First timer to US Naval ship modeling (USS Nassau LHA-4)

subfixer

 

Mikeym_us

I believe they actually use asphalt on the flight deck. Starts out black then fades to that very shade of gray over time.

 

Mike F6F

Here's a couple Navy photos of Peleliu (LHA 5.)

You can see that flight decks are not black.

 

 

 

 

 

The decks are definitely not asphalt, it is a special epoxy paint mixed with a sand like material. It will skin you up badly if you fall on it when it is fresh. Non-skid is the real deal.

 

And there is nothing quite like working the flight deck after a fresh non-skid application. It's like being inside a sandblast box until it gets worn down a little.

SL70

I was onboard the USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7) from '89-92 which was also an anphibious assault ship so operations were similar however, we didn't have a well deck. I was an ABH, yellow shirt who worked on the hanger deck and flight deck for three years. If you depict the ship at flight quarters, the ships starboard side aircraft elevator should be up. You never brought aircraft to the flight deck with this elevator during flight ops otherwise they'd call a red deck and flight ops would stop. The aft elevator I would assume could be up or down. I would ask a crewmember on this point since our ship was set up diffrently. If at flight quarters, the P-16 (Fire fighting truck) was allways stationed at spot one. This is spot, on our ship was almost off of the deck. You will notice the P-16 the white truck with the red stripe is far forward on a few of the photos. All yellow gear, tow tractors, ox carts, maintenance stands were stationed behind the foul line if not in use. The foul line is the red and white stripe that goes the length of the flight deck near the island. Dispite what previous posters stated these ships allways rusted. Especially from the deck drains that are visible on the side of the sip. Also the anchor rusted pretty good. I remember on the way back from the med the deck department had guys painting the hull using cargo nets straped to the side of the ship while we were underway! Crazy. Aircraft elevator nets and the deck edge safety  nets were allways in place during flight ops. If they were not, then it was another red deck condition and you wouldn't fly. Also during that time period these ships did operate Harriers. They had an AIMD department that could support these aircraft. Our ship could launch and recover the Harrier but could not support the maintenace of the aircraft due to the age of the ship so we never deployed with them. Our ship had a glide slope indicator on the fantail for the Harriers and it looks like the LHA had them as well. Look for the long stick type thing with about four lights on the rear of the ship to the left. This was a later modification for us so your ship may not have had it yet. Along the side of the flight deck should be bomb chutes. These were used in case we had to jettoson bombs off the flight deck. The chutes were bright yellow with a flat black bomb stencled on them.

Check out the link for the Model Warship forum for specific info on Navy ships.

A few links:

www.navysite.de/.../lha4.htm

www.navsource.org/.../0704.htm

www.shipmodels.info/.../index.php

Anchors Aweigh!

Steve (ABH-3)

 

I'm a little late to the party, but it's good to see another Gator sailor. 

I was on USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2) in AIMD from 1985-1989.

I was the only Parachute Rigger assigned to the ship. When we deployed I got 1 Marine from the embarked MAU/MEU to help me.

 Wish I could find a model of the Iwo. I've looked and looked but they're pretty rare.

Cheers,

Mark

Hey G just sniped me a Tarawa kit for under $15 bucks from E Bay this morning.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121779531566

Looking at that kit it is a good thing I picked up the White Ensign aircraft sets when I did since I'll be using those on that since my other LHA's and LPD's are still in my storage shed outside of town.

bump

Yep, then send me a PM ddp

I bought a set of 12 as well, so i will not need any extras. As far as the model goes, work has taken my time, so I have not gotten anything done after gluing the hull together...More to come at some point in time...I hope!

if fireblade doesn't want those extra harriers, i'll buy them off you.

So I got the Dragon kit and am mostly finished. It turned out to have a lot of problems that took time to fix, mostly having to do with the PE set not being too well matched, and both the Dragon and PE instructions lacking much information.

I bought a set of Harriers, which came with twelve. I managed to get the six I needed together ok and not lose any parts. If you want the other six just let me know and I'll give them to you, or maybe trade for some of your decal sheet that you don't need. The decal sheet for the birds includes the tail feathers for VMA-542 as well, mine will be 513 Bravo.

What really is FUBAR is that none of the deck markings except  the number and the safety stripes around the edges of the elevators came with the model, and the stripe locations are molded raised. I've sanded those down to be just visible enough to use as guides. But I'm in the same boat (pun intended) as you for the yellow stripe. I do have a sheet of yellow decal film, but I think it's way too thick. It may not be out of the realm of possibility to mask and paint it. I'll keep you posted.

So one more question. The kit only has the white decals for the deck, so what do you guys use for the yellow stripes on carriers? The only stripes I've seen are too thin and used on Model Railroads.

Since all I'll be showing is the black, i'll just airbrush that water line and call it a day!

So my WAG based on that latest photo (you can see the scum btw). The ship has a black boot stripe in the normal manner. Assuming the ship at dock is in it's normal ballast, there's no compensation for flooded draft, it just gets gray paint wet.

What's a normal boot stripe? I have no idea, I've seen them anywhere from 2 feet to 6 feet or so.

Truth is I've gotten used to the look of 3mm Tamiya tape as a mask. So that's about 1 meter when scaled up 350.

Then for your purposes a half of that, around 1/16".

            I dug through my photos but had no luck.  All of my photos are either entering or exiting the well deck, when it is ballasted and putting the waterline stripe somewhere below the surface.  In other photos, such as postcards I can see the stripe, but it is barely discernable.  Finally I took to the Navy web site and I think I came across the perfect picture for referencing the stripe on the Nassau.

