USS Arizona '36 Edition - Completed

Long time no see, dear blog readers, but that does not mean I'm completely lost or forgot about the hobby. In actual fact, I have been rather busy these past few weeks, I just focused more on producing stuff and less about taking photos and writing about them.

Among other things, I managed to wrap up the Arizona kit, with a lot of swearing re photoetch related misadventures. Lesson learned: I bought a professional PE bender. It's a hefty piece and produced locally. 

The kit could still be improved, for example I tried to replicate the bilge keels but failed, however, it was a learning experience from the beginning, and I think it turned out fine, especially compared to the original material.

Here follows a showcase of the few worthwhile pictures I could manage:

USS Arizona '36 Edition WIP #3 - Life Signs Edition

 

First of all, a Happy New Year to everyone.

It just occurred to me that although blog posting is sparse, I actually did a lot more hobby-related things during the past year - more available free time I guess, because of less commuting. I hope that in time I'll be able to catch up with my painting output and post on this blog more frequently.

Among other things, some progress had been made on the Arizona. The bottom of the hull was painted red, and some sub-assemblies completed. After repositioning all the barrels, I painted and varnished the turrets. My homemade PE bender turned out to be faulty, but two scalpel blades helped me out in completing the first larger (1/700 scale so ther term is up to debate) PE part I ever did, the turret-mounted catapult in these images. I'm really proud of the result. The catapult is five or six pieces and includes multiple 90° bends. The good-lookin Seagull mounted on it is made out of another five pieces. It was not frustrating at all to put together.

I could bore you further with details about how horrible everything is on the Hobby Boss kit, but let's just be happy for a little while.

USS Arizona '36 Edition WIP #2

 

Some progress was made during the long weekend with the Arizona build. I sanded the hull to a better shape and corrected the torpedo bulge at the bow. The gun shields were trimmed off the deck above the secondary casemates. And finally, the metal barrels were glued to the turrets which were more or less corrected.

There are obvious mould lines and marks all across, which makes the process, erm, interesting. I'm glad I don't have to work with the plastic barrels. I'll salvage those for another project.

Next up is sanding the second deck tier to a smooth finish, and doing something about those nasty porthole-looking things. I'll probably fill them up, add some card on the outside and drill proper holes.

USS Arizona '36 Edition WIP #1

 

I might have mentioned previously that I'm on the lookout for the Takom 1/700 scale Derfflinger kit. Well it was made available in local model stores recently, so, to clear the queue and do some practice, I started working on the 1/700 scale Hobby Boss USS Arizona.