Well here she is! My first model build in 45 years, warts and all. I’ve got a little over a year invested in the build. First time ever using PE, 3d parts, brass barrels, wood decks, weathering and airbrush. I took my time and gave it my best effort and in the end, I think it turned out alright. I sure learned a lot along the way. Sorry for the photography…I have a lot to lean there as well! This is my interpretation of what she would have looked like returning to home port after the surrender. A little tired after her battles, yet triumphant. And with a little sass with the signal flags!
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WOW, Mr. B. your USS Missouri looks fantastic! Congrats on an excellent build for your first build back to scale modeling.
Thank you Mr. Tom. I really appreciate that.
@mrb865
WOW…Amazing build. You should be very proud. No easy feat.
What was your single biggest/most difficult challenge?
Thank you for the compliment. I had a hard time with the PE. The instructions don’t give a lot of insight into bending order, and some of that stuff is really fiddley! I was trying to use PE for the twin bofors mounts, but failed many times, so i searched for a better solution and found 3d parts and used those instead. Same for the 20mms. Using EZ line for the first time was difficult also due to my hands shaking, but I got it done. Some of the railings with multiple bends and curves drove me nuts as well. And let’s not forget about the PE zipping across the room at the worst possible time! I probably have 8 hours on my hands and knees looking for stray bits of brass. I had a lot of fun though, and happy to have completed her. Next up is the Renwal USS Seminole. I’m going to do a build log so keep an eye out. I’ll be needing some guidance certainly.
@mrb865
Thanks for the detailed explanation. What is PE?
PE, short for photo etched. Small brass parts (flat) on a sprue, which must be folded into the shape they are meant to represent. Picture a ships ladder for instance, lying perfectly flat. You then bend the railings upright and tweak the stairs into place, and glue in place of the molded plastic ladders on the model. Photo etch parts are available for many different types of models and add tons of detail, bring your subject to life!
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That looks great, @mrb865!
Thank you very much for your compliment!
@mrb865
Thanks for explaining. I’ll have to look into this.
Great looking ship. That’s a lot of PE! But ships look way better with all the PE. I have a 1/700 ship with PE and I’m terrified of it 
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mrb865
Well done. the hard work has paid off handsomely.
As a thought on your photography statement, you may wish to give a look at FSM’s suggestions as a starting point.
https://finescale.com/how-to/tips/2016/07/photography-guide
Then theres [ note: rabbit hole danger here 
] YouTube and the plethora videos on there.
p.s. you may wish to limit your search results for videos to the kind/type of equiptment you are using (i.e. if you are useing a cell phone don’t waste a lot of time on videos about SLR cameras at least at first.)
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Thank you for the compliment and the link. I’ll be checking it out!
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Fantastic 
Good photography too.
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Being as today marks the anniversary of the signing of the instrument of surrender, I thought it fitting to share a few pictures of that day that I came across.
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Awesome photos and thank you so much for posting them.
I have a1/700 CV-6 with everything imaginable PE part. Between the research and the building of it, I feel it will take me a couple of years to get it done.
I was watching “Midway” (not the Fonda/Heston version) and they had the deck lit up for a night landing, though all me research shows there was no deck lighting on aircraft carriers in WWII. Have I missed something here.
Impressive ship and beautiful build.
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