Introduction...

On the lookout for a photo collection of the USS Arizona, I stumbled upon this Still Motions Photographics DVD which has the subtitle “Special Photo Album USS Arizona, a modeler’s guide”. When it arrived I was not disappointed with its contents.

Contents...

The DVD is a simple home made disc with a simple but effective plastic case and a cover page. The disc contains almost a GB worth of content that is 356 JPEGs in various sizes from 40 KB to 11’287 KB, with most being larger than 1 or 2 MB. This should tell you quite a bit about the content of this disc when it comes to high resolution photos.

The disk is a simple data disk and contains no menu or anything like that. Instead, upon putting it into the CD drive of a windows computer, Windows Explorer opens up and you can view the photos like e.g. a photo backup CD you’ve made yourself. The individual files have clear names to help you identify the ship or place as well as the time the photo was taken. There is no text on this DVD. Photos are first class with high resolution. Some of them are commented in the picture themselves to give you more information aside from the already informative file names.

The accuracy of the comments are as far as I can tell top notch with only three exceptions: Cassin is once misidentified as Shaw (the name Cassin is clearly visible on the ship’s stern). Another destroyer is identified as “HELM 382 GRIDLEY CLASS DD 382”. While the ship’s number is clearly visible as 382, DD-382 was actually USS Craven, at the time of the attack underway with USS Enterprise from Wake to Pearl Harbor and therefore not at Pearl. USS Helm on the other hand was there and suffered minor damage, but she was DD-388. The DVD includes a picture of USS Frenholt (DD-491). However, Farenholt was only commissioned on April 2nd 1942 at New York Navy Yard.

If you want a collection of Photos on Pearl Harbor, this is a product for you. It covers not only a large portion of the ships present on that fateful morning of December 7th 1941, it also covers Pearl Harbor itself with general overview photos and maps before, during and after the attack, photos of the different airfields with plane wrecks, as well as the salvage operations of the ships sunk at Pearl and the construction of the Arizona Memorial.

69 files on the disc are dedicated to the Arizona. You can find all from side plans to pictures of her in the 1920ies with cage masts, to pictures after the major refitting, to pictures of the attack and of course the explosion and the wreck. In separate folders you will find photos of different ships rendering honors to the wreck of Arizona from before the memorial was built to today. Another special folder contains pictures of the Revell 1/485th scale model built by Loren Perry in 1934 and 1941 rig. Though some of these are not the sharpest, they will nevertheless prove useful to the modeler.

Other ships covered are the following:
Pennsylvania (BB-38, 10 Photos),
Nevada (BB-36, 15),
Oklahoma (BB-37, 13),
Tennessee (BB-43, 3),
California (BB-44, 23, most of which are during and after the attack),
Maryland (BB-46, 4)
West Virginia (BB-48, 17)
San Francisco (CA-38, 4)
Raleigh (CL-7, 3)
Phoenix (CL-46, 2)
Honolulu (CL-48, 4)
St. Louis (CL-49, 4)
Helena (CL-50, 3)
Dewey (DD-349, 2)
MacDonough (DD-351, 1)
Selfridge (DD-357, 1)
Conyngham (DD-371, 1)
Cassin (DD-372) and Downes (DD-375) with 6 photos in all
Shaw (DD-373, 17, including the mighty explosion and the provisional bow)
Bagley (DD-368, 1)
Ralph Talbot (DD-390, 1)
Patterson (DD-392, 1)
Tautog (SS-199, 1)
Oglala (CM-4, 3)
Condor (Amc-14, 1)
Curtiss (AV-4)
Vestal (AR-4)Solace (AH-5)
Utah (AG-16, 3)

Conclusion...

Aside from the very few mistakes, this DVD contains more photos associated with Pearl Harbor than I have ever seen anywhere and is certainly worth the money not only for the Pearl Harbor enthusiast, but also for any one modeling the subject, in particular USS Arizona.

I ordered my example from White Ensign Models in the UK for 13.57£