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DIORAMA:

MODELING THE USS ARIZONA MEMORIAL    PEARL HARBOR, HAWAII

Combining scratchbuilding techniques and the Revell USS Arizona model in 1/429th scale, we depict here a detailed replica of this impressive memorial dedicated to the men who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

By Kathy Meyer              Photos by Challenge Publications

On December 7, 1941, Japanese air forces bombed Pearl Harbor in an unprovoked attack that thrust the United States into World War II. The bombs started falling at 7:55 AM that Sunday morning, The Battleship Arizona was hit with bombs several times but at 8:10 AM a 500 kg armor piercing bomb was dropped from a high altitude bomber, penetrating the forward deck between the first and second turrets. The bomb probably exploded three deck levels down in an unshielded passageway, instead of in the well-armored turret powder room.  In a stroke of bad luck, Arizona gun crews had moved shells and powder to the passageway for shipment to West Loch storage areas. The bomb ignited over a million pounds of gunpowder. The resulting explosion snuffs out the fires on the repair ship Vestal alongside, sending up tons of debris 400 feet into the air .The extent of the damage is unknown, the superstructure collapsed along with the forward deck, which sank 22 feet into the hull and the ship sank to the bottom of Pearl Harbor in just nine minutes taking with her 1,177 sailors, the largest loss of life on any American warship 

On March 7, 1950 Admiral Arthur Radford, commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet, directed that a flagstaff be erected on the stump of one leg of the tripod mainmast and he ordered that an American flag be raised and lowered daily. Later that year a wooden platform was built over the amidships to accommodate boats coming alongside, this was the first memorial. On the ninth anniversary of the attack Admiral Radford dedicated a commemorative metal plaque to the men of the ship. 

The Current Memorial

The current memorial was designed by Alfred Pries of a Hawaiian firm. His early efforts included a sort of bridge connecting the hulk of the Arizona with Ford Island, but those schemes were rejected, then he came up with the now famous idea of a structure spanning but not touching the ship's hull. Construction began in late 1960 and lasted until early 1962. The memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day, 1962, instead of December 7, 1961, the twentieth anniversary of the attack, indicating that it was in honor of the men of the Arizona who lost their lives, rather than as a commemoration of the Japanese attack.  Much has been said and written of the symbolism of two of the memorial's most striking design features: the roofline, which dips in the center and rises to peaks at either end, and the twenty-one large open spaces in the structures sides and roof.  They have been taken to represent, respectively, the low point in American fortunes in World War II eventually culminating in victory, and a continuous twenty-one gun salute to the Arizona dead.  The most notable feature of the memorial is the shrine room, where a wall of Italian marble is inscribed with the names of the men who died when the ship was destroyed.

During the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Battleship Arizona was hit several times.  She later exploded and sank in just nine minutes taking with her 1177 men.  The largest loss of life on any American warship.

The diorama base is made from 3/4-inch plywod and the sides are sections of decorative moulding.  Carpenters Wood Glue  was used to assemble the base.

On October 10, 1980, in a ceremony reminiscent of the 1962 dedication of the memorial, the Navy turned the Visitors Center and operation of the Arizona Memorial over to the National Park Service. The Arizona Memorial and shoreside Visitors Center are one of the most heavily visited sites in Hawaii, also it is the most popular destination in the U.S. National Park system. Over one million tourists visit the site every year.

It wasn't until I was in High School in Arizona when I saw the movie "Tora Tora Tora" on television, and learned of these events and that this really happened.  Being a native of Arizona, this sparked a "want to know more about..." interest in the Pearl Harbor attack and that eventually lead to an interest in the Pacific theater of World War II that continues today.  This diorama is something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and since the 1995 IPMS Nationals in Albuquerque was coming up, this was a perfect opportunity to try this diorama again. 

The Diorama

The base is made of three quarter inch plywood and the sides is one and three quarter inch decorative molding. The back side of the molding had a ridge that prevented a flat surface, with the help of my dad and his table saw the ridge was removed and a forty five degree angle was cut on each end. I used Carpenters Wood Glue to glue the molding to the plywood, one of the strips of molding had a slight warp to it and needed the assistance of a couple of nails to help flatten it against the plywood. I measured for the intended depth of the water, masqued it off and painted with Testors Dark Sea Blue. The molding was then stained with walnut wood stain.

Building The Memorial

This is the first time I have ever made anything totally from scratch.  The first thing I had to do was to determine the scale of the model being used, Revell does not say on the box of their seventeen inch model of the Arizona what scale it is.  With the help of a modeler buddy of mine, the scale was determined to be 1/429. My Uncle had sent me the special section of the December 6, 1991, Honolulu Star Bulletin newspaper, in this section there was a drawing of the ship and memorial structure, in the corner of the page was a drawing of the memorial structure complete with dimensions. Now all I needed to do was to scale down these measurements, using the same formula that determined the ship scale. 

