by Paul Neuhaus
1/350 USS Missouri BB-63 (Tamiya)
This is my first model in 1/350. When I last visited my good friend Jim Baumann the year before last he asked me, if I wouldn’t like to have a go at a 1/350 ship and gave me the wonderful Tamiya kit of this huge ship. Thanks again Jim. I’d also like to thank all the modelling colleagues around the globe who helped me with pictures and useful links which were a great help.
I had it lying around for about one and half years before I got to building it. The kit is very good, except for the deck, which doesn’t fit properly and leaves an approx. 2-3 mm large gap, which I closed with a plastic strip. I used the WEM PE-Set and the extra one containing the ammo racks.
Jim had already done a bit of work on it he had cut off the underwater parts, which made things a lot easier for me to start off with (I hate doing that, also being anxious to ruin the whole hull)
It was a lot of fun building the ship and thanks to the pics, links and other hints I got from various sides I was able to detail the model it bit more than usual. I used soldering wire, plastic sheet, plastic rod etc. etc. for detailing. The masts were completely replaced by metal tubing and steel to prevent them from bending when applying the rigging, which I this time made of EZ-Line and fishing line which went straight forward. In 1/350 one can use slightly thicker material for rigging than in 1/700.
The water surface was made with a piece of expanded foam board. I got the idea from well-known modeller Frank Spahr, but instead of forming it with sanding paper I used a hot airgun, which I found worked very well; especially to simulate calm water. The model and the water surface were all painted with acrylic paints, mainly Tamiya and Valleyo. Most of the parts were painted with an airbrush.
The figures are from Tamiya, Fujimi and Goffy. The Goffy resin figures are the nicest (the one’s I had ordered from L’Arsenal didn’t arrive in time), but not easy to handle. I ruined quite a few of them whilst cleaning and preparing them for painting. The Fujimi ones are not bad, but a bit thick. The Tamiya ones look a bit like wee playmobil figures to me, so I only used a few of them.
All in all I very pleased with the result and this will certainly not be the last ship I’ll build in this scale.
Thanks again to all who helped me with the project.
