again, no big deal, except the ceiling is 17 feet tall, meaning that I have to get my big industrial scaffolding set up in the room and try to work around all the furniture.

All this means that I get maybe a half hour a night, if I'm lucky, to mess around with my ship. But, oh well, I'm slowly making progress and one of these years I'll be done with the AA guns and can start on the hull. Laci has been working on his carrier for 7 years, so I guess I don't feel so bad.

I hope all of you had a great holiday season and I wish you all the very best in the coming year. I hope to post some pictures one of these days, but right now I seriously doubt if any of you wants to see a selfie of me reading Stillwell's book

I just looked back at the first page of my build log and it started in 2009 so you have plenty of company taking their time about getting it done right.

James

These 1/200 monsters + aftermarket sets are seriously big and complicated projects on par with full-rigged wooden "ship of the line" models when it comes to eating up time. There's no bones about it... this is a LOONG term project by it's very nature.

In other words, don't feel bad about things going slow, Larry... but don't let it die either as that tends to be the usual fate of these projects, especially after several months when the excitement has died off.

Gotta say, my "do one thing a week no matter how small" rule has worked wonders on my Nelson build; my prior 1/200 projects didn't progress anywhere near as fast and the whole thing has been a lot more enjoyable... probably because I feel like I'm getting somewhere.

Let us know if you could use some cheerleaders... I'm not putting on a skirt but I'll find ya someone who will.

Thanks, Jason, but I think I'll pass on the skirt. If I want to see a pair of hairy legs, I'll look in the mirror

And don't you worry - I have no intention of letting this go by the wayside. I'm still loving the time I spend on it - I just wish I had a wee bit more of it (time, that is).