BB-39 Arizona Project III - First Package

I received the first order for the Arizona. This is one of the kits from MK1 that features wood decks and about six sprues of brass etched parts and a limited set of instructions. To be frank, I'm a bit intimidated by the parts at this point, and there are at least two more sets of brass etchings that I would like to order! I have never worked with brass etchings and while I have a few metal working tools I don't think I have what I need for this build. I need to go look at some tools at Micro Mark and see what would be more useful than what I have.

I might even pull out one of the Eagle Transporter kits with brass etchings to work on first before I take on the Arizona. 

At least I know how to work with wood!

These are apparently what passes for instructions for brass etching upgrade kits.

BB-39 Arizona Project I - The Research

The holidays are finally over and we can all breath a sigh of relief. I never get anything done during holidays, all my projects come to a complete halt during these vacations. I did manage to acquire a couple of reference books for the Arizona build though. The first is "Battleship Arizona, an Illustrated History" by Paul Stillwell. After hanging out on a couple of the big model ship forums this seems to be the book that everyone refers back to. So I find a very nice used copy for a good price.  The second book is a much newer publication from Squadron Signal Publications, "USS Arizona" by David Doyle, part of their Squadron at Sea series. This one also received some very good comments and recommendations. Between these two books and the large number of WIP threads in the forums I think I can do a pretty good job on this one. I haven't built a ship kit since I was much, much younger so its a bit out of my comfort zone.

I have a few things to think over for sure. A couple of the WIP threads have pointed out a lot of inaccuracies with this kit and how to fix them. I don't think the average person would even notice them so I have to decide how detailed I want to get with it. I have a full set of upgraded brass parts and a wooden deck and that might be as far as I go. I'm also figuring this one will be a very long project even for me.

I ordered this directly from the author, David Doyle, rather than Squadron. 

This book on the Lexington showed up with the Arizona book. I didn't order it. With the holidays over I'll follow up with author's website and see what to do with it. I left it in the shrinkwrap figuring that I would return it to them since I didn't pay for it.

Early Christmas - USS Arizona

A very large packaged arrived this week containing my Christmas present from my wife. This is quite the departure for me and I imagine its going to be a very long build, but after visiting Hawaii this year this seemed quite appropriate.

I'll try and build it as it was the day of the attack, I'm sure there is plenty of reference photos out there. There is another whole kit of photo etched parts coming too, that will be a new experience. I know for sure that I won't be using the crew as supplied, they are not much more than blobs of plastic.

1/200th scale plastic goodness

The hull is about 36" long and 8" wide.