Now comes the hard part.  Using sheet plastic an inch and a quarter wide and about fourteen inches long and very thin, I don't remember the exact gauge, I cut it to the length I needed.  And using a Xerox copier, I enlarged the memorial drawing from the newspaper to the same size that matched the scaled down dimensions (I made several copies just in case I had to start over).  I taped this pattern to the sheet plastic, and with sharp scissors, cut around the pattern, this was done to all four sides.  Next comes the large openings on the sides and top. 

First, I tried using carbon paper to trace the shapes onto the plastic, this worked ok but the result was not permanent, the carbon paper marks smeared right off.  At this point I needed something to cover the plastic that will hold on to the carbon marks.  I found that scotch tape worked nicely.  Using a pencil and a ruler I traced the openings from the pattern. Using an Xacto knife and files, I cut and filed out the openings. My first effort was a lousy one, the openings were not straight or level.  I tried this method several times, trying to more be careful each time with no success.  Then it occurred to me that perhaps using a T-square and a triangle might work better than the method I was using. 

The model used to depict the hulk of the USS Arizona was the Revell offering in the determined-to-be scale of 1/429th. Using an illustration of the memorial, I used the same formula that determined the ship scale to scale down the measurements of the structure.

All the walls and the roof parts were cut using a T-square and a triangle, using the traced-on patterns as a guide.  An X-Acto was used to cut out the areas, followed by a light carful filing.

I bought a six-inch adjustable triangle, because I had no idea of the angle I would need.  I set the angle by placing the triangle on the pattern.  With a pencil, still using the carbon paper, traced the pattern, and taking time and great care with the cutting and filing, I had my walls and roof cut out.

For the railings on the monument, I used one long piece of stretched sprue and placed it length-wise across the lower half of the openings.  Small drops of super glue were placed on the sprue on each side of the openings. Repeated this process for the other side. With the remaining sprue,  I cut it into short pieces and glued in a vertical position, attaching it to the middle of the horizontal sprue and the base of the opening forming a T in each window.  After the sprue had dried, I glued the walls to the floor. 

The Shrine Room

Next I had to determine the size the shrine room, so a wall can be placed to form the shrine room. I glued the wall in place with the tall triangular archway.  In front of the wall I cut out the viewing portal in the floor of the monument. On two opposite sides a solid wall railing was placed, and on the remaining sides I placed stretched sprue for standard railings, with a short piece of stretched sprue in the center. Cut out the main doorway from the port side wall of the monument, and cut the floor to match the doorway.  Bent a small piece of plastic around a pencil to form the enclosure over the walkway into the monument. To make the pedestal that is in the monument gallery, I took sheet plastic and cut a strip a quarter-inch wide and formed into a two-eighths square box, glued a piece of plastic to be the top and sanded it thin.  Before enclosing the monument the inside had to be completely finished, I airbrushed the inside with Testors Insignia White and a clear flat finish. Cut a bell from one of the models’ masts, painted it Testors Gunship Gray and glued to a very narrow strip of plastic that was bent into a U shape, painted brown and glued into its place just inside the monument. 

The entire deck of the “Arizona” was painted using Testors Medium Green with the exclusion of the foredeck area between turret number one and one inch from the bow.  This area was painted Testors Flat Black. To simulate the sea growth on the superstructure , railroad scenery grass was used.

Making the water for the dio was a real challenge.  the water was made using poured layers of resin. Almost three quarts of resin was used to “sink” the ship.  Green and blue dyes were used to color the resin sea.

Once dry, I glued the roof in its place. I placed cotton balls, slightly pulled apart, inside the monument to prevent the inside from getting messed up from the continued work.  Then came puttying and sanding of the seams. Using Five Minute Epoxy and a small paint brush handle I made the three skylights on the roof over the room that houses the ships bell.  The monument was then airbrushed with Testors Flat White. 

