Revell USS Arizona

Did manage to get a few minutes of painting in. Have the superstructure, barbette and most of the detail bits on the foredeck painted. Still need to get the rest of the details and do some minor touch-ups to the deck - darned hands are only so steady these days. Had to give it up when holding the brush was getting too painful.

FYI, rainy, humid, hot days and arthritis do not play well together.

Tarasdad

My wife was out running errands a couple of days ago and when she came home she brought me a new model kit, the Revell 1/426 USS Arizona.

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There is a photo-etch kit available for this kit from Gold Medal Models but it literally triples the cost of the kit, from $20 to $60 ($40 for the photo-etch). That's just too much money for me to invest right now although I may consider it if I decide to do this kit again.

I built that kit as a child during the mid 1960s....and lately I have been considering building it again.

I did look for an ex stash kit at the Illinois NIMCON show but saw nothing priced low enough to buy as I would like to buy the photo-etch.

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Another SWAP meet this fall. Perhaps I'll find one then.

In the mean time, I;ll enjoy watching your progress and try to learn a few things along the way.

I have loved that old kit forever. I have it in the stash and I am going to back-date it to the early '30s.

Try looking at Tom's Modelworks for a PE set, they are more affordable than Gold Medal Models PE. Good to see somebody else having a go at this classic.

If you have the time there are few good videos on You-Tube about all the good and bad about this kit.

I'm just going to plod along and do what I can with what I have. I did manage a bit more work, mostly finishing up the superstructure stack and attaching it to the main deck. Here are a couple of photos of where it stands now:

The grey is darker than it looks, camera flash washed it out. Repainting the decks made a huge difference, they were way too dark earlier. There's still a long way to go!

Welcome to the fold. What colors are you going to build her?

If you plan to build her in pre war colors, this is how she should look in Light Gray

and a view of the wood decks against the light gray

From reading may debates her pre-September 1941 colors should be 5D Dark Gray hull with 5L Light Gray superstructure and upperworks. After that it would be 5S Sea Blue hull with 5L Light Gray uppers. I'm sort of having to work with what I have where paint is concerned. I don't have the exact colors I need and can't afford to get them right now. Would love to have the entire set of White Ensign US Navy colors but that's not going to happen anytime soon. I do have some Model Master Dark Sea Blue but that's way too dark and I'm not sure I can mix it to look right.

Ran into one assembly that was a royal pain, the rear mast. Three legs, two platforms and the fire direction tower all needing to be manipulated and glued at the same time. Must have taken me an hour of fiddling and muttering before I finally got it to look the way it should.

Haven't made any progress today. If I do go to the bench it will be to do some more detail painting. Need to be able to set up my airbrush to do the rest and I just don't feel like messing with it right now. Too hot in the garage and I don't have a vented hood to use inside. When I finally can I'll mask the decks and spray a color closer to 5L. As for the Hull...well, I'll see what I can do.

Well, my wife has said she'll pick up some paint for me while she's out on errands on Tuesday! Now I just need to figure out which colors to tell her to get. Not sure the LHS carries the Model Master International paints so I need to find out what's closest in the standard lines, either MM enamels or Acryls or Tamiya acrylics.

Here is where she stands now:

The fore and aft masts aren't glued on yet, still need to paint them.

Stikpusher, looking at that first photo is appears her turrets were a lighter shade of grey? Any ideas what those actual shades would be? Found this photograph that shows what appears to be overall light gray with possibly black for the smokestack cap?

I like Tamiya Hull Red for the lower hull and flat black for the boot stripe. get acrylics. far less smell when painting

Tamiya Hull Red is matched to the IJN hull red, which was more brown than the US Navy's. I prefer my hulls the more brighter US red.

The 5-L gray used in 1941 is the same tone as the prewar #5 Navy Gray that was used, but is more neutral (prewar gray had a slight blueish color to it). That may help with your color choices. Arizona was in the prewar gray in 1941 up to about late May.

Turrets were NOT lighter than the rest of the ship, the angled slopes causes more light reflection, which makes them appear lighter. Turrets 1,2 & 4 had insignia red painted on top for recognition purposes:

http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Ships/USNTurretTops.html

So the pre-war ships could be quite colorful!

I found some 5-L Light Gray at the hobby shop. Going to use that to paint it.

I agree most emphatically with Tracy on the matter of the red lower hull. I have seen far too many otherwise outstanding ship models marred by that IJN hull red. Model Masters has a line of railroad colors in acrylics with a "caboose brick red" that comes close. They also have a line of naval colors that advertises a "Navy Red" that I have never seen and am very curious about.  Use a red that looks right to you. IJN Hull Red ain't it.

