USS Colorado BB-45 - Page 3

**jimkrauzlis** · #21 04-02-2010, 07:26 PM

Excellent work, Darwin, so glad to see this project underway, and it looks great!

As to your earlier post on the glue you use, I just use Elmer's white glue, applied with a fine brush which I keep in a little dish of water to keep the bristles soaked...seems to work for most things, just have to constantly ensure any way ward drops of water of the brush are wiped off lest it drops on the model and ruins the ink print. I put a bit of the glue straight from the container onto a piece of card and just dip the brush into the glue and apply it to the model pieces. I tried the tackly stuff but Elmers seems to work fine, the small amount applied with the brush dries fairly quickly on my small stuff.

Superb build, Darwin!! Nice and neat, wonderful looking hull!

Cheers!
Jim

**eibwarrior** · #22 04-02-2010, 11:38 PM

I agree completely Barry. I should have been more specific.

Darwin, excellent job, with a capital "E". I love how this is coming together. Seems that these old Watkins kits clean up nice with a good bit of sweat equity. Should turn into a fantastic build.

**paperboy** · #23 04-03-2010, 07:02 AM

Darwin
The Colorado is looking good. I like the torpedo bulges. I was thinking that someone could with your model could easily make any number of variations of ships. This is great. The paper cutting has begun here as well.. Oh and sorry for showing you down with all the reference. I have to do what I can to keep up with a master like you.

The Paperboy

**Darwin** · #24 04-04-2010, 05:54 PM

On to the superstructure. The support for the superstructure deck is in place. Pics below show the dryfit of the frame, the parts for the pedistal for the number 2 barbette (which is an integral part of the superstructure base), and the parts in place on the deck. A general note on my approach to superstructure construction. I use a box-within-a-box structure....untextured, cardboard backed pieces are glued to the inside of the corresponding textured cardstock part prior to assembly. The cardboard support pieces are offset a bit from the edge of the cardstock to form a ledge that the adjoining part will fit onto. This gives enough gluing surface that in most instances joining strips aren't needed....and makes the resulting structure gorilla-strong. I use 0.5 mm cardboard for vertical surfaces, and 1.0 mm cardboard for the "lids" of the boxes where they form the deck of the next superstructure level.

**lancer525** · #25 04-05-2010, 03:32 AM

Darwin:

That's a GREAT technique for beefing up the hidden structure of the barbettes and superstructure! Most impressive, sir! I think that I'm going to have to steal that technique from you, and incorporate it into design study #8... LOL!

**Michael Mash** · #26 04-05-2010, 10:49 AM

Darwin:
Nice work with an interesting technique. This project is speeding right along.
Mike

**Darwin** · #27 04-07-2010, 01:49 PM

Finally some interesting images to post. While drawing the first level of the superstructure, I must have had my brain in cruise control. For a while, I was sending Vernon corrected parts on a near hourly basis. When I started screwing up good parts as fast as I was correcting the bad ones, I threw in the towel, and decided no further updates are going to be sent until this piece of the build is done. The biggest error was inconsistency in the height of the backing pieces....the worst wasforgetting to allow for the superstructure deck backing thickness in the support framing....which meant I needed to break up the overhead piece into a section for each bay of the framework. This has an advantage in that I could show several stages of the build in a single photo. Don't worry, Vernon, the next set of page corrections will allow you to use the single backing piece, as I intended doing to begin with. Only six more of the 5-inch guns to go.....

**racc00n** · #28 04-08-2010, 07:09 PM

Hi, Darwin
Looks like, despite your setbacks, things are percolating right along. How are you doing the ladder rungs? Are they simply bits of wire bent to shape & glued on, or is there something more there?

Good job.
jon

**Lex** · #29 04-08-2010, 07:20 PM

This is truely DN quality work. I am watch the progress eagerly

**Darwin** · #30 04-08-2010, 07:43 PM

Jon, the ladder rungs are "just" wire bent and cut to shape. I am using 28 ga wire, found at the craft section of the local Frey Meyer. I think I may have gotten a bit carried away with this build...there are literally hundreds of them to be formed. I discovered the pin vise I have won't hold a bit small enough...so, while waiting for a replacement to arrive from Model Expo, I am just using a straight pin to punch the holes. I've found that placing the part on a chunk of 1/4-inch think foam board makes the task easy. Once I push the rungs into place, I brush some thin formula CyA on the line of exposed rung ends on the back of the piece...makes it a fairly painless process.

After closely comparing the 5-inch guns to the few reference photos that clearly show them, I decided the barrels are way too long....so I performed a bris on them and snipped off the last quarter-inch of the barrels. Now looks much better (and makes them a whole lot easier to roll).

Lex, how is your design of the Ise coming? When get done with the Colorado, I think I will go back to working on the Mogami design. If the Colorado project comes to a successful conclusion, I might even try taking on the Mogami's final configuration as a Kaiten mothership.