My BB-62 USS New Jersey 1/350 scale by Tamayia Build-log

[nsomnia]

So when I take breaks from my cold war era submarine simulator me and my team are developing (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show....php?p=2284391) /plug I work on scale models. I used to big into planes but now Naval models are my thing.

I had not built a model in over a year working on my games and programming and building up my online income to work from home, but recently a hobby shop went out of business so I went to go see what he had. Got some great documentation and reference books for the project but he had two Tamiya models way up on the tallest shelf (Tamiya is a company from Japan that builds the most amazingly accurate and detailed models). He had the New Jersey for 99 bucks and the Enterprise for 299. 50% off.

So since the doctor said I need to get away from screens and get back into a pass time if I'm going to keep sane working from home I prompty bought the New Jersey (and im gonna offer him 99 for the Enterprise if its still there on closing day).

Heres my progress so far. I take my time since rushing a model of this quality is a waste of time and money. 20$ revell models I might rush just to have fun. This is an art for me. I do airbrushing, custom brushing, custom styrene addons, kitbashing, use things like jewlers chain for anchor chains, copper filiment for wiring, 1/64 copper pipe with a homemade bender for piping etc.

Heres my progress so far, will update as I get along. This first post is in reverse chronological order sorry.





All the tiny parts needed for finishing step one. Had to use the macro funciton on my camera the turrents are about 3"x2" for comparison. You can just barley make out the amazing detail Tamiya puts into their castings if you look carefully. The ladders and even more carefully, the lines of rivets. Rivets are one of those things that you cant really add yourself to a scale model. It has to be cast in and thats a delicate process when they are only a few thousands of an inch wide and tall.




Nice straight lines for the red part of the hull. I put a little red flake and metalizer (basically a really, really fine mettalic additive to make things look like metal.




Checking out my masking job from the aft end after glueing the rudders and prop shaft supports into place.




Peeling off the masking looks pretty straight so far.




Getting there. If my camera was better you would see the flake/metalizer





Had to hand fabricate some supports because sitting on the shelf for 2 years; it had developed warping so that the deck wouldnt fit in the groove without glue and pressure. It was sitting perfectly when I sized it but after I glued it (I use solvent cement instead of model glue all the time unless theres some sort of gap that needs the glue for support, aka I weld plastic instead of glue) so when I glued it I didnt compensate for the couple thousands of an inch it would melt so it fits, but its quite tight. Originally the deck wouldnt fit at all though youd get one peice on and then it would snap flying up in the air. I'm considering adding one more beam in the middle upper you can see its still warping there. The beams are 1/8" square stock styrene. You'll see me use it alot in the finishing and modifying stage.




The drill bit I used to drill a hole through the beams so that the cement would flow inside them beams for extra support through capillery action.




First coat of paint, airbrushed. I use an aztek dual action and use gravity feed most of the time. I like aztek because instead of having a huge needle assembly you have to change out you just hand thread in/out nozzles with little needle mechanisms built into them. This way you never have to clean the inside of your airbrush at all, plus you can switch from 1/32" nozzle to 1" in a couple seconds, the downsize nozzles are 15 bucks so if you bend the needle or lose a spring you gotta get a new nozzle in that size. Cleaning the nozzles is easy too just throw them in a glass jar (I use 4oz Tamiya paint jars) filled with laquer thinner and give em a shake and then repeat in another jar filled with mineral spirits. If paint gets dried inside them you take them aprt and clean them with a q-tip which fits into teh nozzle housing perfectly.




Deciding if I should sand and put another coat down before removing the mask, but unfortunatly I mixed this color by hand so it would be layered.




The 0.020 inch holes I drilled into the hull to allow glue to flow into the backsize of the prop shaft supports, and if they want to break off in the future, then I can pin them in place with 1/64 or 1/32 stock styrene rod.




Masked, ready for the firsst coat. The warping isnt so obvious here. You get a sense of the size of this beast though.





When I first bought them, goodies. The 1/750 scale I-58 jap fleet sub model ended up being about 1/2 inch tall and 6 inches long.

[Aktungbby]

COOL pics

[em2nought]

I loved Tamiya tanks with electric motors. I had an awesome 1/750th waterline model of Scharnhorst once also.

A 1/350th scale battleship would be amazeballs! It's a real word. lol

P.S. Nice Pjs

[nsomnia]

Originally Posted by em2nought

I loved Tamiya tanks with electric motors. I had an awesome 1/750th waterline model of Scharnhorst once also.

A 1/350th scale battleship would be amazeballs! It's a real word. lol

P.S. Nice Pjs

Haha its saturday at 4 am what do you expect!

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Looks like a great start!


