Building a Tamiya Missouri with Super-detailing

[Builder 2010]

PE and More PE

Today's Work, Part II
This picture gives you a small idea about the Eduard PE and the fineness of the railings and components. This is the catwalk and railings that run around the tops of the funnel. It's a beautiful detail when it's applied. The problem is that it's separate pieces. It's not just a folding operation. There's a three-piece assembly for each funnel. Three of the four railings were attached at the mid-point by one tiny piece of brass, which was supposed to serve as an alignment aide, but it quickly let go and they became three separate pieces. There is fundamentally no gluing surface area to hold the parts, but you just keep using the CA and hoping something sticks. Eventually it did.



I first thought I would attach the railings to the catwalk off the model, but that quickly proved unworkable since the parts of so frail that you can't hold them all together to apply the CA.

So I glued the catwalk on first and then wrestled the railings into place. After some more paint, the results are passable and when in the case it will be very attractive.



Some other details were the small platform and railing on the aft side. This was the first piece I tackled. The platform was a three-fold affair that mounted fairly easily, but the tiny railing kept wanting to stick to my tweezer as I tried to pull away. As you guys know, the more you touch the PE the greater the chance that something awful will happen. It did a couple of times, but I was able to gingerly reform the rails. All of the ladders are separate pieces as are the ventilator grills. Two of these are almost invisible as they are hidden behind the AA deck.



Also note the neat angle brackets under the searchlight pods. These too were added after removing the fat plastic version. I like that the parts are not only thin, but they're perforated with lightening holes like the prototype.

After repainting the bottom of the funnel, I glued the funnel to the AA deck and then finished the touchup painting. As I've noted before, I'm gluing up what I can moving forward without running afoul of putting on the teak decking. This is one of those parts that doesn't interfere. Gluing the AA deck down on the 2nd deck is a different story. The wood decking is going under that.

Oh... and one more thing... remember the railing that disappeared into the quantum rift on Monday and I had to substitute a GMM raling that didn't look the same. Well... that railing reappeared magically today lying right in the middle of my parts-collecting-tray under my nose. I checked that tray more than once yesterday. It must have found the alternate universe not to its liking and decided to rematerialize. I popped the GMM rail off and put the proper one in its rightful place. I spent almost four hours working on that one funnel. The results are worth it.

Tommorow I'm going to work on the fore Funnel and the AA observation tower and decks. Even though it may not sound like it, I am getting more comfortable with PE and it really makes a difference. I'm still trying to locate some nice looking real brass props for this baby. The plastic ones just don't cut it.

[Builder 2010]

AA Tower Part 1

I decided to tackle another challenging part, the anti-aircraft tower top portion. My success with this was a mixed bag...some parts went on well others were a nightmare. Just when I thought that I had the PE thing figured out, Eduard's PE threw me a curve. More about that later.

I should have looked at the fret with the tiny little window slits that are on the tower sides, because I assumed they were open in the center. So I did what I did on the lower superstructure; I painted the areas black before putting on the parts. I also had to locate where those parts were going to go. The only bumps on the original plastic parts were on the mid-line on the flanks, but the Eduard instructions had window slits also one level up and on the foreward end. So I used my surface gauge to scribe where the windows would go.



Here's a shot showing how ridiculously small these things are. Believe it or not, I didn't lose a single one (14 of them). Once I found out that the pieces weren't hollowed out, I painted the open-window portion of the piece with flat black while still attached to the fret. It looks harder than it was. I have a very tiny brush. I also found out that just touching the point of the Xacto knife on the part made it stick well enough to carry the part over to the workpiece and get it to stick to the CA. It was actually easy.



Here's what they looked like after touching up all the black paint that wasn't needed.



Since there is a five picture limit per post. I'm going to get into the interesting part (that's the ancient Chinese "interesting", "May you live in 'interesting' times") in part two.

