USS Arizona , 1921 with cage-masts, 1:350.

[aerialbridge]

My model builder had been out of commission, but he's back in the saddle working on the latest ship for me.  It's the old Tom's Modelworks 1:350  resin kit 1921 USS Arizona released in the 90s and later reissued by Iron Shipwright.  The length is 20".    Both kits are out of production and pretty tough to find on the secondary market.   The 1921 Arizona came in a waterline and full hull version.  I'd been looking for full hull for a few years and no luck, finally found a waterline version.   Both me and my modeler wanted a full hull build, so with superglue, bondo and an exacto knife, in a tedious process he likened to "a shotgun wedding between a Hatfield and McCoy" he's fitted the bottom hull from the Banner models 1941 Arizona. The Iron Shipwright is the only kit of Arizona with cage-masts as she would have looked during WWI when my great uncle was a mustang ensign in 1918 in charge of a 5" gun crew, before his request to be sent to the "War Zone" was granted and they put him on a mine-layer,  USS Saranac, one of the 10 "planters" of Mine Force One in the North Sea, out of Inverness, Scotland.   Anchors aweigh. 

 

 

[Proud Kraut]

What a great modeling project, thanks for sharing!

[aerialbridge]

Thanks, Proud Kraut.  If I get more progress shots from my friend, I'll post them.   Your handle here applied to my grandmother's oldest brother, who was full German descent.  His father emigrated to New Orleans from Landkreis, Mecklenburg, and then worked his way up to the northern Midwest.  His surname probably got him a lot of digs in the Navy a century ago, since it's close to the slang name given Germans by Americans during World War I.  As a dog lover, I appreciate the name since it translates to keeper of dogs for hunting. 

 

[aerialbridge]

Some progress shots from my modeler, Dennis, 80 years young.  Resin kits ain't easy.

 

[Proud Kraut]

Wow, real artwork with amazing detail! Thanks for sharing the WIP photos!

[aerialbridge]

Thanks, on behalf of Dennis.  His favorite model building is biplanes and he's really good with the rigging on them.  I told him I'm expecting great things as far as the rigging on cage mast Arizona.  He replied, "Yes, I am looking forward to the rigging of the ship.  Here are two shots of my latest completion.  I need the practice to do a good job for you."  I'm pretty sure this is scratch built and 1/72, if no one IDs the biplane, I'll ask him what it is.

 

 

[Proud Kraut]

Would love to build a battleship myself sometime. The truth is I have NO idea how to do those riggings so I keep my hand off warships. My deepest respect for those who can build these details!

[aerialbridge]

Ditto, and I couldn't build the models you do either.   But I admire and appreciate the work of guys like you that can, for the rest of us to marvel looking at.   I can't even imagine trying to attach these itsy-bitsy photo etch parts,  block and tackle and boat tillers or whatever they are.   I probably would lose them trying to separate them off the PE sheet. The boat stands would be bad enough with tweezers and superglue.  For comparison, the Qtip head looks like Land of the Giants.   At 80, Dennis doesn't wear glasses.  He reported that the instructions for this kit were less than ideal.  You can see the lifeboat stands and tillers painted and installed at #4 above. 

 

[aerialbridge]

Dennis tells me Arizona is about 95% complete, awaiting final touch-up, anchor chains, and dull coat to take off any glue shine.  And then construction of the glass case. Also, unfortunately it turned out that both the open box Iron Shipwright resin model kit and the open box Banner model that contributed the lower hull were both missing their decal sheets.   On the million to one shot that anyone reading this has a spare set of 1/350 USS Arizona decals or the ability to make them on a printer, or even just the waterline hull numbers for a 1/350 ship that you'd sell,  I'd be grateful to hear from you. 

 

[aerialbridge]

Aerial view of USS Arizona on the East River in New York City near Brooklyn Bridge on her way to sea trials in 1916.  Arizona was the Brooklyn Navy Yard's most famous battleship when she was launched in 1915 and commissioned the next year.   My grandmother's oldest brother, a qualified navy marksman,  who served on her for several months during the Great War as a mustang ensign in charge of a 5 inch gun,  was himself a transplanted New Yorker, who left the family butcher shop in a small German town in Minnesota around 1910 when he was 21 for a new life in the Big Apple, enlisted a couple years later and never looked back.   This model is a tribute to a couple of proud New Yorker's of 100 years ago.   We all know what happened to Arizona when she was attacked the day before the US declared war on Japan.   My uncle who worked at the big NYC Main Post Office across from Penn Station in Manhattan for years, was a civil defense warden during WWII and turned his garage in Queens into a trauma triage facility for the attack that thankfully never happened.  

 

[Proud Kraut]

Stunning work! Thanks for sharing this piece of family history with us.

[aerialbridge]

I'm glad to post my friends work, thank you!   Will post final shots in its case when I have them. 

[aerialbridge]

Dennis wrote me earlier,   "Attached you will find the kit I finished last night, the FE2b night fighter.  One beast of a kit.  But it opens up the modelling table for (the next ship I've commissioned him to build)"    And his finishing touches to Arizona and it's glass case.

 

IMO,  his technique for making plastic look like wood is pretty sweet, along with all the rigging wires.

 

 

[doyler]

Thats is a great looking model. Suxh details. Fantastic build by your modeler.