What-If Montana-class BB-67

[johndon]

For floater nets, I used short lengths of styrene rod on my Fletcher build:



John

[rtheriaque]

Thanks, guys- I ordered one!

[janschu]

Hello,
for the floater net baskets i can highly recommend the photoetch / resin sets from l`Arsenal.
L`Arsenal is the only manufacturer who provides insets (resin) to simulate the packed floater net
and not just the empty net basket to be made from photoetch. Well, compared to other manu-
facturers their sets are not cheap, but i my opinion they are really worth he money.
The set is AC 350 39. I hope that helps.

Reagrds,

Jan Schulz
IG Waterline, Germany

[RandyM]

Ok, not really Montana-related, other than to say I had to finish this project before starting Montana in earnest.



http://www.digivision.com/rsm/Marwede/HMarwedeP1.htm

[Avery Boyer]

Great work

[EJM]

Ok, here's a sample preview of how my Montana will look on the wood base that a friend just built for me.



The Montana sits in a "cavity/depression" so to speak, which I'll then paint some sort of blue ocean color, then pour in around the ship a model railroad product called "Realistic Water". The product will cure and dry clear in 24-36 hours and look just like realistic water. IMO, it's simpler and easier to use than acrylic gel medium.

Anybody have suggestions as to what blueish color to paint the cavity to depict the ship in the ocean? The ship will be "at anchor" also.

Also today, I went to a plastics company to pick up some scrap acrylic sheet and adhesive to start helping a friend build the case next week. I'll have more pics and info. then.
The name plaque will be designed and bought later in January.

[MartinJQuinn]

Ok, here's a sample preview of how my Montana will look on the wood base that a friend just built for me.

I like that!! I'm interested to see how your water comes out as well.

[kennylibben]

yeah, that water seems like a pretty cool product compared to gel...

[rtheriaque]

You guys have me beyond psyched for my IHP Montana to be cast and delivered! I'm putting together a parts list to complete her. I figured a Tamiya Missouri would be a good place to start for parts- 10 nice dual 5"and the 4 16" turrets will fall out of that, as well as some nice quad 40mm's. I should have plenty of extra 20mm's and 40mm's from Skywave sets. I was thinking I could add a GMM fast battleships and ultra fine railings on top of that. Any other suggestions on completing the kit?

[RandyM]

Well, I've actually been working on my Montana during this final week of Christmas holidays. Since on my copy the bottom half of the hull was significantly longer (like 1/2" or more) than the top half, I had to sort of take my best shot at aligning the two. In the end I wound up sacrificing the after section of the lower hull in favor of maintaining as much of the waterline profile between the two halves as possible - ie., I put the two halves together such that the bow lined up, with a large "underhang" of the top half at the stern. But all that meant that I really needed to be precise with the final alignment, so once I was happy, I taped everything together and drilled holes under each turret (in the center), then inserted 1/4" ss rods in the lower half, applied superglue, and slid the top half down over the dowels, clamping everything together. Perfect alignment! The holes beneath 2 and 3 turrets go straight thru can be used as part of the stand, while the holes under 1 and 4 turrets do not exit the lower hull. This is my first resin ship model, so hopefully I didn't do something really stupid...

Next up, I started smoothing the (frankly, pretty bad) seam and reshaping the lower stern section. Once I had that roughed in to my liking, I started looking more closely at the hull itself. One thing I've always thought would have looked cool on Montana was the prominent armor belt. According to sources I've found, this belt would have been 16+ " at the waterline. But on my hull the belt scaled out to around 12 inches (0.035"). So I built it up using .015" strip stock, which brings it out to about 17.5" (0.050"). I'm now fairing it in using automotive spot putty. I figure once it's final sanded and painted, the effect will look good even if a few thousandths too thick. You can never have too much armor, right?

Question... do folks typically paint each deck as you go? Or do you build up the entire superstructure, mask everything as required, and *then* paint?

[Sauragnmon]

are you nuts? the sheer annoyance of worming the brush in to catch every little detail would be insane. Paint As you assemble, it'll help keep what sanity you have left intact.

