Jester75
Thank you much gentlemen, your comments are all appreciated! It looks like there has been some housekeeping here??
the Baron
Ah, thanks, Jester! I have to track it down and do another version of my conversion.
You won't be disappointed in it. Like I spoke of earlier, the worst fitting part of the kit is the lower hull to the uppper hull and its no deal breaker by any means. Heck, if I can clean it up anyone can. I am more interested in your conversion attempt though. How many changes are required to backdate the 1941 Zona to the earlier Penny with the cages (or an earlier Zona for that matter)? I have the Dragon Penny in the stash that I am very much tinkering with the idea of backdating her to the pic I posted earlier. I havent really started gathering any research on the project yet so who knows what kind of undertaking it will end up being.
Thanks, Jester, that really does sound like the kit I should have used (though it might not have been out, when I first started, heh!) The fit between the upper and lower hull halves wouldn't be an issue, since I'm mounting mine on a sea base, according to this photo of the Pennsylvania cruising in Panama Bay:
Photo courtesy of the USN's Historical branch
Around 1935, the major difference between the sisters was that the Pennsy had a taller conning tower, extending a deck higher than the Arizona's, because she served as fleet flagship. Her stack was also a level shorter, at that time (something I missed). Here's where my build is now, stalled at the point of adding PE rails (a White Ensign set designed for a 1941 Arizona):
You can see the conning tower immediate aft of turret B. If I remember correctly, it's the flag bridge at that level, and there was a short catwalk leading from the door at the front of the flag bride to the top of the conning tower. I made the conning tower by stacking styrene sheet to make a blank, then making a template of the cross-section from my photo references and cutting/filing/sanding down the shape to match that template.
The main issue with this Hobby Boss kit is the soft detail, coupled with the engineering choices that go all the way back to Revell's original kit, primarily that most horizontal structures were molded in top and bottom halves. So, windows on the superstructure are all rounded and soft, as if the plastic had melted, and there are seams along each deckhouse, as we go from the main deck on up. I didn't spend as much care as I could have or should have, to address these issues. But addressing them would have meant replacing those vertical surfaces. On the main deck, where the 5" guns were relocated from their original position one deck lower, I could have plated the bulkheads with styrene sheet and drilled out those portholes. The foremast deckhouses, though, and the fighting tops, would have required more work than I wanted to spend, to come up with proper, straight, square frames. I'll hide as much of that as I can, though, with the awnings that were often used.
I also removed much of the molded-on splinter shields, on the decks, and on the platforms on the masts, because those were added in 1940. They'll get replaced with PE railings, some with tissue paper attached to replicate the canvas windbreaks that were attached to the rails.
I'm not a competitive modeler, but even then, the more time I spend on this kit, the more I think that I can't display it. But I will finish it, as an exercise if nothing else. I may not be a competitive modeler, but I'm as susceptible to AMS as the next guy. I did fix the radio aerials mounted to the fighting top on her mainmast (the after mast). Hobby Boss molded these as a flat piece with triangles pointing fore and aft, that you sandwich in the "layers" of the top as you assemble it. I replaced these with pyramid shapes of stretched sprue, according to my photographic references.
I found this source to be very useful in this particular conversion:
I liked this booklet so much that I've picked up others in the series, for some of the other members of the US battle line in the Thirties.
Anyway, I'd like to have crisper detail and not have to do it all myself.