[Builder 2010]

AA Tower Part 2

The first pieces I put on were the WT doors and the ladders. No problemo. I then went to one of them most challenging railings in the model. It's that many curved one that wraps around funnel #1.

Here's the piece cut from the fret and bent. Looks great!



One slight problem. Eduard actually etches the fold points into the railing by making the piece very thin. It's terrific for figuring out where the bends go...NO MEASURING. But, it also weakens an alredy very flimsy part, and as I was handling the railing, the thing fell apart. And I mean completely! Instead of one curvy piece I had four of them... three of which ended in horizontal rails going off into space with no support whatsoever. From there things got worse.



I attempted to put it on in pieces, but only got the middle piece on, the one with the very tight radius curve. I had one of the side pieces near the ship's horn—which I incidentally drilled out to make it look more "horn-like"—but it fell off and after messing with it for about three tries it "twanged" out of this dimension. I finally got most of the railing on the starboard side, but the side near the horn is a total missing. Eduard's pieces are all etched to fit specific locations so there aren't any extra railings to use. I might wait and see what happens further down the line to maybe sacrifice another rail in a less conspicuous place.



Another interesting piece is this little folded platform that has the railing attached at the center point a la the railings around the funnel. This time, the railing stayed attached and made it much easier to wrap it around the curvature and afix it to the ship. It went really well until I accidentally touched it and knocked half of it off and had to reglue. Everytime you reglue with CA it gets messier. It's a law of nature.

Here's two views of the completed upper tower. Not the neat wind deflector at the top level. That part went on well. There's also another applique on the bottom level that I put on after the pictures were taken.



Here's the other side. Again, it's going to look fine when it's all together and in the plexi-case. But it's two steps forward and one back. You can see the horn in this view.



I also took a few minutes and drilled out the tiny porthole in all the WT doors. It's a very small #76 drill, and it adds just another layer of fine detail to the ship. I'll take pictures of this the next door that I put on. I drilled them while still attached to the fret and then went back and drilled all the ones that were already in place including the superstructure sides where the doors were actually etched in details. You can actually see one drilled out in the 1st picture, but it's a bit out of focus.

Next time I'll be completing the tower base and bridge area. There's lots of parts that go there.

[looking4NSFS]

Builder,
This has become one of my favorite threads. Your work is impressive.
Just wanted to give you some positive feedback. After all your model work you do just as much work posting it.
Thanks for sharing.

[USSWisconsin]

I love this detail, I will be looking at your pictures the next time I do a battleship painting. A lot of it is hard to get from photos, seeing you put this together gives a unique perspective, almost like being at the shipyard during the actual build. Thank you.

[Builder 2010]

It's comments like these that keep me going. Actually, since I did the airplane build thread on RCScalebuilder.com, I enjoy the blogging. It helps me think about what I'm doing and it's fun to read the whole thread when the project's all done and relive the experience. With the B-17 it was even more important since I was building it for someone else and had to give it up when it was completed. The build thread was the only proof that I actually did it.

[Zad Fnark]

Excellent work.

I have a 1/350 USS Arizona that I'd like to do a similar treatment on. This is very helpful.

ZF-

[Builder 2010]

Great! Just take your time... think everything through in your head before you do anything (a la Jack Nicklaus), and don't be afraid to go back and fix stuff over and over.

[Builder 2010]

Railings... stinking railings...

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.

[Builder 2010]

Bridge PE

First of all, I sent an eMail to Eduard Photoetch in the Czech Republic asking if there was a way to get parts that have broken or just plain disappeared. I got a very quick response back asking if I wanted all four frets. I replied that fret 3 & 4 would be terrific. If I can get replacements, my life will be a bit easier.

Meanwhile, I finally got one complicated railing in place with nothing getting lost of falling apart. Hey...this is a pretty big deal considering the grief I had with yesterday's batch. Here it is in the untouched up paint job.



