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On Sunday, December 7, 1941 in Pearl
Harbor, the watch on the battleships observed sunrise looking forward to a
“holiday” routine. The battleships would not observe sunset. As we all know,
the Empire of Japan struck a crippling blow to the mighty and overconfident
United States Navy. All the battleships would rise like the phoenix and wreak
their revenge on Japan, except the USS Arizona.
She is a tomb to her crew- the US Navy’s sacred monument. Ships still
render honors to the Arizona when entering and leaving port.
When Bill Blackmore, owner of Cottage
Industries, asked to make two spotter planes for his 1/96 scale USS Arizona,
(Yep! You read that right! In one picture you can see the dime.)
I readily accepted. He will float this beast of a model on December 7th
with two SOC-3 Seagulls ready
to search for the enemy battle line and spot the rounds!
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| Bill
measuring the finished model ship of the "USS Arizona". |
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The only model in the 1/96 scale is a limited run resin kit
(run away, run away! Quick! a free one month subscription to ARC if you
can name that movie!). I used
three kits to make two models.
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I
started the ……..ahem ……. model kits by cleaning up parts, thinning
the wings, filling in the blemishes, and boring out the fuselage of one
kit. I used brass tubing for the engine cowl.
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After
attaching the lower wings and painting with Testors enamels, I scratch
built the cockpit on one kit. I
couldn’t come up with enough seats and the clock was ticking, so I made
a canvas canopy cover out of painted typing paper for the second plane. |
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The
kits came with the national markings, but they had no ship specific
markings. I make the required decals with a laser printer. (WARNING
SHAMELESS PLUG) See “Making Custom Made Decals” in the Tool
‘n’Tips section of ARC.
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Then I assembled all the pieces using stainless steel rods, brass
rods and straight pins for the struts and flower wire for the rigging. The extra canopy pieces were fashioned from a plastic soda
bottle. The planes were delivered
and mounted on the ship.
Resin kits are a change of pace
for more obscure subjects; they will tax your skills and patience. They’re not
for the faint of heart. Fore warned.
RJ
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