Here is the start of my Community Build Blog, couple days early since I wont be in port on launch date. I am leaving for FL for my niece's wedding tomorrow Friday may 30th at 0-sun-not-upyet. Will be back home port Sunday June 1st at 0-waypast-mybedtime. Will re-post sprue pics Monday June 2nd. Cheers!

the kit:


the sprues:


with today's newspaper (Stamford's Advocate)


hopefully you can see todays date


zoom in of todays date


see you next week, and good luck all!

Hey Kenny made the front page of your paper.

Can't wait to see this build James.
It looks like a really nice kit.

It is a nice kit. I need to spend some more time on mine.

Can't wait to see your progress.

Ok, I just came back from my niece's wedding, I kept looking at the stupid centerpiece on my table and thinking "That cost as much as my Nagato".

And yes, wedding was in south FL, gator country

It is a nice kit (Kidd?) hope I do it justice

Ill re-post sprue pics tomorrow to show I did not start before the deadline, as well as checking the other blogs, im beat now!
Cheers all...
james

I started the ritual today... yes, the washing the sprues with soapy water

Will post some moedst WIP later this week as well as more info about the kit and build..cheers

Looking forward to seeing your progress, James. Have fun. Barry

hello James,
i am glad you had a fun and safe trip.i bought a lot of old FSM at the Pikes Peak Modeling show and one of them has a good article about modeling the USS Kidd.if you want i can see if Miss Mary can scan it for you.i think it is from the mid 90's.
if you want it let me know.
cheers,
Bruce

Hi Bruce! Thanks, whats the date, hang on I can search for it myself in FSM.....
Sept 01? let me see if I have it in my stash of old mags... Ill get back to you on this one, thanks again for the offer! james

hello James,
the date of the FSM is July 1995.it is converting the Arii's 1/700 scale Sprunce kit to the USS Kidd.the article has a lot of photo's and a 1/700 scale drawing.
cheers,
Bruce

USS Kidd – DDG-993 Build Log - JUNE 08


First month, first few steps! Building within the OOB category has the advantage that I do not need to think about accuracy as much and can just concentrate on basic construction. Of course, the main disadvantage is the inability to add anything to the build, even a minor item such as a chain. In any event, it is a great way to learn/practice the basics of plastic model building!

Construction has been (and will be) based strictly on the step order depicted in the instruction sheet. I started with the clean-up of the sprues with soapy water, and the separation/storage of all the extra parts. The first step was the clean up of the propellers. The outer edge of the propellers was “squarish” in appearance (should have taken a picture!), and I had to carefully sand and “sculpt” the roundness of the blades.



This was followed with painting with ModelMaster (MM) enamel gold, as per instructions.



The propeller shafts were also sanded; this was a bigger job than expected, due to a nasty pair of mold lines running laterally on the shafts. I had to carefully shave the excess plastic and sand around the shaft, to keep the roundness of the part.



The hull is always an important job; imagine my surprise when the halves did not fit well at all! I had to carefully bond the hull together, 2-4mm at a time using Tenax (a plastic welder rather than regular “glue”). This stuff is great, I like to use when I need to bond seamlessly (in theory at least!).



The plastic “beads” seen between parts welded with Tenax are supposed (again, in theory!) to demonstrate a good “weld”. I carefully shaved the beads and sanded along the length of the hull. Some putty work remains to be done, as well as more sanding.



Sonar dome before sanding



after sanding, some more fine work remains



Here is the back of the hull construction; the end piece sort of “slides” into a slit molded on the inside of the hull halves. This construction leaves a noticeable “lip” (~1mm) protruding from the bow; this lip should not be there of course.



I attempted to fix this by carefully shaving the lip with an Xcto knife and sanding around the area. Again, some putty work remains to be done to get a better finish, but I think it looks better now.



The reason the Kidd is a ship and not a boat!



The instruction sheets, the box art and a picture I found online showed a flat black HULL and a red “boot” stripe, so I painted accordingly.

Masking, followed by Flat Black





then masking the boot stripe,



paint in red….



