Digital Navy USS Arizona - 1:200 Build

[MPL]

Hello! Here's what I've been working on for...uh, two years: the Digital Navy USS Arizona, but scaled up to 1:200 from the original 1:250. I'm building it bigger to take advantage of the available PE parts, none of which exists in the smaller scale.

My trusty HP inkjet printer can do scaling, so that's how I printed everything at 125% of original size. However, it's definitely wasteful of card stock - to get most parts to fit on a single sheet (not always possible), it takes four sheets of card. I'm using 8.5" squares to get the grain in the correct direction for each sheet. I have spliced many of the larger single parts from multiple bits.

While I'm not in a hurry, it's taken two years of on-and-off building to get this far, and I've really spent a lot more time on the Arizona over the last two months than I did in the previous six months. The hull looks pretty good, but that's because I've painted over the red and black areas. Even though I followed Roman's original suggestion to print all the red areas in one session for better color matching, my printer started losing the red towards the end of the session, and replacing the ink cartridge resulted in another mismatch. So painting was the only solution, and the hull sat on the workbench for five months while I waited for better weather here in the Pacific NW (painting has to be outdoors).

I hope to finish the model sometime later this summer - gotta clear the workbench for the IJN Takao, which my sister-in-law gave me for Christmas last year.

As you can see, I'm still working on the superstructure and upper works. If anyone has errata to report (I've found a few things, sadly, by trial and error), I'd appreciate it!

Cheers,
Matso Limtiaco
Snohomish WA

[mldixon]

Nice. Don't feel bad about the time. I'm at least two years into mine and I'm seriously thinking about starting all over. Thanks for sharing.

[treadhead1952]

Have to agree with Mike, no need to apologize over time spent, especially on such a nice job like that. Keep up the good work and post more as you go along.

[Fishcarver]

Vote me with Treadhead! It is best to "hasten slowly". Great art takes time to execute!!
HNY
Jim

[glounsbury]

Matso,

Time is what it takes for some of these beautiful models, and yours is looking fine!
It took me over a year to build the DN Lilla Weneda, when I started I though about 6 months, just not so! Now she proudly sits in a plastic case as I assume your Arizona will. DN makes wonderful models even if they are time consuming.

George

[Tim Crowe]

Take your time Matso. Nobody here is rushing you.

Any half decent model is going to take a while to build.

Tim

[Michael Mash]

Hello Matso,
This is one of those "classic" kits that so many of us are familiar with.
Digital Navy has two versions: an older one, and a newer more detailed one. Not sure which one you are building. But looking forward to more reports and images.
Best of luck!
Mike

[MPL]

This is the more recent version, with the redone torpedo bulges. I had originally thought to try building as a waterline version, but my expertise isn't quite to that point yet!

Building has really come in fits and starts: I cut out the hull pieces in Oct-Nov 2009, but didn't assemble them until December 2010. The hull painting finally got done in May last year, and then I started working on the superstructure in November again. There will likely be another couple of months that BB-39 sits idle this year.

For me the trickiest part so far has been in assembling the tiniest bits - ladders have been all kinds of fun, but I think I have a system that works better now. I'm a little concerned about "construction accidents," as in accidentally smashing some of the more delicate stuff like the boat racks, but no trouble so far.

[georgerutherford1861]

Beautiful ship! Take your time.

Doug

[Don Boose]

This is a wonderful project and your work so far is outstanding.

To my eye, those pre-war U.S. battleships were beautiful (especially after the refits that replaced the cage masts) and Arizona is among the most historically significant of ships.

I look forward to future reports, Matso.

Don