Made a lot of progress over the weekend, and finally got around to posting a ton of photos, all the way back to January.

Still got a lot of work to do, as I haven't yet done the Mk 51s, the life rafts nor any of the 20mm. And I haven't even started on the rear deck.

Going to have to stop for a couple of weeks as I haven't even started on my taxes, but should be back in action in a few weeks.

Here are some shots, and the rest are in the gallery.





Tom

I take it that you've got all the 40mm and main guns done for the back deck. So I guess the gunshields on the 20's the catapults and cranes. Sounds like you are within striking range now.

Beautiful work, Tom!
I checked out all of your photo's mate, and the progress is quite impressive! I guess you can take a break to do your taxes now! Thanks for bringing us up to date and I'll be looking forward to seeing more of your Missouri when you're back in the saddle. Thanks!

Gunny

Hi Tom

You are producing an amazing and trully "Mighty Mo"

I really love the details and extra work you put in it - it is a really show stopper!
Almost there - don't give up now

Keep up and keep us posted

Skipper

That is one fantastic looking ship Tom! Well done sir, well done!

Correct! All three main gun turrets have been done since last year, and the additional 6 quad 40 mm mounts for the fore and aft decks are also done.

You can't tell from the photos, but the twin 5" mounts, the Mk 37 Fire Directors, M8 mounts on the front and rear towers, and all of the quad 40 mounts are mounted on rods which go into a drilled hole so they can all be turned. I thought of that AFTER I had glued the two quad 40s on turret 2 and 3. Oh well., at least the entire main gun turrets can rotate.

Just need to do the actual aft deck with cranes and catapults and additional parts, on the deck like vents, cable reels, winches, etc and all 26 of the Mk 51s and all the life rafts that are spotted all around the ship. I'm using the L'Arsenal versions rather than the kit supplied ones.

Oh, yeah, there is the matter of all 48 of those pesky 20 mm units. I think these will be a composite of both kit parts (the actual mounting base) and PE. They'll probably wind up being about 4-5 parts each.

(PROBABLY won't rotate and elevate but you never know :-) :-) )

Tom

WHOAAAA.... That is gona be one NICE ship!
1/350 scale i think?

Hi Tomaz

Welcome to Warships @ Armorama
Yes you're right - it's in 1/350

Skipper

Yes sir!! My hat is off to those who do those great jobs on the 1/700 adding the PE! I don't know how they do it. That is REAL talent.

I gotta have it big so I can see what I'm doing!! Not to mention the chubby fingers thing! :-)

Tom

:-) :-) , plus in bigger scale you save your eyes also, not just fingers! :-)

Man, that's gorgeous!

what kit is it?

Tamiya's 1 / 350 scale USS Missouri. Check for it on ebay you can probably pick one up for around $40 -45. Have to hurry though, Tamiya put it in a new box, changed the box art and stock number and doubled the price. Add a nice PE set (Gold Medal models ) and you will have a gorgeous kit. Tom added a lot more PE and then went beyond that buying a set of metal barrels.

Yeah, Steve's right. The actual kit itself is the Tamiya 1/350 Missourt, but it is most definitely NOT OOB. I actually bought the "old" kit quite some time ago so I only paid about $45 or so for it. But as Steve mentioned, I have purchased a TON of aftermarket stuff for it, to include both the GMM sets, Steve Nutall's metal barrels for both the 16" and the 5", and all sorts of additional L'Arsenal and other make resin/PE stuff. There is a lot of overlap of stuff, but it has allowed me to pick and choose from one make to another, as some items are better in one set, but not others.

And all the "white" stuff you can see in the unpainted photos is scratch built based on what I could see in the reference photos.

Even compared to the price of the current version of the kit which I saw the other day at my LHS for about $80 and as far as I can tell is exactly the same as what I bought, the TOTAL amount of cash I've spent on aftermarket stuff alone is at least 3 times the kit price.

And yes, I'm out of my mind. :-) :-) :-)


Tom

Hi Tom,

Is this the time to tell you that he's just about to wrap up our 1/350 Missouri photoetch set? It will even include swabs! And, he's done a separate set of fitted ammo racks for the 40mm gun tubs....

We should be shipping it in about 3 weeks.

