Lindberg USS Mattaponi AO-41

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Lindberg-Models-1-520-Navy-Tanker-HL438-12-/291703034170?hash=item43eadb113a:g:MhMAAOSwZQxW3eAU&_trksid=p2349526.m3874.l7936

She fits right in with the Vietnam era Essex CVA's.

i have at least 2 of them & they are full hulls unlike revell's flat bottom tanker.

" G "

    It can turn into a nice little model. Waterline it and detail it like you always do and she should be fine . T.B.

Got my computer back today, man, does this thing run nice now. Had quite a few hidden bugs and needed some obsolete software removed. $140.00 worth of work. Oh well.

Anyway, the kit builds up to 12" long. Very basic, not a lot of parts, typical of a 1950's/60's kit.

The hull has "2016 Round 2 LLC Made in USA 02/15/16" printed on it.

Decals are from cartograf. All the hull numbers are not on it though, nor all the names. I can't get AO41, nor the name Mattoponi. I need two "T"'s and one "P", plus the #1 for the hull number. I'll have to look in the stash pile for something.

Some generic PE, especially railings will help a lot, as the rails are molded on. The rigging line is kinda crude, I'll use flyline. It's not just a "go together" kit. needs clean up and filling. Some creative add ons will help as well. I think it will build up well though with a bit of TLC. My buddy won't care if it's spot on. Probably will never notice any flaws. As long as the name and number are right and it's grey, He'll like it. This is the kit I needed. I've been in the build doldrums this summer and this baby will give me a reason to build.

Thanks GM for giving me the push.

EJ 

You'll be able to make your "1" out of those second set of "4".

As for the name, look into the woodland scenic rub on "gothic" white letters.

Hmmm.

    I seem to remember that my thinking back  when  ran this way ." Well it's smaller , But it sure reminds me of the Bigger , Revell Kit" . I even looked for the engine room skylight that in the Revell kit , you do the engine room in bright white with a machinery green color  and then you could look in the panes of glass ( no there was no clear parts ) .

     I guess so you could " See " the main engine and Turbine below . I always wondered why Revell did that though . Shoot , you really couldn't see squat ! Besides lighting that space never entered my little kids mind .  T.B. Here's a big P.S. Please remove those awful weld lines . Pretty Please ?

EJHammer ;

 I am sure you are aware that in the sixties most Naval Ships had Boot Stripes . This was a simple way to cover for the crud that might come off leaking hoses and stuff , that way the ship didn't look scruffy .      T.B.

Gonna resurrect this thread. I've not finished the kit yet, but getting close. First, gonna get rid of all the Photobucket placeholders. My account was deleted, so the pics are gone from there. I'm gonna re post the pics using Imjur. I loaded all the pics from my hard drive to a "Mattaponi" folder there. Once that's done, then a post to get up to date.

I think it's worth the effort. A thread with placeholders instead of pictures isn't much to look at.

Got 4 builds on the bench and want to get things caught up. EJ

To get caught up-

Installed backing and bolts for a base. Mounted it to a temporary "building" base.

Did some fitting for the main deck, and installed it. Took a bit of forced fit as the fit up was poor.

After, did a test fit on the prmanent base.

Worked on removing all the molded on railings and azteck ladders.

Then some filling and sanding. Removed all the rails from the superstructure parts too.

EJ

Some stuff came for it.

Decals

PE

Cleaned up for Tamiya primer.

I didn't like the hawse holes so re configured them

Tried to get the rounded eased edges on the holes with streched spru. Found out I'm absolutly no good at stretching spru.

So, I made parts from fine copper wire, glued them on, then created a fillet with thich super glue. With a bit more filler and sanding, I think they'll look fine.

Now, some PE. Placed a bunch of WT doors and folded up enough inclined ladders. 4 had to be either shortened or lengthened.

Airbrushed a swath of black for the boot top. She had a wide boot as she sat very low or very high depending on the load she was carrying.

Then masked for the bottom edge of the boot and sprayed the Anti fouling red.

Then masked from the top of the boot and sprayed the upper hull.

Masked for spraying the deck grey.

Cleaned up some small parts for spraying as well.

Made sure everything fit ok, added some stuff to the fore super so the rails would fit.

The kit guns. There is a lot of different opinions of what gunnery was aboard in 1961. A Mattaponi crewman is sending me 75 or so pictures he took and I will go by what they show. Thanks for that.

Will be looking for some better guns.

Took the kit to the monthly club saturday show & do meeting with the intention of working on railings. I had done the rails on the main deck at home. It was very Cold that day, about 15 degrees or so. When I took the thing out of the box, the rails were all bent up and wavy. I usually attach the rails with a few small spots of CA glue to get them in place, then "paint the bottom edge with Gators glue for a firm hold. We concluded that the exposure to the extreme cold and the plastic to metal join had popped them loose. I've never, and none of the otther guys had seen this before.

