WIP � US Standard Type Battleship(s)

[Dan K]

Unlike sistership Nevada, the flags lockers on Oklahoma were on the sides of the signal platform.

I learn something new every day. Thx, Steve.

[MartinJQuinn]

Meanwhile, while I curse the fact I missed that important detail on Okie, Alaska is almost done...

Needs floater net baskets (which are done, and off to the side), seaplanes (which are under constructions) and some final rigging and touch ups.

[Bill Gormley]

That looks fantastic � Alaska is such a graceful looking ship. Question, since I�m working on it too. Were the 20mm and 40mm mounts painted in Deck Blue 20-B, left in Light Gray 5-L or a bit of both? I don�t have references beyond the navsource and shipcamouflage sites and the resolution isn�t always clear enough to tell.

[Fliger747]

Ah the Alaska floater baskets! The number and position of those located on the main turret roofs seems to vary. I haven't as yet attached mine as yet to the turrets. One of the stranger things about this ship seems to be a lack of the ubiquitous 20 mm ready lockers. I only found to, midships. Many of the Oerlikons are mounted on short pedestals, perhaps ready ammo is there or there was a decision to have some other type of ammo train to reduce topside combustibles?

The only commercial items on the ship are the catapults and seaplanes which were donated by Hank Strub from his 1960's New Jersey project. More items would be printed if I was doing this now, such as the aircraft/boat cranes which are built by hand od a zillion pieces of thin styrene and sprue, bit they Arte quite satisfactory.

A very nice model you have constructed, especially the dazzle paint job, something I did not attempt.

Keep up the good work! Tom

[MartinJQuinn]

Thanks guys. Appreciate the kind words. She looks better the farther away you get from her.

That looks fantastic � Alaska is such a graceful looking ship. Question, since I�m working on it too. Were the 20mm and 40mm mounts painted in Deck Blue 20-B, left in Light Gray 5-L or a bit of both? I don�t have references beyond the navsource and shipcamouflage sites and the resolution isn�t always clear enough to tell.

The 20mm & 40mm guns, as far as I could tell from photos, were painted to match the surrounding camouflage. The exception being the 20mm "gun" itself, and the recoil spring (at least, that's what I think they are) on the 40s.

[Dan K]

Impressive that you derailed your own thread.

[MartinJQuinn]

Impressive that you derailed your own thread.

Well, it is MY thread.

[Dan K]

False advertising and content...........

[MartinJQuinn]

Alaska is now done.

Hoping to turn most of my attention to Oklahoma. Mulling over the best way to get the platforms on the aft tripod lined up properly. That's where I got stalled before deciding to ride Alaska to the finish line....

[Fliger747]

Alaska, my favorite ship, looks great. Those svelte hull lines make her look like an 800 ft long Fletcher! At the point that she and the Iowa's came into the Pacific war, they were just as valuable as an Iowa for the role they actually undertook. Plenty of older battle wagons for pounding Iwo and whatnot. It was considered that the catapults could have been done away with and an extra pair of 5"38 twin mounts could have been carried, but as usual during the war, we need pretty good right now than better later.

Nice work!

[MartinJQuinn]

Nice work!

Thanks!

Here's how Okie looks as of today, with a lot of parts dry-fitted. For instance, the boat cradles on the quarterdeck are just spotted for "show". That not where they'll end up.

I spent last night measuring the height of platforms, and marking their location on the mainmast's main pole. Then I masked the tripod legs off and painted the 5L on the tops. I also had to revise the boat cradles I made, by adding an additional strip of .20x.20 plastic strip to the bottom of the PE parts, so they'd clear all the skylights on the boat deck. Those were then airbrushed 5D. After dinner tonight, I'll check to see if anything needs another coat.

[Dan K]

Yay. Back to the main event.

(Nice job on AK.)

[MartinJQuinn]

Managed to get the boat cradles secured to the boat deck (duh - where else would they go?) last night. I added the repainted port and starboard cradles first, then spliced the center cradle into place, by cutting it in half, trimming the PE parts to fit between the P&S parts, then adding the remaining half-a-cradle. There is no clear documentation for this area that I can find, so the placement of these is a "best guess", based on the general arrangement plans and photos.

The photo-etch boat cradles that came with the kit are complete fiction - they are more akin to Big 5 boat cradles, then what was found on Okie. The funnel is dry fit, just to make sure I didn't foul its footprint with the boat cradles.

I also repaired a damaged 3in gun tub on the starboard side of the boat deck. That needs to be sanded and repainted.

[MartinJQuinn]

I would think according to Sheet 5 Bridges & Superstructure Deck of the BOGP's that the cradles would be sitting a bit further back. did you try dry fitting the boats onto the cradles before gluing the cradles in place to see if they match the plans?

No, I did not - thought about that after I had super-glued the parts to the deck. I should have also mentioned that I was restricted by the size and location of the skylights and ready ammo boxes. That pretty much dictated where the cradles would go.

At this stage of the game, I have no desire to pry anything off the deck and re-spot it.

[MartinJQuinn]

I'm trying to find a little time each evening to get to the bench, even for just a few minutes. One night this week, I managed to get the main leg of the mainmast glued into place.

Left that to dry overnight. The next night I made a couple of supports from 40x40 plastic strip, which were pre-measured to hold the lowest platform on the mainmast in its proper place. That positioning was based the Okie's plans.

The platform was slid into place, with the supports holding it up, then everything was checked to make sure it was level and aligned. When I was satisfied it was as level/aligned as I was going to get it, I added some CA glue around the mainmast leg/platform joint, then left that to dry.

Tonight, if I can stay awake, I'll check alignment. If there are any noticeable issues, I'll break out the debonder. Hopefully I won't have to do so.

PS - in some of the photos, the mainmast leg looks like it's crooked. To the naked Mk1 eyeball, it looks fine.

[Fliger747]

Looks good, probably a little barrel distortion or parallax in the photo. Nice job so far!

[taskforce48]

Looking awesome!!

Matt

[MartinJQuinn]

Update Part 1:

The platform looked straight and level, so I moved onto adding the searchlight platform, using one of the same supports I had used for the lower platform to hold it in place. That platform was spot glued into place, and left to dry overnight. The next day, I test fit the back legs of the mainmast tripod into the platforms and was immediately dissatisfied with how they looked.

So, I made new ones from larger brass rod. Oveall, I though these both fit and "looked" better.

Once I trimmed and filed the ends, I primed and then painted them this weekend. Tonight, they'll be unmasked and test fit, to see how they look (we need a fingers crossed emoji!).

PS - Hmmm....just noticed an issue with one of the boat cradles that I'll have to address as well.

[MartinJQuinn]

Update Part 2:

Some six years ago, I had purchased the ModelMonkey 1941 USS West Virgina upgrade set, through the Shapeways shop. This consisted of a new caesment deck and superstructure (cage masts were available separately).

While I was painting the Okie's tripod legs, a care package arrived from ModelMonkey, with their newly revised 1/350 USS West Virginia superstructure, printed in-house, in gray resin.

I'm glad I build at such a glacial pace, and never got around to building it, because these gray resin parts are far, far superior to the Shapeways upgrade parts (which themselves were an upgrade over the original resin parts).

When I was done drooling, all of it went back in the box, until such time I get to WeeVee. So, while I waited for those pesky tripod legs to dry, I took out recently purchased 1/700 ModelMonkey Arizona casement deck, removed that from its print raft, and (loosely) test fit it, along with the MM superstructure, funnel and turrets, onto the Dragon hull. There is still some cleanup to do, but this new casement deck is a big upgrade over the Dragon kit parts.

[ModelMonkey]

Cheers!