Uss oklahoma - uss arizona

[PAPER FAN]

Reading the additional information burried in the 1st link above the Navy Department issued the following in August 1941

"It is requested that at as early a date as practicable and when the dark bluish gray paint is available from the Paint Manufacturing Yards, all exposed wood decks on battleships and cruisers be coated with the material."

It appears that Oklahoma did not get to the job yet as her deck and what also may be West Virginia directly behind did not carry through. The order is soft and leaves open ended the time to complete the job. The ships were to "paint themselves"

See attached link along with the first image in the second link.

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/i...000/h50472.jpg

It does appear Arizona may have had the dark blue decks by Dec 7th.

I will leave Oklahoma wood, as printed on the model and hold off for some more Arizona research.

Maryland was the only 16" gunned unit at Pearl and her much larger hull is very evident inboard of Oklahoma. Can go on forever on this, but maryland may have been the best looking post Pearl ships as she maintained her foward tower mast and twin funnels to the end of the war.

[umtutsut]

Originally Posted by PAPER FAN

Maryland was the only 16" gunned unit at Pearl

Nope. West Virginia also mounted 16" main battery. See: USS West Virginia History

Les (Friendly Airplane Asylum & ex-NASA flack)

[PAPER FAN]

oop's should not have missed that, thanks

[Don Boose]

Colorado, the third sister, missed the battle under going refit at Puget Sound.

I agree that Maryland was a good-looking ship.

Don

[Wyvern]

Heck of a task you've set for yourself! Both ships look top-notch!

Wyvern

[PAPER FAN]

The Oklahoma's hull is nearly finished. I mixed Model Master Dark Gull Grey with Blue, started with one bottle of bluue added the grey until it matched the box color on the Arizona kit. Turns out 1 for 1 so this will be easy to duplicate. After applying 2 coats to both the upper and lower hulls I added a black cardstock strip all arounf. The added strip is a technoque I have used for serval models and really seems to work very well. I have to add the hull side ladders that wre ripped off while painting and do some touch ups. I hand painted all the deck edges, there are no lips but my hand seemed to be steady enough for the task.

I painted the hull using a brush because masking paper maper me nervous and I am afraid of ripping or delaminating when I remove the tape. Still the brush streaks are minimal, typical with model master paints.

I will concentrate on Arizona's hull this up coming week. Still not sure of the deck as mentioned earlier and in the Pearl photos from the Dec 7th attack it appears her decks were already painted the same bue grey as the hull sides.

I have never seen her modeled this way and am hoping someone knows one way or the other for sure.

[ashevilleangler]

Great work on the Oklahoma hull! I can only dream of attempting such a model build even though I have the Fly Model USS Indianapolis. Some day maybe,.... probably not.

Curt

[PAPER FAN]

Some quick work on Arizona. I will go with the wooden colored decks. If she did have painted decks by Dec 7, I am sure shortly before the were unpainted. I will paint the decsa like Oklahoma's, not sure the brown printed on Oklahoma's decks are accurate, they were teak after all, I want the two models to be similar and I do not have the equipment to recolor Oklahoma's decks.

The turrets are just fitted. I added 2 wraps of scotch tape to the axle for the turrets to stiffen the travel of the barrels. Trumpeter made no attempt to make the turrets rotate but did design it such that some simple kit bash will work with no issues.

I have to spend a bunch of time drilling out the port holes before a spray paint the hull sides.

Next post Arizona will be painted and brought up to Oklahoma's current level. The Arizona looks like she will fall together the model is so well designed and molded. Not at all like my Nichimo Yamato I built back in 1989.

[PAPER FAN]

Summer months mean slow builds but there is progress. I built Arizona through the gun deck. The bridge is assembled up to the aircraft lookout (white) level. The mast is only placed. Now I am bringing Oklahoma to the same level.

The gun deck framework for Oklahoma is built and will be completed as a separate unit. I laminated the upper and lower plan sheets to 1/32 balsa. I checked the height of the side plating and no adjustment is required for the 10mm tall inner frames. I framed horizontally with solid units to square up the balsa then added diagonal frames in between, not matching the kits straight horizontal and vertical framework. The balsa is very straight length wise when laminated but tends to warp opposite the grain so more non-slitted frames are required to keep it square. The same method worked extremely well to keep Junyo's flight deck and Titanics vast decks true.

Next up will be the five inch open mounts installed in the case wells then the siding. Love the US case guns being fully open as comapared to all other older BB's from other navies.

I am now and mostly always will be a paper modeler but I highly reccomend Trumpeter's Arizona, especially while she is still new. The Arizona is a real gem and is almost too easy to build. The photo etch supplied is second to none as well.

Joe

[Michael Mash]

Hello Joe:
That is a nice looking superstructure. And the railing work is wonderful.
Mike