Bill, I think he is making it after the attack. looking in our book, it has more than 40 photos during and after the attack (during salvage). By the way, I was lucky to find a previously used copy of the book for only $30.00

Here are a few drawings from the book just to show modelcrazy what the book has to offer. I personally believe that this book is the "standard of reference" when building an accurate model of the USS Arizona regardless of the timeline.

It will be interesting to see exactly what modelcrazy's vision is of his build.

Oh!, i found some chocks/fairleads made of thick PE by White Ensign Models. The problem is they are part of a larger PE set which costs aproximately $ 55.00. That has me leaning towards either your idea of plastic or mine of solder. 

I also have to figure out something for the 4 gypsy winches. Currently they are a half molded weak representation of what they should be. I saw one build where the person removed the molded in winches and made thier own from evergreen stock. I've also seen after-market "fast battleship winches" made of multi-piece brass,, but they are not the same style as those on the Arizona. Still trying to figure my way forward on those.

Till next update............

Ben

modelcrazy

Even though my Arizona is going to be showing her a few weeks after the attack, I'm still going to need a good refrence.

Wow oh wow Ben!!! 

I'll go back to building tanks now... 

Still working on the NC. Not much to show, like Ben using the Eduard set, replacing and modifying kit parts on the supper. I'm going to attack the mast then the gun directors, radars, quad 40's, cats and cranes. I'll have some pics then.

Intresting story Bill. I'm always intrested and impressed with your knowlage.

Ben, that's some great investigation, time well spent. The kit is a copy of the old Revell Arizona, just scaled up with some changes to the hull. The old kit had you attach the mast to the 02 deck, probably because it didn't mater to kids who would just slide it across the carpet or grass like I use to do. That's also why the old kit had a flat bottom hull from what I understand. Even though my Arizona is going to be showing her a few weeks after the attack, I'm still going to need a good refrence. I'll need to look for that book as well.

I'm happy to hear that.

When I looked for it about 10 years ago, I had a fair amount of correspondence online with the expert Tracy White and others.

Lo and behold, within days copies online in places like Amazon and Libris shot up to 2 or 3 hundred.

On a whim, I called the Museum on Ford Island. Comes to be they had several copies on the shelf for the jacket price of $ 79.99. All to a good cause. She enclosed a very nice note, "Aloha Bill...  Mahalo".

That made my copy special to me.

Your model is incredible. I have one, unbuilt. Frankly, I'd send any or all of it if that would advance the model.

I bought it at a LHS in Sacramento CA. I used to meet John Eaton for lunch, we'd go over to the hobby store afterwards and look through what was on the shelves.

Bill

Bill, thanks for the clarification, I agree 100%....

BTW.. I could not do half of what I am doing without the book you suggested, I want to thank you for the recommendetion (Battleship Arizona by Paul Stillwell).

Ben

Photos are so valuable. In the real world, the mast leg continued below the main deck until it was oined with a hull frame.

The whole episode of battleship masts is interesting. Arizona was a super dreadnaught, the best version of a commonly gunned battleship with one rifle caliber.

When first designed, the super dreads had basket masks, which were in part a result of shell hits toppling masts at Jutland.

But those proved unstable as platforms for optical range finders at extreme distances.

Tripod mast designs had been considered and sone earlier ships had them. When the BB's were refitted with them the primary objective was to stabilize the range finding.

So they were run down through the decks to the frames.

We as modelers sometimes lose sight that gun positions, ports, masts all fit together with the basic frame of the ship.

Bill

Your meticulous detective work paid off in spades. Well done Ben.

Today I started on the assembly of the main mast / fire control tower. When studying the build I noticed right away that if the plastic struts are used there would have to be significant modifications. 

1) The PE range finder platform is attached by sliding it up the rear strut. This means the rear ships bell would have to be removed along with a preformed plastic angle brace which would've been used for the plastic rangefinder platform. Also the molded in ladder on the upper part of the plastic strut would also need removed as the ship drawings and photos does not show it in the molded location. Checking the diameter of the rear strut with the diameter of the rangefinder platform and the mounting hole on the upper deck, it fits perfectly. Looking at the ships drawings and photos, it looks a little thin or just a tick smaller in diameter than what it should be. As far as length, it scales perfect to the drawings and the Eduard sheet. 





