Mighty Mo, BB-63 Finished

[Greg Kimsey]

I thought I would give this another go while I make parts for the Scout model. I believe I have the hull back in order. Thanks Paul for the recommendations. I appreciate it. It took a LOT to repair the hull, and it is mostly made of putty now, but, live and learn. This is my second ship model ever.

As suggested by a youtuber I did a tape mock up of the deck and superstructure to see whan needed fit adjustments. Either Tamiya has fixed the fit issues that guy showed or I happened to get a well molded model because everything seems very tight and close fitting. Nothing to add or take away anywhere...

I have some photoetch parts to put together. There are also a couple different size chains you can see upper right.

I have to say, I am nervous about the photoetch! I nearly lost my mind just doing the railing on the other ship. I will never learn how if I don't do it though, so there it is. I will try to be patient.

Now that I know the deck and superstructure don't need special attention I will start the slow process of figuring out when and where the photoetch supersedes the kit part.

This may take a while...

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I have dealt with a lot of PE Greg and done some things with it that are scary at best and crazy at worst. Lot's of old time experience with bending sheet metal that morphed down to bending very THIN sheet metal. Something you might do when it comes to placing railings is clip one out and take a photo showing where it goes. Post the photos and get some suggestions on how others might go about placing the railing and why. Once you have done a few and get an idea of the full process you can branch out on your own. Questions are easy to solve.

And the hull looks GREAT! You just added some excellent mojo to your skill set!

 

[moon puppy]

That's the way show it who's boss!

 

[Greg Kimsey]

I have removed the cast chains and smoothed out everything as well as I can. I made the little domed covers for the chain ...inlet, outlet thingy, with 1/8" styrene tube drilled out to make the walls thinner. I only had to cut three to get two that looked the same!

I have on hand two sizes of chain. I got the bottom one thinking it would be the anchor chain and the little one to be the follower chain. I now think both are too big for their intended purpose. The little one looks right for the anchor chain. I will have to get some HO scale chain for the follower chain.

I epoxied in the screws for the display stand and glued the deck in place. The seams seem pretty good. I am not sure I should mess with them.

After building the Forrest Sherman ship I realized how important it is to paint the deck before adding lots of crap to have to paint around, so I will tape off and mask the hull then paint the deck.

The box shows the deck as being a natural wood color. I have seen the wood part painted blue in some builds. I think I prefer the natural tones. Any opinions on that other than "It's your model so paint it how you want to"? I know so lille about ships despite spending 4 years in the Navy. I think I want to go with the 1991 scheme so I can put the more modern gizmos on there. Was that natural wood color deck?

Also, I have googled the heck out of "dimensions of a single shot of anchor chain on a battleship" in every wording I can think of. I find plenty of total length of the chain, how much it weighs, how much each shot weighs, etc. Knowing that will help me choose the right size chain for my anchor chain. Do any of you know?

Thanks for looking in! - Greg

 

[moon puppy]

No clue bud, suspect someone will soon. Looks great!

 

[MrT]

Here is an image that should give you a sense of scale.

 

[Rhino]

Humbrol Deck Bleached Teak is what I use for natural wood color on uncamouflaged warship decks. BB-63 underway might have been meticulously clean.

 

[Greg Kimsey]

Humbrol Deck Bleached Teak is what I use for natural wood color on uncamouflaged warship decks. BB-63 underway might have been meticulously clean.

Where's the fun in a meticulously clean ship?!

 

[Rhino]

Where's the fun in a meticulously clean ship?!

Battleship Captains and Admirals that sail in them can be funny about what such a grand vessel looks like. Once again, this is YOUR Battleship model. Do whatever you want to with her.

 

[Paulw]

Somebody needs to get the bos'n and get a working party to holly stone that deck

 

[Greg Kimsey]

Battleship Captains and Admirals that sail in them can be funny about what such a grand vessel looks like. Once again, this is YOUR Battleship model. Do whatever you want to with her.

I am messing with you! I imagine this ship in particular would be pretty clean.

 

[Rhino]

Pshwoo! That's a relief! My advice seems, so often of late, less than welcome.

 

[Greg Kimsey]

I have primed the deck after masking off the hull. I preshaded with Mr, Finishing Surfacer 1500 Black, then Mr Surfacer 1200 gray thinned with Mr Leveler. I built that up until I could just see the preshading. I then used Alclad Primer White to lighten up the large areas. (Because I am out of Mr Surfacer White)

While that settles I worked on the turrets, adding the Eduard PE. The pictures in the PE instructions show parts that are not on my model, such as gun mounts on top of turret 2 and 3. I added the railing around the top, ignoring the missing mounts.

Removing the cast ladders proved more difficult because of such little space to get in and sand smooth. I hope I can camoflage that mess with paint

The one difference in the PE kit that I did add (for now) is the bow machine gun platform. I am sure it wasn't on the '91 version because it was outdated, but it looked cooler than just a flag pole, which I can still add. IDK if the platform will stay though...

I had to make the grates over the anchor chain guides because I dropped one from the PE kit down through the hole while putting it on.
I used .3x.3 fine mesh by KA Models and did the best I could to make replacements.

I am replacing the plastic gun barrels with metal tubing. Getting 9 exact same size barrel sections is going to be a challenge!

That's it for tonight. I am tired!

 

[Greg Kimsey]

Pshwoo! That's a relief! My advice seems, so often of late, less than welcome.

To me? I love your advice! I often stray off the path, but I always welcome it

 

[centaur567]

Wow!! Looks great. Gary S.

 

[paddy]

You underestimate you contribution to this forum Rhino. Your projects and musings make the site what it is, the diversity from regular posters like you is the key IMHO to why we all keep coming back.

 

[Greg Kimsey]

I was a little premature in painting the wood on the deck. There are a few more pieces with wood deck yet to be primed. But, the deck is looking good.

I am using Golden acrylics for the wood tones, ising this for reference;

The colors are Raw Sienna, Transparent Yellow Oxide, Tiatanium White, and Sepia. The board separations are raised and not inset so a careful drybrushing is how I expect to replicate the dark lines. However, there are PE parts to go on the bulkheads...

so I will mask what I have done and add those pieces, then prime the rest of the deck boards and paint all of them later at the sam-ish time.

Here are some finished but unpainted turrets sitting in place for their photo op:

 

[moon puppy]

Looks like a spot on match!

 

[Greg Kimsey]

Ok, I built up the parts of the bridge that have wood and left access to them so I can paint. I did a marathon prime session last night. Somewhere between 2 and 3 hours of constant spraying. I sprayed the parts left on the sprues as well as the photoetch sheets.
For the fantail deck I used Tamiya XF25. I am using an enamel Light Ghost Gray for the bulkheads. Haze gray only comes in Tamiya spray cans! For the non fantail, non wood deck the directions call for Tamiya XF50(2 parts) and XF66(3 parts) which makes a blue gray. I am going to use enamel so I mixed some Tamiya to compare and match to Humbrol, and #27 Sea Gray looked closest. #77 Navy Blue looked good too so I will test both and see which I like.

 

[Tim A.]

Looking great Gary. I'm coming in late to this build, but watching now.
Definitely the smaller chain for the anchor.
When the Missouri wore her painted deck was during WWII. I don't know all of the Measure camouflage paint schemes she had, but regardless, when the deck was painted it was 20B Deck Blue.