[RandyM]

Ok, if anyone's interested, here are pics from my latest activities (basic hull construction)...

http://www.digivision.com/rsm/MontanaPg3.htm

-Randy

[MartinJQuinn]

Ok, if anyone's interested, here are pics from my latest activities (basic hull construction)...

http://www.digivision.com/rsm/MontanaPg3.htm

-Randy

That is one huge chunk of resin. You did a nice job with the hull...I would have thrown the bottom out and built her waterline!

[EJM]

That is one huge chunk of resin.

I agree. Randy, the work you're doing really looks good. In fact, you're making me think that maybe I could somehow re-add the external armor belt back on to my Montana after I took it off long ago. I don't know if it would be feasible since the ship is all finished and painted. The only reasons I removed mine was because during the early years of researching and building the Montana, there was mass confusion as to whether the ship had an internal or external armor belt. There was mass heated debates on whether the hull was like that of the IOWA or the North Carolina/South Dakota. I don't want to get into another one of those debates now. The past is the past.

[RandyM]

Thanks much for the kind words. EJM, in my opinion your model is *done*! It is quite inspirational, and was one of the decision points I used to embark on this project. Yes, I am sure there are experts who seem to have unending sources of logical-sounding arguments which say she would have had qty X 40mm, Y 20mm guns, and Z inches of exposed armor - heck, they can probably even tell you what KIND of armor "would have" been used and how it would have been attached. But at the end of the day, has anyone seen a photo of the built ship? Or even a set of "final" plans (and as we all know, "final" in the context of shipbuilding is essentially a big joke, especially back in Montana's era).

That's one of the reasons I chose this subject: there is a tremendous amount of "interpretive creatvity" one can apply when building such a model. People who want to criticize a model of a never-built ship in terms of what it *should have* looked like, need to spend more time at their benches and less time at their keyboards. In my humble opinion

[Sauragnmon]

I'd love to get my paws on nothing more than a blank slate Montana hull. Belt, base superstructure, turret rings, maybe the deck AA positions, well ok all the default hull details. All I'd need to actually get started on a project like that. YMW kit is nice, but there's too much already done, it doesn't consider a dynamic positioning of the model, it's a rather static design. Montana is one of the few US warships I'd build, just because she was big, beastly, and heavily armed. The US equivalent of the Yamato, she leaves any gun club admiral drooling. Unfortunately, for now, she's a back burner idea, just like the Alaska, for me.

To those who built or are building the Montana, I salute you.

[EJM]

Went to a friend's house today to work on the plexiglass display case for my Montana. I was a bit worried about how we were going to tackle this project and glue everything together. But in the end, the final results were spectacular. Went to a plastics company days ago to get some scrap plastic to use and also some IPS Weld-On #3 adhesive. The front, back, and side pieces are 1/4th inch thick. The top piece is "slightly" less than 1/4th inch thick. The case measures 37 1/4 inches long x 7 1/2 inches wide x about 8 3/4 inches tall.




There is unfortuneately one small problem. A scratch (Mark in middle of pic. The second line "underneath" the first is a reflection.) on the top piece of the plexiglass case about 3 inches long. It doesn't appear to be a deep scratch though. To the best of my knowledge, I don't think me or my friend did anything wrong. We suspect the scratch was already on the plexiglass when we were looking for scrap pieces days ago. We just didn't notice it until now. I've been thinking of how the scratch could be fixed, but I'm not sure how without damaging the surrounding area around it.

[richter111]

I wonder if future drizzled into the scratch would fix it??

What part of Wisconsin? I live in Superior!

Ric

[EJM]

I live in Waukesha, which is west of Milwaukee.

[RandyM]

Clear acrylic is very "workable." Simply start with appropriate grit wet/dry sandpaper and work the scratch down to where it's uniform, then start moving up in grits. I usually stop at 12,000, then polish with Novus. Your plastics company should be able to help you out with this.

If you're really feeling energetic and have a benchtop grinder, the edges of acrylic sheet may be polished using a buffing wheel and the appropriate rouge: it's pretty easy to get them absolutely transparent. Only caveat is that when working with longish sheets such as these, you need to work slowly and support the material correctly.

I think your case looks awesome.