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New Member Here, only posted a couple of times but read a bunch. Learned quite a bit from the info on the forum and the folks I reached out too were very helpful. So appreciative of all the know how on here. So after 5 months and a couple of re-do's she is finally finished. I opted to try a Pontos Detail up kit, but quickly discovered I bit off a bit more than I can chew. Got some of it in there, but PE is a royal pain and a steep learning curve. I opted to not weather her or add railings etc. as I like the clean off the assembly line look. I am sure as I pick up more skill sets I will do some weathering and other details, but over all I think she came out pretty good for my first go.
Still have the rigging to finish and the display case but I may wait a bit on that. Thought I would share a few pics to show her off a bit.
Looks great! The base is sharp. She's a good looking ship
Thanks,
John
nice build gary , very clean work .
She looks great. Hold onto the rail sets- she does need them and you can add them when you feel up to it. The trick is to look carefully at photos. You will see that long runs of rail are not common. It gets interrupted a lot by chocks, drums, boarding stairs and davits.
And like all sets of PE, using every piece in the bag is only for the truly demented. Great model.
Bill
Modeling is an excuse to buy books.
Thanks Bill:
Yeah I saved it all but I'm probably not going to add it to this one. This hobby is a lot harder than I thought. Lots to learn. I actually picked this one as my learner. Want to learn enough to tackle the USS Enterprise. I served on her in the eighties. May try another before I tackle the Big E.
I remember Enterprise from when I was at Okinawa, had a interesting chat with her Captain. I was working wing scheduling at Kadena when the phone rang and I heard "This is the Captain of the Enterprise." At that point, after having a heck of a morning I answereed "Oh yeah, right, of course it is." The other voice went on to explain that he really was, "It's this great big piece of metal in the water, you can't miss it. Or in some cases we hope you do." I apologized and her told me that he gets that reaction all the time with a name like that. Glad he had a sense of humor.
Some weeks later while entering his home port the pilot ran the ship into a sand bar in San Francisco.
Curious, what is the object in the rear modified gun tub?
What happens is we get to a point were we want to finish it. It gets a bit time consuming adding all the fiddly bits. Eventualy you end up spending months building these things. Sometimes years. PE is a pain but worth it.
ikar01 Curious, what is the object in the rear modified gun tub?
If you mean the port side tub, looks like a 55 gallon drum cut in half to be used as a bbq grill!
I had heard that during one of the times they were brought back out one of the tubs had been converted to a swimming pool, but this couldn't have been the case.
In my humble opinion, there is no ship ever built that can match a modernized Iowa-class BB for sheer beauty. Some of the Soviet-era cruisers come close, but Missouri and her sisters are gorgeous, and I've managed to go aboard all but Iowa herself. That's a nice clean model of her!
Great jpb! Ordinarily I would not recommend such a complex kit for a novice, but you had the patience and took your time. Beautiful build.
Don Stauffer in Minnesota
Well done! My only suggestion, albeit a minor one, is to tighten up the waterline at the stern. The model does look great!
Well;
Even if it is not in W.W.2 fit you did a bang up job. Nice clean build and coloration. Now, as to that P.E. Get yourself some "Metal Earth" metal kits. That will help you learn more of the ins and outs of P.E. Without costing an Arm and Two Legs!
garyinok I opted to try a Pontos Detail up kit, but quickly discovered I bit off a bit more than I can chew.
Pontos has a bad habit of making PE more complicated than it needs to be, too.
They picked up "dragon-itus" where it's why make it of one bit when we can make it 11?"
They also refuse to etch different thickensses of brass, so you are endlessly folding things to be thicker.
As ointed out above, you can always return to a kit with PE stuff, and for the pile of filthy lucre Pontos wants for their stuff, pitching it makes my pocket hurt
Check your decal sheets, in modern form Missouri had white numerals with black shading, so you may be missing the white portion of the 63s at the bow.
ikar01Curious, what is the object in the rear modified gun tub?
From photos, that appears to be a Sea Sparrow lancher (if some over-stylized).
There's a big mushroom ventilator in the other tub. Iowa had those positions reversed.
Interestingly, as museum ships, the missile launchers are deleted, and the cuts in the tub plating have been restored.
Thanks guys for all the nice comments and feedback. I know its a pretty basic build , but I appreciate being able to share and show her off a bit. Actually as an engineer I was not so much motivated by making it historically accurate or capturing a snap shot in time per se. I was more interested in displaying the sheer awesomeness of the machine itself. To think they built such a massive warship in just over three years with no computers. All hand drafting, hand calls, and no CNC's or laser cutters. I can't even imagine building anything like her today even with all those tools let alone in three years.
We actually had one of the Iowa class ships pull along side for refuling once, although I can't remember which one. To see them underway was awe inspiring. Even on the carrier I was a bit to young to really appreciate where I was or what I was getting to do and see. Probably too busy chasing beers and girls at the time. Now that I build stuff for a living I appreciate it a lot more. Looking forward to my next one. I'm thinking the USS Texas.
Congrats on your first build.
Nice work.
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