The Tree Of Life Sculpture

To recreate the Tree of Life sculpture at the Shrine Room end of the monument took a bit of doing.  Had to find a picture of the monument where the angle was directly on one of the sides. Enlarged the photo with a Xerox copier to the size of the model monument. With a pair of cuticle scissors (these are very pointed and very sharp) and a magnifying glass, I cut out the stencil to use for painting.  This was an eyestraining process trying to cut it out perfect, double-sided tape was placed on the back of the paper before cutting, so it would adhere to the monument for painting, the final stencil was 1/8 wide and 3/8 tall. The stencil was placed on the monument wall and pressed down with the reverse end of an Xacto knife and fine line tape to enclose the sides of the stencil.  Bathroom tissue was used to protect the rest of the monument from overspray, I lightly airbrushed over the stencil with Testors Flat Black.  When the result wasn't satisfactory, I sanded off the Flat Black using a fine grain sandpaper and repainted the area with Flat White, reapplied the stencil and tried again. This process was repeated about three times until I was satisfied.  It even included cutting more stencils.

Making The Pilings

During drying times I started to cut plastic coated wire to make the pilings supporting the monument over the ship. I started with my best guess on how long they needed to be.  The piling supports under the monument were cut from same sheet plastic that has been used all along with this project. Cut to size according to the photos I had for reference.

I glued two pieces of sheet plastic together to get the thickness needed. Drilled holes in the plastic support for the pilings and glued them in place, but not attached to the monument yet. 

The Boat Landing

The boat landing was made from the sheet plastic, double thickness at the boat landing area and a single piece for the walkway into the monument, bent in places to be steps.  Metal ship railings were used as the railings around the boatlanding itself. To reproduce the wooden remains of the first monument platform,  I used a popcicle stick, sanded it smooth and weathered with gray and black pastel chalks, the boat tie-downs were cut from the antennas from the model kit and painted rust and white. The mooring quays were guessed.  I studied many aerial photos to determine how the mooring quays measured up to the ship itself and drew up a pattern that looked very close.  Proceeded to cut the sheet plastic using the pattern and also cut out one-sixteenth inch sides for both mooring quays, used super glue to fill the seams, and filed smooth, painted Testors Insignia White and filled with railroad scenery grass. During the drying times I worked on the ship deck.

Before enclosing the monument, the inside had to be completely finished, then the interior was airbrushed overall using Testors Insignia White and a clear flat finish.  The Tree of Life sculpture, located at the end of monument was created by using photos of the sculpture and a stencil.

Using an X-Acto knife, I carved out the quarterdeck turret foundation caps and filed and smoothed the edges smooth.  A hole was also made for the location of the funnel in the superstructure deck hadn hat to be collasped to make it look appear deep as with the turrets.

 The Battleship Arizona Model

The model used was the Revell seventeen inch Battleship Arizona kit. The only pieces I used was the three main deck pieces and two of the main turret’s. Assembled the deck pieces as per the instructions, but with a few modifications. The foredeck turret foundations were cut down level with the deck. Foredeck turret one along with the barrels was cut in half horizontally, and glued in its place on the foredeck. The center of foredeck turret two was cut out so only the edges remained and then glued to its place on the forward deck, this gives the appearance of being deeper in the water, because this is area of the ship that collapsed into the hull during in the explosion.  Using an Xacto knife, I carved out the quarterdeck turret foundation caps, and filed smooth the edges. 

The superstructure deck had to have a hole made for the funnel.  I used my hot wire to cut out the hole, and I filed it smooth. Also, the forward part of the superstructure deck needed to be "collapsed" to make it look deep like the turrets.  I cut out the bulkhead between the main deck and the upper deck from the middle all the way forward.  I took a candle flame and heated the plastic until it started to bend, then forming it to lay on the lower deck and fitting it to the back of foredeck turret two. The entire deck was painted Testors Medium Green, with the exclusion of the foredeck area between turret number one and one inch from the bow was painted Testors Flat Black.  (this area is not visible in photographs). To simulate the sea growth on the superstructure deck (this is the deck closest to the surface of the water) I used railroad scenery grass. Spreading white glue all over the deck I sprinkled a light covering of the grass, using my finger I pressed the grass down in place. Repainting this area with Testors Medium Green and lightly dry brushed with Testors Rust.  The quarterdeck turret two foundation was painted a mixture of Testors Rust, Leather and Flat Black. During drying times, I worked on the monument. About this time a started making the flag and flagpole. I used a very fine gauge metal wire for the pole, painted it white and glued to a piece of the mainmast leg, that was painted the same mixture of Testors Rust, Leather and Flat Black. The flag was a color xerox reduction of a railroad decal, a decal was used for each side with a piece of aluminum foil in between, so the flag could be posed in any position. White waxed thread was used for the flag cord, I secured it at the top of the flagpole with white glue, and ran the thread between the decals of the flag, before ending the thread at the base of the flagpole.

The structure’s pilingswere fashioned from plastic-coated wire and the piling supports under the monument were cut from sheet styrene. The boat landing was also made using sheet plastic, and metal ship railings were used around the boat landing area.  To reproduce the wooded remains of the first monument platform, I used pieces of a Popcicle stick.