And it is still drying! I want to make sure the paint is fully dried before I peel off the mask... and that is all for this month!


Next month: putty, sand and finish the hull construction; finish painting the boat; start dry fitting of the superstructure; start more sub-assemblies (weapon systems); I may (or may not) paint the lower part of the hull with anti-fouling red

Thanks for looking, any comments always welcome, cheers!

Good start to your build James, nice photographs too, makes judging easier.

Frank

Nice one James streets ahead of the game you have a very well thought out build there kit looks great. Thanks for the tip on painting the small boats will have to try that one out cheers.

JULY 08


Ok, here is the July blog! The theme for this month is “Oops!” due to the many, well, “oops!” I encountered this month.

We re-start with the hull; last month I had glued both halves with Tenax being a tad surprised at the somewhat bad fit. Now is time to fix the seam!

For this procedure, I will use a method taken from the aircraft world, used by many to ensure good fuselage seams; the method is found here


Mark off the seam with masking tape in order to minimize sanding and protect any surface details around the seam



Apply putty, I use Squadron white



I then smooth over the putty with a Q tip dabbed in acetone-containing nail polish remover (Cutex). This also decreases amount of sanding; I move the Q tip perpendicular to the seam as to not remove the putty actually filling the seam!



Let dry for a day, remove the tape and you have your putty-seam.



Carefully shave off excess putty with Xcto blade



And start the sanding process.. I used squadron sanding files, Med – Fine – Xfine progression.



The next step is to determine if the seam is actually, well, seamless! Usually, you would spray a light mist of primer in order to highlight any seam flaws. I decide instead to experiment with using a testors’ enamel marker in order to save time. Here are the results:


You DO save the time (and AB cleaning) but the enamel paint lies in too thick and dark (Oops #1). Sometimes it is hard to see any seam flaws due to the “streaky” way the paint flows from the applicator. In any case, you can see some sections of the seam that are flawed (middle of the picture)



I had to go back over those areas with more putty, this time “cut” with Cutex in order to make a paste, fill in the problem areas, dry, sand, etc. After all of that, I sanded the hull with 1000 & 2000 grits sandpaper to try and get rid of the many hull scratches.

NEXT assembly step was the gluing of the shaft parts to the hull. Oops #2! I made the rookie mistake of NOT dry-fitting the shaft assembly to the hull, resulting in major (1-2mm) gaps on the sides of some of the struts. I should have carefully sanded a “contour” to the struts so they would fit the curvature of the hull. Oh well! Ok, so putty to the rescue…. I tried to use Tamiya Liquid primer, viscous filler that can be used as putty. Oops #3! The stuff may work for small gaps, but it is VERY hard to apply at a specific location without spillage to surrounding areas. Moreover, it contracts when it dries, leading to the need for multiple coats. I had to sand the whole mess away (no pics of the mess!) and start again. I used the aforementioned Squadron white “cut” with Cutex to make a paste. Once dried, I carefully shaved the excess and sanded around the areas:






If anyone has a better suggestion besides of what I just did, please let me know! : )

At least the back did not give me any trouble…

Onwards to the boat!
Last month I painted the black and red portions on the hull. First step was to fix couple nasty sink holes on deck, using the Tamiya Surface primer



I had to re-apply THREE times due to the shrinkage I alluded to above… next time I will try the Mr Surfacer line of products. Anyways, I painted grey deck and the cabin white as per instructions. I am using MM enamel #1723, Gunship Gray (FS36008) as “Deck Gray”.



I still need to (carefully) paint the windows (I will use semi-gloss black) and the life preserver.

The 20mm Phalanx CWIS assemblies, the ammo canister painted white as per instructions. The rest of the assembly has not been painted yet (needs Haze gray).



The other part of the ship calling for ‘white” paint was the missiles… but white missiles denote active/live birds, so I was thinking of painting them BLUE instead (training/duds) missiles.

