by Luigi De Maria
1/426 USS Arizona BB-39 (Revell Monogram)
First of all the mdel I have to say that the model is old, I think about half a century. The hull of the ship is moulded quite well despite the age. Where the the kit lacks is on the upper structures of the ship as many of you can clearly observe (or in other words it's not a new matter!!). I can say that without any aftermarket product the Revell's Arizona stay on that invisible line wich separate a scale ship model from a well crafted toy.
So that's what I came trough and decided to use the Gold Medal Model's Uss Arizona/Pennsylvania detail set created for the kit (thanks to Giampiero Galeotti for providing me the kit).
This detail set surely improve the model up to 20-30% to the "side of scale ship model " and I think it's absolutely necessary to obtain a satisfiing result and in that manner still using Revell's kit today as a challenge for scale ship modeler.
The GMM set do the work very well, execpt a little complain about the amount of railings wich is a bit few so you have to use it with sparingness. Removing the plastic railings from all the various parts of the model were the most annoing and exhausting part of the entire construnction aside with the sanding and reshaping of the boats (and one of the motives for wich I left the work aside time to time) .
Some unexpect event happened during construction.
All the portholes of the hull were drilled (and this is an operation that I strictly advise to do) using Tamiya fine pin Vise D equipped with a 0.7mm point, a point broked in the half and went into the hull so a noise like "Tin!Tin!" can be heared when you shake a little the model. I lost one of the propellers too and I have to rebuilt it using epoxy putty and 0.5mm plasticard.
Fitting of the two halves of the hull was another difficult operation, a lot of sanding and putting but I still think I have not achived the best result in doing this. Fitting of the upper structures went quite well apart little sanding here and there. The railing is 0.5 mm transparent nylon wire prepainted with a permanent blak marker. I apologise for the few railings I applied but after 2 years a I have a little hurry to finish the model and very big willing to start a new one.
About the colors. I used Tamiya Flat red XF-7 for the underwater part of the Hull. The remaining part of the Hull and upper structures , as suggested to me by Giampiero Galeotti, were painted with Humbrol 123 wich is a dark gray that is very similar to US Dark Gray applied on the Ship. The top structures were painted with Humbrol Matt 147. The Deck was painting using a mix of 80% Matt tan Lifecolor with a 20% of Tamya's deck Tan .All the colors were airbrushed.
So, you think that after all this job (and nearly 2 years) I am satisfied? The answer is: No! (maybe is the syndrome that affect most of the modelers)
I don't think that I have obtained the best result . My work is an advice to the modelers who will deal with Revell kit after me. Boys this is how the kit lool like with GMM set with my decent (I hope!) work. I think that an use others aftermarket product and scratchbuilding aside the GMM set and painting techniques (whic is my great lack as a modeler) will improve the Revell Arizona to a masterpiece.
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