Painting The “Arizona”

The entire deck was painted Testors Medium Green, with the exclusion of the foredeck area between turret number one and one inch from the bow was painted Testors Flat Black. (this area is not visible in photographs).  To simulate the sea growth on the superstructure deck (this is the deck closest to the surface of the water) I used railroad scenery grass. Spreading white glue all over the deck I sprinkled a light covering of the grass, using my finger I pressed the grass down in place. Repainting this area with Testors Medium Green and lightly dry brushed with Testors Rust. The quarterdeck turret two foundation was painted a mixture of Testors Rust, Leather and Flat Black.  During drying times, I worked on the monument.  About this time a started making the flag and flagpole. I used a very fine gauge metal wire for the pole, painted it white and glued to a piece of the mainmast leg, that was painted the same mixture of Testors Rust, Leather and Flat Black.  The flag was a color xerox reduction of a railroad decal, a decal was used for each side with a piece of aluminum foil in between, so the flag could be posed in any position.  White waxed thread was used for the flag cord, I secured it at the top of the flagpole with white glue, and ran the thread between the decals of the flag, before ending the thread at the base of the flagpole.

The Water

I had attempted making water this way several years ago using polyester resin, but not knowing anything about it.  A modeler friend of mine volunteered to help pour the resin, (he didn't know much about resin either), talk about the blind leading the blind. 

We ended up pouring the resin too deep and too quickly, all in one evening.  Before the evening was over the resin began to get very hot and started to crack, before it was through, the "water" was in four chunks and my model was encased inside two of the pieces, a total loss. This time, a little wiser about resin and with some of advice from an experienced fellow modeler, and the saying "learning from one's mistakes", I tried again.

I used a plastic two cup measuring cup and cut a gallon milk-jug to make a bowl for mixing. I measured out ten ounces of resin at a time, this made each pour about one- eighth inch deep. Almost three quarts of resin was used to "sink" the ship. Green and blue dyes were used to color the resin. I placed the ship's deck on the base, and started pouring the resin, I temporarily glued the piling assemblies to their place on the monument so the resin would hold them in place. I began dying the resin dark and went lighter as

The Revell seventeen-inch long kit of the USS Arizona was used as a basis for the ship’s hulk.  The only parts used from the kit were the three main deck sections and two of the main turret parts.

For the flagpole, a piece of fine-guage metal wire was used and the flag is a color Xerox reduction of a railroad decal.  A decal was used for both sides with a piece of aluminum foil in-between.  this allows the flag to be posed in any position.  White waxed thread was used for the flag cord.

the depth increased. When the resin was deep enough to hold the pilings, I removed the monument to continue working on it.  Each pour took three days to cure. This procedure did not melt the ship very much, not like the last time. There was some melting in the form of small gray bubbles that rose to the surface after each pour that touched the ship. I had used one of the kits mast legs to use as the base of the flagpole, the resin kept the plastic soft. as I went along. As the "water" got deeper, I kept checking to see how the monument would look sitting in its place over the ship. The more I looked, the more the pilings looked too tall.  With the base of the pilings a quarter inch deep in resin, I had to cut them down where they stood.  I had to do this one more time as the "water" rose. I had about three more pours to go and still needed to finish the monument, and it is the Fourth of July weekend, five days before the IPMS Nationals, I was rapidly running out of time.  I spent the entire weekend frantically working on the Tree Of Life stencil and the flagpole. The last pour of resin made the water too dark and obscured the bow and stern. This ruined the entire effect of the diorama, this was totally unacceptable. I ended up chipping out about three layers of previously poured resin over the ship with a hammer and a bladed screwdriver, and replacing it with clear resin.  This effort helped, you could see the ship again (what a relief).  I ended up drilling a hole for the flagpole in the resin at the aft side of the monument.  I spread acrylic gel with my finger to texture the water surface. 

When all was dry, all surface items (monument, boatlanding, mooring quays and the remnants of the previous platform were glued in their place.  This project was started shortly after the 1994 Northridge earthquake and was finished two days before I left for Nationals (a year and a half in the making) and all my work paid off, I placed second in the Ships Diorama category!

References

Ship’s Data 3, USS Arizona - Leeward Publications

Remembering Pear Harbor, The Story of the USS Arizona Memorial  by Robert Slackman

Battleship Arizona: An Illustrated History  by Paul Stillwell

Pearl Harbor: A Return to the Day of Infamy by Thomas B. Allen,  National Geographic, Vol. 180 No.6, December 1991 issue.

Honolulu Star Bulletin newspaper, December 1991 Commerative issue, Special Section