Conversion complete(this time for sure): USS Arizonas pre WWI

If I thought I could have removed the bulge’s and it would have looked at least as good as if I hadn't tried, I'd have considered it. I've had mixed results with this type of surgery, with more bad then good. After the nine failed deck prints I lost much of my initial enthusiasm for the project (I really, really hate having to clean out the vat after failed prints). Still not sure what that's about.

Anyway all that said, here are a couple curated post primer pictures.

BTW: the casemated guns are all there, not that anyone will ever see them, they look like the raised pair flanking the bridge.

i just want to show you how i did it for future refence as knew once you glued the "new" upper deck, you were not going to remove the "wannabe" bulges.

did you print the "full" 5" 51cal guns for the midship casements or just the gun barrels like you are going to do to the bow & stern casement guns?

Hi Dave, I plan to paint her in good old boring Standard #5 gray, you won that debate hands down... and I had such high hopes for a more colorful palate. And while I appreciate your help, I'm drawing a line in the sand with removing her torpedo bulges! Especially now that the top works are done. So please, for the love of God! Stand down on removing them blasted torpedo bulges! It ain't going to happen brother!

I am definitely one of them older, unexperienced modelers of which you speak - and I like it that way! Less stress.

being older does not mean more experienced as i have seen older modelers leave exposed seams on their models that experienced would not leave. i'm almost 65.

Joe, how does someone register onto your site so i can send pictures of the non-bulged Tennessee using an Arizona hull? are you going to paint that model?

Hi Again Joe!

        yeah, These young un's don't know how stubborn, we older(Read, More experienced) modelers can be.I have a feeling you and I will be around for Roll Call for sure! Now as far as the modeling, I do have to take some time off, like three or four days at a time, But I get other stuff done that needs my attention!

       I am diving back in tomorrow to Decal the 'Severn" I am putting a dark blue wash on her today. I do hope it's dry by tomorrow afternoon. Those Decals are gorgeous. Gosh, I wish I could send photos from my phone here! i keep my phome on my bench for talks with my son. He is back to work part time and sounds happier! So he'll start doing his R.C. and Armor stuff again!

 With any luck we'll both be doing this long after we run out of shelve space.

 Speaking of no shelve space, I finished most of the major construction on the Revell Uss Arizona 1917 conversion. l still want to shave off the port holes and add the gun barrels to the bow and stern casemates. Thought it should be done towards the end of construction as I’d be chronically snapping them off with handling otherwise.

Shout out to Dave for guilting me into adding them!
I needed the prodding, I tend to be a lazy modeler otherwise…



Hopefully the painting will go smoothly and I do want to do some minimal rigging. I like the looks of the parallel horizontally run lines separated by suspended rods, that this era of US dreadnoughts had.

Hi Joe!

        Surprisingly there's good news wrapped up in this.The Doctor says in that it's assailed me so late in life, I won't have to deal with a lot of the other problems.

         Now here's the Kicker. When I am working on such things as the Arizona/Missouri planking I don't shake at all. Well, I cheat too! There are positions I can put the hands in that stabilizes them so's I can still model and if you wanna believe it, Paint a fairly straight Waterline without tape.

       It seems that my Movement  is engulfed in a period of  neural Blankness.This allows me to do things Like 1/350 P.E. Such as the "SOYA Third Corps."( Hasegawa) Man, talk about extra fine! Oy!  Some of the moldings are that small too!

     Arizona Update. Lookit the photo(The last one) very close. You can see the light playing games with the light on the various angles of the Turrets. Maybe that's where some of the confusion about their color is coming from?

Nope - No guns for those casements on my Arizona.

i'm talking about the guns that where in those casements til sometime 1918,

Thanks for the update TB - I was curious how work on your Arizona was coming along and if you'd go wood for the decks. I love the look but wood hate the work.
Many modelers easily exceed my max available levels of patience and ability. Probably a big part of my attraction to 3D printing, short cut...

