Trumpeter 1/200 Scale USS Arizona, by Len Roberto

KIT #:	3701
PRICE:	$298.99 MSRP
DECALS:	Flags and name plate
REVIEWER:	Len Roberto
NOTES:	Trumpeter extra detail PE set used as well as leftover 1/200 Gold Medal Models parts

USS Arizona (BB-39) was a Pennsylvania-class battleship of the

United States

Navy and the first to be named "Arizona". On March 4, 1913, Congress authorized the construction of Arizona, named to honor the 48th state's admission into the union on 14 February 1912. The ship was the second and last of the Pennsylvania class of "super-dreadnought" battleships. Her keel was laid at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 16 March 1914. She was launched on 19 June 1915, sponsored by Esther Ross, the daughter of a prominent Arizona pioneer, W.W. Ross of Prescott, Arizona. The ship's remaining machinery, including new Parson turbines,[1] was installed, and she was commissioned at her builder's yard on 17 October 1916, with Captain John D. McDonald in command.

Arizona served stateside during World War I. She is most remembered because of her sinking, with the loss of 1,177 lives, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the event that goaded the

into World War II. Unlike most of the other ships sunk or damaged that day, the Arizona could not be salvaged, although the

U.S.

Navy removed several elements of the ship that were reused. The wreck still lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbor and was established as a memorial to all those who died during the Pearl Harbor attack.

I went to Hawaii in 2000 and spent a long time at the Arizona Memorial…one of those truly touching experiences and something that has captivated me since I was a child. I preordered this kit months ago and looked forward to it immensely!

Stunning, magnificent- really just an overwhelming experience to open this massive box. Everything was packed exquisitely to prevent any breakage. Hull is just over 3 feet long and the beam is a hefty 6 ½ inches. Tons of detail is included and tons more can be added. Metal main gun barrels, anchor chain, nylon line included for cranes- and 2 frets of photo-etched brass included with railings, etc. Full set of signal flag decals included. 2 clear plastic Kingfishers included. No flash apparent anywhere. 64 soft vinyl crew figures included. Truly a tour-de-force. I have heard the deck planking detail is not correct. I’m sure there are more issues but what you get is mighty impressive.

The plan: Build her as waterline model, underway, in the May 1941 time period. This will allow me to paint her in the standard pre-war overall grey scheme with a bare teakwood deck. I can use the crew figures and portray her in happier pre-war days…As the USS Constitution build was back in 2004, this is an unequaled modeling challenge to do this ship and model justice.

11/11/10: ah the start…after a few days digesting this kit, gathering much info online, and making copious notes on the instruction booklet, I started by inserting the bow and stern deck pieces into the hull. Fit was great with these very thick pieces. I also proceeded to use Tamiya putty to work on these troublesome deck seams. I also filled in all deck holes where the plastic ladders are to be used. These will be replaced with photoectched brass so I needed to fill those mounting holes. Sanding was another 15 minutes. I small start but every journey begins with one step. With a project this complex, I really try to plan out each session and think hard about how to construct the model while thinking ahead about how/ where to paint and mask to best advantage. Considering where to replace with photoetched parts is also a big consideration. I am still awaiting the extra set of PE Trumpeter put out with this so I do not want to do too much before I see what is included. I think the extra set contains metal barrels for the 5 inch guns and many other parts to be replaced.

11/12/10: installed a few of the deck vents and capstans. Painted the bottom 1/16 of an inch of hull flat black for the top of the waterline boot stripe. Masked it off.

11/13/10: painted the hull and deck standard navy grey- using….light grey primer! It looked too close to bother with the polly scale acrylics I have. Makes the painting of this monster a whole lot easier.

11/14/10: I decided to hand paint the wood deck using a mixture of radome tan mixed with a little light tan. It’s not a perfectly uniform color but that’s OK. I want it to look uneven. When dry, I mixed a watery wash mix using burnt umber- and painted this mixture onto the deck. A few hours later I did another coat of wash. It looks Ok but not as good I thought it would. Next step is to use yellowish pastel chalk ground up and smudged into the deck…

11/15/10: I scraped some yellow, tan and brown pastel chalk into a pile and using an old brush- smudged some in to the deck. I was not totally happy with how it looked. I tried using a fine sanding block and this worked much better. It smoothed out the look of the primer, paint and wash ai think very nicely to give a more realistic look of teak wood. It may look too “dirty” for some and I may go back over it with some dry brushing of a lighter sand color to even it out.

