Revell USS Arizona

It would be fair to say they are in "3D". The title conveys the idea well.

The books are printed such that the images are 3Dish when viewed with supplied 3D glasses. In my opinion it's a gimmick that adds no value to a reference material. It certainly doesn't detract from their utility as such, but there's nothing about a 3D view that helps a model builder more than straight up plans and isometric views.

Ain't that the truth!

Impossible to scale from. I suppose it does explain certain spacial relationships though.

Always wondered why Playboy never went 3D.

Been trying to get back to this build and finish it up. After a disaster painting the hull I need to strip it back to bare plastic and start over. Before I do I need one bit of advice regarding the black strip around the waterline: Should it be the same width regardless of the underturn of the hull at the stern or should it have the same visual width as viewed from the side? Curious minds (and frustrated painters) need to know!

Known as boot topping, the black stripe was designed to hide the black stains that would cling to a ship from oil and other harbor scum. As such, it was the same height as viewed from the side. Masking this on a curved hull can be a P.I.T.A., but I give some tips here that might be of some help.

My MO is to paint the red first, mask off, paint the black, mask off, and then paint the hull color/camouflage. Due to the way most hulls curve (Arizona's ram bow is a bit different, but shouldn't really factor in this case), I find it easier to handle the curves and bubbles tape wants to leave this way. "Best practice" is to paint light paints first, and if that was our primary concern, we'd do the hull red and boot topping last, but by going top to bottom, the paint "step" (due to paint creating an edge against the tape) is down as you look down, and is less noticeable than might otherwise be the case.

Tracy White

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).

Well, as the Kagero book was available at Squadron Shop and would be my only reference on the ship ( unless I get hold of an old Cagney movie on DVD ) , I will use it as a starting point for building and painting my Revell kit.

If you can point out any other gross errors in the book to watch out for besides wood decks, I'd appreciate it. 

Thanks for the input.

Nice work, both Tarasdad and Jsmyth!

I stand sort of corrected. I didn't know about the 3D glasses. I guess what we're talking about is something conceptually similar to the old "stereopticon" photos.

I've got a book of Civil War stereo pictures (complete with cheap viewer). Fascinating -  but I agree: the idea doesn't have much use for model building.

checkmateking02

Nice work, both Tarasdad and Jsmyth!

Indeed !