BATTLESHIP ROW
Coming soon: Missouri and Arizona 1:350
Created 23 January 2008
Last updated 23 May 2008
Part of the Smilodon Fleet - click on the thumbnail
NOTE: This web page, and all of its links, is dedicated to the ships on the "original" Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941, all of which were damaged or sunk in the attack by Japanese aerial and submarine forces; and to the memory of those seamen, Marines, and soldiers who lost their lives in that attack. The eight battleships were: USS Pennsylvania (BB-38); USS California (BB-44); USS Oklahoma (BB-37); USS Maryland (BB-46); USS West Virginia (BB-48); USS Tennessee (BB-43); USS Arizona (BB-39), and USS Nevada (BB-36). The collier (coal ship) USS Vestal (AR-4) was anchored alongside, and deserves mention in this roll of honor as well.
For those who do not know me, the last few months have been, in many ways, a living Hell. Things went from bad to worse at work, and I ended up leaving my teaching job which I had held for over 15 years. This page is not about that, though - it's about the activity that kept me sane (all right, that's debatable) during that time.
When I was a kid (chronologically speaking; many people have told me that I am a big kid to this day...), I really enjoyed building models - mostly World War II airplanes, tanks, and especially ships. I loved the more complex ship models - there are more parts in the island of a battleship than there are in a whole airplane model, and tanks are similar: very detailed. Joshua, my son, decided to spend some of his birthday money last September on a model battleship, the USS Arizona (BB-39). He is learning about modeling, but this model was his first, and so I did most of the work while he watched and asked questions. The Monster was reborn...
During the construction of the model, the joy of building models was brought back to me, at a time when I needed joy in the worst way; things were already grim at work, though it was just beginning. One of my former colleagues is also an occupational therapist, so she was able to confirm that my old hobby is an excellent form of "occupational therapy" for me. While I am working on a ship, the bad world goes away, and there is only the joy of creating (and sometimes the frustration every modeler knows when the glue blots, or the paint slops - but that's part of the process...) As things got worse and worse at work, Tina was very supportive and understanding, and supported me in my old/new obsession.
To make a long story short, over the next few months I built 7 battleships, and it never got old. I have slowed down (actually, stopped - for now) because of cost and the eternal question of, "Where do we PUT this thing?" However, my list of future projects is still fairly long, so hopefully over the years there will be more. As Joshua grows and develops the skills, he will probably get more involved, too [Tina will, no doubt, roll her eyes when she reads that...] Anyway, here is a thumbnail of the Copas Battleship Fleet as it is now; when I get the time I will put up a couple more pages with more pictures. As ever, click on the thumbnail for a larger image (about 1.5MB) The models are in almost-chronological order from top to bottom; you can probably see the progression in the work as the rust flaked off and the old skills came back...
About photo-etching: I have had a few people suggest that I might really like the results if I delved into the world of PE enhancements; however, to put it bluntly, I am a chicken when it comes to that... I would love to try it, if I had a way to learn to do it properly, but I can't afford to spend a lot of money and risk wasting the money and/or ruining the model. Maybe someday, if I can find someone to teach me the art...
Note: I don't really know why the pictures of the kids with the models are in front of Brewster, the Severe Macaw Who Wants to Kill Me, but we started doing them that way and it has become a sort of tradition now... She can be seen in some of the shots, trying to make her feelings in the matter known. She would love nothing more than to get her beak on those models and add her own "personal touch!"
USS Arizona (BB-39) As I have already mentioned, the first model in this series was, appropriately, the USS Arizona. This ship is the inspiration for this page; it is only appropriate, since she was there at Pearl Harbor and has come to represent the beginning of American involvement in World War II. I was a little nervous when I started building the model - it had been so many years since I had built a model ship, I knew there was a lot to re-learn... Anyway, Joshua liked the end product, and seemed to enjoy watching me work on it (and helping when he could).
Iowa-class Battleships USS Missouri (BB-63) and USS Iowa (BB-61) There are two common scale sizes for battleship models: 1:350 and 1:700. Each presents its own challenges to the modeler, and each has its advantages. The two Iowa-class battleships I have built are Tamiya Waterline Series, 1:700 scale. After the USS Arizona and a couple of other 1:700 kits, I built USS Missouri (BB-63) first, using the paint scheme from late in the war. The model of USS Iowa (BB-61) came later, after Musashi. I decided to try doing her two-tone "dazzle" camouflage scheme - this was the first time I did anything complicated with the paint. Check out the Iowa page for pictures and more information!
IJN Musashi The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) Battleship Musashi was the first BIG battleship model I ever built. It was a wonderful experience, and will remain one of my favorite builds. Check out her web pages!
The last of these models is my pride and joy, at least as of today. I got the Trumpeter 1:350 model kit of USS North Carolina (BB-55) for Christmas. I took my time building it, and did my best with the paint work, so she gets the first individual page... Almost three weeks of work, cluttering the dining room table the whole time with paints, tools, etc., and there you have it... Please take a peek at her page before you leave.
The only non-battleship in the fleet, USS Fletcher DD-445, has her own page(s) now! Check them out!