ARIZONA-1/200 - TRUMPETER

For those of you that appreciate these posts this is for you . I still CANNOT figure out how to do the photo thing and there,s no help forthcoming in this town, even something I could afford . I have been working very diligently on this model and believe me it,s a doozy . I have done some things that aren,t in the instructions because I am trying to make this the BEST ARIZONA my client can have . Now , down to business , I finally got the main guns together and there is a few things I would like to give you a heads up on . First , the instructions tell you to put two holes in the roof of a turret . Now heres the trick. Make sure you only do one turret ! These holes are where the catapult mounts . Now , be very careful when you put the racks together that the boats (all of them) sit in , The largest boats have racks that comprise six parts .They will snap together before gluing , BUT, it works best if you very carefully trim the little pins OFF the longitudinal braces .  You will have to use the locating holes in the deck to get them to line up correctly . DON,T glue them yet ! If you look closely you will see that they are different sizes and shapes.The ones marked H44 go in the middle ! The H42 go on the ends !  That,s why a heads up was necessary at this time. Moving ahead for a minute , go to page 32 and check out the optional plates they offer .I don,t know what they are for , so I hope TRACY WHITE can chime in and help here .I found that the boats go right over the top of these plates.If you glue these on then you will have to modify the legs on the boat cradles . They (TRUMPETER ) does not give you a way to put them in the deck flush with the top surface of the deck .I do not know what they are for OR even if they were actually on the ship. Now go back to page10 . There you will see the directions for the main guns .They give you a choice to build them with " BLAST BAGS" or NOT . If NOT ,  then you will want to do Step K7 and follow the instructions here . If you opt for" BLAST BAGS" then mount the bags, ON the turrets.Now, when I went to mount the barrels I was glad I am an old school trial fit and then glue type of modeler . The base of the barrels (YES , THEY are TURNED ALUMINUM!) is to long to seat tightly in the holes in the bags .You MUST sand the ends down until it is flat and true across . They will then fit fine.You may want to take 800 grit and spin the barrel ends ,  the large end that stays metallic color  , to roughen it up for paint (modelmaster "STEEL ") and then mount the barrels with super glue(" gap filling thick ") and they will be fine . Now one more thing here .You will see handrails on the top edges of the turrets . For my client ,  I trimmed them OFF. I replaced them with cut up rails (1/400 or 1/500 ) That did a good job of becoming handrails . You must cut the rails and then when you have the right length you have to cut them from the other part of the rail. These are horizontal strips with little legs on them . GEEZ ,This is where I really need pictures , isn,t it .? When you get them mounted there is a line of some sort that runs from the little doo-dad on the front of the turret roof across to the side , parallel to the rail to a spot near the back on one side.Use .010 wire for this . There you now have detailed turret roofs .  Then on to the boats . Catchya soon           tankerbuilder     OH , if TRACY WHITE pipes in here on those plates that,s great because if you did use them you have to re-drill the holes for the boat cradles .