11/16/10: started work on the base. A friend gave me a very nice piece of wood to use. I went to Home Depot and got a 10 foot piece of decorative pine crown molding. I am not so good with a miter box but I managed to do a decent job of framing the wood. The molding is taller than the base but I wanted this to provide an easy way for the clear cover to fit onto the base securely.

11/17/10: stained the base- need to get some clear coat sealant. Added a few more deck vents and hatches. Also, worked on the lower superstructure. Test fitted to see how they would slot into the deck. Filled a couple more ladder holes. I finally saw a picture of the enhanced PE set and luckily it does come with PE ladders which I was hoping for. Should be arriving any day now…

1. Poured contact cement into my base to try a new method for making water. It uses crumpled up tin foil! The cement under the foil allows you to mold some waves and gives the foil some variance in depth. Looks pretty good so far but taking a long time for the cement to dry.

2. Assembled the main gun turrets. I have read somewhere that the main guns are too big! Oh well- they look pretty good.

4. Assembled the other 2 cranes. Here was the first finicky part of the build. Trumpeter wants you to trap very small plastic pulleys in tiny PE rings for the hooks. Very tough for me to get them right and into the hook pieces. Bunch of PE used here for framing and handrails.

5. Various other assemblies worked on- more deck houses, directors, catapults, 5 inch AA guns (7 parts each!!) and a few boat cradles which are also very delicate and frankly a pain in the butt to line up and frame them without breaking the parts.

6. Started work on the main bridge superstructure. Have to stop before I get too much done so I can install PE railing.

Lots of work done this week. What struck me this week was how well all of this fit together. I was worried about certain assemblies that always seem to cause trouble on past Arizona models. For example- getting the aft tripod mast assembly to line up properly. To my surprise, it was very well engineered and was quite easy to assemble. What took a very long time and a ton of patience was putting all the photoetch parts on these assemblies.

Every platform needed PE railing. Getting the circular searchlight areas railed took a lot of test fitting, bending, test fitting, bend some more…and finally CA glue.

Another point- the ladders included in Trumpeter’s extra set were nice but very flimsy- every one required a soft touch after bending the handrails up to get them back to being straight. Slotting them up and into their openings requires a gentle tweezer hand!

On Black Friday I was ready to attach the major sections: superstructure, stack, aft mast tripod and cranes. All went well except it took a little fiddling to get all the superstructure attach slots to stay down in their places. I had to keep a bit of pressure on the assembly and legs for a minute or two to get them to set.

detail. When that was dry I poured my new bottle of future floor wax onto the base and let it run! Much easier than brushing!

I then turned to some of the tedious assemblies I was putting off. Stuff like the boat cradles, ships boats and launches, vents, and a few other repetitive parts.

I also consulted some pics and added PE railing around the gun deck level. There was not much to do here and it went smoothly. I am leaving the railing around the main deck for last.

Once all that was done- I glued the main turrets in place. I had painted them earlier in the week but left them aside. The top of turrets 1,2 and 4 were masked and sprayed red. Each battleship division had different colors to help their aircraft ID their ships for artillery spotting. Since I was doing the ship in May 1941, I had to confirm whether the turret tops were painted and I was able to verify this.

Anchors and chain were then done- Looks good wrapped around capstans then into hawsers.

By later on Sunday 11/28, the ships boats were in their cradles and the only things left to assemble are the 2 Kingfishers. I also need to attach the deck edge railing all around the ship, do the rigging which I am apprehensive about, do some weathering, and paint and attach the crewmembers.

1. DECK: tan and radome tan mix over primer- then burnt umber wash, then pastel chalk smudging, then light sanding.

2. OVERALL STANDARD NAVY GREY- using light grey primer from Walmart! Looks very close to light grey and saved me money- I really don’t get nuts over these greys- with sun and salt water, etc- close enough is good for me…

4. BOATS AND LAUNCHES- could not find much info on these so I had to rely on other models as well as a few B&W photos. 40’ launches looked to be the most colorful with white upper sections over a navy blue deck- darker grey hull. I used Ocean Grey for the other boat hulls and used tan for the wood sections inside the boats.

6. ANCHOR CHAIN- grey then black spray- wanted to spray rather than brush paint so the paint would not clog up inside each link.