Cheers,
John Snyder
White Ensign Models
http://WhiteEnsignModels.com

Ouch, that is exquisitely cruel timing...

You guys are WAY mean!!! Being English I'm sure you know that the Latin on the Hathaway family crest translates into something like "A Day Late and a Dollar Short".

Next thing you're going to tell me John, is that now that I've taken the trouble to scratch build some "mods" to the kit supplied Mk 52 radar directors and scratch built 11 signal blinker lights THOSE are included as well!!

Tom

It always seems to go that way. I think you might cry if you were to look at what came with the Lions roar set for the North Carolina. Gun tubes for the 16" and 5", propellers and a ton of other goodies that would cross over. I picked it up for $50....cheaper then Nuttal's gun tubes alone.

Ah, but then I would have missed all the fun of ordering a set, waiting expectantly for it to arrive, and then, when I realize I NEED something else, ordering another set.

(BTW, I just discovered that the Missouri had two "paravanes" mounted on the foredeck (use to sweep for mines) which I don't have, so to avoid scratch building those I sent John an order for the L'Arsenal one's today!)

Tom

Life can be cruel
But I can say that you have managed to make an excellent model out of it (I am NOT going to ask how much did you spend in AM sets!!!)
And this also proves that we are always learning something more about the subject we are making - this comment about the paravanes!

Improve it

Skipper

One of the real challenges in building a subject like a warship is that they change how they are configured over time, especially in war. Trying to build the ship "exactly" how it looked at a certain point can be frustrating. For example there are tons of photos of the Missouri, but if they show a certain part of the ship at a different time than you're depicting, it may not help figure out if that's how you should build.

I'm depicting the Missouri as she looked in the July-August 1945 time period, and there are plenty of differences from the way she looked as built, although nowhere NEAR what the first two ships in the class Iowa and New Jersey went through.

Just this week I realized that the two compartments on the aft tower in which the Mk 51 directors are located were raised up sometime after initial build (probably when the two Mk 57 radar fire directors were installed during 1945). They are the two empty tubs you can see between the aft tower and the aft stack in my first photo.

The kit as manufactured has them in the lower position and I didn't realize they had been "moved" on the real ship until I happened to notice a difference in that area between the two sets of line drawings I have.

So, NATURALLY, I had to cut them off, and reinstall them approx 4 scale feet higher.

I gotta be crazy. (Wait until you see the "ammo dump chutes" I added to the aft 40mm gun tubs!!)

Tom

"ammo dump chutes?????"
Tom...
You are starting to worry me :-) :-)

Can't wait to see the beast finished!!!
Keep up

Skipper

Thought you'd get a chuckle out of that one!!!

But it's true! In a couple of shots, I noticed a fairly large "duct" type structure on the very aft end of the 40mm tubs on the stern of the ship. At the rate those things fire, a lot of spent brass builds up. Obviously there's a chute in the back and they kick or sweep the brass overboard, so I added them!!! :-) :-)

Tom

Hi Tom

"A little bit out of topic (or not)"
Although not the same model (I fired the Bofors 40L70) the amount of brass that you get in just a few minutes and with only one barrel and man fed can be pretty impressive!
I can easily imagine doble barreled or four barrel boffors pounding

Great little detail (one more!!!!) on your Missouri, Tom

Skipper

I did a quick search and learned that the rate of fire on the Bofors 40mm is somewhere around 120 rounds per minute, per barrel. One site indicated a rate of 160, but another stated that was "gravity assisted" when the weapon was horizontal, not likely in an anti-aircraft mode. While this rate of fire is technically not very fast, with a quad mount, that 40mm brass would sure build up in a hurry.

To put that in perspective, the 20mm is listed at somewhere between 265 to about 650 rounds per minute based on the model, similar to the M2 .50 Cal which is listed at about 550.

Compare that with the current Mk 15 Phalanx CIWS, (also a 20mm system) which clocks in with 4500 rounds per minute.

Wouldn't the AA gunners of WW II loved to have had THAT to defend against the Kamikaze threat!!!

Tom



Tom

Anybody know a great deal about the Phalanx? I assume this is not crew operated. Is there an attempt to capture all the brass for reload purposes? How big is the "ammo can" or is it fed from some other source?