2) Next I cut the two front struts from the sprue and removed the molded in ladder. After removing the ladders the struts looked noticeably smaller in diameter than drawings or photos. When comparing the front struts to the rear strut you can immediately see they are short as well. Here is where it gets interesting, specifically the Eduard sheet calls for the two front struts to be 74mm or 2 and 29/32 inches long while the kit parts are only 2 and 9/32... over 1/2 inch (20mm) short! I first thought I was using the wrong part but that was not the case. 





3) After looking at the kit instructions, Eduard instructions, ships drawings, and photos, I found the problem. 

The kit has you attaching the front struts to the upper deck:




Eduard has the struts attached to the lower deck:


The ships drawings and photos show them attached to the lower deck as well:




CONCLUSION: The model kit is not correct. To be accurate they should be attached through the lower deck. I cannot find any legitimate reference that shows them attached to the upper deck as the kits parts and instructions call out. In addition, when using the Eduard PE, the kit front struts do not align with the PE (because the PE is having the struts go to a different location).

4) To solve the skinny strut issue I am replacing them with brass rod (the two front struts are full brass and the rear is brass up to the 12' rangefinder platform. That also meant I had to drill the hole in the upper deck to fit the new brass rod.



I think I am going to assemble the tripod main mast and fire control tower completely before attaching it to the ship. I believe it will be much easier to paint as a separate assembly, especially considering all of the bracing beneath the platforms and fire control station. 

Don't ask me how much time was spent figuring out all of this today (too long). I guess that is just a part of the modeling experience. At least I figured out the problem before using the kit parts with the PE....

Till next time...

Ben

Thanks Steve... 

The PE Ben was working on gave me a migrane. That IJN Akagi would give me a heart attack... 

DRUMS01

Its good to have you other builders that I can watch and admire while you tackle something like that.

Ben 

Misery loves company

JOE RIX

 

 

modelcrazy

LOL, yeah Ben, ship PE is an excercise in spatial reasoning.

Beautiful work  Extraordinary patience and level of skill.

You are giving me inspiration to tackle the girder monstrosity on the Akagi. This is just one set out of several. The little blue box shows the other sets I needed to get minus the Akagi itself of course

 

 

 

 

You need some serious counseling. 

Yes I do. especially since I'm looking forward to all that torture. In fact, I'm seriously conserering spending yet another $50 on a laser cut cardstock bracing set. Essentially a several sheet detail set from a guy in Korea, if I can ever find his blog again.

I understand what your all saying. I just told someone yesterday that their brain was a pork rind (deep fried pig fat bubbled into air).

I think that is exactly how my brain would end up if I tried the 1/200 Akagi with PE detail set. The cost alone would send me to the looney bin, and the work would fry my last brain cell....

Its good to have you other builders that I can watch and admire while you tackle something like that.

Ben 

goldhammer

LMAO.....We all do, myself more than most.

 

LMAO.....We all do, myself more than most.

modelcrazy

LOL, yeah Ben, ship PE is an excercise in spatial reasoning.

Beautiful work  Extraordinary patience and level of skill.

You are giving me inspiration to tackle the girder monstrosity on the Akagi. This is just one set out of several. The little blue box shows the other sets I needed to get minus the Akagi itself of course

 

modelcrazy

LOL, yeah Ben, ship PE is an excercise in spatial reasoning.

Beautiful work  Extraordinary patience and level of skill.

You are giving me inspiration to tackle the girder monstrosity on the Akagi. This is just one set out of several. The little blue box shows the other sets I needed to get minus the Akagi itself of course

 

Looks alot like the PE on the Graff Z, and it has a huge radar array to boot

Steve... that is beautiful! Beautiful in a sick mind bending sort of way....

Funny that you arer showing us this as I was just looking at the 1/200 version to purchase yesterday (wow $$$).

I do not know of any special counselers, but I'm sure you can find one near you when your done with that build. 

Send me a PM when you start this build as I want to be all in on it.

Ben

LOL, yeah Ben, ship PE is an excercise in spatial reasoning.

Beautiful work  Extraordinary patience and level of skill.

