Trumpeter 1:200 Arizona

[Heavens Eagle]

Over the weekend I spent some time working on the 5"/51 gun mounts. As I have 11 sets after building the first one, I decided to carefully build a master with all the modifications.

Last night the mold I made was used to make 11 sets of parts. It really isn't that hard to do and I have found that the resin can be mixed quite well in small amounts. I take a small plastic container like you get hot sauce in at Taco Bueno put 5 drops of the brown colored part of the resin in it. I do the brown part first as it is thinner and harder to control the output. Then I add 5 drops of the clear hardener, mix well, work into the mold cavities and work the bubbles out. Finally I place the lightly oiled piece of clear acrylic over the mold and work it down. This squeezes out odd air bubbles and the extra resin so that there is only a super thin film connecting the parts.

I will have some photos in the next day or two.

 

[Hippy Ed]

B)

 

[lupanzer]

....!

Luiz

 

[Skinny_Mike]

Sorry I lost the bubble here Paul, but this is fun to watch. Love the attention to detail.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Have been working on this a little bit off and on the last few weeks. Finally jumped on it and got past some things I had been pondering on. The 5"/51 guns have the brass barrels all mounted and smoothed. Trumpeter really FUBARed the design of these. The brass barrel parts should have been longer and the mounting frame should have been shorter. I also have the mounts all turned and machined and the side mountings remade in resin, mounted and drilled for the pivot point for the guns.

Should have some pics maybe later today. Will see how it goes.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Allrighty! I have some photo updates for everyone.

Enjoy!

That all for now everyone! Time to relax and have a beer! :drinks

 

[chukw]

Simply superb, Paul- cheers!

 

[lupanzer]

... fantastic Paul!!!...

Luiz.

 

[moon puppy]

Man what an update. Guns look great, lots of works so far

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Spent a lot of today working on the 5"/51 guns. The mounts are almost all assembled. All the resin parts are mounted and attached, Only things left to mount are the elevate and traverse hand wheels and foot stands. Then a little primer and paint work will be needed on those parts. Once they are all assembled I will pick out the 2 best and mount them on the upper deck. The remainder will be sorted for their display positives.

Why am I taking so much care with doing these? I looked at a really nice sailing ship build online today. As nice as it was being doe with the paint work, the gun barrels sticking out had very coarse seams and should have been finished a bit more. Kind of detracted from the otherwise really nice build. :smack

 

[lupanzer]

...

Luiz.

 

[Sherman 18]

:captain

 

[jknaus]

WOW, just WOW. This is so cool. Pulling up a chair and some
James

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I have a small update. These 5 inch gun mounts have been quite tedious to build. After doing an inventory each gun mount (just the mount) has 17 itty bitty parts in it. Then the touch up stuff. These have as many parts as some kits and they are just a small part of the overall kit.

I should have paint on the guns and the guns all finished up this weekend. That should help inspire me on a little bit. Once done they will get carefully packed away in one of my near indestructible watch shipping boxes.

Here are some pics.

The biggest problem is deciding the color which will probably be the 5S Sea Blue. I picked up the LIFECOLOR US Navy WWII Set 1 a while back and so have some accurate base coloring to use for a start.

 

[lupanzer]

...

Luiz

 

[ausf]

The way you build is nothing short of art. B)

 

[moon puppy]

That's cool Paul! I got no comment about the color to use. Seems to me the Navy painted everything that was exposed to air.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Got sidetracked this weekend and managed to dig down through the pile of receipts I had accumulaed on years of collecting DVD/Blu-Rays. Spent most of Saturday working on that getting the old Excel file updated.

Let's just say I have something to show for the money I "didn't" spend on cable and going to the movies.

I worked a bit on the Az in the evening. Masked and sprayed son LifeColor 5S Sea Blue on the guns and mounts. Then added the extra parts to the gun barrel. Looks quite nice (Yeah no pictures yet) so that part is looking GOOD! In looking at the mounts and comparing them to the reference pics I have discovered that all the foot mounts are way too far back .

Have not fully decided yet weather I will leave them be or if I will pop them off, relocate and retouch. Will probably fix it as I really don't feel right about where they are placed. Paint touch up shouldn't be too bad, but will try it I guess and see.

Yesterday I played on the 'puter all day and didn't do anything constructive. :side:

 

[lupanzer]

Good lucky Paul!...waiting anxiously for new updates :drool

Luiz

 

[Heavens Eagle]

Thanks Luiz, Jeff and Bob. Like I said a bit back, just am in bit of a build funk at the moment. While I really liked how that one gun barrel turned out I am finding it hard to go in and sit down to build right now. I am forcing myself to go do at least a tiny bit though so it all is still going, just slowly.

Last night I decided to move the foot plates to the correct position. The little PE parts pop off readily enough though the plastic spacer part takes a little sharp instrument work to get it removed. Then clean the prior green stuff off that was the mount up on the side so I can redo it correctly. Paint touch up shouldn't be too hard, the Lifecolor paint really paints on well with airbrush or paint brush. It is my first experience with it and so far I like it (at least for this ship).