1/350 USS Missouri BB-63 (Tamiya)

This is the first model I have constructed in over 35 years and I must say that it was a lot of fun.  I added some of the Gold Metal PE (not everything) and applied rigging to the ship, neither of which I had done before, and although it was difficult it really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  The paint I used is an odd mixture, as I was trying to buy everything I could locally, and yet still match colors.  The deck is Testors "Sea Blue" (brush) and Tamiya "Gunship Grey" (spray).  For the vertical surfaces, I used the same Tamiya "Gunship Grey" along with Model Master's "Light Gray" (brush) and "Flat Black" (Brush and spray).

  For the rigging I debated between using stretched sprue or nylon thread.  I ended up using nylon thread primarily because I could only stretch sprue very thin and could not get thicker strands. The thin stuff was fragile and hard to work with, plus you could hardly see it.  I ran the nylon thread through super glue and then hung it up with a couple of screws as weights so that it would dry straight.  This worked pretty good, although I did have some issues when trimming and tightening the rigging.  Incense smoke didn't seem to be very effective, perhaps the cheap-o ones I found don't put out enough heat to do the job.  In any case I started using a lighter which worked great.  I was getting pretty cocky using the lighter, both to burn off excess thread and stretch it, when one of the excess threads I was burning off must have been too long, because it went up in flame and almost took out the main yardarm. I blew it out after only minor damage, but I did have to re-rig the entire starboard side, and the yardarm has permanent battle damage but it could have been a lot worse.  Did I learn my lesson here? Of course not. In the process of tightening one group of sprue, I inadvertently ignited another strand to the side.  Ikes! Fortunately I blew this out with no damage except for having to redo yet another strand.  So... the lighter's out!

  Overall, I'm happy with the results, although it could be better.  The pictures were taken outside with my i-phone.  The light was good, but I probably should have used a backdrop of some kind.  Oh well, the stand is only a temporary berth as I had so much fun building her that I'm going to pair her with the USS England conducting an "Underway Personnel Transfer."  I've started on both the England model and the water and have already built a frame for it, so look for more pictures to come.
 

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