The Ship Model Forum

Caulk

then why not paint over the caulking?

Paint doesn't stick to caulk properly, over time it will crack.
The Caulk is an added layer of protection from water damage/ingress/corrosion and has to be applied over the paint.
When in the water, nobody will see it.

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Darren (Admiral Hawk)
In the not so tropical climate of the Great White North.

I know what caulking does as I use it on my house & I use latex caulking not silicone caulking as the latex can be painted after a few hours. would not all the seams have caulking even when the seams are welded together or is it just certain seams have the caulking & therefore not painted?

Mr DP: I suspect the marine preservation experts have their technical regimens lined in a row and this is an optimal technique for the purpose intended.

who?

The caulk does at least two thing:
1. Smooths rough edges at joints
2. Seals riveted joints.

Most butts were welded. The upper two strakes were riveted with external butt straps and the next two strakes with internal butt straps.
Most seams were lapped. If the lap was greater than 3 3/4" the lap was riveted. if less, the lap was welded on both sides. Even these welded joints were caulked.

thankyou. would those caulk seams be painted later when cured or left as is?

Now, they will be left as is.
in ye old days, they could get painted over at repainting.

I'm new to the forum, just spent 4 days reading through this post.

I'm going to build the 1944 USS Missouri in fancy camo, but I'll leave all the gun directors on. I'm waiting for the Pontos set as well and have some Eduard for Butt plates and Bofors as well. I won't be fixing any hull errors, as I doubt any of my audience will be versed enough in ships in general and the Iowa class in particular to know any better (nor do I have the skill and patience to fix those errors anyway). I think I will have enough with the kit and the AM!

I wanted to ask here if anyone not using 1 or two elevated "bloomers" would be willing to sell a couple to me? I'm in Canada and will gladly pay for the pieces and postage. I'd rather not buy the entire advanced set, just for those 2 parts...

Anyway, just to throw my credentials out, I've been a modeler most of my life, and I was a Sailor, and later an officer in the ROyal Norwegian Navy for a short while, I served on Mine layers, Fast Patrol Boats (MTB Hawk Class), and also Nordkapp class Coast Guard Vessel. My specialty was radio and optical communications. Nowadays I fly helicopters square in the middle of Canada.

Cheers and thanks for some amazing info!
Harald

what scale?

I would have preferred the boot top be left at the place corresponding to her service draft. The new lowered boot top gives the ship a unrealistic, toy like proportion when viewed from afar

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Assessing the impact of new area rug under modeling table.

Chuck,

The boot topping/bottom paint has NOT changed its position since the ship was in mothballs in the late '90s. The waterline on a ship in storage is ALWAYS revised to reflect the lesser weight of the ship without stores, ammunition, or crew, etc. Here is a photo of NEW JERSEY I took in 2003 at my destroyer reunion after the ship became a museum:

The waterline then is the same as now, no change. I agree it looks unrealistic, but then all museum ships carry similar traits - the Navy could care less!

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HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

What a great question (I'm an idiot!)

I'm looking in 1/200. Got the trumpeter kit and the Pontos set is on the way.

One of the things I found interesting in Ryan Szmansky's (Sp?) clips was the explanation of all the circular cutouts along the bilge line. Was for thoroughly cleaning and transitioning away from the Bunker Crude. The Japanese fleet was kept near TawiTawi for a good portion of the war just so they could essentially pump crude aboard , fuel oil becoming increasingly a limitation as the war wore on.

The Iowas were converted to burn “Navy distillate” (kerosine) during their recommissioning in the 1980s. The reason being, the rest of the fleet, gas turbine powered, burned distillate. No fuel handling systems remained to deal with bunker fuel, which, as pointed out, is unrefined crude oil. Even heated, bunker fuel is like tar, cleaning the tanks must have been an ugly job.

Holes were cut in the hull to clean out the tanks during the switch.

I just visited the Wisconsin over the Labor Day weekend and I got the Atlantis model in the gift shop. I want to make the model look like a modernized Iowa (either Wisconsin or New Jersey). While I think I could take care of the rest, my main problem would be the ABL's. Does anyone make them in the 1/535 scale (Model Monkey says he is completely booked on new projects to 2026)? Conversely, does anyone know where could I find the STL files to have the 3D printed?

at that scale, you can make the abl out of solid square tube plastic or similar. I am going to redo the 1 I made back in the 90's using that same Revell model before I had the plans that I now have of that ship.
BB-62 USS New Jersey Booklet of General Plans (1984) https://archive.org/details/bb62bogp1984
https://archive.org/details/ship-design ... collection

I've been looking for the booklet on one of the modernized ships.... thanks!

How would you go about in making the launchers?