Final step was putting together the Mk45 5” guns… or, Oops #4! The cannon had a nasty seam that was a pain to shave. I was then in the course of dry-fitting the assembly together and “clamping” it down for gluing, when the whole thing went flying… I was not able to recover/find one of the cannons…so I guess I need to ask the judges for a temporary “scratchbuilding” license to (attempt to) make a substitute out of spare sprue material. The good news is that the floor surrounding my workbench is very clean now since I swept the area three times.



And that is where we stand! Next is priming the hull; after fixing any flaws, then anti-fouling red paint. Also continue to work on the subassemblies: the boat, the weapon systems. The next big step (probably in 2 months) will be to start the deck assemblies.

Thanks for looking; any comments or suggestions are welcome! Cheers all

Good progress James, all well documented.

Frank

Hi James

Looking good
Tip #1 - for bigger seams, use plastic card or streched sprue to fill the most and than use putty for final smooth finish;
Tip #2 - if you use Tamiya Putty, you can dilute it with Tamiya Extra Tin Glue, to the needed consistency, and apply it with a brush, let dry and sand it to your needs;
Tip #3 - once you scratch the new gun part, you will find the original one (Murphy's Law of scale ship modeling!)

Keep up the good work!
Rui

Solid and sound craftsmanship here!
Bravo Zulu!

Frank, Guido thanks mates! this is actually a lot of fun

Skipper, thanks and thanks for the tips! I am already stretching sprue for your #1 and will plan on #2... I may have a solution for #3! cheers!

Aug 08

Time for the August blog! And we start where we ended last time, the hull/shaft assembly. Time for sanding (second time) the Tamiya putty I used to fix the fit…as mentioned last blog, I had trouble getting the putty to “behave” and ended up sanding maybe too much of it off, as seen in this pic:



As you see, the connection between the shaft ‘strut” and the hull is “square” (I have to get some arrows in my pics! Next month!). Close up of the attachments after sanding/scrapping, both sides





I decided to give the Tamiya primer/putty another go, this time using a very small brush (0 or 5/0 spotter brush) and “dabbed” the putty instead of “brushing” the putty, building up layers of the stuff. Worked a LOT better! I will try Mr Surfacer another time, but I want to get a feel of how the Tamiya Liquid Surface Primer works. I built up a “curve” onto the strut/hull joint, seen here:



Here is a close up… I am not sure if this is accurate “engineer-wise” for this type of ship, but looks nicer IMHO. If anyone knows better than me, please let me know!





Fixing up the bow was not that much of an issue, we will see when we prime the whole structure if there are any flaws:



Ok, now to the varied sub-assemblies… we re-start with the ship’s boat, finishing (almost) its paint job:



I need to look at some pics to see how to finish the paint job, and its still missing grey.

Next in line are the Mk4 5 5” guns… last time, you recall I had lost one cannon. Well, I have good news and bad news… bad news, I had some minor basement flooding couple weeks ago during the NE storm we had.. good news? The cannon and the PT boat’s rudder came out floating into the main floor : ))
Of course, finding the part while something else was going on was predicted by Skipper last month! And thank you Jim for the kind offer of a spare!

Putting together this sub-assembly, I understand why people get resin replacements… the fit was very poor, and the sprue-stub was at a very inconvenient position, leaving a pit after gluing the gun. Some putty filler to the rescue!



Now I can put the cannons in…





I still need to paint the assemblies. The cannon is (?) too small to bore, I will pin-paint black to simulate a nozzle.

Ok, last bit was the start of the main sub-assemblies, the main super-structure. For this bit of work, I am experiment with the use of Tenax as my main glue, applying from the inside.



The idea is to (try) and get seamless construction, where the seam lines are “welded”. This side shot actually included three pieces; you can see the weld on the front portion:



In this picture you see an incomplete weld, shown as “lighter’ color plastic. You see a fine line surrounding the part. This will have to be sanded/welded in order to make it disappear.



Here, you see the weld up front and close; the “bubbling” is melted plastic, in theory, should be easy to clean up. However, you also see a bit of a thin line, where the seam did not fully weld. On the other hand, the other joint (at the “bend” of the structure), you cant see! The goal is to make all my seam welds look like THAT one!