            Concerning the nonskid – that stuff is straight evil, it is like 1-grit sandpaper.  I had to low crawl a good portion of the Belleau Wood’s flight deck as a lowly Wog on the way to becoming a Shellback.  It tore holes through the cammies I was wearing inside out.

 http://www.navy.mil/management/photodb/photos/050205-N-0295M-007.jpg

Fireblade can you post the pic?

It isn't much to hang any hats on what the kit instructions do or do not tell you. Got to look, ask and make up ones own mind.

Actually it's called SSSM (Super secret sand material).

Mikeym_us

I believe they actually use asphalt on the flight deck. Starts out black then fades to that very shade of gray over time.

Mike F6F

Here's a couple Navy photos of Peleliu (LHA 5.)

You can see that flight decks are not black.

The decks are definitely not asphalt, it is a special epoxy paint mixed with a sand like material. It will skin you up badly if you fall on it when it is fresh. Non-skid is the real deal.

Well, I take that back. Here is a picture I found in 2008 of the waterline, so I can use that as a perfect reference, even though this picture is likely taken with a light-weight empty ship..

What does a wide waterline boot mean? I would have thought that Revell would have shown where to paint it IF the LHAs had them. I can't find a single reference. Either way, AS for reference pics, If I don't see a waterline, then I won't need to paint one if I stick this model in model water diorama anyway...

I think they had a wide waterline boot since the ship sank and lowered in order to flood the well deck

Did any of the LHAs have the waterline on the hull painted? I can't find any references pointing to it. I'm curious if pn;y certain ships got the red treatment?

Mike F6F

Here's a couple Navy photos of Peleliu (LHA 5.)

You can see that flight decks are not black.

Ah okay thanks!

Fireblade910,

PE are the initials for Photo Etched. That is photo etched brass material that can be made much more finely and more detailed than plastic. Usually, I suppose, stamped, chemically etched and/or laser cut..

Here's the URL to the set in which, I believe, you'd be interested: http://www.goldmm.com/ships/gms7026.htm

Mike

P.S.: Here's another URL with a much better explanation of how PE is made than my ignorant attempt above: http://titanic-model.com/articles/photoetch/Photoetched_Brass.htm

What is PE? As far as paint goes, I am pretty decent with the airbrush, and detail N scale locomotives (1:160) So I have a good base to go off of, I Figure I'll paint the hull and deck separate, build the superstructure into one piece and paint it by itself and then attach everything together and continue with the detail/weathering.

Fireblade910

Since this is my first time building a ship since my childhood, I will likely start with the aircraft and painting/detailing them with the GMM kit, and then start working the structure and hull. I'll need to figure out what parts to build before I paint, and when to add the detail parts before i even start the kit.

I generally recommend that you mask & paint the kit parts (i.e. paint the deck,  mask it, paint the vertical) before you apply the PE.   Paint the PE on the fret,  use light coat(s).    Remove the part from the fret,  prepare and attach.   Use white glue (I prefer Aleenes Tacky Glue from the craft store)  to tack the part in place.  Then permanently attach with  CA.   Touch-up nicks & cracks in the paint with a hand brush.  At the end an overall dusting of clear flat will dull down any remaining shine from the glue and tie everything together. 

Since doing the entire airwing at one sitting may get repetitively boring,  you might consider doing only a couple at a time,  then move to the ship for a step or two, then back to the aircraft.

When applying the PE work top to bottom, inboard to outboard.   This minimizes the chances of an errant thumb smashing previously attached parts.     

Well the model came in this past week, I didn't realize paying for economy shipping meant a month of transit time from the East coast. Oh well, the LHA-1 kit actually comes with all the numbers fo the Tarawa class, so the 4s I need are included! Glad I didn't order a set! I'll likely be painting the deck a darker grey than the hull, but not too dark as most have suggested. As always there will never be a "correct" color, but from all the pictures I've been gathering, the deck looks like a medium dark grey rather than anything close to black. I will get some various colors and test them out to find what I feel to be the ideal color, plus there willl be patches as some of you suggested.

Since this is my first time building a ship since my childhood, I will likely start with the aircraft and painting/detailing them with the GMM kit, and then start working the structure and hull. I'll need to figure out what parts to build before I paint, and when to add the detail parts before i even start the kit.

Thanks D. In the picture (great pics by the way) of the CH-46, that looks to be one of the previously mentioned bomb chutes in the foreground.

The flight deck has a non-skid coating on it. It does get sun bleached. The deck markings will be heavily faded if the non-skid is too. The paint for vertical surfaces is 26270. The USN calls this color haze gray.  Testors calls the color neutral gray. Beware that in WW2 the USN had a paint with the same name that is the federal standard 35237. It's a blue gray.

The colors always look brighter in the photos you see on the net because they are taken in full sunlight on a clear day with minimal sea mist.

I figured a picture would work better than a word description, I pulled this image from the Marine Corps website.  Those little “x”s in the deck are what we referred to as clover leaves, it is how we secured the AAVs to the deck.  People use these things as spitunes, urinals and just plain old garbage holes, not to mention they are in the deck and all the muck and junk would collect in them after flooding the well deck.  If you screwed up you had to go clean the clover leaves.  I don’t think it served any real purpose, just a memorable punishment that kept you from repeating the offense.