You're a singularly unique individual and I enjoy having you around and reading your posts and comments, I'm hoping you can keep the blasted Parkinson's at bay for as long as you care to and keep doing what you love.

ddp59

Joe, the ship still had the casement guns at the beginning of 1918.

http://navsource.org/archives/01/017/01newhome.jpg

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/39a.htm

 

Joe, the ship still had the casement guns at the beginning of 1918.

http://navsource.org/archives/01/017/01newhome.jpg

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/39a.htm

JoeSMG;

      She's been put away for a while. I didn't plan this But, Health has a way of interfering. I will say this though. I settled on a medium light Blue Grey. The Turret tops are the colors they were purported to be, with the Bloomers and all canvas as being dark Sea Blue.

      Admiral Kidd had not given the order to paint ship! So She will always be surrounded by an air of mystery there. The Model on display at the Memorial is#5 U.S.Navy Haze grey which a darker and slightly more blue looking than the grey in the Canal!

      As to the Wood Decks. They will be there. A plank at a time. I had a friend of mine skive two ships worth of Silver Oak(A Texas tree) to the proper thickness and width. There's, between the "Missouri" in 1945 fit and her ( The Arizona) over Forty-Five hundred planks four feet long that will need to be installed.That's alright though. When the "Parky" flares I can set them aside and just let it pass. I hope I get them done before I cross over though, hell, I have been around Eight Decades and one Year. Where has all the time gone?

The holes were a simple fix, mostly just filled them, about 8 in all. The bow and stern casements I'm leaving as is, plenty of photos of the early Arizona out there and most of them show those casements closed up, some with a gun barrel poking out some with no barrel showing.

I knew going into this, that the level of effort I was willing to put into a $25.00 Revell kit wasn't going to win any prizes, but this project has been (kind of) fun and definitely educational as to the difficulties of 3d printing replacement parts for kit moding.

I did get to glue the deck on including the printed casemated hull section and that was plenty tricky. spent the next three hours filling gaps as best I could. As usual, once finished, I now know how it could be done much better were I to do it again...

what are you going to do about the 2 holes on the main deck & what are you going to do about the gun casements at the bow & stern?

ddp59

Is the new upper deck smooth or printed to shows planking which would be out of scale? what are you going to do about the 2 holes on the main deck that was for the aircraft crane & deck catapult?

 

ddp59

was the main deck cut done on a Monday or a Friday?

 

i see you could not tell the difference between the upper deck where the bow is & the main deck where the stern is. was the main deck cut done on a Monday or a Friday? is the new upper deck smooth or printed to shows planking which would be out of scale? what are you going to do about the 2 holes on the main deck that was for the aircraft crane & deck catapult?

Take a look at the bow deck, see where the Revell deck ends and the printed deck starts?

Yup, I bone sawed the wrong deck peice... It's been that kind of a project.

would be about the same color as the vertical sides of the ship.

what happened to the main deck that caused the seam?

just in case you don't have this.

BB-39 USS Arizona Technical Drawings (1915)

https://archive.org/details/bb39ga1915/page/n5/mode/2up

The hull halves have been cut away to accept the casemated section then glued together. The casemated guns are glued into the new deck part and the main guns are secured to the deck parts but that's it, nothing else is glued down yet.

Don't even think of asking me about the seam on the stern deck part...

I do have a new question to put to the forum:
In the picture below I rendered the canvas parts tan, is that accurate?
Or did the US navy typically paint (or dye?) the canvas to match the rest of the ship?

Any thoughts?

that is why i use ie11 as no popup ads compared to google chrome.

Man! so many popup adds I can barrely reply!

Great picture CaptainMac. Brings up yet another question: Anyone know what & when the colors on the cage masts were? The older shots from the teens look like they could be standard gray #5 but seem likely to be darker. In the latter pictures they look black or dark shade on blue.

except it has been colorized so not true colors.

Not really the right time era, but this 1930 color image of USS Idaho & USS Texas was just too nice not to share:

go thru this link about painting ww1 era US navy ships. https://www.subchaser.org/painting-and-cementing-vessels-usn

no problem.

Great information, thank you again guys.

ANd, USN was keen on a mid-brown linoleum on Signal bridge decks.