ScaleAutoSport

Here’s a progress shot of the Iowa.  The hull and vertical surfaces are done, as is the two-tone on the hull.  You can see why the Japanese called her the Black Dragon, with the really dark lower hull and haze gray superstructure.  Note the superstructure is not glued together, just stacked up for the photo.  The 5-inch guns will be on straight eventually.   It will also be firmly attached to the baseplate, with a nice little plaque and enameled USS Iowa crest.  (Click picture to enlarge.)

Next up will be painting the horizontal surfaces the 5-N “deck blue” for the measure 22 camouflage scheme.  Unfortunately, it’s pouring rain outside right now, so I won’t be airbrushing tonight!

Next week I’ll be away in Orlando for a business conference.  But I plan on taking the Eduard brass photoetch frets along and building the catapults, deck crane, and main radar antennae.  I’m not doing a lot of PE on the ship, must a few parts that would draw the eye, and I love the detail on the little cats and crane.

Where the kit part is one chunk of plastic, the PE cats are several pieces of brass.  In the photo above, the parts for the two cats are on the left half of the fret.  You can also see the deck crane at the top left, which will need to be folded into shape.  The radars are on the other fret.

Coming along nicely.  I should have it done in time for the next model club meeting.

Started painting this afternoon.  The ship was in Measure 22 camouflage, which translates to a really dark blue (almost blue-black) lower hull, haze gray upper hull on the vertical surfaces and deck blue - sort of an intermediate blue - on the horizontal surfaces.  So far, I sprayed the components I’ve finished in mostly haze gray, plus the dark sea blue lower hull.  I’ll give it a couple days to cure then start masking for the deck blue.  Sorry, no photos, paint is still wet!

Who knows, maybe it will be done in time for the Tampa Bay Ship Modelers meeting later this month.

A battleship isn’t a battleship simply because it has some big guns.  It’s a battleship because it has a LOT of guns.

These are the Iowa’s main guns, three sets of three 16-inch guns.  Capable of shooting a shell the weight of a VW Beetle over 20 miles.

There are ten smaller, 5-inch guns.  The size is relative - these same guns were used as the main guns on many destroyers. So with 10, the Iowa had the firepower of 5 destroyers.

Twenty 30mm anti-aircraft guns protected the ship from aerial attack.

And here are all the ‘big’ guns grouped together.  In addition to these, there are around fifty 50-caliber machine guns scattered around the ship.

Finished some of the sub-assemblies for the Iowa.  Geez, lots of tiny parts in 1/700.  I mean, I’m reasonably used to working in small scales like 1/43 cars or 1/144 planes, but 1/700 is still pretty small, and it’s amazing how many separate parts that Tamiya has cast for this kit.

The first is the rear funnel assembly, then a rear structure and these are in turn tied into an upper deck structure.

These are the completed assemblies, and then the finished sub-assembly.  Next come some of the upper deck structures.

First, the main bridge section gets assembled.  This was one of the main differences in the Tamiya Missouri and Iowa kits.  The version of the Iowa that they kitted had an exposed bridge, with no roof.  The ship was updated to new specifications when it moved into the Pacific theater.

This is the base of the front funnel.

And the front funnel.

Here are all the sub-assemblies I finished tonight.  And while it’s nowhere near time to glue them to the hull, I did stack them up to see how it was looking so far.  :-)

Next up is all the monotony. Three main guns, ten five-inch guns, 20 40mm anti-aircraft guns, fifty-odd 50-cal. machine guns, and a few dozen life rafts.

I’m happy with the progress so far.  The next major task is painting, as before I start attaching the sub-assemblies I want to get them painted.

Stay tuned.

A good friend’s father served aboard the USS Iowa during WWII, and she wants to give him a model of the ship as a gift.  So she asked if I would build it.  I love the history, especially hearing it from the guys who were there.  Her Dad flew remote control airplanes off the Iowa, that were used as anti-aircraft targets.  I find this fascinating, as I never knew they even did that.

I started the model last night.  I’m using the Tamiya 1/700 kit of the USS Missouri, as it’s a better representation of the Iowa class ship than their actual Iowa kit.  Their Iowa kit is representative of how the ship appeared early in the war, in particular when it served on the Atlantic side of the conflict.

Anyway, the base of the kit is done:

The model has some nice weights that insert into the base. Then the support bulkheads go in, and finally the hull itself gets glued together.

Next the basic parts of the superstructure go together. some detail parts, overhangs, and gun tubs get glued on.

