Beautiful work so far Julien. They probably are 5 Inch Shells but they could be sitiing in a Fuse Setting Device. Does the Cradle the Shells are sitiing in have any Circles or Dial Depressions on the front or side of the Holder. If there is it is a Fuse Setter. The 5 Inch Mounts usually have some Ammo Storage Bins nearby where the Ready Use Ammo is stored from below Deck Magazines.....Cheers Mark

Bless you Mark, that sounds very plausible because there are huge storage lockers on deck near to the 5" AAA's. There are what could be dials on one side of the frame, one dial for each shell. That is nice because I can use a little bit of gold paint to draw attention to the shells. Thank you !
Cheers,
Julian

Good morning Julian, I like those 5" guns, very detailed. The guns were always the first thing I looked at in a kit. How good they were was often a deciding factor in whether or not I bought the kit. I remember waaaay back, when Lindbergh announced a 1/32 scale PT how excited I was. But when I brought it home, opened the box, and saw how truly awful the guns (and the rest of the kit) were, I was very disappointed. I returned it, exchanging it for a different kit. I would love to add this Arizona to my collection, but space and economics conspire against that happening any time soon. Al

Yeah, well.........................mrs. Gremlin56 isn't exactly over the moon with this build She suggested using it as a garage for my Volvo. Go figure...............
But, I am enjoying this build, (even if I parked the lower hull on a mr. surfacer soaked tissue this afternoon. Now that is going to need some cleaning and sanding )
Julian

Julian, I might have a DVD on my desk that could prove interesting for your build It's Still Motion's No. 82 "The Great Ships of Pearl Harbor". It's got lots of pics of the Arizona and others. I'll try to do a review in the next few weeks so you can see into it.

Cheers!
Stefan

PS: Man, you got a pocket Volvo?

I'll watch out for your review Stefan, it will be interesting. Pocket Volvo? Wish it had pocket Volvo fuel consumption
Cheers
Julian

June 10th update:
The WEM PE arrived today, carefully packed. Two beautiful sheets of brass PE:



Working on the first deck and have sprayed the first turret:



Julian

Hi Julian,

very nice colour, what paint did you use ?

Hi Wojtek, it's Lifecolour Navy Blue. One shade straight from the jar and one shade lightened with white. Works for me too
Julian

June 11th update:
Continuing painting turrets:



Fitted the 5" AAA ready ammunition lockers and 5" AAA enclosures:



Julian

Great job Julian

I am waiting or more, could you please add more information about
used "chemistry" ?

Still waiting for Kingfishers - cherries on the top of cake

Thank you Wojtek, you mean how I did the paintwork so far?
Julian

June 13th update:
Work started on the forward superstructure. Fit is excellent. The WEM PE set is also very nice to use, the metal used can stand up quite a lot of bending and shaping to get it to fit. The flag bins with rolled up flags looks great:








Cheers,
Julian

Just a few more snaps, first part in Vallejo grey ground. Fit of the model is really fantastic, just about falls together:




Julian

I have to say this looks really beautiful...

And a good guide to see how you proceed to build such a ship. 1/200 does come off as BIG (the railing does give the best indication).

Cheers,

Harm

Thank you Harm, trying to make the Arizona look the part. The model is huge, but Trumpeter have done a very good job of adding just that little bit extra detail to it.
I am not sure this will be a good guide to building the ship though: my own "fuzzy logic" has kicked in already
Cheers,
Julian

June 19th update: of cranes and triple A I have assembled and grounded the stern crane and one of the boat handling cranes. I have given the AAA 5"guns their first coat of navy blue. I have been in a Google frenzy looking for some reference photo's of the 5" guns and have found some really good snaps of which one in amazing colour. I will post them here hoping I don't cause any problems with copy-writes, if I have unintentionally done that please contact me and I'll pull the photo:


Now for the 5" part:




If anyone has a photo of the dials on the "inside" of the gu n mount I would be very much obliged.
While I am it I will post these snaps of the 5" secondary battery guns:





That's about all for now,
cheers,
Julian

June 19th update #2:
added some detailing to the 5" triple A, sprayed some of the finished components navy blue:





And then back to work on the superstructure:


Cheers,
Julian

This is truely a magnificent kit. I am beginning to wish i had picked it up last month at the Squadron Open House for $100.

$100,- ? that would have been worth every cent.
Julian

Magnificent kit, great job Julian !!

I am very happy that this superb kit has been "secured" on my shelf
Hope that Guys from Trumpeter wiil produce soon new 1:200 battleships.

For example Bismarck & Tirpitz ?? Count me as first preordering guy

Cheers

Wojtek

Thank you very much Wojtek, glad you like the build so far. Private mail underway about the deck colour. By the way, have you heard of MAR airbrushes? They are sold in Poland and are extremely cheap.
regards,
Julian

June 25th update: I have been working on the forward mast/observation tower. I had some doubts about how this would all fit. The legs of the mast have to slide through two holes and slot into the deck while clamping the entrance and light AA machinegun decks and fitting into the slots in the base of the tower itself, (I hope you can follow that bit of confusing English ). Turned out there was no real need to worry, in these photos the pieces are not even glued, just slotted together.
It looks great and the I am starting to get an idea of how tall this build will be.
I have been experimenting with the Trumpeter and the WEM accomodation ladders here. The Trumpeter ladders are easy to bend but the steps have a tendancy to break off while being bent into a usable position. The WEM set is just that little bit more detailed, different types of handrails and the brass used is just that little bit tougher, more resilient to bending and shaping. The ladders of both sets fit perfectly through the deck openings:







Julian

Very nice and clean!

I have to say that the whole superstructure with the tower starts to look like a Japanese pagoda tower in bad shape...

BTW, the Nagato pagoda has to be built in a similar way (the supports being slotted through holes/gaps in the decks... wondering how all that will fit as well (when I get to building it).

Cheers,

Harm

Well, the Japanese certainly left it behind in bad shape, bashed up end bent forward. The problem I expected, getting legs with a certain distance between them through two holes with a smaller distance between them didn't materialize.
The legs are flexible enough to fit. The Haruna did have some unexpected problems during the build of the pagoda so you may run into some interesting moments Harm
Cheers !
Julian