Very cool project/diorama!
I had the privilege of diving on the Arizona, while living and working on Ford Island at the SEAL Delivery Team in the 1990s.
The monument is a national park, and the ranger was an archeologist. He recruited us to dive on the ship every few months to collect the coins thrown on the ship by tourists. All in an effort to stop galvanic corrosion. He had a plexiglass/waterproofed drawing of the ship (top & side views), as she sits today.
It would be great if you could get your hands on that resource!
As we dove, he would point to different items of note:
1. Ketchup bottles, still on the floor of the mess deck. This is where the majority of coins were, just yards to the left of the viewing platform in the photo below.
2. A clawfoot tub through a portal on the Captain's Cabin,
3. Finally, he had us slowly drop 5 stories into the turret of the aft gun that blew out, up, and ended 200yds on Ford Island (see photo of the empty aft turret). Here, deep in the bowels of the ship, covered with silt, there are 100s of small metal boxes, filled with the ashes of survivors who chose to be buried with their shipmates!!! Very somber, sobering and surreal!
Finally, important for your diorama: The top half of the ship's bow is completely gone! We had to swim 15-20 yards of open water to reach this part of the ship. It is amazing the power of the explosion that caused this damage! (see attached photo to see the missing bow section).
I hope to see more posts on your unique model/diorama!
