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In honor of Memorial Day, a brief update on my USS Arizona project. I spent most of yesterday completing the foremast and associated items.
The gun platform just below the fore control top was tricky. Because of the angles of the mast supports, you can't just slide the platform down the mast and into place. I had to cut the platform in half, work the after half into position, slide the fore half down the mast, and finally splice them together. The splinter shield hides the seam from view, so it worked out OK.
I took the plunge and started trial-and-error work with photo etched railings...you might be able to see them here and there on the superstructure. If you so much as sneeze on them, they change shape! After I installed them on the model, I went over the work with tweezers to gently reshape the rails and remove distortions.
You really have to plan ahead when using PE railings. Before I installed the gun platform, I managed to install three 0.5-in bits of railing on the small triangular landing immediately below, and they looked really great. Then I discovered that doing so left me almost no maneuvering room when it was time to install the gun platform - it has a lot of bracing on the underside, so by the time I was done with the gun platform the railings on the landing were pretty well mangled! And it was around this time that I realized I should have been using the 3-rail version, not the 2-rail version...
At any rate, I hope this version of BB-39 serves as a fitting tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice. I'll try to do it justice!
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