[berth44]

Got the 'pack' yesterday after work...."WOW" factor 10!! What a pity I've fitted the handrails to my bridge parts, these ones are all the right length, and shaped at their ends as there are curved ends to some of the bridge 'walls' but the real 'wow' is the main deck railings are done in 'droopy chain' ..just like the real thing, that good, I'm sure that I can see through the links!!. The likes of the cranes and catapults have internal cross braising as well, all the overlays for the control tops on the masts show a mass of rivet detail,hence the overlays, there is not one rivet the plastic !
Lastly the Mk1 decking, "Bejesus", what can I say?,truly brilliant!!, I've fitted the midships section, once that bit of clear stuff is off the back it just sticks beautifully,and the fit?...... 100%.....boy, I'm in for some more F- U- N........Dave.

[bluedot0]

That didn't take long to arrive.......haven't seen you this excited since the last time you were this excited.......sounds like a really good kit, you'll do her justice now.

The Eduard set I ordered for my Arizona arrived yesterday as well, haven't had a chance to look at it yet, still waiting on a 350 scale wooden deck tho.......Phil

[berth44]

That's the wooden deck all done, I figured how to secure the two hull halves through the keel so that I can separate them when I need to.(it's actually secured with 4 screws,2 go in the stern, 2 in the bow, these go in before the two deck parts are fitted over them, I was going to leave these so they can be removed, but the wood deck put paid to that idea!!)
So, it was a re-think, I'll see what I have 'lying around'."Hmmmm". perhaps wooden dowel and a couple of self tapping screws, I know I've got a length of that! All I did was figure roughly were I wanted my screws to go in through the keel, "yip,about there and there" cut two pieces of dowel to a 'rough' size, I then superglued these to the two chosen points in the upper part that also would give me a means for some extra 'grip' on the dowels, I then liberally plastered them in two part '5 minute' epoxy glue!.
Once the two were secure enough, I put the two hull halves together, I then figured out their correct length, a bit of trial and error here, but the two ends must have full contact with the keel. So again through some experimenting...dust and blue tack!, I found the exact spot where I need drill the two holes in the keel, (just where I had estimated earlier) and, as the keel is quite thick,( well, the plastic is!!) I was able to 'countersink' these two holes, two small 3/8 brass self tappers were good enough to do the job... so now they are as one, one more problem solved!!....Dave

[SkyFire]

Well done Dave.

[berth44]

thank you velly muchlee......not long now Anthony!!........Dave

[bluedot0]

I say have yourself a cuppa and an extra biccy.......well thought out and executed, how does the deck look overall....Phil

[berth44]

Absomalutely bwilliant Phil,went on great,I just had a wee bit of a hick up with the bow, very flimsy in the area round the anchor, but I managed, (a small piece of wood is separate, this forms the middle piece of the deck at the bow, this part comes along with the brass part that 'overlays' the anchor thingy, that funny shaped bit that the chains rest on??
I went and got my cousin 'Percy Verance' to help me out,success! .... I am over the moon with it Phil..I'm definately glad that I forked out the extra moolah.... it's way way different than the shade of 'teak' I had painted the decks, but I reckon it's correct , the blue and the light deck really match up..vunderbar!....Dave.

Really need photos!!

[bluedot0]

Sounds like your having fun, I'll have to come and have a look at the good work you and Percy have done. The timber decks and the blue colour had me in a curious frame of mind, I was wondering how they would look my friend, but you've answered that question......Phil

[bluedot0]

Does your kit have a full set of turned gun barrels in it Dave......Phil

[berth44]

Yeh, me and Percy,he's got a lot of patience has that guy Phil, I've known him all my life, we went to different schools together.."Huh??.......
Anyhoo, the build of Arizona goes on,and on, still very slowly, but methodically..'sort of', I jump from this part to this part, but at the same time 'carefuly' so that I dont 'trap' myself into putting something together that will stuff up another, like, I thought of fitting the 'boat deck/gun deck to its casement 'sides' and it's 'aft part' then fitting the unit as one, but wait!, if I do that, the 5" guns won't fit ..you'd need to 'see' what I mean, all I can offer is that these guns stick through the casement sides and their bases are right on that,so itwould be near impossible to fit, so I gave up on that idea pretty quick!!
This was my next job anyway, 'I decided it was', I was going to make the casement guns turn in there wee 'dookits' (Scot), these have limited sideways movement and elevation but it meant removing the hull, so I did! To stop the guns from falling out, I glued the sides on to the 'main deck', as per the instructions!!.
Dealing with one gun individually to make it turn would require a sort of round bit of plastic with a 'pin' that fits into the base of the gun, it already has a hole for such a thing and round 'indentation' is made in the base of the deck, but no such parts are supplied in the kit!! I did cut out a bit of 'Plasticard' , drilled, cut, filed a hole in it, fitted it to the base of said gun, a small dab of super glue, didn't work, stuck the whole thing together,wouldn't turn, bugger that for a carry on...guns 'posed' and glued in!!
Then, when all that was completed,I had an idea, a brass 'press tack' (for sticking notices to boards etc etc) with it's pointy bit shortened would have been the very fellow!! I'm not really bothered about these guns now,I'll probably secure the barrels as well, like I said, there is very little 'up and 'down' movement anyway!
Next was the 'splinter protection' sides for the 5"AA guns, these were all located temporarily into their respective slots on the deck, the fit is so good that they wouldn't really require any glue, but a wee dab wont hurt them! I'll need to remove them for painting first, I'll do that in pairs so as not to get them mixed up. I've also fitted the 'amunition' lockers, 11 of these wee buggers, only two required to be glued!! (the wood deck makes things fit quite tightly!!).
That was yesterdays work, the wife was at Woolongong yesterday, hence the work on the model, when the cats away!!. I also tried out a wee bit of the 'new' railing, although the two rails that I did were very small, two parts mind you with each side, ther was only one 'bend' to worry about, and being already 'cut' the correct size it was an easy fit, and in attention to detail, the 'other' part of the rail was a 3 rail instead of the first bits 4!!..unfortunately one came off as I gave it a bit of a knock, fell on the shag pile, I found it and as I was re-locating it with the 'new' pliers, it went 'poing', this time it was gone for sure, and I had to replace it with the 'other' kit railing, it's then you know between being a 'fitted rail' and a 'just cut' from a fret rail, you just cant get the stancheons to work out proper..if you know what I mean!!........Dave

