Completed Revell 1:426 USS Arizona

Toshi= It's the $ 29.99 guitar of ship models. DO NOT buy the photo etch. Do not spend more than a day or two. Do not form any opinions about ship models based on this thing. It's a bathtub toy.

Then go buy a different kit. A really good one is the Trumpeter 1/350 USS San Francisco. It's a great kit. Or the USS The Sullivans. Trumpeter makes a cheaper one, Tamiya makes a really nice one.

I think GM is being a little harsh. It's true that the kit is an old one (originally released in 1958). And it certainly doesn't come up to the standards of accuracy that manufacturers routinely achieve with ship kits today.

But by 1958 standards it was a terrific kit - it represented the state of the art. Lots of modelers (including me) think of it with a great deal of nostalgia. And plenty of much more recent kits are less accurate. Plenty of people know more about the Arizona than I do, but as I understand it the basic shapes are right (which is more than can be said for most other Arizona kits on the market), and the configuration (armament, masts, catapults, etc.) is pretty close to being right for December of 1941. (One exception: the aircraft. At the time of Pearl Harbor those old biplanes had been replaced by OS2U Kingfishers.)

With one exception, all the other Arizona kits on the market have gotten pretty weak reviews from the critics. Even the enormous 1/200 Trumpeter offering apparently has some significant errors in its hull shape.

The exception is the 1/700 kit from Dragon. It's an extremely nice kit - especially the "deluxe" version. But many people find 1/700 too small for comfort.

Gold Medal Models does make an excellent set of photo-etched details for the old Revell kit. I've never seen a built-up example, but those parts would go a long way toward making the kit presentable.

I've seen photos of several excellent models based on the Revell kit. How much effort to put into it is, of course, entirely up to the modeler.

Good luck.

GMorrison

Toshi= It's the $ 29.99 guitar of ship models. DO NOT buy the photo etch. Do not spend more than a day or two. Do not form any opinions about ship models based on this thing. It's a bathtub toy.

Then go buy a different kit. A really good one is the Trumpeter 1/350 USS San Francisco. It's a great kit. Or the USS The Sullivans. Trumpeter makes a cheaper one, Tamiya makes a really nice one.

 

Toshi

jtilley

I think GM is being a little harsh. It's true that the kit is an old one (originally released in 1958). And it certainly doesn't come up to the standards of accuracy that manufacturers routinely achieve with ship kits today.

But by 1958 standards it was a terrific kit - it represented the state of the art. Lots of modelers (including me) think of it with a great deal of nostalgia. And plenty of much more recent kits are less accurate. Plenty of people know more about the Arizona than I do, but as I understand it the basic shapes are right (which is more than can be said for most other Arizona kits on the market), and the configuration (armament, masts, catapults, etc.) is pretty close to being right for December of 1941. (One exception: the aircraft. At the time of Pearl Harbor those old biplanes had been replaced by OS2U Kingfishers.)

With one exception, all the other Arizona kits on the market have gotten pretty weak reviews from the critics. Even the enormous 1/200 Trumpeter offering apparently has some significant errors in its hull shape.

The exception is the 1/700 kit from Dragon. It's an extremely nice kit - especially the "deluxe" version. But many people find 1/700 too small for comfort.

Gold Medal Models does make an excellent set of photo-etched details for the old Revell kit. I've never seen a built-up example, but those parts would go a long way toward making the kit presentable.

I've seen photos of several excellent models based on the Revell kit. How much effort to put into it is, of course, entirely up to the modeler.

Good luck.

 

Toshi

I have the revell arizona in my stash trying to decide the best way to approach it Im a newbie to ship building Iv always built A/c so Im having to start from scratch. how should I tackle it to make it remotely presentable and not spend a ton of money?

how much work do you want to put into it? i'm using the arizona model as a basis to do the 15 obb from arkansas to the colorados. i've got 9 being worked on presently from the texas to a colorado.

Capn- I'm only aware of one 1/350 plastic BB 39, the one that got sold as Banner/Trumpeter/ Hobby Boss. And there are all kinds of AM sets for it. Somewhere back in my paint locker there's one, probably has $ 60 worth of PE in the box, from a time when i could justify spending that kind of money.

