Pearl Harbor in Your Pocket

Overview

My interest in the Pearl Harbor story started in 1991 or '92 when I was 5 or 6 and did something that pushed my dad a little too far. However, instead of getting mad, he gave me an assignment to write a three page report (with a map) on the story of Pearl Harbor. I didn't much care for having to write the report then, but now I'm glad that I did it. Since then I have tried to learn all that I can about December 7, 1941 and the U.S.S. Arizona.

In November of 1994, I read an article in "FineScale Modeler" about an incredible 1/4100 scale model of Pearl Harbor as it appeared on Dec. 7, 1941, built by Bob Bracci. This was my inspiration to build it myself. I would build the model on a 9"x7" base (which was made from three pieces of wood glued side-by-side), and the area would extend from Drydock number 1 to the hospital ship Solace, making it about 1/3 the size of Bob Bracci's Pearl Harbor, or about 1/12,300 scale. Also, I decided not to tell anybody about my project, just in case it didn't turn out.

The Build

I studied the article for a few weeks, then, on Dec. 1, '94, started drawing out the major land masses in pencil. Next, I went over the pencil lines with a black felt pen, then drew in the location of details such as ships, buildings, and the petroleum reserves. I worked on this off and on for months, even taking it to school and working on it when I could (which once got me in trouble). While working on the layout, I built subassemblies such as ships, the first one being the U.S.S. Arizona, probably the most detailed piece on the diorama.

I finally finished drawing the harbor on the base in August, 1995, and started painting the water using Testors French Blue. The main painting was finished in just a few weeks. Next, I went to work making buildings and finishing the ships, starting at Ford Island. There were also trees that needed to be there, and couldn't just be painted on, so I used ground foam as is used for model railroad dioramas, covering the area needed with Testors Matt Varnish, then covering that with the foam.

The buildings were made out of either plastic strip, basswood, or balsa wood, using the material that was easiest to use for each. The ships were made with basswood hulls and stretched sprue masts, except the Arizona, which has a styrene hull. The styrene was just too difficult to work with for all the small ships. For the 37 petroleum reserves tanks, I used sections of styrene tube, which had a drop of white paint applied to fill the hole after being glued to the base.

After I had the base painted and all buildings in place, I had to put the ships on. To keep from losing them while I worked on the rest of the project, I put each ship on to a piece of tape, then put that in a shallow box so they wouldn't be crushed. Around the 1st of December, 1995, I started to attach the ships to the base, all except the U.S.S. Arizona.

On December 7, 1995 (which was a school day for me), I woke up at about 7:00 am, went to my work table, and glued on the Arizona, the last sub-assembly, completing 251 pieces. At that time, still nobody knew about it. I put it into a box and took it to school, where I took it to most of the classes and showed it off.

Conclusion

Since I built this in 1995, when I didn't have much experience in scratch-building and didn't really have the tools or materials, I think that I could do a much better job. I am still proud of it, though. Someday I might try a project like this again. If I did, I would definitely start with a better base, use better materials, and pick a different scale, since trying to build it in 1/12,300 again is just too small!"