[bluedot0]

I do that, skip all over the place, can't remember when I last followed the instructables to the letter, I think you have to nowadays, there is so much after market detail available, if you didn't skip about, you'd never get some of this gear onto the ship without some form of damage to it.

With your guns....now that there're glued in, does that mean something has to pass by in line to get shot........

I lost a bit of railing last Thursday, I saw where it landed on the floor, but when I got down to retrieve it.....gone.....do you think I could find it.......no.....so I've declared it lost and I now need to manufacture a new bit....still slightly miffed.....Phil

[bluedot0]

Dave, what is the name of the blue you used on the hull......Phil

[berth44]

The way the guns are pointing, it'll be the crew that gets hit Phil...killed even! It's a bugger that Phil, 'the loosing of stuff'....you've worked on that nice bit of handrail for ages, it goes round the corners, fits like a glove and 'oops' it's on the carpet, but it's OK, I know where it landed..................."Wah!!!!!!!!!!".
.It's like this, you are being watched by the 'sleekit' carpet 'piranananaeaterallupperer', it lies there waiting on your droppings, it then attacks like the ferocious beast that it is and slinks off to devour it's prey....never will the part be found or part thereof, it's as if "it's vanished into thin air'..........all true my friend, so beware of loosing the next part, it might just be you who vanishes!!........Dave

[bluedot0]

So that's what the little beastie is called, it's deadly I agree, you never see it and it's hard to catch, even with the vacuum cleaner......Phil

[berth44]

I removed the 'splinter casings' from their temporary fit on deck, stuck them down to a bit of reversed 'duck (quack quack) tape', then sprayed them. A few coats of paint saw them done, and when dry I fitted them back to their respective positions on the deck. I only glued a couple of them, the others were a tight fit..
Next, (obviously) were the 5" AA guns, 8 of them plus the 'practise' loader. As I mentioned ages ago, some of the barrels were just too slack in their mount, with a little thought way back when I put them together, I could have solved that, but at this point, I 'point' the real slackos skyward.... and glue them!!
The instrutions at that time had you fix a detailed 'base plate, little work of art with all it's bolts, but it can't be seen after you stick a great gun on it!!. I kept these parts 'loose' in "ma wee boax" (Scot) just for now, so I thought I'd glue them to the deck first instead of the guns base?. These are small parts, I thought 'tweezers-glue-place', then I remembered my railing..."poing"...the carpet monster has it.......naw!...thinking??? yes, I'm thinking?, I required something to go through the holes, a sprue, a file?, "naw" glueing might be a problem, "hmm".."Idea!!" ...the long blue cap that goes over the needle on the Revell (or is it Humbrol?) glue bottle, glue wont stick to it, it's the very fellow!! . So, I just filed the top of it down a wee bit so that it went through the hole on the base plate and in turn, the deck as well, matching up was now assured!
I then pushed the base onto the 'top', applied a bit of 'super glue' to it, I then 'offer' it to the deck'ole, line it up, a wee push, and as the top is 'tapered', it dont go de whole way froo man!!. The glue has not stuck to the components, a wee twist, it's off, the base stays put, and it's ready for the next one, as am I...now, is that not a 'handy' thing to have around??..
Lastly, on one of the 'noo' frets we have 'railing sets' with a 'chequered' base for each gun, two railings per gun! These are small, you bend one side of the rail 90 degrees and fold up the base, these are then glued to the front of the gun, one to each side of the barrel, this is done 9 times!! I finished off my night by spraying these, fitting them will be my job for tonight, I've found a box of 'brass tacks', these ones will turn!!.......Dave