Building the
USS North Carolina  BB 55

by  Ron Horabin, Cheshire England
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Part 13 PhotoEtch Radar and accessories 
Hi Everyone, There is a small amount of building, most of it is P/E in 1/96 scale from TOMS MODELWORKS.
Hawser reels.

This set is very nice; there are 4 in the set, from what I can find in photo's I only need one, I have built two. First I cut the 7 parts I need from the set, then finding a small round piece of plastic tube I glued it to the inside of the reel sides, then I glued the second reel side to the plastic sleeve, I then pasted a shaft though from one side to the other, leaving plenty of shaft to be trimmed off later, this part is not in the kit, I then put to one side to dry, I used super glue for this operation.

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While out shopping with the CIC we called in a small craft shop and purchased a reel of thin wire for handrails, and a reel of very thin wire for the cable on the reels. You can if you want wind the cable on to the reel first, as I did with one, or leave it till you are finished and painted.
The next step was to attach the spacer and the teeth sections to the side of the reel , when set attach the two legs, one either side, next attach the handle and the brake , this part is not in the kit but it can be made from some of the metal edges that holds the P/E together, I then gave the two reels a coat of WEM colour coat.
MK8 Radar.
Not exactly accurate, but one that does not look too bad, the first thing I did was to mark out the plastic card with the 7 parts I need and then cut them out, the base was laid down and the uprights glued in position with poly glue, the angled supporting brackets where then glue to the uprights and left to dry.
This next part is the part that is not correct, but will do the job, I cut a piece of balsa wood to length and fitted a pin either end and a section of p/e grating , this was folded round a piece of square bar and glued in position with super glue.
 Next I drilled holes for handrail uprights and fitted them and the rails at the same time, two coats of WEM was applied with the spray gun, left to dry before fitting to the top of the main superstructure and the rear.
SK-2 Air Search Radar.

This again is 1/96 scale by Tom’s Modelworks, this is a complex piece of P/E and has a very good instruction sheet with it.
First I separated the two large rings and super glued 12 very small spacing pieces to the first and then laid the second one on top and glued together, the sections for the dish are well marked, taking the two that slot into each other,  I glued them together and in to position, the next 4 sections were folded to the correct angle and were glued in position and left to dry.
I separated the next 4 sections, these are round with small slots in them, they lock every thing together, 2 inside, 2 outside, the center section was folded and glued in position and the stand was folded and fitted to the back of the dish. Not in the kit is the base it stands on , you have to make this out of some round dowel or copper piping, there is a small door at the bottom of the base, this was made out of plastic card, the whole assembly was spray painted and fit in position.
MK37 Radar.

We have talked about these before but not the ones either side of the first smoke stack, the tapered part of the base was made from balsa wood covered with filla paste and sanded to shape, the next section is an empty can of paint glued in to position, the next section is part or my castings, I had made four in all, the radar again is Tom’s, a few small band were fitted around the second section, the two radar towers were sprayed with WEM paints , camouflage was applied with a paint brush.
Handrails.



The last handrail around the outside of the ship is finally finished but there is still some on the main superstructure to do.

The last photo's are the latest taken on a windy day in my back garden. Till next time happy modelling, Ron h. 
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on to part 14 coming soon

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