1/350 USS New Orleans CA-32 (1945)

[roy allen]

Hi Dave,
using and modifying p/etch for other than the designed item has pulled me out of the fire
on more than one occasion. spares box to the rescue.
My wife calls it a junk box, but i wouldn't be with out it.

Hope you've got a nice case for it

Roy

[Dave Hill]

Hey guys!,

Thanks for the feedback!!!!...Timm...This has been my first attempt at scratch building to this degree and frankly I'm amazed that things have gone this well...I fully expected to find my parts not fitting or out of scale or something so I was pleased when I mocked up the model and saw everything fit and looked correct!

Roy...I have old PE frets from my last two builds that I've kept in the spares box and have turned to for scratch material or parts...I never throw anything away

Dave

[MartinJQuinn]

Looks FANTASTIC Dave!! Your scratch building skills are awesome.

Yeah - what he said! She's a beauty Dave.

[Quincy]

Absolutely beautiful work Dave!




Bob Pink.

[Dave Hill]

Thanks guys!!!!!!...she is coming along nicely...I hope it continues...*nocking on wood and crossing fingers*...with only the weapons, masts and assorted details left it should be mostly kit parts from now on!

Dave

[Elvis965]

Awesome stuff, Dave!



Bob

[Avery Boyer]

I can't find the words but fortunately I think this sums it up pretty well:

[Dave Hill]

Hello all,

Update: 8" Main turrets

This step was pretty much strait forward assembly of kit parts with only some slight modifications...first I had to round over the turret face's which was easily done with a sanding stick. Next I added details like PE ladders and detail pcs under the rangefinders which was made with sheet styrene. lastly I filled the notches in the turret faces with sheet stock and sanded the faces smooth, built a 20mm gun tub for turret #3 and then shot the turrets with a coat of primer.

While the turrets cured I started work on the guns...first I started by drilling out the kit blast bags so the brass 8"/55 guns from B&D barrels would just slip into them at final assembly...the brass turnings are very nice and only needed to be trimmed up a bit to get the correct length. Next I coated the blast bags with two coats of full strength white glue and when dry I gave them one last coat of diluted glue useing a small needle to scribe a texture in to simulate folds in the bags.

When everything fully cured...I painted the parts and finally installed the guns.


The turrets ready for primer.


A kit blastbag drilled out.


One of the glue coated blastbags with a gun dry fitted.

Dave

[Dave Hill]

A close-up of the blastbag detail.


The completed turrets.

I remember a comment I made in one of my last posts about everything going so well with all the scratch building I've done with this kit...Ummm...when I test fitted #2 turret to the forward superstructure I found that the turret sits to close and hits the the signal bridge ...I don't know what happened here but something got out of whack...just prooves to me that nothing is for sure when scratch building!


No broadsides from turret #2

Dave

[johndon]

VERY nice work Dave

John

[Elvis965]

Time to display her with her guns trained to port!

Great work, Dave. She looks terrific...

Bob

[Dave Hill]

I finally found out what went wrong...I just noticed in a starbord side photo of the NO that the balistic shielding at the tip of the signal bridge was notched to allow the turret's rangefinders to pass through!...my plans never showed this notch!...if I try to add this notch I'll probably do more damage than good so I think I'll just live with it!

Dave

[roy allen]

Pssst Dave i wont tell if you dont , nobody will notice that anyway

Roy

[taskforce48]

Absolutely gorgeous! Phenomenal build so far, when I grow up I wanna be just like you! Using this build to help me work up the courage to build the Quincy out of the 42' version of this kit, but that is probably down the road aways for now.

Matt

[Lucky]

Hi Dave

Excellent work!
Fantastico
Luciano

[Dave Hill]

Hi all,

Update: Masts

As usual I chose to scratch build the masts rather than modify the ones in the kit...it really didn't take that much more time and it seems they look better anyway. I started by cutting some .060" and .030" styrene rod to length and then mitred the ends of the .060" rods because the masts lean back at an angle of 6 degrees. After that I added the PE parts...The radar platforms and crow's nest platforms from the WEM PE set and the yardarms and SG radar from the GMM PE set. The PE support structure for the platforms again are very nice but I don't like the 2 dimentional look of the brass so I reproduced them with .010" styrene rod. Finally I added the PE ladders. The SK and SM-1 radars were assembled per the instructions but the mounting base for the SM-1 radar had to be made as this part is not supplied in the kit because the San Francisco didn't carry this radar. I made the base by chucking up a 1/8" pc of plastic rod in a power drill and useing a small sharp chisel turned I the rod to shape.











Painting will have to wait as I ran out of 20-B for the horizontal surfaces of the platforms.

Dave

[Elvis965]

Very nice work, Dave!

Bob

[Capt652]

Ditto, Dave!

[nick]

Very fine work Dave!

Mine doesn't even come close to yours!

[Dave Hill]

Mine doesn't even come close to yours!

Nick,

From the pics you've posted your on your way to a beautiful build!...Great job re-working the forward superstructure