USS Arizona

[Steve Nelson]

OK, it's not a warbird, but it does have one on the catapult!

Anyway, here's my finished USS Arizona..the ancient 1957 vintage Revell 1/426 scale kit. I built it mostly out of the box, with just a few mods. The Kingfisher is of course scratchbuilt (see the earlier "tiny airplane" thread.) I wanted to depict her as she appeared in late 1941..the colors reflect the latest research. The red turret tops are somewhat controversial..they were ordered by Admiral Kimmel, but it's not known if they were painted before she was sunk.

Cheers!

Steve

Last edited by Steve Nelson on Mon Jul 04, 2011 9:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Steve Nelson]

More pics...

Last edited by Steve Nelson on Mon Jul 04, 2011 9:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

[mazdaP5]

Looks great.
I've always wanted to build a fleet of 1/700, but never had the real estate to do it.

The scratchbuilt kingfisher is quite impressive.

[Sean Curtiss]

Who cares if it’s not a warbird. It was bombed by warbirds and like you said there’s one on the catapult.

Wonderful job you did. That’s MY favorite ship. And what an OUSTANDING job you did with the Kingfisher too. I could never achieve that. It’s too perfect.

About the top turret colors, I wonder why they took decades to find that out. Though from what I read they don’t seem 101% sure that this color is correct. Aren’t there any living veterans who could answer their questions?

Cheers,
SC.

[Steve Nelson]

Thanks, guys. I've added a bit more rigging to "busy things up" since I took those pics.

As for the red turrets, I've corresponded with the secretary of the Arizona Survivors Association. He says that there's disagreement between the few living vets about the colors..one guy swears he never saw them, but another says he was in charge of the paint locker and remembered stowing the red paint. It's one of those "we'll never know for sure" things, and I thought it made the model more visually interesting.

SN

[Matt Gunsch]

Here is something I found a while back about BB-39 colors

[Steve Nelson]

That drawing was one of my primary references, along with the scratchbuilt 1/96 model shown in the article. I found a ship modeling forum that had dozens of closeups of the model.

The Arizona guy I metioned above is currently building the same kit, but he's going all out, with tons of photoetch and scratchbuilt details. He said that he's going to go with red turrets, because the spotter plane crews he's talked to remember them that color, and since it was an aerial recognition thing, those guys would be more likely to pay attention than regular crewmen.

SN

[Django]

Very nice!

[Matt Gunsch]

Steve, I don't know if you had heard this, but Trumpeter is going to do a USS Arizona in 1/200 scale. That works out to a hull length of almost 3ft.

[Garth]

Thanks, guys. I've added a bit more rigging to "busy things up" since I took those pics.

As for the red turrets, I've corresponded with the secretary of the Arizona Survivors Association. He says that there's disagreement between the few living vets about the colors..one guy swears he never saw them, but another says he was in charge of the paint locker and remembered stowing the red paint. It's one of those "we'll never know for sure" things, and I thought it made the model more visually interesting.

SN

There are several overhead pictures of Arizona before, during and after the attacks that seem to show the tops of the three turrets are different shades than the rest of the painted structure/deck. The painted turrets aren't as pronounced in the B&W shots as those seen on Pennsylvania and Tennessee, though, and given shadows/lighting there's definitely a basis for the controversy. Although the question would be: if the other BB's had their turret tops painted for recognition purposes, why wouldn't Arizona's be painted as well?

Dana Bell is apparently doing a book on the matter which will cover not only the battleship turret markings but also those used on the heavy and light cruisers. Not sure when it's due out, but he gave a pretty good presentation at the NoVA IPMS meeting a couple months back on the subject and the book is definitely going to be a "must-buy" when it comes out.

One suggestion would be to take a picture of your Arizona in B&W and compare with the overhead shots of the ship from the time of the attacks ...

[Second Air Force]

SN,

That kit was the first warship I ever built when I was a little guy. I still run across pieces of it in the spare parts bin from time to time. You've done a great job, and the new information on the paint scheme is another interesting tidbit I had not known. Keep up the good work!

Scott

[seabee1526]

VERY COOL

[Steve Nelson]

Thanks Seabee! I fixed the links to the pics..they weren't showing up because I reorganized my Photobucket albums a couple of years ago.

SN