Steve I am anxious to watch your Arizona. You are a great builder, one of the best. Watch using any MM where you have to mask. Nearly every time I have used it , it has peeled off with the masking tape. They have great colors, but I have about stopped using it as it not only peels, but dries in the bottle fast & clogs my airbrush. I love Tamiya & have no problem with it.
I thin my Tamiya with denatured alcohol & it works way better than Tamiyas thinner. I have been doing that for years. With the black boot stripe , you have to mask. I often don;t prime Tamiya.
I am too old to change paints because there is a learning process.
Off the subject, I am reading Shinano, bythe Archerfish’s Captain, Joe Enright. It is about the US sub that sank the Jap 70,000 ton carrier Shinano. Anyone with any interest in WW2 & subs would really enjoy it. I got it for $10 shipped on ebay. The Japs had turned the Yamato’s sister ship into a carrier.
thankyou gentlemen , boy talk about pressure [:$] , I have to put this build on hold for a little while , I have to fly down to adelaide , for family reasons . still a bit worried about the PE . really haven’t done too much of it , but one must try .
docidle- steve , unfortunately my wife has only one good lung , and we live in a cottage style house , so no enamels sorry mate . but I will be going with a colour i like , being old an all [8-|]
gene - thanks for the tip on MM paint’s , will have to think of something mate . never heard of denatured alcahol . that book sounds like a good read .
Denatured alcohol (in the States) is ethyl alcohol, high proof, with a poisonous substance added so that the alcohol cannot/should not be drunk. It is a hardware store item. I have used Expo Dry Erase board cleaner for the same purpose of thinning Tamiya paints.
You could probably substitute Gin or Vodka but Whisky would be a waste
For an out of the bottle acrylic 5S Sea Blue paint AK Interactive has that color in one of their US Navy Camouflage paint sets. See the recent discussion thread on naval paints
I have used isopropyl alcohol with good results. It’s sold as “rubbing” alchohol. The trick is to minimize the impurities in it, so I use the 90% solution.
Hi Steve, I have never used rubbing alcohol, but if GM says it is OK, I am sure it is. It is that years ago someone wrote about using Denatured Alcohol & I am slow to change, because it works. I bought a couple bottles of Tamiya thinner & did not like it. It seemed to dry in the bottle way faster.
You have everything for the Arizona to make it look good. I built it years ago & ended up selling it. I would like to build another. Most all my friends were WW2 veterans when I was young. I got all kinds of direct information about model building from them.
tried out the wood deck , fits well , saw two little dent’s on the bow had to be filled , and a seam had to be removed , had a play with the P.E. , gee this stuff is small [:$]
I didn’t know any PE sets included upgrades for the vertical surfaces! For me, those horizontal seams along each deck part are probably the worst part of this kit. I didn’t address them, in my Pennsylvania build; I just applied Mr Surfacer but otherwise lived with them. Part of that was my thought that if I wanted to address them, I’d have to cut styrene sheet or strip to cover those surfaces, and then go back and drill out the portholes. I have a similar issue with the window framing on the foremast decks, too-such soft detail, with frames that should be square.
Those PE pieces really improve the look of the kit! That is just so much better than the stock kit parts.
I have to agree with everyone. The PE, barrels, and deck sets will really bring this kit to another level. The verticles along with the stairs versus the plastic lumps are going to go a long way by themselves. The wood deck to cover the seams will be a big plus too. I think you will find that the PE will help the superstructure a lot as well. The catapult will be light years better than the kit part, etc., etc.
How hard was it for you to remove the molded in deck details?
What did you find out concerning the lower hull by the props, is it miss-shapened?
was looking at a few builds on you-tube , and they mentioned the little dip in the bow , wish I took a pic of it , so I tried some spruegoo , shown to me by baxter , worked like a charm , all better after sanding . thank’s steve .
Like Steve said, “I am enjoying your build, …Keep up the good work!” !
I made a tiny jar of that Spruegoo. Much better than filling gaps with Superglue, at least for me. It sands the same as the kit plastic or at least more evenly that dried CA.
Jim.
P.S. Nice fill job on the bow since I can’t even see where you did it.
Hey Steve, those gun barrels look great. I think it was worth the wait! I can imagine they are more pristine than the plastic supplied parts. A dumb question for you. Are they cored out? Or partially? It is hard to tell from the pics.
