USS New Jersey, BB62, in 1/350 Scale

With all of the weapon systems aboard, and with all of the decks and main structures, and with the hull and decks all painted, she is looking very good now indeed.


In my next session, which I will use most of the weekend for, I will add a lot of the details to the various decks of the ship. Life rafts, ships launches, life boats, various sensors, cranes, a lot of mechanical equipment, etc.

There is a lot of it and it may take two sessions (or three) to do it all.

We will see how far we get...but she is looking more and more like a very good model of the USS New Jersey, Iowa class battleship.

Look good and what pictures close ! very long.
Obviously after a shot with the Kirov sounds good

Comparison before and after modernization

The Build - Large Life Rafts, Launches, details, anchors, crane, & blast deflectors - November 16, 2015

Lots of different detail to add to the ship in this session.

I started with adding the two auxiliary decks forward for life rafts. Numerous large life rafts on these two decks (one port and one starboard). Each of these rafts can carry up to fifty people. These were made up of several parts for each deck. I painted them, assemble them, and then attached them to the ship.


Then it was on to the ship's launches and the davits and supports for them. There are two launches on each side, a large on and a smaller one. The large one rests on the main deck on each side, while the smaller ones rest on supports coming off of the deck house on each side. On the port side you have the covered motor launch, while on the starboard is the open motor launch.

There were then numerous details on the aft section and the forward section of the vessel. The large tie downs for securing the vessel while at dock, numerous vents and shaft, also the guides for the chains.

All of these parts amounted to dozens of individual pieces that needed to be painted and then glued onto the various decks.

Finally, the directors and their supports on top of the main superstructure.

Once these were completed, there were a number of other things I wanted to finish in this session.

This included the anchors, the large crane towards the after section near the aft main gun mount on the port side, and finally the blast deflectors located behind the Harpoon missile mounts to protect the deck house and funnel there from the exhaust blast from missile launches.

Most of these were individual pieces (although the crane was an assembly) that had to be painted and then afixed to the vessel in the appropriate places.

So, that's maybe half of the details I need to accomplish before the vessel starts to ge its photo etch metal railing, sensors, and other equipment. But with all of this detail, she is starting to look very good indeed.


That is looking nice.

In the next session I will complete all of the structural details for the ship, outside of the metal parts, and this will include the main mast aft of the main superstructure and around the first funnel, and secondary mast on the second funnel.

I know it's illogical, but harpoons on the Jersey seem out of place and take away some of her majesty. Probably just me.

Blackstone said:

I know it's illogical, but harpoons on the Jersey seem out of place and take away some of her majesty. Probably just me.

Click to expand...

Well, in the 1980s, they were very well in place.

Among other things (like ground support for Marines) the modernized Iowas were meant to be the centerpiece of large SAGs and be able to take on Russian surface action groups in war at sea scenarios.

One of their purposes was meant to conventionally go up against the Kirovs that the Soviets were building in the same time frame. The US had these large, heavily armored hulls that they could boot strap modern weapons onto.

So, having sixteen Harpoons was seen as a powerful weapon against Russian surface groups that they might end up hunting or engaging.

And documents after the cold war ended showed that the Soviets feared the thick armor on those battleships and them having AEGIS cruisers and CIWS to protect them from Russian missiles.

to me, the best view so far is this:

Jeff Head said:

Click to expand...

Jura said:

to me, the best view so far is this:

Click to expand...

Then you will really like the new pictures at the end of the new update!

Let's start:

The Build - Main Mast, Antennae, props, more details - November 18, 2015

I had hoped to finish all structures and details in this session, but alas, it was not so.

I started with the main mast assembly. This is an involved structure that sits just aft of the main superstructure and over the forward funnel. The main radar sits on top of it and it is high off the main deck so as to provide as much distance to the horizon in 360 degrees as possible.

It is somewhat of an involved assembly and you have to be careful cutting the pieces away from the sprues so as to not break them, and then provide care to make sure that they all line up correctly.