SEARCH FINESCALE.COM

Enter keywords or a search phrase below:

U.S.S. ANTIETAM-1/700 angled deck carrier-DRAGON -kit

2298 views
6 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    August 2008
U.S.S. ANTIETAM-1/700 angled deck carrier-DRAGON -kit
Posted by tankerbuilder on Friday, November 18, 2011 3:03 PM

As many of you who do finagle your way through my posts have found , I do not really care for 1/700 scale ship kits . After acquiring a magnifier visor I jumped in .I wanted angled deck carrier , it,s that simple . The ANTIETAM is the only game in town . DRAGON kits, to , me , anyway , seem to run the gamut , between good models , terrible instructions or fair models with absolutely useless instructions. This kit fell in between .I still can,t post photos , but , bear with me ,I will be able to soon .Back to the model ,  Point one . There are so many tiny parts it,s driving my eyes nuts , even with magnifiers . Point two .  the instructions right at the beginning give you a confusing situation where the island parts are concerned . There are two (fits) or versions that can be done from this model  ,1953 or 1956 . That,s nice as the 53 fit has a BUNCH of tiny deck support pieces . The 56 fit has a nice sponson in clear ? and solid grey plastic for under the deck overhang . They also give you two decks .Yup . One clear and featureless and one solid grey with all the details molded in . Point three . The island ,minus the overhangs windows etc , is a single molding NOT a twopiece unit .This is nice and it,s NOT .If it shrinks in the middle before you get your stick little model building hands on it you get problems .SOLUTION .Find a piece of brass tubing just slightly larger in o.d. than the inside space in that molding . Cut a piece and insert it in the piece .If it spreads it to far take a pair of pliers and squeeze the tubing slightly .The point is , you want it to fit over the locator on deck ,  not just one side but completely even . Now once you,ve done that ,gather all the parts you need to build the island .There are four that are clear and used on both versions .This regardless of what the instructions indicate . Paint the deck color and the light haze grey on all parts BEFORE assembly .Now carefully put all these parts together . Watch out for the sequence ! Don,t deviate ! If you do the window units will not fit without pulling everything loose and starting over .How do I know ? well who,s writing this ?  Yup , I boo-booed !! Anyway . this ship doesn,t look so bad when you start making progress . The other thing is for those who want a full hull . All the parts are supplied . All in grey plastic . The bottom unit , (for the bottom , screws rudder etc. Does not fit the hull very well . I had to use SUPER GLUE as well as TESTORS CEMENT (liquid) and lots of scotch tape and a heavy dose of patience . Even with that I had to resort to filler ,TWICE ! Now it,s all grey so I can stop for today . I will chime back in on this in a day or two.            tankerbuilder . I forgot to mention that you also get , in the kit , TWO in scale tugboats  ,my question WHY ??

  • Member since
    November 2005
  • From: Formerly Bryan, now Arlington, Texas
Posted by CapnMac82 on Friday, November 18, 2011 4:49 PM

Why two tugs?

Well, like as not, there were at least two tugs in all the reference pictures they had of the ship in harboar or roads.

Or, they suspect that there will be someone who needs two tugs badly enough to buy the carrier, too.

Or, perhaps, there just was too much blank space on the die for the sprue, and "something" had to be fit in there.

  • Member since
    March 2005
  • From: West Virginia, USA
Posted by mfsob on Wednesday, November 23, 2011 7:32 AM

I suspect it's more like with the price of some kits these days, the manufacturers are trying to throw us a bone - Yes, we know the kit costs a little more, but look! You get TWO TUGBOATS TOO!

Woot.

 

  • Member since
    August 2008
Posted by tankerbuilder on Wednesday, November 23, 2011 7:35 AM

You just made me smile CapnMac.That is true I guess .Thing is  .what the heck am I supposed to do with them ? I am a pretty fair ship driver .Well,I never dented any of my ships in 22 years and I liked being at or near the helm when coming in or leaving port  . The pilots didn,t like that !!     tankerbuilder

  • Member since
    November 2005
  • From: Formerly Bryan, now Arlington, Texas
Posted by CapnMac82 on Wednesday, November 23, 2011 11:48 PM

Yeah, but the visibility over the port side, and fore and aft, not so great.  That's offset, one supposes, by the fact that the response time of the ship is probably well within those "blind spots" anyway.

Would be interesting to hear from the LPD and LHA drivers out there, if for being all black-shoe staffed, yet with similar visibility issues.

Anchorage was exciting enough to maneuver through some of the Roads and Approaches.  And, that with a bridge that would let a person have the same view port or starboard.  Perfectly happy to have Moran or Trinity or the like perfectly welcome, along with a local Pilot.   And Anchorage had nothing on the County-class LSTs <long, well-pleased-to-be-past-that, sigh>

  • Member since
    September 2006
  • From: san francisco,ca
Posted by raider-hall on Sunday, November 27, 2011 1:23 PM

good luck on your build. i can't  work on 1/720 or 1/700 any more. eyesite is lousy.

  • Member since
    August 2008
Posted by tankerbuilder on Sunday, December 4, 2011 3:46 PM

I have gotten around this.I found a " FULL PAGE " FRESNEL LENS .I put it on a frame and swing it over the ship when I am working on it . This and a good set of drugstore readers has allowed me to continue forward with the build . There is another method I may be interested in  .  I don,t know the price though .  You have a camera fastened to your hand and on the large monitor on the desk you can see what you are doing.       tankerbuilder

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

SEARCH FORUMS
FREE NEWSLETTER
By signing up you may also receive reader surveys and occasional special offers. We do not sell, rent or trade our email lists. View our Privacy Policy.