The fore and aft decks don’t have a lot going on at this point, just the bases of the main guns and a couple small detail parts.  So at this point there are four major components, the hull, fore and aft deck, and main superstructure.

After a bit of fiddling, the three parts fit into place on top of the hull.  So after just about an hour or so of work, it’s looking like a battleship.

Still a few parts to go, though!

I’ve had a big 1:1 project in the works.  I bought a Ford Mustang GT new back in ‘03, Sonic Blue with White stripes (made from vinyl tape).  Beautiful car, when clean it almost had a ‘color-flip’ look to it.  The years and Florida sun had not been very good to it.  The vinyl tape bubbled and started flaking off and it started developing surface rust.  A neighbor kit was turning his bike around in my driveway and he crashed into the passenger side door, causing a severe, deep gash in the paint.

I put off doing much as I thought I would be trading for something new, anyway.  Well, the car was paid off a year ago, and it still drives really nice and is honestly still fun to drive.  So after some thought I decided I’d just hang onto it for a couple more years.  I want to wait to see what happens with the US economy before I go into another big debt.  So since I came to the conclusion that if I were going to keep it, I should freshen it up and make it presentable.  So with that in mind I sent it to the paint shop a week ago, where they sanded it down and repainted it to the same color. And instead of reapplying the white vinyl stripes I had them painted on.  I also had them polish the headlights, which made a huge difference in the look of the car.

Took delivery this last Saturday, and have been spending the last few days doing a few upgrades.  I swapped out the grill with a ‘delete kit,’ which removes the old, faded honeycomb grill and just slips in a bezel and the Pony emblem just ‘floats’ in the middle of the grill.  Right now it’s the normal chrome, but eventually I’ll airbrush some flames on it.  I also upgraded the stereo to a Pioneer multi-media head unit.  (Note, Crutchfield is a great resource for information and ideas, but you can often find the items at better prices elsewhere; I bought my head unit for quite a bit less than their price. I wanted to buy from them and gave them the opportunity to price-match but they chose not to do it. I saved $225 off their price from another reputable vendor for a new unit.)  It does audio, video, satnav, and hands-free bluetooth phone.  I like it especially because it ties into my iPhone so well.  I installed it last Sunday and it works great, though it was a bear to install - not really complicated, just a lot of work because of the number of panels that had to come out, mostly because of all the stuff this thing does.  Wires for the normal, HD, and GPS antennas, other special wiring for the GPS, cabling for a (future, potential) back-up camera, wiring for the hands-free microphone, etc.  And then making a nice little blanking panel to hide the thing from unsavory types that may be up to no good.

A few other things still to do.  I have the inserts for the embossed Mustang in the rear bumper, and the rocker stripes.  Those have to wait for a week or so longer while the paint cures a bit more.  I also have a Bullitt billet fuel door cover (link is an example - the one I have coming is a gunmetal colored Ford OEM part) on order that should be here this week, as well as the Mach One chin spoiler.  The window tint was put on back when I bought the car, so it’s seven years old and the passenger side is very rippled and makes it hard to see after dark; so new tint will be going on the front doors.  The cowl vent panel (the black part between the hood and windshield) has a couple big cracks so I have word out to a few salvage yards to find a replacement.  And new tires are on the menu for this week as well.

Finally, the upholstery covering the bolsters on the driver’s seat is getting very worn, so I want to take it into a shop to get a quote on making that right.  Don’t know if that means a total replacement of the bottom cover or if they can just repair the damaged panels. (Either way, probably not going to be cheap and may have to be postponed until I have the cash readily available.)

Going forward, my plans are to save a few bucks here and there and invest them into the car.  One item is a Steeda cold-air intake setup, something I’ve been pondering for a long time and I think will get done in the next few months. I also want to add a Steeda Tri-Ax shift kit and a strut tower brace.

That should hold me over for a few more years until I’m ready for a new car.

Just got this in today.  This is a Jaguar D-Type body made with a rapid prototyping process.  I got it from TDR Innovations, they sell a variety of products from their web site and on eBay.  I’ve always liked the D-Type, and one of my long-term goals has always been to convert the Revell XK-SS kit to a LeMans D-type, and I actually started on that.  But with the new body, it will be a bit easier.  I say a bit, because while the RPT process is great and creates a very good facsimile of the subject, it’s very rough.