You are giving me inspiration to tackle the girder monstrosity on the Akagi. This is just one set out of several. The little blue box shows the other sets I needed to get minus the Akagi itself of course

Thanks Ben, still gives me a migrane to look at that much PE!

Really mind boggling. Well done Ben. 

Whoa. Still a ways to go on the PE. Hang in there. you're doing fantastic.

Thanks everyone... how much more? Well I still have the better of 2 and 1/2 sheets left, not uncluding the three sheets of hand rails.

Just another little update, this time it involves the PE for the structural support beneath the fire control towers. To be honest, I have never seen anything like this being one part before. I guess that is why I am posting it separately. Here it is still attached to the PE tree.



And yes, you guessed it, each one of those shapes is a separate fold, or turn and fold (I believe there are 24 folds each). Eduard does not provide any guidance for this process, so here is how I chose to make it work. Keep in mind that the whole part when folded is no more than 1/2 inch (1.2 cm) and the legs holding the individual shapes together are about a hairs width. I found when working with the splinter shields the first time that they will fall off if slightly bent more than once, so great care is in order.

1) Fold the center supports up. They will be used to attach the main support beams and add strength.



2) Then fold one of the half beams to box in the center beams and add strength. During that process I also turned the triangular end supports 90 degrees and then folded them to the half beam. 



3) repeat that process for the two remaining main beams, ensuring the small parts remain aligned when gluing.



4) Then do the entire process again for the second control tower.



Actually, building both of these has help me in my understanding when building the new set of 5" splinter shields this second time around. Perhaps I will take them on tomorrow while this is still fresh in my mind.

Till next time.

Ben

Excellent progress and results Ben. So, how much more PE work do you have left to do?

Ben: No problem here with the motivation- that's simply beautiful work! 

It's amazing just how much PE there is in a ship detail set. That's why they cost so much. I have a IJN Takao and IJN Akagi with 6+ sheets of PE each . Those will definitely take a while and test my patience.
Your PE work is exquisit Ben, clean bends and no glue to be seen.

Not much to show for today except the primary platforms on the main mast. These are a single main piece folded over on itself and then numerous bracing that supports the suspended platform.

The larger searchlight platform (four leaf clover) totals 15 pieces, and the other platform (rear rangefinder) is only 9 pieces. Other than that I did finish up the ladders on the second crane assembly (shown behind them in the photo). I am not going to add the handrails until the platforms are mounted to the tripod main mast. 



Thanks everyone for your kind and motivating words. I'm sorry for not showing much in the painting stage. I just want to get stuff ready for one big spray, then I can move forward. 

I was not prepared for this much PE and modification. I suppose that is why I am building a little of it in each update, to avoid PE burnout. I've said it before and will say it again, those of you who are detailed ship builders have definitely earned my respect.

Till next time...

Ben

Thanks for the advice Ben and Bill! Yeah, I've tried using small rods, dowels, drill bits etc. And I guess I should specify I don't have that much of an issue as long as it's larger- like five mm or so. It's just the small stuff like two mm thick pipes for a tank in Bish's British GB that ended up with me screaming, tossing the PE parts at a wall, and pulling out some tiny brass tubing. 

Ben: That filiment looks fantastic! 

A set of drill bits is useful here.

STEVE: I have this very thin high tinsel strength filiment liine made in Germany. I use it for most of my 1/350 line work, here is some on my last ship:

Gamera: Have you tried rolling it around a brass rod or wood dowel sized just larger than the desired diameter? Sometimes, like on this Eduard PE, it is more robust and requires several rollong wraps around successively smaller rods until the ends are close to connecting. Times I also find that I have to use my bending tweasers to finish the end bends as this is usually the hardest area to continue or complete the curve. What makes things more difficult is when there is a fragile part attached to the solid flat piece of PE, like handrails. 

Today I am going to focus on finishing much of the square folds that are left, like the ammo boxes, etc. 

Thanks for the kind words everyone and sorry for not showing much in the painting stage. I just want ot get stuff ready for one big spray, then we can move forward. One thing I can say is when I chose this kit I knew it would require some rework with PE, but I never was quite prepared for the sheer amount of it. 

Till next time...

Ben