To my fellow forum members,
This will be my first ship build. I’ve been building aircraft and I did also build a M1A1 Tank. I hope that my project turns out, thank you for your time and patience.
Toshi
Toshi= It’s the $ 29.99 guitar of ship models. DO NOT buy the photo etch. Do not spend more than a day or two. Do not form any opinions about ship models based on this thing. It’s a bathtub toy.
Then go buy a different kit. A really good one is the Trumpeter 1/350 USS San Francisco. It’s a great kit. Or the USS The Sullivans. Trumpeter makes a cheaper one, Tamiya makes a really nice one.
I think GM is being a little harsh. It’s true that the kit is an old one (originally released in 1958). And it certainly doesn’t come up to the standards of accuracy that manufacturers routinely achieve with ship kits today.
But by 1958 standards it was a terrific kit - it represented the state of the art. Lots of modelers (including me) think of it with a great deal of nostalgia. And plenty of much more recent kits are less accurate. Plenty of people know more about the Arizona than I do, but as I understand it the basic shapes are right (which is more than can be said for most other Arizona kits on the market), and the configuration (armament, masts, catapults, etc.) is pretty close to being right for December of 1941. (One exception: the aircraft. At the time of Pearl Harbor those old biplanes had been replaced by OS2U Kingfishers.)
With one exception, all the other Arizona kits on the market have gotten pretty weak reviews from the critics. Even the enormous 1/200 Trumpeter offering apparently has some significant errors in its hull shape.
The exception is the 1/700 kit from Dragon. It’s an extremely nice kit - especially the “deluxe” version. But many people find 1/700 too small for comfort.
Gold Medal Models does make an excellent set of photo-etched details for the old Revell kit. I’ve never seen a built-up example, but those parts would go a long way toward making the kit presentable.
I’ve seen photos of several excellent models based on the Revell kit. How much effort to put into it is, of course, entirely up to the modeler.
Good luck.
GM, if he wanted to build a 1/350 Arizona, which one is the current least worst? I flat out cannot remember.
Thank you for the information. This will be a OOB build since it’s my first model aircraft build. Thank you so much for watching my back.
Toshi
Thank you sir! I will definately look into the suggestions you have just made. Thank you for the read and reply.
Toshi
I have the revell arizona in my stash trying to decide the best way to approach it Im a newbie to ship building Iv always built A/c so Im having to start from scratch. how should I tackle it to make it remotely presentable and not spend a ton of money?
how much work do you want to put into it? i’m using the arizona model as a basis to do the 15 obb from arkansas to the colorados. i’ve got 9 being worked on presently from the texas to a colorado.
Capn- I’m only aware of one 1/350 plastic BB 39, the one that got sold as Banner/Trumpeter/ Hobby Boss. And there are all kinds of AM sets for it. Somewhere back in my paint locker there’s one, probably has $ 60 worth of PE in the box, from a time when i could justify spending that kind of money.
I suppose one problem in getting this type of ship as a kit is that BB’s in the USN seemed to come in classes of only two or three, following one after the other.Why that is would be a fascinating study. Perhaps they sost so much money that some amount of lessons learned/ re-invention was always worth it. Or that “the other guys” came out with a “10 14 inchers in five turrets”, so you’d design a “12 14 inchers in four turrets”, they’d do 8 15 inchers in four turrets, and so on.
I’m impressed that there seems to be a stream, or at least a steady trickle, of WW1 or pre WW2 battleship models in the USN coming along.
I agree with all of the above; this is a nostalgia build. I’m going to make a guess based on memory however, which is why I suggest not getting PE. Kits of this vintage were not designed for PE, for obvious reasons. So all of the older Revell kits for instance have a LOT of molded on detail that has to be removed, and that can be a really big task requiring very good workmanship and patience. This one no doubt is the same. For instance, I’ll bet the main deck stanchions and life lines are molded as a solid wall with detail relief on the outboard side. To substitute, not just add, PE; you need to carefull cut off the entire run, which in turn exposes a joint between the main deck and the hull on the top (the deck) that we weren’t supposed to pay any attention to. So you put a lot of work into fudging up a decent looking waterway, without mangling the cast on deck plank detail.
EDIT: I just looked at the instructions on Revell.com. Yikes!!! True what I guessed about the lifelines, and for that matter all of the other bridge railings.
But… and it’s a big one- this kit has one of the most infamous (IMO) construction details ever devised for a plastic model. The deck houses have a horizontal seam between parts, midway up the bulkhead between decks and centered through the middle of the portholes. Old Revell ship modelers know this one well. Revell did this to be able to cast the portholes as open holes, which is silly. Defeating that detail is doable, but it takes a lot of work. My last such model, the T2 tanker from the Mission series, I found that the most reasonable approach was to make a rubbing of each part, trace the decks, and just replace each with quickly sliced up sheet styrene.
All of which I’ll summarize. I make these suggestions NOT as a curmudgeon, I hope, but as a promise that once you get through this little kit, it gets better. Much better. This model has an undeniable “coolness” factor, more so as you learn more about ships and see it as a particular type of ship from a particular time.
Build it, build it. And think about it tomorrow morning, please.
Bill
Second cup of coffee.
One very interesting aspect of the BB 39 story is the salvage operation that took place after the sinking.
Her aft turrets were taken out to Kahe Point, for Battery Arizona. Her rifles from turret 2 were installed in Nevada and used in 1944 at Okinawa I think.
did the arizona have wooden decks? I am really having a hard time finding reference matirial for her.
This is my first ship build as well. I honestly can’t help you with that answer. Have you googled it? The best of luck for your Arizona build, thank you for the read and reply.
Toshi
I think all US Battleships had wooden decks- kind of. Essentially the wood planks were a form of non-slip finish for the big, thick armored decks. Most had just the armor up in forecastle area, with planks over the armor steel aft of that.
what is the best way to replicate those wooden decks having never done this before any help would be much appreciatied
The best book I know of is Paul Stillwell’s Battleship Arizona: an Illustrated History.
Currently available on Amazon, very inexpensive right now. When I picked mine up several years ago, it easily cost $ 100.00, OOP. I happened to pick mine up from the National Memorial Gift Shop in Honolulu, over the phone, for list. They had a couple of copies in the stock room.
But there’s lots of others.
BB 39 had wooden decks, in some places covered in linoleum I remember. There’s a set in 1/350, but I’ve never seen one in the smaller scale, and again I dont think it’s too important.
I’m planning to build my Hobby Boss kit late 1930’s.
fighterguru, yes she does.
i helped model monkey a bit with that. i think model monkey has that designed in 1/426 scale. you can also get 1/426 scale 5"25cal guns & maybe 5"51cal guns soon from that site.
fighterguru, the current model decks of that model are simulated to have wood on it
It brought me joy when I see that forum members are helping each other out.
In reality, I have most of the components ready for painting!
Toshi
Me too.