For next month, we will continue to build the super structure (next portion seen here):



..also, continue the sub assemblies. Maybe start the priming and painting…

Any comments always welcome and thanks for looking!

Nice bit of work there, James. How do you like the Tenax? I never could seem to get the hang of using it - seems to evaporate before I can get it to flow to the right places and then doesn't seem to hold very well. I've been experimenting with Tamiya's ultra-thin cement which I like better. The 'weld' looks really nice. Barry

Barry - I do like Tenax, takes a bit to get the hang of it and remember Im a newbie! For sure *I* cannot "brush it" on, evaporates to quick. Some other people seem to be able to brush it on, but use old brushes it melts the bristles quickly. You can get something called "touch and flow", which are basically small capillarytubes (very small straws) which take up some glue by capillary action when you dip in the bottle, then you can 'touch" the joint and the glue "flows". You could also use variations of a syringe applicator, as long as the piston inside does not have a rubber pad, it will melt (talking from experience! . You can try using Gator's applicators for his Gator glue, MAYBE it will work if the applicator does not have a rubber pad, which of course is not an issue with dealing with water based glues! Finally, if you feel "cold" in your finger when you are holding the parts together, drop them immediately! Not because the glue will stick yoru skin to the plastic a la CA glue, but because the glue will melt the plastic and make a nice impression of your fingerprints on the plastic! Again, talking from first hand experience

here are a couple links I bookmarked about using Tenax

http://cs.finescale.com/forums/583241/ShowPost.aspx
http://cs.finescale.com/forums/798678/ShowPost.aspx

hope it helps!

Time for the September blog, short and not-sweet! Unfortunately, some huge work deadlines swamped my Sept and I was unable to do much building, or posting or much of anything : ( And the one major build step I performed had major construction problems… anyways, here is the progress:

We left Aug with the superstructure ready to be built. Last Aug pic shows the parts off the sprue. First task at hand was to shave the flash, sand the sprue attachments points, etc. Then it was time for dry-fitting… I *thought* I had done an OK job of dry-fitting… so, I continued by “Tenax” experiment and glued the parts together, a few at a time and carefully lining up the sides, er, bulkheads! The results are seen below:





All aligned, looks nice enough! Another angle… I chose the "hangar door closed" option, being that there is no interior and I cant make one (OOB).



But…. I started to notice very prominent “joints”. Seems my “Tenax” method of gluing did not quite work that build session, I have “spacing” between many parts, here is an example (see blue arrows):



Um, back to the Tenax drawing board! Next build I will try tamiya thin liquid cement, see how that works out. Or use tenax only on joints that are NOT at 90 degrees. Any suggestions always welcome!

Anyways, nothing a bit of putty cannot solve! This time I choose Mr Surfacer 500, which runs smoother and thinner (in my clumsy hands) than Tamiya Liquid primer. I dabbed Mr Surfacer using a small (0) sable brush.





After letting in dry for an hour, I went back to check… and..what a surprise! Seems that the Mr Surfacer I dabbed simply ‘spread” over and into the joints… the joints themselves can now be seen even more clearly than before! You can easily see the joint lines in all of the sections:









So…. I have to go back and (much more carefully) dab more stuff, maybe using an even smaller brush and take care of those joints. Then, I will have to spend some time carefully sanding the excess filler. After all THAT, I will give the whole unit a light spray with the AB to make sure the joints are not too ugly. Again, any suggestions are welcome!

Finally, one final de-construction step. I found this great pic of the Kidd’s superstructure:



I noticed that the captain’s gig its missing the red boot stripe so prominently displayed in the instructions. Shipmate goldenpony (Jim Adams) also kindly pointed out the error. I mean, would the kit instructions be wrong?? YES! : ) Memo to rookies like me: study the pictures BEFORE you start painting!

Last entry for this month is the careful scrape of the red stripe, followed by sanding. I will probably have to paint all colors again, but I could not let that red stripe hang in there in all its inaccurate glory:





And that is all for now! Sorry the meager output, next month should be better… thank you for looking and as usual, feel free to comment or suggest anything, Im here to learn!
Cheers