7. SEARCHLIGHTS- primer grey with silver inside lights- clear covers look very nice.

11/29/10: Tonight’s task was to attach the main deck PE railing all around the ship. The kit came with 2 large frets full of 3 types of railing. The weird part is that nowhere in the instructions does it mention the railings! Anyway, it’s not hard to figure out which goes where and most of it is for the deck. The 2 bar railing is used higher up the ship on the tripod mast platforms, etc. The PE is pretty good but very thin- which looks great but is delicate to work with. As soon as I cut it off the fret, it would start to curl! I used a dremel sander to carefully sand down the burrs on the bottom of each piece. Before this, all frets were sprayed with primer grey to match the hull.

I started at the stern and worked my way around. I use a plastic toothpick to apply tiny drops to the ends where the railing will go and in the middle. Once I get the PE piece where it should go and those initial CA glue drops have held the piece in place, I go back and using the toothpick, flow in more CA to anchor the whole PE piece down.

I try to cut and stop at bends and there were a few areas on the deck where I had to do this. I try to use as long of a piece as I can but sometimes it’s easy to make a mess. I would rather cut into smaller sections and be sure I get it right.

I had no problems and it looks good- I will have to go back over and touch up the paint - some brass always peaks through when cutting and sanding!

Next up is rigging- which will take some thought as to materials and planning. Then crew figures which I need more of , then touch up, then a bit of weathering…

11/30/10: Tonight I decided to tackle the ships Kingfisher aircraft. I saw another modeler’s enhancements to these aircraft and decided to emulate him as best I could. These enhancements included adding a radio mast and aerial wire to tail and adding extra bracing to floats. These sprues are all clear plastic which helps with painting. They were easy to assemble. My research was able to turn up a few options for markings. I was able to confirm that by May 1941, the time I am portraying the ship, the colorful yellow wings and red tails were long gone from the float planes. I found a few pics that show an overall light grey scheme was used sometime in early to mid-1941. I decided to go with the standard blue over grey color to give some added color. The planes were sprayed flat white underside then carefully brush painted Intermediate Blue topsides. Basic decals went on easily. It was a bit finicky to get the stretched sprue braces and radio mast added. Then a steel wire aerial was cut to size and CA glued. I think this is a nice touch! Black prop and yellow tips completed each. They fit quite tightly onto their launching cradles atop turret 3 and on the stern catapult. Arizona carried 3 Kingfishers- I wish Trumpeter would have included the third.

12/4/10: Rigging…Trumpeter included nothing on rigging so the modeler is forced to turn to other sources. I had accumulated quite a trove of photos so I have a decent idea of what to do. My main concern was attachment points and how best to anchor and secure the lines. I planned to use fine steel wire because it would have a mice amount of sag in look quite realistic. I went over my friend Gene Madara’s house Saturday morning for a consultation. In 2010, Gene had finished the 1/350 Academy Graf Spee and did a fantastic job on the rigging so I thought I could pick his brain. We decided to drill a few tiny holes for the longest lines- in the fighting tops and stack for example. This would allow me to insert the end of the wire, give it a bend if needed and with a drop of super glue, provide a pretty strong anchor. The other concern was securing the wire to itself in a few places. The idea here was to use clear flat droplets- this provided a tiny pulley-like blob and allowed a bit of fiddle room unlike a drop of CA glue. That night, I sat down and had at it. The pilot holes were a great help and the natural droop of the lines look just right. I’m sure I missed some lines but what was done I think looks very good. I attached the stern US flag with a tiny piece of foil sandwiched between the decal. I topped it off by attaching 2 signal flags- one for FORMATION and one for DEPLOY….made sense to me!

12/5/10: Crew Figures: Trumpeter included 4 soft vinyl frets of crew figures in 3 poses. I cut them all off, stuck them on piece of wood with tape and sprayed them flat white. I will use blue for jeans and touch up with black for shoes and a cream color for face and hands.

12/7/10: painted the crew- sprayed all flat white then painted dark blue on most for denim color. Left a few all white- officers ya know. Dabbed faces and hands with a cream color and also tried to add black and brown hair spots as well.

12/8/10: My display case arrived safe and sound. Got a pretty good deal from www.casesforcollectibles.com - $180 delivered using 1/8 inch acrylic. It slots down perfectly over my base. I also CA glued the crew figures in various spots around the model.

And excellent model with very few problems to build. Fit was very good, no flash and the PE, metal barrels and chain were nice additions.

4. Would have been really nice to show the modeler where to attach PE railings which are included in the kit.