Greetings, fellow warship enthusiasts! At last, I have joined the ranks of the obsessed and begun construction of my first warship hull, the Iowa-class battleship U.S.S. Illinois, BB-65. Unfortunately, the real BB-65 was canceled not too long after being laid down, but this just means that I get to be... creative... with some of the ship's details because it was never finalized. The hull itself is one of the excellent Strike Models products and was first purchased by Bob Amend; I was lucky enough to acquire it from him last month, and for the last couple of weeks I've been doing some work on it with the hope of getting it pond-ready by the end of July or in early August. However, before you Allied captains facepalm and you Axis captains start licking your chops, bear this in mind: the primary intention for this ship is to be a big, shiny showboat for the rest of the year, before being converted into a big, shiny target for next year's festivities. Between now and then, I'll have time to learn a whole bunch before joining the mayhem. I've barely begun to really get into the hobby before I had to learn something right away: hull repair. The boys at UPS are pretty good about getting things to people in a timely fashion, but every now and again, they forget to read the "FRAGILE" and "DO NOT CRUSH" labels that sometimes find themselves affixed to packages, such as the extremely large box that contained my shiny new Iowa-class hull. The bow got mangled pretty badly, with huge chunks of gel coat being knocked off and even some of the fiberglass damaged. Fortunately, the structure of the bow itself wasn't damaged, just the very exterior. My solution? Well, epoxy, naturally. But not just any epoxy. No, I went over to Lowe's one evening and made a fantastic discovery: epoxy putty. Now, it's been a few years since I've had to deal with epoxy, so it stands to reason they've made some changes. This putty is magic, however. Cut off a bit, work the two ingredients together, slap it to whatever you want epoxied, press and mold a little bit, let it harden and cure, and voila! A sandable, paintable, waterproof surface. It made repairing the bow incredibly easy. Now, most of you veterans will probably cry out in favor of the more traditional liquid tubes of the resin and hardener that you mix together and slather onto a ship for various purposes, and rightly so; that stuff is dynamite, too. I just didn't want to make a huge mess, so I took the easy way out. We'll see how hard use over the next few years returns on my investment. Here's the hull as I opened the box at the bow with the shipping damage shown: Bow View after applying the dremel to the rough edges: Bow View after applying (a little too much) epoxy putty: Bow View after grinding down the excess with the dremel and some light sanding: Another Bow View, this time with hull upside down: As you can see, there's still some work to be done with the bow, but the biggest issue was dealt with, at least for the time being. After I finished with this repair job, I started work on scratchbuilding the superstructure levels. The reason for scratchbuilding is so I can have a Sunday-best superstructure with all sorts of pretty detailing, and then a superstructure for getting shot up. Who knows, I might just use the Sunday-best SS all the time, just for kicks. Amidship from forward, elevated to show the first two cut levels of the superstructure, with A and B turrets in their places: Similar view, this time without A and B turrets and with another deck set in place: None of these levels have been permanently affixed together, yet, since I still have some corrective work to do with them. Over the next few days I'll be working on the superstructure more, as well as finishing the turret hole cutouts.
That is sad to see the hull arrive that way. I can relate to that. Nice work on the Superstructure deck levels.
It might not matter with ship, since she's so heavy, but that method of SS build for most ship will put too much weight up too high and cause listing issues and a ship that rocks a lot. You could build this way then drill large holes in the middle sections that are covered by other sections of SS. Make sure and seal it all really well with a good marine epoxy that UV resistant. Again Iowa's get so much weight it might not matter.
I hear you loud and clear on that, Bob. The base of the SS already had a 2x17 segment sawn out of its middle, and I'll probably take at least a little out of each successive level with a little drill press work and the dremel, seal the wood, prime it, and paint it.
Bob beat me to it! Saw out the centers, I've done 1/4" thick SS walls with a thinner 'roof' on top. Even if it's going to be pretty, don't put ballast above the waterline But it definately is nice work, very good looking even in it's early stages of completion
Thanks Clark! Today's update: finished cutting out the holes for A and B turret spaces; eventually there will be two guns apiece in those forward turrets, so might as well get ready for them now. Also, sanded down the bow a little more and the rest of the hull with some 400-grit. When I get back from Alabama next week the goal is to start thinking about the waterline and the hull painting; I'm going to borrow from USS Wisconsin's current scheme and do the standard battleship gray coat with a black waterline and then a rich, deep blue below the waterline. I still have a little putty work to do and some sanding in order to remove some excess epoxy from the skegs and so on like that, but by this time next week, at least in theory, the hull won't be white, even if it is just a gray primer that goes on first. Until next week's update, cheers!
If I remember correctly, the BB-65, USS Illinois was around 33% complete when building was halted. BB-66 The USS Kentucky was over 70% complete. Infact Kentucky's hull was launched to make room for building of new hull. Though the Kentucky and Illinois were broken up, the Bow of the Kentucky remains to this day. The USS Wisconsin had a little collision and needed a new bow, so Kentucky's bow was removed and attached to Wisconsin's hull. One thing that BB-65 and 66 had in commom that 61 to 64 did not have, was a welded hull! Illinois and Kentucky would be at lease eight knots faster than their sister ships. I have the USS Illinois on my list of future builds as well.