I don't know how large the rivets are or how visible they would be in such a small scale, but one of the tricks I picked up many years ago is the pounce wheel. They're made for marking sewing patterns into cloth, but they do make very credible rivets. You can find them at any fabric store or online.

I mean rivits that are convex though, that are bumps on the surface instead of indents into the surface.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by nsomnia

I mean rivits that are convex though, that are bumps on the surface instead of indents into the surface.

I know, but in that scale?

[nikimcbee]

You need to add this to your book collection. I'll even autograph my picture in it for you.

[nsomnia]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I know, but in that scale?

Yeah its impossible to do cleanly. Lots of good uses for those rollers though. When I need real small holes too I'lll take a 5 thou drill bit and outside dial calipers... but I rarley get that exact and it never works out perfect anyway.

Test fit the props. 12 hours and my gold leaf still hasnt cured. Gonna pin the shaft so they spin.

Theres 2 more props, they have holes for shafts so I'm going to build shafts out of 1/8 rod. WHy not?

[Sailor Steve]

Looks like a great start!

Originally Posted by nsomnia

Rivets are one of those things that you cant really add yourself to a scale model. It has to be cast in and thats a delicate process when they are only a few thousands of an inch wide and tall.

I don't know how large the rivets are or how visible they would be in such a small scale, but one of the tricks I picked up many years ago is the pounce wheel. They're made for marking sewing patterns into cloth, but they do make very credible rivets. You can find them at any fabric store or online.

[nsomnia]

Had some free time lately. With summer finally melting the last of the snow up here I've been in the garage working on my engines lathe and models.


First we have the original deck color. I should have referenced some photos or looked at the box. It was much too light and with the deck detail I washed away by power spray laquer thinner over the earlier hand painted stuff it really was bad. So I sprayed some really thinned out brown to give it a darker matte coffee look.



Sprues are starting to empty out!




Some of the last "peices" to "build". Radar tower.



Here you can see the final hull and deck paint job with the decals ready to be applied after a matte clear coat. Everything to this point has been airbrushed. Theres a lot of hand painted details to finish off before the clear-coat comes but other than the antenna work and rigging shes about done.

(I HATE stretching sprues. I've tried lighters, stoves, heat guns, everything I can think of and people say its an art.... its luck. My best technique so far is to first glue an extra peice of sprue on all 4 sides of one, then heat up a peice of steel to a light red on the workbench and then roll it along it with my finger (Carefully) until its molten and then grab it up quick and let gravity take care of the rest. You get some really nice straight peices in the middle that way, but its like working with glass shards. I've done my fair share of ariels on planes and a couple boats but this boat requires about 4 feet of stretched sprue. unfortunatly you just dont get the same look from thread. Andof course when you try to glue the stretched sprue its so thin that just the little bittoo much cement and it melts the end and its too short and garbage for that perfect length you cut)


Some peices before painting them a nice mix of 6 parts naval grey with 1 part ocean blue (and a touch of Testors metallizer... I love adding that to anything I put a splash in anything that isnt supposed to be matte it just gives it an extra special look that you dont notice per-say.. but adds to the wow factor. Its like an aluminium (really really really fine particles in clear) but ground much finer and much thinner than regular paint). The best I could get for that navy ship blue color. If you look closey at the above pic you can just see the color difference. It really shines up close cause its a slight slight color change, but really adds detail.

Ive REALLY increased my fine airbrushing skills on this boat. The smoke stacks were airbrushed without any guides, infact the only parts I taped up were the deck and hull to get straight lines. The rest was free hand with my smallest (.010) tip on as low a pressure as I could get for flow (about 8-10 psi). I've been using these new paint cups lately that are 3 parts, a main cup where the paint goes into the airbrush up a channel in the side that goes into the outlet, the inner cup that holdes the paint with a hole in the bottom that feeds into the channel and of course the top. Its been a learning experience cause it takes a couple seconds to get the paint flowing through the channel but I'm in love with them. You can fill them up with paint outside the airbrush since due to the channel it doesnt spill out since its above the paint level even if you fill it above the outlet so you can have as many colors ready as you want, plus a 2oz suction feed glass cup with laquer thinner for a quick clean between colors and really increases workflow. I love them. They come in 1/16 oz sizes too which is nice, just a dollop of paint and a splash of thinner and you have the perfect amount for spraying some small parts. Plus the lids only have a pin-prick sized air hole (since they are designed for low-flow, detailed work) whereas usual gravity feed cups have a huge hole. so it keeps the mess down and lets you keep your paint mixed well by giving it a quick shake with no spillage or having to put your finger over the cups hole. Love them.

http://www.testors.com/product-catal...ories/feed-cup they call them side feed cups.