USS Arizona

N

NCGent

TopFlightBuilder
I have started on the Arizona a few days ago and I quickly learned this will will most likely take longer than the Carolina did. The Arizona has way more small intricate parts to build. I've never really looked at pre war photos of the Arizona until now and I have learned that this ship would not have lasted long in WWII if it had not been sunk at Pearl Harbor, not without some major refit work done to her. She was a elegant lady but sorta funny looking at the same time.
Here's what I've done so far.
 
How'd you like to try to texture one of those?

That's excellent work on the Arizona, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished product. I visited the ship many times while in Hawaii.

BTW I've heard it said what happened at Pearl Harbor was actually the lesser of two evils, in that an aerial attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at sea, near Hawaii and without air cover, would have resulted in the complete and final loss of many more warships and a much higher casualty count that what actually occurred. It's an interesting exercise in hypotheticals.
 
Love the USS Arizona and I've stood above the remains and paid my respects to her sailors at Pearl Harbor a couple of times. As a boy I built the Revell model of the ship and so I knew immediately what kind of detail problems you would have. One time when I was at the memorial a Japanese Defense Force squadron of frigates sailed by with all hands in dress whites and at attention at the rails as the squadron turned from the East Loch south to the open sea. It was certainly odd to see four JDF frigates with the Hinomaru (red meatball flag) flying from the stern sail by the beginnings of WWII for the US.

Now about those tough textures... How about chipping rust on the lady back in the day? :)
 
That seems to be the latest corporate opinion. I wonder if the grey color that was the accepted norm up to about 10 years ago was due to the black and white photos and footage that predominated in the history books and documentaries post WWII?
 
Yeah, some of the photos I have found of models show the red topped turrets and the bright blues. I think I have found enough images where I can do an accurate set of textures for her.
 
Chris, you are correct that Arizona would have been pretty vulnerable in her pre-war configuration, especially to air attack. Had she survived Dec. 7th and returned to the fleet after refitting, the most likely "what-if" scenario is that she would have been configured identical to her sister ship Pennsylvania. Twin 5" mounts around the superstructure with a lot more AA gun positions.
BTW, a friend of mine, GM2 Harvey Milhorn (RIP), was an Arizona crew member and he told me they had painted the deck blue some time before the attack. There is a Japanese photo of BB Row taken a few minutes before Arizona's fatal hit and the deck clearly looks very dark rather than the lighter tone of sun-bleached wood. I have no comment on all the other paint disagreement the warship modelers kick around. Although... I would think high-vis colors on the turret tops would kinda defeat the purpose of Measure 1 camo.
 
SSI01 said:
How'd you like to try to texture one of those?
Click to expand...

Haha, no!
Texture mapping very detailed models is one of my least liked activities, hence my comment. I'd go out of my way to *not* have to map this one!
(Or I'd do the lazyman's approach: Set up a generic color palette and then just map the parts on it instead of the - normal - other way round.)






Why would one paint a battleship in bright colors, by the way?
Isn't that a bit counterintuitive when the OPFOR is said to be very fond of its naval air arm?
 
Each two ship battleship division in the fleet had a different color on the turrets and the dye in the explosive charge of the division's projectiles matched the color of the turret.

That way the spotter plane from each division could tell which colored water spouts around the target belonged to its ship and thus the pilot could radio back adjustments to the fire control officers of the division ships.

The Japanese Navy is often cited for using different colors in each of its capital ship's projectiles as late as the Leyte Gulf fracas.
 
Some interesting comments and suggestions on the Arizona guys, thanks for the intel on her.
Here's what I have done on her the past few days. The more I add the more majestic and beautiful she gets to me.
I gave her a little color to help me see what I was doing, the color you see is not textures.
 
Well she's coming along nicely. I may be able too take her on her first float soon if things keep going good on her. She is turning out too be a beautiful ship.
 
An outstanding job, as always! Definitely looking forward to continued progress on this one.

I'm wondering if you could somehow make the colored turret top textures optional for purists out there.

Are you thinking of using OS2Us on the cats, or earlier biplanes?

These older battleships, I think, had more extensive wood on the main deck than the later builds. I'm not sure about this, though. At any rate, I knew the wood on the decks was holystoned to keep it free of stains and dirt, and to keep it smooth. In photos, mostly B&W, this wood shows up as almost white. Is that caused by the photos, or was the wood actually that color? What kind of wood did they use when building these decks?
 
Thanks SS101, turret red tops will be optional and I will most likely use OS2Us, not sure yet. Started on some textures for her over the weekend. I may do a lot of texture sharing on multiple parts to cut down on file size. Most parts I can get away with that I believe. Here's what she's looking like at this point.
 
SSI01 said:
These older battleships, I think, had more extensive wood on the main deck than the later builds. I'm not sure about this, though. At any rate, I knew the wood on the decks was holystoned to keep it free of stains and dirt, and to keep it smooth. In photos, mostly B&W, this wood shows up as almost white. Is that caused by the photos, or was the wood actually that color? What kind of wood did they use when building these decks?
Click to expand...
The light shade of the deck planking may be due to the photography. In color photos of the Iowa class BB's the wood appears to be a warm grey shade, NCGent's deck looks pretty close. The wood used historically was teak (in 2" thick planks) because it didn't fragment into big deadly splinters when an artillery round exploded on it.
 
Also remember that after the war started, the decks of all the ships were painted blue, so wartime photos show painted over decks. What exact shade may be open to debate, but it was called "deck blue". The USS Texas's deck was painted an almost "baby blue" when I visited a few years ago. Did the Pearl Harbor ships have painted decks? The consensus seems to be no, which would make sense as it was "peace time"...

This Arizona model looks fantastic!
 
Thanks, TARPSbird!

I suspected it was teak. The property of teak that keeps it from splintering into lethal projectiles if involved in an explosion is something I haven't heard of yet. I knew it was used on fleet submarine decking because, if dislodged by depth charging or other causes, it would not float to the surface and betray the boat's position.

The ship is a delight to the eye. Genuinely looking forward to this one!
 
Thanks guys for the compliments.
This little darling is turning out nice, even if I say so myself...lol
Added a few more things too her and worked some more on the hull. The hull is proving too be the most difficult part.
Here's how she's looking.
 
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