I usually build airplanes, but recently became interested in ships from the US Navy in World War II. I know a couple of veterans, who regale me with their stories of the Pacific War. Ivan served on the USS Shangri-la; Chuck served on a landing craft tank (LCT 812). Both enlisted as teenagers, and had to have parental permission to sign up. Ivan got transferred from being an electrician into the boiler room, after he helped himself to a bottle of liquor from the captain's cabin. Chuck had his other LCT blown out from under him, and ended up floating in the ocean with the rest of the crew, till a Liberty ship rescued them.
So this, plus reading The First Team (John B. Lundstrom) moved me out of my comfort zone to attempt a ship, the first I've done in about 40 years or more.
I wanted to depict the Lexington as she might have appeared in early 1942, during the Bougainville and Lae-Salamaua raids. According to Snyder & Short, this would have put her in Measure12 camouflage. I opted for 5-S instead of 5-N. I used White Ensign Colourcoats throughout, and did a little mild weathering with filters and washes. Unfortunately, things turned out so faint and subtle, it's hard to tell.
I rigged her with stretched sprue, as far as I could find information, and guesstimated the rest. All my research was done on the web, since I have plenty of aircraft books, but none on ships.
I built her straight OOB, since I didn't feel too confident with photoetch add-ons; however I did use LionRoar's set for her radar, and then I broke one of the kit boat davits, so had to replace all of them with more LionRoar. I added the flag pole aft of the stack, but tore the flag sticker that came with the kit, so I made another from a graphic obtained on the internet.
The kit had a number of quirks, but it is supposed to be over 30 years old. Still, it built up pretty well. Looking through the "Ships" forum here was a big help. I learned a lot, and look forward to bulding more ships.
