Digital Navy - USS Arizona - 1/100

Main Turrets Finished!

Thanks everyone! Your kind comments mean the world to me. You are all great peers to learn from and observe, so your comments carry lots of weight.

I've finished the last of the main guns. Here is a shot of #3 and #4 pointed off the port side, ready for action. :thumb:

I've now got some clean up work ahead of me. Lots of white spots to kill on the aft deck before I can move on to the catapults, planes and crane. I'll be building hatches and vents for the next few days and I'll start the #3 turret catapult then.

@Chris... You wanted a slideshow, well here's something close. This is the link to my flickr page that hosts the photos for this build. This is not the entire series of pictures, but it goes back to the aft mast. http://www.flickr.com/photos/26411966@N07/sets/72157605199644985/

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Start of Catapult

Thanks CK!

I've finished most of the minor deck elements on the aft deck... Winches, hatches, vents and deckhouse... The first shot is the two winches that occur on each side of the #3 turret. These are fun, detailed little assemblies.

The overall shot of the aft deck shows that most (not all :rolleyes:) of the white spots are history.

Finally, the last shot shows the parts laid out for the #3 turret-mounted catapult. Not too many parts for this and the construction seems very straight-forward. This will be a fun assembly to build and add rails to.

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reklein

New Member
I admre your focus and fine workmanship on the project. What a commitment to paper.:thumb: Hang in there and lets see you finish it as I'm sure you will at this point. I have a 1/200 Arizona I'm in the final throws of and am having a hard time staying with it.One of these days. Bill
 
Happy First Anniversary!

Thanks everyone. I'm glad you're all enjoying my build so much. This has been a fun year.

To celebrate the one year anniversary (yep, I've been laboring away for an entire year as of today...) I've completed the float plane catapult on top of turret #3.

This was a fun little model to build. The construction of the catapult had lots of voids to cutout, and I enjoy that work a great deal. I added styrene round for handrails on the attached catwalks.

Some photos for your enjoyment. One year down, several more weeks to go. :mrgreen:

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Mauiman

Member
Well you know what they say about them slow cookers
A slow cooked meal is generally the best one of them all in quality, taste, enjoyment, and all that nice stuff.
 
Aft Catapult & Let the Kingfishers Begin!

Thanks Mauiman. This one certainly qualifies as a slow cooker. :mrgreen:

Here's my weekly update. I've completed the aft catapult. I now am completely fatigued on cutouts. I was going to start the stern crane, but I've thought better of that. I'm tired of the knife work that I love so much. :p

You can see that I have now started the Fiddler's Green OS2U Kingfisher (the first of three). I test built the fuselage of the DN Kingfisher at this scale and I'm just not good enough of a wingy-thing builder to make that design work. It's a shame too, as I love the colorization of the DN Kingfisher.

Oh well, the FG one looks pretty good too and I can competently build it, which is most important. Here are a few shots of the pontoonless and tail wingless OS2U on the #3 'pult.:thumb:

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If you are not the poster boy for Digital Navy models, then I don't know who would qualify!

I have that model all printed out and ready to cut. I had no idea how extensive that model is. It is not very expensive to purchase but, what value for the money! Nevertheless, I may just sit on mine for a while. I've been watching your build for so long; I admire your single-minded tenacity.
 
One Kingfisher Down...

Thanks cdavenport. I don't know about poster boy for DN, but certainly twisted :p builder would fit. :mrgreen:

I don't know if Roman has stumbled across my work, but I plan to send him photos for his gallery when I'm finished. I know he's been quite busy with other things of late, including tin cans. :cool:

I finished my first of three OS2U Kingfishers. This was as easy to build as I remember from doing the 1/60 version. There wasn't any complication at all going to 1/100 size. I know it's probably not as accurate looking as the DN version, but I'm pleased with it.

It's nice to get a dash of color on the grey and red pallet that I've been working on. The blue hues are a nice accent on top of #3 turret. Stay tuned, more birds to come.

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Apart from the obvious skill in modeling, I want to call attention to your excellent close-up photography which allows us to fully appreciate the dimension of the effort involved.

I think too often this important facet of our hobby is neglected. It is, in fact, a critical component of the communication we share on this Forum.

Well done!
 
Stern Crane Complete

Thanks guys.

cdavenport, I appreciate your comments on my photography. It is something that I've been working on a lot of the past year. I took a lot of blurry pictures of ship models for some time until I learned some tricks about taking pictures close up of my builds. Sometimes it shows my goofs too. :rolleyes:

I've completed the stern crane for the aft catapult. It was another nice cutout assembly. Very fun. This makes the stern not look so bare compared to the rest of the ship. I'm going to start adding all the fine details on the aft section of the ship, including the perimeter handrails so that the aft will be essentially finished.

Kingfisher update... I've decided to re-color my kingfishers from the historically inaccurate tri-color and markings (stars with bars) to a more accurate color system for OS2Us in 1941. I'm well into scanning and re-coloring the Fiddler's Green Kingfisher. Once I'm finished on the computer, I'm going to set out on building the three float planes.

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Handrails etc.

I've been keeping busy with handrail work and bollards on the aft deck, port side. That's close to 30" worth of my styrene round rail work. That's a lot of super glue and painting.... I've also done all the bollards and cleats on this side as well. Just trying to clean up the aft deck in its entirety while I'm re-coloring the Kingfishers.

Incidentally, I'm about 70% finished on the OS2U re-color, so I'll be getting back into the construction of those real soon.

Here's an overall shot, I've not done one in some time. It shows the catapults and aft crane. Also there is a shot of the aft deck rails and bollards.

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SEBRET

Member
I cant believe your almost finished with it. I have really enjoyed watching you create this masterpiece.
 
Still more handrails

Thanks for the many kind words guys. Sorry for no updates in a while. I needed a quick breather.

Well, while I'm still re-coloring birds, I've flipped the Arizona to the starboard side and installed all the handrails on the aft deck. I'm starting to see styrene round and Tamiya acrylic neutral gray in my sleep. :rolleyes:

Here's an update shot on the aft deck and all the gorgeous rails.

Birds are now 90 percent re-colored. Should get back into those soon.

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