After I got home, I put the box in the model room. The next day when I took it out, some of the "wavy" had gone away but not all of it. This was what it looked like then.

I took it all off, cleaned up the deck edge and re-applied it. I had done some testing with UV cured glue. SO, I made a skinny puddle of the glue on the glass worktop, about 1 1/2 inches long. By dipping the edge of the rail in the puddle I got a nice linear surface of glue on it. Placing one end where I wanted it, then exposing that spot with UV, I tacked it in place. By tweaking it in place along the run and exposing it every inch or so I got it nearly perfectly lined up, then exposed the whole length to UV to set it. Had to fill a very few spots with glue using a bit of wire. I think it worked well. This is what it looks like after.

Patched the catwalk up a bit for the next run of rails.

This is where it's at now. The masts and vents are not glued in yet.

EJ

Now, this is what she looks like now. The vents and masts are not glued in place.

The hose masts and booms, I don't like them

I want to show them as ready to deploy, with hose. Looking kinda like this.

The rigging and hose work will have to go together hand in hand.
I'm gonna make the masts and booms of brass rod soldered together for strength, otherwise I'll break them every time I get near one. I'm thinking of using very fine spring or music wire for the standing rigging, and fine eze line for the misc rigging.

Then, the guns. I've got a nice selection of gunnery for it.

From Shapeways and 3D models. One of them, I forget which, had what I wanted but in the wrong scale, so I e-mailed them and Lo and Behold, they came in my scale. I was pleased. The 3D stuff seems to be a tougher plastic than either kit plastic or resin too. I can bend the barrels around a bit without breaking them. They all look good.

Single 40's, not elevated

Single 40's, elevated

3" 50's open mounts

5" 38 open

5" 38 open with skirt

5" 38 no skirt

Twin 40's w/ positionable barrels

This should keep me busy until I get the aftermarket for my Missouri build.

EJ

Nice to see this, EJ. I'm thrilled that the 3D sources can do that. Unrep ships, esp. in the Vietnam era, are really fascinating.

Man this project puts a smile on my face. One, taking an old kit and adding some new goodies to bring it up to a much better standard. Two, it’s for a guy who served on board her once upon a time, and otherwise would have no such momento of his service. 

Ha! Sounds a lot like my first enlistment. “.... well all those slots are full for the year. But if you enlist for this, they’ll come looking for volunteers for that at the school....”

Yeah right....

Played with making the hose masts and booms from bits of brass rod & tube. Each has 9 pieces, four booms.

This is what I cut -

Got some soldering done.

Just gotta solder up the base rings and make a pin to fix them in the hole on the deck. I think I'll try bending up the hose and attaching it before I intall them to the deck though. Maybe tomorrow.

EJ

Got em finished up with the base plate, top bearings, and a pin to mount them to the deck.

Next, the hoses. I'm looking through the junk pile for some solid copper electronics wire with black insulation. Geeze I miss Radio Shack.

EJ

Looks like you are having fun. Coming along very nicely.

I think I remember someone using solid conductor with black insulation for fuel hoses.

Had a can of Tamiya primer for metals. Never used it before, so I thought I'd give it a try. Shook it for a couple minits. When I sprayed it, it came out clear, and boy, did that stuff stink! I'm glad I have a spray booth.

Then, searched through my wire stash. I think those hoses were about 8" in diameter. That's .02" or 24 guage at 1/525. I found some in the stash that was an insulated wire, but not nearly enough. But I did find these,in black.

From top to bottom -

20g (.032") parawire, black coated jewelry wire.

26g (.016") parawire black

28g (.012") black soft iron wire

and some really skinny wire from a teeny magnetic coil, .003" or about 1/128". This is copper color and has an electrical insulating coating so has to be lightly sanded then blackened.

26g looks really skimpy to me, so I think I'll go with 20g. I'm gonna do a mock up of both 20g and 22g (I will have to paint that black). The 28g might work for the cable rigging that holds up the hoses.

EJ

EJ ,
Your build so far looks fantastic!!

I have a some questions

1.How are you going to do the supports and deck on the raised deck?
2. Do you have a source for the winchs for the booms and the hose rigging?
3. Are you going to add the ships boats?
4. Do you have a source for the cargo on the deck ie. barrels.crates ect.?

I'm building the same kit, I'm doing a UNREP diorama with the Bonnie *** (CVA-31) in 64 or 65
Thank you 

Great work EJ and very informative on how you are making the details on such a, pardon my expression, bland kit. this looks like a fun project.

Scott