Bill

Don't forget .The two gun stations just aft of the step-down would remain empty. She never got the guns for there . That would be both port and starboard .Put some sprue in the holes, smooth it out and paint it grey inside .

I was wondering about this kit. My 10 year old son is getting into battleship models right now and he bought the (I mean I bought ) U.S.S. Missouri  from Revell from your favorite chain hobby shop. He was going to get the Arizona but decided on the Missouri instead. I think he's going back for the Arizona so I'll be paying this build attention. Thanks for posting this.

tankerbuilder

Don't forget .The two gun stations just aft of the step-down would remain empty. She never got the guns for there . That would be both port and starboard .Put some sprue in the holes, smooth it out and paint it grey inside .

If you want to go that route, leave the two forward tubs on the boat deck empty as well; these four were meant to receive the quad 1.1" "Chicago Piano" gun mounts, but they weren't available in time and the tubs were empty for all of 1941 and eternity....

mustang1989

I was wondering about this kit. My 10 year old son is getting into battleship models right now and he bought the (I mean I bought ) U.S.S. Missouri  from Revell from your favorite chain hobby shop. He was going to get the Arizona but decided on the Missouri instead. I think he's going back for the Arizona so I'll be paying this build attention. Thanks for posting this.

It's a great kit for a kid - I built it a couple of times and that kit is why I have a real fire in the head for the ship itself (she's my favorite battleship). It's not a spectacular build, but it's not a treacherous one either, in my opinion. Hardest part is the tripods.

The Revell "box scale" 1/426 Arizona is just one of those things, been in production uninterrupted for over 50 years that make ya say, "Wow, this is one of them that got it all started..." And ya hope it never stops. Build it out of the box or super detail it with scratch building and GMM's photoetch set. Either way,  you will have truely an American icon. :)  

The Arizona is on hold until I can clear up some paint issues I'm having. Not the ship or color, just learning to use a new paint. Old dog, new tricks kinda deal lol.

Awh ;

You'll do it .Have faith in yourself !

Thanks Tracy :

I couldn't ,for the life of me, remember what type of guns were supposed go there !  T.B.

Going to have to get some primer looks like. Darn it, another trip to the hobby shop....

Tracy White

It's a great kit for a kid - I built it a couple of times and that kit is why I have a real fire in the head for the ship itself (she's my favorite battleship). It's not a spectacular build, but it's not a treacherous one either, in my opinion.

Managed to get some Tamita rattle can primer, both white and grey. Used the white, went down perfectly! The MM Acryl 5-L Light Grey also went down without a hitch. Swapped airbrushes for the red, from my Badger 200 to my Central Pneumatic (Harbor Freight) double action and, well, managed to make a mess of things. Lack of practice with the airbrush showed when I managed to pull the trigger back too far and shoot way more paint on a spot than I intended. Now I have a nice, big run to sand out and redo. May just redo the entire bottom while I'm at it, only this time with my Badger, despite the narrow spray pattern.

I built that same kit last year. Here are some pictures of it. I hope you like them. If you have any questions just ask.

I was just looking at this book review...............

............I know so little about that ship, just looking at the online sample photos is a help for building my Revell kit.

http://www.modelshipwrights.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=8833

Those out of the box builds look really good.

Fascinating stuff. The drawings in those Kagero books are really outstanding.

My only complaint with the series has to do with the titles. (Warning: this is from an Olde Pharte who's on a crusade to eliminate "quarter scale" as a substitute for 1/4" = 1', and practically barfs when he sees "build" or "etch" used as a noun.)

Folks, if a drawing is printed on a flat piece of paper, it isn't 3D. Those drawings are either isometric or in perspective.

I'm not going to let that curmudgeonly caveat stop me from buying the books, though.

I helped a wee bit with the Kagero book - I can't get Spru-ce Goose' last post to come up but I presume that's what's being talked about based on the professor's response.

It's not completely accurate, so I would use it as a good start and then compare details. Waldek and I didn't find each other until two days before his CAD was due, so there was only time to correct some gross errors (he had wood on the top level of the superstructure for example, when it was metal. There are a couple of shots earlier in the book that are "distant" where you can still see this if you look for it).

That's a great thing about ship models though, you can build a great looking ship with just basic skills, but if you want to go all out and really learn about the ship and crew, there's always opportunities to find details to add or improve.