Being a reasonably ambitious modeler, I have embarked upon my second ship model, a 1/700 U.S.S. New Jersey (WWII) by Fujimi (lousy selection at LHS). I was wondering if anyone had any idea wher to find good color pictures or drawings of this or any similar ship. I want to do this one right.
There’s quite a bit of good resource material about this class. The book Iowa Class Battleships, by Robert Sumrall, has lots of good photos, several good drawings, and thorough data on armament changes, color schemes, etc. It’s a good place to start - though not cheap.
One (probably unwelcome under the circumstances) tip to get started. The Fujimi kit isn’t bad, but the new Tamiya Missouri is a good deal better - one of the best 1/700 ship kits on the market. And Tamiya, according to the company website, is about to do a New Jersey in 1980s configuration. What a horrible thing to tell a guy who’s just spent a wad in the hobby shop.
&%#%%^#&$ vents frustration at horrible timing Oh well. Do you know of any good review sites to stop this from happening in the future? Also, any websites you know of that would have similar information to the book you mentioned? My budget and selection is kind of small. Thanks for the help.
Sorry about that. I’ve been through similar bad coincidences myself. But I figure it’s better to find out before building the model than after.
Two good websites are <www.steelnavy.com> and <www.modelwarships.com>. Both have lots of links to pictures and data - and both have extensive lists of kit reviews.
When it comes to books, try the “used and out of print” section on the Barnes and Noble site, <www.bn.com>. I don’t know about the particular one I mentioned, but frequently you can find excellent used books for excellent prices. I’ve picked up quite a few good things for less than $5.00 apiece.
Good luck.
Thanks so much for your help
If you’re doing the Fujimi kit of BBNJ, then your paint scheme is Measure 21…overall Navy Blue…nothing fancy. Your deck color will be 20-B Deck Blue, a different shade than the Navy Blue. If you intend to weather her, the NJ’s paint faded dramatically, to the point that she was called ‘the black dragon’. Her paint faded to a gray by the time she put into Puget Sound for her 1945 refit. After that, she emerged with a Measure 22 paint scheme, 5-N Navy Blue on the hull parallel to the waterline from the stern level forward, and 5-H Haze Gray on her upper works. Her decks remained 20-B Deck Blue.
Hope that helps.
Jeff_Herne, you are a god. Falls down in awe
THANK YOU!!!
By the way, would you hapen to know what model masters or testors colors correpond to those colors? Thanks.
Testor’s makes US Naval colors in their Acryl line…you can also find them in the Polly Scale range. You’ll need…
5-N Navy Blue
20-B Deck Blue
Flat Black (for the boot topping)
Anti-Fouling Red (Oxide Red, Tuscan Red or Boxcar red in the model RR world work fine).
Jeff
Thanks even more! But… What is the anti-fouling red for?
Ok, it’s time for a payback. I have Mike Ashey’s Building and Detailing Scale Model Ships and Basics of Ship Modeling and I’ll send them to you if you give me a street or PO box address. All you have to do is read the following nostalgic whine: When I was much younger my local hobby shop owner helped me quite a bit by answering questions and opening kit boxes to help me decide on which one to buy. One time I was 20 cents short and he let me take a kit home and told me to pay him next time I came in. My Dad drove me back that day to pay him. This was around 1964, so 20 cents was probably a third of the price of the model (car). In those days store employees were required to be courteous to customers. People often made a deal by a handshake and there were things like moral values, ethics, and respect. That hobby shop guy and those days are gone. If you want these two books send an address to Ibemeron@aol.com and next time you’re out drop a buck or two in the Salvation Army bell ringer’s pot. We got to keep a good old hobby from the good old days alive.
When I pulled the Mike Ashey books off the shelf I found the Gold Medals Model photo-etch for WW 2 battleship in 1:700. I bought it back when I got the Tamiya Big Mo in that scale. You can have it also. I have part of a GMM PE set I can throw in for practice if you never tried PE before. I can relate to a limited budget. The condition of my drive-while-restoring old Mustang shows it. How do you get the smileys from the list onto the post? Arrrr.
You guys are THE GREATEST! I’ve never met any group of people so helpful and courteous about any subject ever. Thank you for being great people.
Hey hacker I mailed your stuff yesterday (Monday). Something awry with my e-mail so I figured I’d put this on the forum. The post office clerk told me 4 days to get from here to Fremont. Amazon.com has a large selection of books on ship modeling and they have some used ones. I have had the best results with Barnes and Noble as mentioned by jtilley.
Thank you very much. I appreciate it greatly.
IIRC the Fujimi kit has the square bridge, which would mean it would represent the NJ in the 2nd half of 1945 - so you’d want to paint her Ms 22. Steve Wiper’s pictorial on the NJ has some good pictures of her in this scheme.
Cut and paste this link into your browser for a picture of her in Ms 22:
Well, I guess that poses the question…is your BB NJ bridge square or rounded?
J
The bridge isn’t really square or round, but here is the general shape:
…-------------
./…I…l
I…l
Hope that helps. By the way, on that picture, is the bow really a darker color or is that just a shadow? Thanks for your help and understanding.
Sorry about the picture mess up. Here’s he bridge shape.
.---------
/…l…l
l…l
AARGH!!! Anyway, it’s a square with sloping sides and corners that are cut off.
Just got the books and PE today (12/7). Thanks again jamnett.