At 'Em Arizona Fans!

[Bondoman]

Well, now that you have the plans, what about the 1/350 kit????
Inquiring minds want to know (especially those already bogged down in one hull rebuild!).

[mark_sch]

Hello Tracy,
Just wondering if you shut down the Building a better Arizona site?
Mark

[Tracy White]

Do you mean Unboxing Arizona?

[Tracy White]

Well, now that you have the plans, what about the 1/350 kit????

I've had the plans for years, just never got around to comparing them to my two Banner kits!
That said, I did reduce and reprint the scan to do so earlier today, I just haven't got to it yet.

I did decide to shoot the 200th scale kit after all, to show everyone what I did and a bit of the problems I came across. First off, my hull plus a couple of the cut outs and plans. I used the L shaped scale above to line up the position on the plans to eyeball where the cut-out should go to within a mm or so, not that it mattered when I actually started trying to fit pieces, but in this shot the edge is loosely lined up with where they'll be compared:

Kit & gear

Here we have Frame 15, just before the blister starts. Notices at the top the gap where the cut-out in the hull for the forward plated-over casemate gun starts; the kit hull is missing an outward flare this had and is purely vertical, causing some of my "fit problems" with this piece of paper. It's hard to see in this shot, but the right side of the paper is curling towards the camera because the bottom of the hull is so wide it can't fit otherwise. Trumpeter engineered in too much flare at the bottom, and this will be difficult to simply re-shape with a coarse sanding stick because of the interface with the blister; one would have to make a new, sharp edge between the regular hull and the blister.

Frame 15

Further aft we have Frame 30, and once again you can see that the hull is missing some flare; look at the angle the level below the casemate gun should have versus what the kit does. I don't really relish whacking this whole area off and starting from scratch. The blister shape is more correct, but extends too far inboard underneath, which caused part of the curl that again is hard to see in these shots.

Frame 30

[mark_sch]

Hello Tracy,
Just wondering if you shut down the Building a better Arizona site?
Mark

No the site you had with the list of and pictures of the problems with Banner/Trumpeter/Minihobby/HobbyBoss Arizona.
Mark

[Tracy White]

I don't recall ever doing such a site. I did do a review on Internet Modeler a long time ago though (almost a decade ), could this be what you were thinking about?
http://www.internetmodeler.com/2001/sep ... rizona.htm

[mark_sch]

That's the one. My Favorite link disapeared. Thanks.
Mark

[Hippy Ed]

I don't recall ever doing such a site. I did do a review on Internet Modeler a long time ago though (almost a decade ), could this be what you were thinking about?
http://www.internetmodeler.com/2001/sep ... rizona.htm

Thanks Tracy! Got it bookmarked

[Timhan]

Have trawled through the various Arizona threads but have a question with regard to the range clocks. If these have been covered previously, i can't find anything.
Am building the Trump. 200 scale kit in 1941 guise and am using the WEM PE frets. (Terrific, by the way). There are two range clocks in the set, but i suspect
these are for someone building her in an earlier time period. However, if they were still present when sunk, were would they be located? Assuming they were
removed sometime before her demise, does anyone have a definitive answer?
Tim.

[JCRAY]

Range clocks removed prior to attack. Not on wreck photos. hth

[Bondoman]

Thank you for the link, Tracy! The Hobby boss boxing is moving closer to the bench. Just the Emden and a Liberty in the way. Oh, and the Hornet, but that's a side job.

[dsk]

Have trawled through the various Arizona threads but have a question with regard to the range clocks. If these have been covered previously, i can't find anything.
Am building the Trump. 200 scale kit in 1941 guise and am using the WEM PE frets. (Terrific, by the way). There are two range clocks in the set, but i suspect
these are for someone building her in an earlier time period. However, if they were still present when sunk, were would they be located? Assuming they were
removed sometime before her demise, does anyone have a definitive answer?
Tim.

If you don't have Stillwell's book you can probably still find decent pictures showing the range clocks on the Navsource website. They apparently were been removed sometime between August and mid October '41, judging by two grainy photos that were taken during that time frame.

[Bondoman]

I just noticed that the Hobby Boss 1/350 Arizona is on sale at Squadron for $ 28.99 and the Trumpeter one is on sale for $ 179.99.

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with that store, but I thought the information might be useful.

[dsk]

Assuming the 1/350 Hobby Boss is merely an upscaled version of the 1/700 kit I'd suggest passing on it. The boat deck on the 1/700 is the same size as the 1/720 Revell kit, making it too short and leaving a huge gap between the #1 and #2 barbettes.

[Ensign Jay]

I thought the hobby bos kit was the banner kit reboxed ??

[Bondoman]

I thought the hobby bos kit was the banner kit reboxed ??

That's what it is, and I have one unbuilt. It's a very good kit. Retails for $ 47.00 or so.

[Tracy White]

I would hesitate to call the Banner kit "very good;" at best one can say it mostly looks like Arizona. I have essentially cut off everything above the forecastle deck (save the barbettes) and started over on mine. That said, I think it can be a very fun and satisfying build for many modelers and is GREAT for satisfying the "cheap battleship" kit need.

[dsk]

I found a recent build of the 1/350 Hobby Boss Arizona here, and the dimensions don't appear to be too bad, at least not considering the fact that it's a cheap kit. But contrast that with the pics here of my 1/700 Hobby Boss kit where there's enough of a gap between turrets 1 and 2 to park a seaplane. The bomber's-eye view shows the kit next to my 1/720 Revell (please don't laugh at the colors, she was used as a guinea pig) where you can see the issues with the 1/700 HB. Even though it's a larger scale the boat deck is the same length, and both the superstructure and funnel are closer to the mainmast instead of further apart. At least they're both cheap, but I wouldn't waste any time on either if you're trying to build a reasonably accurate model. The Revell kit was handed down to me, and the only reason why I brought the Hobby Boss home was because for only $11 I had a second guinea pig to test colors later used on my 1/200 Trumpeter kit.

[Bondoman]

It's the best plastic BB-39 kit.
Maybe not better than good.
Maybe the 1/200 kit is better, but I have not seen any reviews that say so.
Buy new 5 inch guns , brass barrels for the main armament, and it's as good as it gets in plastic.

[dsk]

By the way guys, I just looked on Amazon, and there are multiple copies of Paul Stillwell's book for under $100. Looks like greed didn't win out after all. Kinda restores at least some of my faith in humanity.