After all that fun, it was time to get humiliated again. I mean really humiliated. I wrestled with another set of microscopic parts; the view slits for the conning tower. That's my finest pair of tweezers next to them in this picture so you can get an idea of scale. Like before, these things will stick to everything EXCEPT the place where you want them to stick. I'd get it moved into position, pull the knife or tweezer away and the part comes off with it. It wasn't supposed to do that! Luckily they give you three extra parts. I needed every one of them! One disappeared and two got damaged beyond repair. I could have used 8 more. In fact, if Eduard sends me a new fret #4, I'm going to replace a couple that still look poorly.



I used the "paint it black before you put on the parts" technique again. I put a dot of flat black where the slits will go. After gluing them on, all you have to do it trim up the outside with Haze Gray, theoretically speaking. Here's the spots.



Here's an oblique shot showing the attached slits. Even after touch up, the whole conn area looks a little crude. Luckily, no one will ever be able to view it this closely when under the plexi cover.

[Doktor]

Builder, I admire your nerves. Seriously!

Good job on that ship, nice details, and I like the little 'imperfections'.

In today's world it's really remarkable to still see something home-made.

[Builder 2010]

More Bridge PE

With the view slits out of the way, it was time to get cracking putting on the rest of the bridge details. I started with the first inclined ladders of the kit. The Eduard inclined ladders are superb. I used my Small Shop "Hold & Fold" to get a nice clean bend. Again, these things are very small and weigh nothing, so just touching them hurls them away. It's constantly testing my ability and shakey hands.



Here's the first inclined ladder in its place from the bridge deck to the gun director deck. I thought it would be a piece of cake, but it wasn't. As usual, the part kept sticking to the tool just enough to pull it sideways when I would pull away. I persisted and didn't freak, and finally got them both positioned neatly. They need to be in a certain place because additional railings go in next to them.



Just for comparison, here's old Mo's plastic ladders and railing-less superstructure. I don't know about you guys, but I don't think you can ever build an "out-of-the-box" ship model again after seeing how more realistic, intricate and interesting it is when all the PE is added. It effectively doubles the price of the kit, but it adds 3X the building time, and about 10X the frustration.



After the railings I finished up almost all of the bridge rails and did some more touch up painting. There is this wonderful little... little? Did I say "Little"? I meant tiny radar screen that replaces a plastic one that sits on the conning tower roof. I put some small curvature on it, folded its little tab on the bottom, trimmed off the plastic piece and sanded the surface and then attempted to glue the new one on. After three tries to get it set correctly, it twanged out of the tweezer and disappeared. I'd swear it headed forwards onto the workbench, so I moved everything around, used the dustpan and brush and swept it clean. Nope... into the quantum hole. I then turned to the floor. Nope! Gone! I really liked that antenna too. Again, hopefully, Eduard will come through and have a 2nd shot at it.



Here's the other side showing all the ladders, railings and inclined ladders.

[Builder 2010]

Thanks! Most if not all of those imperfections come from PE that doesn't glue where it's supposed to the first time (or the 2nd, 3rd...). Each time you have to scrape the CA off and attempt to reglue, it gets worse. Some guys use aliphatic (white glues) since it allows more working time and it is sticky, but it doesn't seem to hold very well. I may try it again since I'm not trying to glue raw metal. When I first experimented with it was before I primed and painted the PE. Another scenario is that I apply the glue and then have to 'manhandle' the part and by the time I get the part to the ship, the glue has set. I will gain more and more experience and should eventually figure it all out.

I have two more 1/350 ships to build, both by Trumpeter: the Essex and the Hornet. Both are contemporaries so should look good displayed with the Mo. And both have lots of PE available for them.

[Dreadnought]

Nice job, Is it me or does the Conning Tower look more oval on the model then it is in real life to be circular?

[Builder 2010]

Thanks,

Here's the blueprint of the Wisconsin in the Korean War era. The pilot house is oval, and I think the Tamiya model is close.