USS Kansas, BB-21, Great White Fleet ** DNF **

[JohnRatzenberger]

Busy day, on other things ...

I touched up the red/white demarcation; may need one more pass. I also decided to do the full PE railings and ordered several sets for the stash; if they don't get here soon (it's GMM, lives on an island in Puget Sound all the way across country from me, everything is by snail-mail) I have enough to here to get by.

[Dazzled]

Great stuff John. The handrails will make this even more awesome

[JohnRatzenberger]

Still here, quite busy, working on the water .... about ready to move on ...

[JohnRatzenberger]

OK, I have been overly busy and I'm way behind. I am sure this will be a DNF, but I am going to keep moving as long as I can.



The hull is painted white & red and mounted in the still water; it will be at anchor. I had some neatness problems with the water that required paint patching and I think I have it now good enough. I may run some gloss along the sides to even things.

Anyway, I moved on and painted the decks teak. Probably good enough but I might make one more thin coat then a mild wash to bring out the planks. From there I can paint the existing superstructure and many of the detail parts in a buff. That means a bunch of assembling can happen.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Today I got my first coat of buff down.



Also got the Gold Medal fine 3-bar railings, some ladders, etc.

I think the buff is going to play tacky so it's good that I have no time to work on it tomorrow. May take me a couple days to get the buff laid down well then touch up the deck, etc. Probably a good idea to start on the boats and maybe some small detail painting. I am not as organized as I would wish ....

I'm guessing a bit about the paint - I do not have any deck shots to determine how much is buff, how much might be old navy grey, black, etc .... Same problem with some internal areas. Oh, well ....

[PaulBradley]

Impressive so far, John.

[Dazzled]

The buff really gives it identity. Great progress John

[Marek]

Looking really good.

[jamesaw]

Very nice so far.

[JohnRatzenberger]

At last, I think I have the proper combo of WEM Buff and thinner, so all I need do tomorrow is touch-up the teak deck (again). I'd be in better shape if I could get off my duff and paint all the ship's boats .... other than that, I'm getting ready for lots of assembly.

[JohnRatzenberger]

I have started adding deck details .... and have the various boats part painted ....



progress with a small 'p' ....

[Dazzled]

But progress nonetheless John and, if not large in quantity, certainly big in quality

[JohnRatzenberger]

Main & Secondary armament, plus (the shiny) racks for some boats. Plus boats and two cranes.



I have cradles for the boats. I think I'll mount most to the boats themselves then glue to deck. Those that go up on racks, I'll have to mount to the rack, then add the boats. All that is tomorrow's work, that will only leave the boat davits which will wait until later when they cannot be knocked off.

I have the barbette guns to install and about 10 smaller boat guns, comprised of around 5 pieces each (!!) to build. They must be done before I put tops onto the fore and aft deck houses, which are their own little complication. That's next after boats ...

Plus whatever else seems to fit well ....

[general rocket]

Looking good. I really must read up on the pre-Dreadnought battleships, they look stunning.

[JohnRatzenberger]

I should say that Kombrig kits are very high quality resin and photo-etch and I am having no issues, other than with the instructions, to talk about.

The instructions use no part numbers, so it is sometimes difficult to match the part inventory views to the instructions. I usually start at the parts views and make my own little numbering system, then go find what I think are the matching parts on the assembly views and label those parts accordingly - and make a little check mark by the inventory picture that I have found it in the assembly.

Then I go to the inventory pictures and look for any unchecked parts to see if I can figure them out. And I go to the assembly pictures to see if any are unlabeled, meaning I didn't match them to the inventory. It's just a matter of sorting through it all. The usual result is that I have more parts in inventory than assembly so I go to the 3-view or other references to see if they might be useful or just are spares.