Aircraft Carrier GB 2016

Hi Rob, glad to see another Yorktown Class joining the fray.  B-25 is looking good.  Same with the work your are doing on the hull of the Tico Archangle. 

As for me, just waiting on an new order of PE.

Thanks scot. I just finished up the rest of the Mitchells. Posting pics soon.

My B-25 count is now down to 13 . I'm going with it. 3 have taken off!! Too tedious and stressful to try to repair #14!! I did, also, manage to break off the front landing gear of 4 of the others, so, they'll hide near the back of the pack. Also, broke off a left gear of another, so, it'll be a balance job to get it to sit flat....sheesh...I'm thinking this will be my last 1/700 carrier (with prop planes, that is). They are too delicate and my hands are way too big to handle them!! All that said, I now have a small air wing of 13 B-25s set aside and now I can start the main construction.

Here's my crazy jig for holding all the planes for the assembly line. I also was so frustrated and into this crazy aircraft build, I failed to get progress pics.

Here's the surviving 13 aircraft ready to go....

Gonna get on the hull tonight.

Just a quick constuction note...I recommend to anyone who plans on doing aircraft in 1/700 scale to apply a single dot of Future to set the micro decals. They WILL NOT adhere to the planes so, they Future was the solution. 

Got a good start on the Carrier itself tonight. Made it to step 4: setting up the bow and stern parts and laying on of the under-deck. Lots of parts and MANY fiddly bits, as usual for Trumpy ships. Going well so far....

Nice work on the B-25's Rob, despite your issues. And a good tip for the decals. My build will be 1/600, but i imagine the same will apply. Not looking forward to painting those.

Rob....I never tried a 1/700 ship before and looks like I may pass on those. Heck I thought the aircraft in the 1/350 Ticongeroga were tiny. Those B-25's would cross my eyes working on them. But they do look good!

I've got a Russian Kutsnetsov carrier left in the stash (1/720). Me thinks that will be my last micro scale carrier. The planes are just too hard to handle at that scale. Other warships, though, i will do.  I would never want to build any carrier without a complete set of aircraft...

The crazy jig, almost like saying, "if models grew on trees..."

Im summoning up the drive to lay down the keel on the Chakri Naruebet. Warming up by putting up hulls of two corvettes I plan to build later in the year.

An update here on the Ticongeroga. Have installed all the hanger walls to the hull deck and have encounter some fit issues which had to be sanded down or cut to fit. Next will be filling all the unsightly seams. Laid the hull to the lower hull and there's a fit issue there too and both are one piece assemblies so it wasn't something I did wrong . The 3 piece landing deck parts have interlocking tabs which don't interlock but I will remove those so to get a tighter fit. I don't want to go any further till I receive the PE set.

With the main components just resting on one another she is an impressive kit

This shows the tabs on the flight deck parts. I have fiddle with these and they just don't fit to where the deck will lay flat.

Taking a brief break while waiting on the Eduard PE set I order from Sprue Brothers to come in. I placed the order on the 14th and was expecting it to arrive about a week later but the USPS tracking info says I will have it tomorrow the 18th. That was pretty fast.

I usually use Gold Metal detail sets but came across the one by Eduard so I figure give it a shot and see what their ship sets are like. 

Scott

Got quite a bit of work done on the Hornet . All upper hull wall sections mounted and everything under the flight deck (less guns and mini-boats) installed. I had a few inches of railing left over from past ship builds to I managed to rail the bow and stern only. I ordered a few more sets of 1/700 railings but they will have to go in late. Also, managed to get the ocean grey down and the port side cam job done...starboard side tonight. I was really happy about the majority of the fit considering the amount of parts needed to build up the sides. I used some minor filler to close up some gaps, but, with the paint on now, no show on that, so, I was happy. I dry fit the flight deck and it will go on fine.

Here's the sea-camouflage mask used with a 150% enlarged photocopy of the instructions

And finally....life rafts and sea doors painted and some minor drybrushing...

That camo scheme looks great! Are you using Life Color paints?

I thought about cutting out some of the hanger doors on the Triconderoga and detail the inside area but the plastic is rather thick and then I figure I will just get bogged down on the build and go past the deadline.

No, just good 'ole Tamiya acrylics. Trumpy always has Gunze (Mr. Color) colour callouts, but, I don't use them. Yeah, there's tons of potential to have the regular Air wings under the deck to be exposed by the open doors, but, NOPE, after struggling with the Lexington (last year) Air Wing AND the B-25s in 1/700 scale, I decided my sanity was more worth it!!

Great idea enlarging the instructions and using as a stencil! Looks really good!

Thanks! I'm now working on all the under deck guns...there's a bloody bunch of 'em...This ship packed some wicked firepower...it amazes me that she was defeated at Santa Cruz.

Got the Eduard PE set in the mail today, forgot yesterday was a federal holiday or I would had it then. Kudo's to Sprue Bros for fast shipping. Looking over the instructions and the PE frets, boy this is going to keep me busy for awhile and there's a second set to boot for more railings and walkways. Will order that one next payday.

Didn't mess up too bad getting started on the build before the PE came in. What needs to be cut is easy to reach. As for opening up any bulkhead doors and have the hatch in the open position, I'm kicking around the of just paiinting the door area black. Figuring from a couple of feet away, one really wouldn't notice it. Will experiment with that and see how it looks.

Scott

got some good progress today. Photobucket is down, so, I'll post pics when it's back up. I got the hull red down and the black stripe separating the the greys and hull red. Life boats done and installed and flight deck started.

Have you got room on here for one more?  I've got a model of the U.S.S. SARATOGA CV-60 that I'd like to build on here.  She's unstarted and rearing to go.

Thanks,

Bill

Well, another day of NO Photobucket, so, no pics again  If this continues, you'll have to 'take my word for it' that I finished my Carrier!!! Frustrating.

Anyway, got the mid-island complete. The Hornet's island was cam painted up the sides and I did that while still on the sprue. Assembly went well. The only complication was she was painted 'deck blue' on all roofs and any surface seen from above, so, that was difficult and had to be done by hand. Not super stoked on how it turned out. For some reason, the Model Master paint had some 'adherence' issues with Trumpy plastic. I really don't like MM paints! I have nothing but trouble with them if I don't prime (which I didn't, as I didn't realize the deck blue was required until AFTER I had already almost completed the island ). IF I can get some pics up, there will be quite a bloody list of them!!

Hornet is looking good Rob!

Thanks guys. I have some more progress to report. I got underway on the flight deck. The 'deck blue' is down and all the deck guns and deck buildings are done. I decided to paint the white lines on the deck surface instead of the decals as the chances of them silvering was inevitable and it would bug me.

again, problems with Photobucket....

I went back and corrected the chipping on the deck...MM paint is so sensitive to masking and I even primed the surface!

Looking good there. What color paints are you using?

Welcome aboard Scorp2. You are now part of the Group.....Cheers mark

Really like what I have seen so far. Will be starting mine shortly as the Hyuga and Work got in the way.......Cheers Mark