They would of been 8 knots faster than the Montana class, which the Illinois was suppose to be originally built as, not 8 knots faster than a Iowa class. It does sound like it would of been 2 or 3 knots faster than a Iowa due to the reduced weight, and redesigned bow.
WOW that does look like a VERY heave superstructure! Have you thought about trying foamy? The more weight you save on the structure, the bigger batteries you can put in the hull!
Yeah; I have the actual Strike Models superstructure kit; I'll put that together at some point as well, but I'm working on an SS that's more for show than for practical combat applications. I might soften it up some by carving out half an inch of material on the higher levels to save a few ounces. I have a very strong suspicion that even with a wooden superstructure, the bulk of the ship's weight, especially ballasted with self-leveling concrete goop, batteries, watertight boxes for electrical components, and the guts of the ship, will sit pretty evenly on its keel during normal running. And if not... well, good way to test the watertight compartments and the pump, lol.
Howdy all; here's a little update about what I've done so far this week after being out of town all last week. The hull and decks have been sanded down a few times with varying grits of paper in order to remove some epoxy globs and smooth down the bow patch a little more just to give it a nice clean feeling in preparation for priming and painting, which I hope to do later this week. I also repaired one of the superstructure detail blocks, and I'm getting ready to start sanding and shaping that more with the hopes of sealing, priming, and painting it this week or next. More photos will be posted in due course: stay tuned!
Another update: did some gap-filling on the cap rails between the wood and the fiberglass, and then taped off the entire top section of the ship in preparation for priming and painting tomorrow, at least if all goes well.
An image-tastic update this time! Today's milestones included some final sanding and puttying before priming the hull, along with the carving of the bow bulwark from USS Missouri out of a 1-1/2" dowel rod, shaping it with the trusty Dremel tool, and then affixing it to the bow. Here is the bulwark after carving/sanding, and before being permanently attached. I deliberately left some meat on it in case it becomes a target or in case of a ram. I don't think it could take a shot from a BB, but it's the thought that counts. Another angle, similar to the publicity photo of Missouri when she was launched: After being glued on and puttied: Here is the hull minutes before it was primed a flat gray using Krylon spray paint: And after it was primed: Another view: I'm letting the paint set/dry/cure overnight, and tomorrow's task will be to mask and paint the below-the-waterline hull dark blue and then the black waterline. Over that I will probably finish it with a gloss clearcoat, just because the actual battleships have a certain glossy feel when the light hits them right in pictures I've studied. The superstructure is coming along nicely as well; tomorrow I'm cutting the bridge decks and the styrene sheets for the other levels, and hopefully the stacks. With luck, by next week I should have it done and ready to mount. Stay tuned!
Today's update: both the A and B bridge deck levels were cut to shape and the aft smokestack was roughed out of a section of 2x3 wood. That was a chore, but I wanted a good solid piece. The next challenge for the superstructure is lightening the load with the inventive application of a drill, a dremel, and maybe a router.... if I can trust myself to handle such an awkward tool on such a small piece of wood. Also, the waterline was marked... or at least started to be marked. I foolishly thought that would be an easy part of the painting process... oh how I was mistaken! following some of the vagaries of the hull curves is proving difficult, but I have great confidence that in the end, it will be pretty good. Not perfect, but pretty good. More pictures to follow tomorrow or Friday.
Hello everyone! Been a long time since I updated this thread, but my summer got hectic and work consumed everything for a while; the holidays weren't much better, but hey, such is life, right? My New Year's resolution is to get back to work on my beautiful monster, and what better way than to start off with some pictures? Since the last time I posted, I've painted the hull and done a little more superstructure work, and now that things have slowed down a little bit, it's back to work on the superstructure. The plan is to cut out a lot of material from the individual levels and put sheet styrene 'roofs' over them to lighten them up, at least on the A and B decks.the higher levels will need a lighter touch. Anyway, on to the photos! Here's a shot of the hull on its shelf to show off the paint scheme: And here's a closeup of the superstructure in its demonstration position. Only the bridge structure has been affixed together, all the rest of the pieces are still free. You can also see on the first photo that I've added the anchor mounts as well to the bow; eventually, I mean to scratchbuild a pair of anchors. Anyone who has any helpful tips on that, they are greatly appreciated!
Nice looking ship there. I have always liked the Iowa class. But I have never really given any serious thought into actually building one myself. But I do like seeing them on the water. Mikey
Nice job, it's good to see someone new taking a ship from hull to ship so fast (or not so fast ?) Don't worry too much bout the superstructure and weight, if this one turns out great but is too top heavy, make it your "show" top. I find I redo my ships about once every three years anyway and you always find new good stuff to work with. I am trying the "foamie" and I have to say i like working with it. Plus it is feather light which is good for small or tippy boats.
Well, I decided to take the advice posted above and get both the foam SS that came with the ship and the wood SS that I'm scratchbuilding finished, but I'm going to prioritize the foamie first, since... well, it won't be too long before the water starts getting flexible, again, and I aim to be ready for that. I ordered my running hardware from the good folks at Strike Models yesterday so work, time, and other factors permitting, I should have some (or all!) of the guts of this monster installed by the end of the month and be operational for trial runs by the end of February, which means that the local duck populations (when they come back, anyway) will have to share the water. Ah, what a glorious day that will be. Pictures to follow when I'm not lazy.
