by Mark Taylor
1/350 USS Arizona BB-39 (Mini-Hobby)
his is my build of the USS Arizona with the “hypothetical” 5-S sea blue paint scheme. The Mini-Hobby kit required many improvements to make it a passable kit for display. Among the upgrades and changes are: Tom’s Modelworks photo etch Arizona set, water tight doors and ladders. I also added Trumpeter’s OS2U Kingfisher floatplanes to replace the ones that came with the kit. There was a little scratch-building as well. The bulkheads of the shelter deck were built over with styrene sheet and port holes were drilled for a more realistic appearance than the standard kit offered. Water tight doors were also added for better realism. The radar platform on the uppermost part of the forward mast was scratch built as well. The primary paints were Tamiya acrylics, polyscale and model master was also used. The decks were base coated with Tamiya deck tan, then over-coated with mixed water colors to get a weathered look. This is the first time I’ve applied water colors to a ship’s deck to simulate weathering. The results were mixed, but it’s something I can learn from and improve as I build more. All rigging is fine silk fly-tying thread. The 5-S paint scheme makes an attractive model, although I still doubt the validity of the actual Arizona carrying this scheme before her demise in the December 7 attacks.
