USS Arizona 1/426 Finished!

That is a very nice model. A good clean assembly job. I think your paint work is very well done, esp. the hull.

Bill

Thanks Bill,  

The rear mast was a bit tricky to put in but aside from that it went pretty well assembly and paint wise. I was thinking of painting the top of the 2 masts white like she was at Pearl Harbor the day of the attack but went w the earlier paint scheme/ directions.

Looks great!

Interesting thread to me.  My grandson gave me that kit for Xmas.  I need to build it, of course.  Is there any aftermarket for that kit?

Yes, there is, but I question the effort sometimes as that kit is so grossly inaccurate, both structurally and historically. The structural part I'll not go into right now, it is a disertation in itself. As for the historic part, the kit is a mix of probably three different time periods in the ship's history.

So, check it out and pick a moment in time, then built for that period.

Yes, the usual suspects: Tom's Model Works makes a PE set, and Shapeways has a bunch of 3D parts.

I have the same reaction as Brian, though.

Bill

Model Monkey does parts for that model https://www.model-monkey.com/revell-scale-426 as does 3DModelParts http://www.3dmodelparts.com/box-scale-miscellaneous-accessories/

i'm using that same model x17 with the corrections to the stern & bulges in my kitbash thread http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=165105

I would have loved to have the space and time for a 1/200 AZ but since someone got me this for Xmas I just wanted to do OOB. Its a good kit for beginners to practice ship building as it's very toy like and dated. Keep a pin vise handy and files and sanding sticks and filler as there lots of gaps. FLASH CITY TOO :(

Well, that kit has been around for decades, hence the flash. I built it a bunch of times as a kid, and I'm 64 now, so you do the math. Heck, I think it was old when I first built it. Look at the box art, it's right out of the fifties.

Yes, it is a decent starter kit, and has lots of potential for various builds. I think I mentioned this before in this forum; I've built it as early 1930's, late 1930's, early 1940's, several Pearl Harbor versions, an "if She had survived Pearl" version, and an "As Sunk, 1960/70's version. 

The interesting thing is I've seen builds with all the imaginable PE and 3D stuff on them and still have the major structural flaws untouched. That confuses me. 

Jrock83, did you glue the gun deck to the upper deck at all & why did you paint the main gun barbettes & the lower half of the gun deck the same color as the deck?

HooYah Deep Sea, i think i have fixed the hull issues on my build.

Ddp59, 

I glued the gun deck to the upper deck, I should have painted the gun deck different but the instructions were not too good on paint schemes. I should have done more research at the end of the day. All pieces are glued though.

the seam between the upper & lower half of the #2 barbette does not appear to be glued to at least abrest of the stack.

take a look at this link on the Arizona's plans that can be downloaded. http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Ships/BB39/BOGP/

http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Ships/Drawings/BOGP.html

With this kit and the Trumpeter 1/350 kit, the biggest issues are the area directly below the main mast, the engineroom soft patches appearing as steel plates, the 1.1" gun tubs, and all the open hatches. From there on, just pick the timeframe and you can be as picky as you want, depending upon the level of detail you are looking for.

Love the plans ddp59, very insightful and helpful. I did my best on gluing the babattes and gun deck, I used Tamiya super thin cement and did capillarie action the best I could, I should have used filler but too late now. 

Fortunately, the kit is fairly inexpensive, so reworking things isn't too bad.

If you go through the forum looking for other USS ARIZONA threads, you will find all sorts of info on both the ship, and the various builds.

If you should decide to 'invest' in that study, try to find the book Battleship Arizona, by Paul Stillwell. It is considered 'the bible' on ARIZONA.

what did you think of my Arizona kitbash thread?

Nice finish, and it's a nice tribute to your grandfather, too.

As far as the kit's quality goes, I won't bash it, but I look at it in the context of its time.  It doesn't meet today's tough standards, to be sure.  But that kit was the kit of the Arizona for a long time after it was released.

Revell also issued it as the Pennsylvania, and as both sisters in its 1/720 scale ship kit line.

And the Chinese copied it (eg, Banner), so the kit's engineering was passed down through a couple of iterations to some examples available today.  HobbyBoss' 1/700 kit shows the DNA inherited from the venerable Revell kit.

One of the things I've always wondered about was why they went with the odd scale. Whether its 1/426 or 1/429, it's still an odd scale. Which unfortunately complicates the upgrade / scratchbuilding to correct things.

it was box scale back in 1956-57 as 1/350 & 1/700 did not exist then. also it is 1/429 scale as the 1/426 is a typo error, read this link. http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=84&t=286900

Don Stauffer

...Is there any aftermarket for that kit? 

Hi Don,

One of the best resources to find aftermarket for any given kit is Scalemates.com.  It's a huge kit and aftermarket product database.  Within Scalemates, on each product's webpage will be links to any vendors or modelers selling the kit so you can compare prices.  You can offer your own products for sale there, too, if interested.

Scalemates can be very addictive!

Cheers!