I suppose one problem in getting this type of ship as a kit is that BB's in the USN seemed to come in classes of only two or three, following one after the other.Why that is would be a fascinating study. Perhaps they sost so much money that some amount of lessons learned/ re-invention was always worth it. Or that "the other guys" came out with a "10 14 inchers in five turrets", so you'd design a "12 14 inchers in four turrets", they'd do 8 15 inchers in four turrets, and so on.

I'm impressed that there seems to be a stream, or at least a steady trickle, of WW1 or pre WW2 battleship models in the USN coming along.

I agree with all of the above; this is a nostalgia build. I'm going to make a guess based on memory however, which is why I suggest not getting PE. Kits of this vintage were not designed for PE, for obvious reasons. So all of the older Revell kits for instance have a LOT of molded on detail that has to be removed, and that can be a really big task requiring very good workmanship and patience. This one no doubt is the same. For instance, I'll bet the main deck stanchions and life lines are molded as a solid wall with detail relief on the outboard side. To substitute, not just add, PE; you need to carefull cut off the entire run, which in turn exposes a joint between the main deck and the hull on the top (the deck) that we weren't supposed to pay any attention to. So you put a lot of work into fudging up a decent looking waterway, without mangling the cast on deck plank detail.

EDIT: I just looked at the instructions on Revell.com. Yikes!!! True what I guessed about the lifelines, and for that matter all of the other bridge railings.

But... and it's a big one- this kit has one of the most infamous (IMO) construction details ever devised for a plastic model. The deck houses have a horizontal seam between parts, midway up the bulkhead between decks and centered through the middle of the portholes. Old Revell ship modelers know this one well. Revell did this to be able to cast the portholes as open holes, which is silly. Defeating that detail is doable, but it takes a lot of work. My last such model, the T2 tanker from the Mission series, I found that the most reasonable approach was to make a rubbing of each part, trace the decks, and just replace each with quickly sliced up sheet styrene.

All of which I'll summarize. I make these suggestions NOT as a curmudgeon, I hope, but as a promise that once you get through this little kit, it gets better. Much better. This model has an undeniable "coolness" factor, more so as you learn more about ships and see it as a particular type of ship from a particular time.

Build it, build it. And think about it tomorrow morning, please.

Bill

Second cup of coffee.

One very interesting aspect of the BB 39 story is the salvage operation that took place after the sinking.

http://padresteve.com/2013/12/09/salvaging-the-fleet-salvage-efforts-after-the-attack-on-pearl-harbor/

Her aft turrets were taken out to Kahe Point, for Battery Arizona. Her rifles from turret 2 were installed in Nevada and used in 1944 at Okinawa I think.

did the arizona have wooden decks? I am really having a hard time finding reference matirial for her.

fighterguru

did the arizona have wooden decks? I am really having a hard time finding reference matirial for her.

 

Toshi

I think all US Battleships had wooden decks- kind of.  Essentially the wood planks were a form of non-slip finish for the big, thick armored decks.  Most had just the armor up in forecastle area, with planks over the armor steel aft of that.

what is the best way to replicate those wooden decks having never done this before any help would be much appreciatied

The best book I know of is Paul Stillwell's Battleship Arizona: an Illustrated History.

Currently available on Amazon, very inexpensive right now. When I picked mine up several years ago, it easily cost $ 100.00, OOP. I happened to pick mine up from the National Memorial Gift Shop in Honolulu, over the phone, for list. They had a couple of copies in the stock room.

But there's lots of others.

BB 39 had wooden decks, in some places covered in linoleum I remember. There's a set in 1/350, but I've never seen one in the smaller scale, and again I dont think it's too important.

I'm planning to build my Hobby Boss kit late 1930's.

fighterguru, yes she does.

Check these out!

http://www.shapeways.com/product/2RHQLBDVZ/1-700-arizona-1936-superstructure

i helped model monkey a bit with that. i think model monkey has that designed in 1/426 scale. you can also get 1/426 scale 5"25cal guns & maybe 5"51cal guns soon from that site.

fighterguru, the current model decks of that model are simulated to have wood on it

It brought me joy when I see that forum members are helping each other out.

In reality, I have most of the components ready for painting!

Toshi

Me too.

Hi Toshi, glad to see you in the water for once.  This kit really is the grandfather of all plastic model ships and it does show its age.  Molded in railings and fat, thick molded details that just show a shape of, more than the details, of a gun. And it does not quite represent the Arizona in December 1941.  However, its a wonderful kit to cut your teeth on for a first warship.  Its dimensions are good and overall fit is not bad, even for its age.  Its a great kit to practice painting a waship and finding out what steps to build and paint in without worring about a ton of small details.  Overall, unlike the more detailed 1/350 scale kits, this kit is quite forgiving.  And I still like the looks of it.  

