The Ship Model Forum

by **johndon** » Thu Nov 20, 2025 9:32 am

Slow going but the forecastle is coming together...

by **johndon** » Mon Nov 17, 2025 4:32 am

Whilst I've still got a lot of work to do getting the deck stuck down at the stern, I've started adding details to the bow. 20mm guns are from MicroMaster and I've ordered some 40mm quads from HSModels. The 40mm tubs aren't glued down yet as I need to add some additional details.

At least I'm making progress...

by **johndon** » Fri Nov 14, 2025 3:17 am

Thanks for the encouragement, I appreciate it.

John

by **Joelle** » Fri Nov 14, 2025 2:57 am

I'm glad it's continuing, Johnson.

by **ModelMonkey** » Thu Nov 13, 2025 8:36 pm

Glad to see you back at this one. The work you've done so far is remarkable.

by **MartinJQuinn** » Thu Nov 13, 2025 6:59 pm

Fingers crossed!! Good luck - she's too good looking to scrap.

by **johndon** » Thu Nov 13, 2025 6:20 am

Thanks,

I'm slowly working from bow to stern gluing the deck back down as I go. I've reached the area next to the rear turret and, so far so good albeit the worst of the bubbling is aft of the turret.

John

by **Edoardo81** » Thu Nov 13, 2025 5:24 am

Very happy to see you come back to your ship. I've always loved that scale!!!
It's really strange that problem.

I never trusted the wooddeck adhesive. I've always used vinavil glue. A light pass of it before putting the deck and games are done!

by **johndon** » Tue Nov 11, 2025 5:56 pm

Inspired by my trip to ScaleModel World in Telford at the weekend, I've brought my Iowa off the shelf of doom after almost 3 years.

As mentioned, work stalled after I had issues with the Pontos deck lifting in a number of places. I did try to fix it by slitting along the planks and trying to wick superglue underneath but it didn't work very well so I'm back again (and the lifting of the deck has got worse) and using PVA instead - if this doesn't work then I may have to scrap her...

by **johndon** » Wed May 10, 2023 10:16 am

Fliger747 wrote:Muffled screams are appropriate, not loud enough to have the neighbors call in the SWAT Team... I am wondering if differential expansion with temperature changes have caused the loosening. The stern being so much broader would exacerbate this. Be great to see further progress on your big project!

Good luck! Tom

Oh, the neighbours will have heard the screams

It's a possibility although the ship has spent it's entire life, certainly since the deck was fitted, in my office/model room so the temperature changes aren't that bad. When I come to do the next 200 scale ship (Hood), I'll make sure not to rely on just the adhesive on the deck and I'll use glue as well...

Now that the deck is almost back to how it should be, the plan is to concentrate on getting her done. As mentioned before, complete accuracy is not my aim here, just to produce a clean/tidy model.

by **Fliger747** » Wed May 10, 2023 9:33 am

Muffled screams are appropriate, not loud enough to have the neighbors call in the SWAT Team... I am wondering if differential expansion with temperature changes have caused the loosening. The stern being so much broader would exacerbate this. Be great to see further progress on your big project!

Good luck! Tom

by **johndon** » Wed May 10, 2023 8:32 am

It's been a long time since I've done any work on the Iowa not least because I became completely disillusioned with it when the deck blistered so badly as shown in the photo on the previous page of this thread. having had a break from her during which time I build half a dozen 1/48 scale aircraft, a couple of days ago I decided that it was time to finally bite the bullet and try and do something with the deck.

So, armed with a scalpel and some thin superglue, I got to it and the deck now looks like this. A couple of small blisters yet to deal with but is looking so much better than it was...

by **johndon** » Sat Oct 22, 2022 4:01 pm

DavidP wrote:I presume both came in same package because if not then age might be the problem? are you going to paint & stain the deck?

Yes, both parts of the deck came from the same package. No painting or staining, the deck will remain as it is, I know it is not accurate for the camo scheme that I'm doing but the truth is I just prefer the plain teak deck...

by **johndon** » Sat Oct 22, 2022 3:49 pm

DavidP wrote:did you do a light sanding of the plastic deck before laying the wooden deck on it?

I did, just enough to take the shine off and to give it a bit of a 'key'. The deck was then thoroughly cleaned to remove any dust. The fore deck section hasn't lifted at all, just the aft.

by **johndon** » Sat Oct 22, 2022 3:09 pm

BB62vet wrote:John,

Sorry to see the blistering in your deck. Much, MUCH more than I've ever had with my model. I think I described a few posts back how to try to remedy that situation. I would use a brand new scalpel blade to slit the decking - most desireable, of course, would be if you were able to peel back the deck as one piece from the stern and then reseal it and burnish it as you move aft with a rounded burnishing tool (straight edge, but rounded and smooth).

Good luck, hope this helps!

Hank

I'm going to go for the slitting and gluing method as, to get the deck off, I'd have to remove all the parts that I've already glued down. When originally fitted, the deck was well burnished yet still it failed.

Looking around on the web there are as many modellers who say that you need to use glue as well as there are those that say additional glue is unnecessary...

by **BB62vet** » Sat Oct 22, 2022 1:06 pm

John,

Sorry to see the blistering in your deck. Much, MUCH more than I've ever had with my model. I think I described a few posts back how to try to remedy that situation. I would use a brand new scalpel blade to slit the decking - most desireable, of course, would be if you were able to peel back the deck as one piece from the stern and then reseal it and burnish it as you move aft with a rounded burnishing tool (straight edge, but rounded and smooth).

Good luck, hope this helps!

Hank

by **Fliger747** » Sat Oct 22, 2022 12:42 pm

The Orilkons look pretty good. For my Alaska I had assembled all the Orlikons and Bofors from the Pontos offerings, kindly provided by Hank as left over from his newer rendition of New Jersey. A long process given the number. After I got into 3D I replaced every light AA item with ones of my own design and production. Mine lack the bags for the shell casings but have proven quite nice. I also replaced the MK 37 directors, the MK 51's and all the 5" dual mounts (Model Monkey) with my own. The possibilities with 3D have improved and some of the older parts are not state of the art any more. The MK 37's were about 10% (a lot) oversized for 1:192.

Enjoy your project! best regards: Tom

by **NavyShooter** » Fri Oct 21, 2022 9:34 am

Ouch. That's a severe disappointment. I hope it re-sticks properly for you.

NS

by **johndon** » Fri Oct 21, 2022 2:58 am

Having done some other modelling for a couple of months, I returned to the Iowa last night and found that the aft deck looks like this.� I'm really disappointed as I was scrupulous in making sure that the plastic deck was completely clean free of any dust.� I'm sure it can be fixed albeit I'm concerned that once I start gluing parts down with super glue all that will happen is that the blisters will move elsewhere...

by **johndon** » Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:53 am

I mentioned a few posts ago that I was considering going the 3d printed route for the 20mm guns rather than build the Pontos versions as I though the chances of me building 50+ of them without any errors were slim.

A couple of years ago I got some from Shapeways which I thought were very good but, last month, I ordered some from Micro Master in New Zealand which, after coming half way round the world, arrived this afternoon.

I've removed the print supports from one (but done no other clean up) and, within seconds, I'd made my mind up that printed was the way to go, there is absolutely no way I could make the Ponto ones up to look as good as these, I think they are stunning...

and with a ruler for scale:

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Trumpeter 1/200 USS Iowa

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