Thread: Building a Tamiya Missouri with Super-detailing

Spent a couple of hours in the shop today and got working on the forward funnel and the entire forward conning tower area.

I did some touch up painting, then glued the bottom half of the bridge in place since it has some un-planked platforms that I can put inclined ladders on without running afoul of the wood decking.

I turned my attemtion to the foreward funnel. The ladders went on easily. I'm definitely getting better with these. I glued the small railing with the gap for the ladder next. One goes on each side. Of course the opposite side popped out of the tweezer when I was attempting to remove a little extra fret on the bottom and I still can't find. I actually watched it fall and still can't find it.

I decided to try a different way to build the funnel railing. This time I glued the railing to the catwalk before installing it. I used a piece of polyethylene sheet to keep the piece from gluing itself to the table and worked each ralil from the bent end and around the radius. It actually worked!

Here it is before cleaning it up, straightening and repainting.



The fine, triangular bracing under that little rear deck stick out aft of the funnel were a pain in the butt. They're so fine that when you remove the tweezer they're just as apt to stick to the tweezer as to the model. And as usual, each time I had to reglue it, it got more deformed and it became more frustrating. But, persistence prevailed and they're on the model. They really add a note of realism; to not have a platform sticking out in space without have underbracing. So here's the railings on the funnel as they're completed so far. Please note: this will all have to be touched up since the handling screws up the paint job big time.

Incidentally, the railing that goes around that rear platform also disappeared. I cut it from the fret, lifted the fret off the black plexiglass cutting plate and the railing hung on the fret for a second and dropped straight down onto the work bench. Or so it would seem... it disappeared off the face of this Earth at that moment.



I then wanted to try an experiment. I didn't like that the windscreen on the front of the AA deck was solid plastic. The brass applique had little metal fingers that stick up to simulate the window framing, but the plastic was solid. I thought I could probably cut out the plastic without wrecking the part, but to test my skill I popped off this part from the old Missouri and took the Dremel with my finest diamond burr and went at it. It worked! I was able to grind away the area between the frames without destroying the frames in the process. Using a sharp Xacto with a #11 blade, I was able to square the cuts into the corners. So I turned to the new part and did the same thing. He's the result. Now all I need is some really small clear plastic windows...



I hope that the missings railings show up tomorrow after their visit to the quantum world. I've had railings twice now show up a day later right in front of my eyes further bolstering my quantum displacement theory of small part disapperance. I'm off tomorrow and will do some more work.

On Wednesday I have a job interview for a real, full-time job. If I'm chosen, I may take even though I am technically retired (semi-retired) as the additonal funds would be helpful. As a colleague of my said, "You can have a quality of life, or a life of quality." Full-time work would cut into the hobby time, but it would make it easier to travel and purchase big ticket items without cutting into the retirement fund.