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

[nsomnia]

Its the 1984 casting but 2013 re-package.

[nsomnia]

I had an idea while I was finish off my game work for the night. They included an extra gun turret I assume they used the same mold for a battleship with 4 turrets or just for spare parts. I dremeled (terribly I might add) all the plastic away I could leaving just a few thou thickness and then added a 3/8" tube with a 1/8" rod inside of it for a rotater and then I welded it to the sides of the turret and then I welded a peice of 1/8" [ channel because it flexes alot lengthwise but not at all sideways and I can toughen it up if I need to by "boxing the frame" in with 0.002 or 0.005 sheet styrene.

Then I dremeled the hole for the 16" gun away leaving lots of room for playing around, hence the putty so I can file it accuratly with a round needle file. then I'll cut a small slot back into the turrent for a 1/32" rod or square or something that will "hold back" the gun basically as a pivot point and the rotater will push the bottom of the gun out thus elevating it, and its a tight fit so the flex in the [ channel willl prevent any breaking and take up slack from innacuracy. I added epoxy putty for extra strength cause the walls were getting real thin and I will reinforce the mounting point back with some tubing or some 0.030 sheet since I had to notch it to allow room for the 3/8" tubing.

If one works I'll iterate it through 1-5 hundred elevations to see if it cracks or breaks or anything and if its fine I'll do the real turrents with my lessons learnt from this spring mechanism idea.

I will probably have to build a little "housing" glued onto the back of the gun that slides in an out so it doesnt just poke out but that will be the easy part and will make it look more boxy and bad ass.

Updates once it dries and I see how well it works.



Edit: Most of the putty will be cut away and replaced with welded stock styrene for strength, but the putty is much easier to get a tight perfect fit to the tubing and [ channel and the sides of the turret. Weird angles and shapes so I'lll file it all flat so I can use square tube, square rod and sheet

[nsomnia]

Well it works... but not the way it should. I should have made the top rotate on a tiny rotater and the bottom a huge slider. Instead of the other way around. This will break over time. I'll do it the right way for other ones. If I can think of a way to fit a rotated in the top. I might have to go buy some more tube and rod, I'm out of all the small size tube.



Took my airbrush with a .05mm nozzle (large general purpose) and 75psi with 9 parts laquer thinner to 1 part mineral spirits and blew all the paint off. Bad idea... too much laquer thinner it melted the plastic a few microns down. It didnt do any noticible damage but if I had touched it it would have got fingerprints and it might be slightly glossier now until I spray it. Going to spray it from a disatnce to try to get that rough look almost like powdercoating. I've never had to simulate deck planking before. I'd be better off buying some of that flat roller painted train decking for building 1800's train platforms.


I could always cut the deck out and replace it with flat stock styrene.

[em2nought]

A few of these in a diorama of firing a broadside could be really cool http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/0...in-your-house/

[nsomnia]

Well I finally got the time away from Project RedWater to get the first coat of the decking sprayed. Lesson learnt dont brush it. I brushed it then decided to remove the paint by spraying thinner at high pressure. I dont use environmentally safe thinners I go for the good stuff... some of the detail got melted. Its not really noticible, but I'll know and any modeller sees their mistakes stick out.

Hopefully after a few coats itll look decent, wont have the same amunt of detail but you'll know its decking.

Pics when I get another coat on. So busy with the game right now.