Once its built and you feel ready for building one with detail and to a specific time period, then move up to one of the 1/350 offerings.

Toshi,

I think most modelers have cut their ship building teeth on this kit, it's just a matter of time. I have the Hobby Boss 1/700 and the now Trumpeter 1/350 with Gold Metal Models PE set. It's interesting to note that both of the above mentioned kit's decks and superstructure/casemates build in halves like the Revell kit. I really don't care for that but it's easy enough to hide the seams, at least on the superstructure.

Good luck with the Grandfather of ship models, I know you will make her a butte.

Like GM said, don't compare all ship kits to this one.

scottrc

Hi Toshi, glad to see you in the water for once.  This kit really is the grandfather of all plastic model ships and it does show its age.  Molded in railings and fat, thick molded details that just show a shape of, more than the details, of a gun. And it does not quite represent the Arizona in December 1941.  However, its a wonderful kit to cut your teeth on for a first warship.  Its dimensions are good and overall fit is not bad, even for its age.  Its a great kit to practice painting a waship and finding out what steps to build and paint in without worring about a ton of small details.  Overall, unlike the more detailed 1/350 scale kits, this kit is quite forgiving.  And I still like the looks of it.  

Once its built and you feel ready for building one with detail and to a specific time period, then move up to one of the 1/350 offerings.

 

Toshi

To modelcrazy, 

I want to thank you so much for being there for me.  It seems that the spirit of the USS Arizona lives on this model kit.  As many of you mentioned, do not compare this particutlate kit to other ship model kits.

Just a thought, there's one thing I reaaly enjoy is just building the USS Arizona.  As you mentioned time and time again, have fun!

Thank you for the read and replies!

Toshi

It really is a neat old kit, you will have loads of fun. What better subject and kit to build at this time.

I'm anxious to see what you do with her.

And today is the day for a moment of rememberance for her and her crew................

I have built this Kit a few Times over the Years. Even though it is an old one the Kit is still considered by most to be the most accurate portrayel of her. Add the Gold Medals Set to her and the detail is quite outstanding. The only thing that would make it better would be replace the secondary 5 Inch mounts with more accurate ones. To portray her at Pearl on that fateful morning, she did not mount her Aircraft. They were landed ashore when she berthed at Pearl on Dec 05.....CHeers Mark 

Also I believe she was missing two of the aft 5 inch mounts as she was going through a minor upgrade after her fender bender with the Oklahoma.

Now one thing I do know was her upper masts were painted a light grey above the funnel and turret tops 1, 2 and 4 were red to indicate section one of battleship division 1

I don't agree Surf. The Dragon 1/700 kit is considered the most accurate kit. And generally accurate in every way.

I would say that the 1/350 Banner/ Trumpeter/ Hobby Boss kit is an equal of the Revell kit. Someone mentioned earlier that that kit had the same horrible horizontal split detail through the portholes. So I went and dug mine out. Yes. thats true, Hobby Boss wins here because at 1/350, it's easier to fix. That also reinforces the old suspicion that the Banner/ Trumpeter/ Hobby Boss kit was pantographed up from the Revell kit.

The Trumpeter 1/200 kit is more accurate in every way than the Revell or Banner/ Trumpeter/ Hobby Boss kits. Not all the way around as good as the Dragon kit, but very good.

My suggestions here though all have to do with the idea of a first time ship modeler taking this on. It's fine, but as I said I'd recommend doing it because it costs $ 29,99 at Michaels minus whatever discount coupon you have, but form NO opinions about ship modeling from this. The OP Toshi has already shown that he's not averse to exchange coin for quality.

I really liked building the Trumpeter USS San Francisco. They really captured her lines in a magnificent way. The PE set went on fine, with no removal of any plastic.

Her sister, ne head of the class CA-32 was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Three of that class gave their lives at the battle of Savo Island on August 8, 1942, and the other two were heavily damaged fighting Japanese battleships at Guadalcanal.

They formed the gun line with their 8" rifles until battleships arrived again.

Sweet looking San Fran GM. I wouldn’t mind at all if Santa brought me that kit.
I was saying the 1/350 had the split, the 1/700 kit as well. I always suspected they "barrowed" from the Revell kit.