First, TDR packages it very well.  It’s in a sturdy box filled with packing peanuts, and each part is individually bubble-wrapped.  Here are a few photos of what’s in the box (click the thumbnail for larger version):

The parts breakdown is very nice, with potential opening doors for the boot, fuel door, driver’s door, and bonnet.  The framework underneath is an artifact of the RPT process, though I want to look at it closely because some of it may come in handy as part of the Jag’s frame.

The finish is very, very rough.  Almost like sandpaper.  Zoom in on some of the close-up photos and the layering from the RPT process is very apparent.  It’s going to take some sanding and cleanup, but even with that I think it will make for a nice body that’s thin enough to display opened up.  This one just moved up to my “start this soon” list. (Of course, for me, “soon” is relative.)

Postscritpt - (9:00 PM 2/10)

Don’t jump to any conclusions about the surface.  The photos make it look really, really rough - and it does feel very rough to the touch, sort of like sandpaper.  However, the ‘ridges’ are not really ridges at all, or if they are they’re very minor.  It’s more of a differing color, and that’s what is giving it the look of wood.  I took the bonnet this evening and used one of the sponge sanders (fine sandpaper backed by sponge) and sanded it down fairly quickly, then used some wet sandpaper to smooth it out further.  Cleaning up the bonnet - at least the exterior sections - only took me about 15-20 minutes.  It still needs a little more time with wet sanding, but it’s getting smooth pretty quickly.  And it still has it’s ‘rings’ only now they don’t have the grainy stuff on top and it actually looks pretty cool, sort of jewel-like.

It’s certainly way, way better than some of the resin kits I’ve worked on.  Of course, doing the aft section with the wing may prove to be a bit more challenging…

There are a few distinctions about the body.  It appears to be a short-nose car, with an asymmetrical power bulge in the bonnet and no louvers.  The back of the car has the fin faired into the boot cover, and the fin is rounded at the top rear instead of squared off.  When comparing the bonnet on the Lindbergh D-type as well as the newer Revell XKSS, the overall shape is similar, though the nose on the TDR body is slightly rounder with a smaller oval opening.  The Lindbergh bonnet also has an asymmetrical bulge, but also has louvers.  The XKSS has a very small, symmetrical bulge and louvers.

The aft section has a few differences as well.  The TDR body has a removable cover for the passenger seat; the Lindbergh has it molded in.  At the rear, the fin on the Lindbergh kit is squared off (the XKSS has no hump/fin), but it is also faired into the boot cover.    I’ve sent a note to TDR asking them if it represents a specific chassis.

Finally got seriously started on the Ferrari this weekend.  So far, I’ve done some sanding and filling on the chassis and tub, and have sprayed them both with sandable primer.  Once that’s dried I’ll hit it with some fine sandpaper and another coat of primer if needed.  Then it will get an overall coat of flat black, followed by some portions getting some gloss black in preparation for carbon fiber and carbon kevlar decals.

Also started prepping the body, sanding the cut areas and filling holes and creases with bondo.  I also had to break out the Dremel to grind away some overly thick resin in one of the ducts. The body will likely take some time, as I’ll need to be careful to add or take away to make the gaps in the fit small and consistent.  Once I’m satisfied it will get a coat of sandable primer followed by Tamiya fine white primer.  Then of course, that wonderful Italian red.

I’ll be treating the chassis, tub, and engine as sub-assemblies, detailing them as I go.  There will be photos posted here along the way, of course!

Chassis & Tub in gray sandable primer.

Here’s a couple shots of the Ozmods 1/144 scale P-39 Aircobra.  Note that the resin is pretty brittle.  Keep in mind, too, that though it looks big in the photo, it’s only about 1.5 inches long!

I also picked up a 1/144 scale F9F Panther done by the same company, only this kit is in styrene.  So I don’t know, maybe the Aircobra was a short-run or some sort of special, since it’s done in resin.

I came across this kit on eBay and had to have it.  I’ve read so much on how the guys flying the P-39’s struggled against Japan’s Zero’s during the war, I wanted to add one to my collection of 1/144 aircraft.  This kit is by an Australian company called Ozmods, and is made form polyurethane resin  It’s not going to go together as quickly, easily, or nicely as the Sweet kits, but at least the subject matter is great.  I started this one by doing  bit of clean-up on the fuselage and wings, and got them super-glued together.  I need to do a bit of research on the Aircobra so I understand where it needs to get filler.  The paint scheme is camo, so that should be an experience, as I’ve not done a multi-color scheme on an aircraft before.  Photos coming soon.