Academy's FFG-7 USS Oliver Hazard Perry Conversion to FFG-47 USS Nicholas

Alright, so I finally managed to get to my laptop. Made pretty good progress on the final assembly and painting over the past two days. Here are the pics of the build so far!

Heres the two hull halves glued to gether. 

Had to remove this part of the stern in order to convert to the long hull version.

New transom fantail. After attaching, I had to do a lot of putty work and sanding in order to reshape the stern to accommadate the new piece. You'll also have to reshape the new flight deck for the long hull variant but its minor.

Bridge with photo-etech part 1

Bridge with photo-etch part 2.

Photo-etch SPS-49 radar.

Unfortunate with this mast, I broke off on of the supporting beams when taking it off the sprue and it flung some where behind my desk into the carpet...still trying to find it!

RHIB Platform. Left the RHIB off for painting.

Replaced the hangar bay doors with the photo-etch ones and made the starboard bay door open (enough to still put the decal on).

Seahawk 1 folded, the photo-etch detail made this look a lot better than the thick plastic parts.

Seahawk 1 folded view from the rear.

Seahawk 2 in-flight.

RHIB with photo-etch.

Thanks for the reply Nino! I'm gonna try to get some styrene sheets this weekend and try to make a couple. The photoetch set has the shields and stands for the 50 cals so Ill be sure to use those for the tiny ones I build! When my dad was on it (dont remember the service dates for this one but he was on this during 9/11) they had the seahawks attached. Trying to ask him questions about this ship without giving it away that Im building one haha but I've found a couple of photos from when he was onboard as reference plus the plethora I found on google! 

Honestly though, this has been one of the most fun kits I've done in a while. Mainly for the customizing and all the options that are available with the photoetch set! With that being said, the photoetch set is a must!

Next question, on the bridge, what color do I paint the windows? When I built the 1/350 Arleigh Burke DDG (his last ship DDG 58) it came with a clear bridge so I had actual windows. Would a sky blue suffice or what do yall recommend?

For my future kits I have been planning to drill out windows and use various sized PE railings as window frames. I was planning on using thin clear plastic or Testors Clear parts cement (Dries Clear!). Many many years ago I started a 1/600 Airfix HMS Tiger and I did a hint of green on dark blue, in gloss. I have not looked at that kit in decades. and I only completed a few sub-assemblies. IIRC it looked believable to me.

So I'm at work on my iPad and I noticed that the pictures aren't showing up but they show up on my laptop. Are y'all able to see or do I need to reupload them?

photobucket no longer allows you to hotlink photos from your page without paying, I believe....so we do not see photos in your posts above

AV8R1992

So I'm at work on my iPad and I noticed that the pictures aren't showing up but they show up on my laptop. Are y'all able to see or do I need to reupload them?

 

    Rob,

Folks have listed some alternatives for posting pics: Fotki, Village Photo, Flickr, etc.

     Here's a thread regarding Photobucket at http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235023381-photobucket-to-stop-allowing-direct-linking-unless-you-pay/

F-8fanatic

photobucket no longer allows you to hotlink photos from your page without paying, I believe....so we do not see photos in your posts above

 

 

                                     PB= poo-ie  

On the other hand, I've had a positive experience with  Postimage.  Simple to use, Free, works easily,its  Free, has a good graphic page ( Ya can see your pictures in a reasonable size as opposed to the postage stamp PB offerings) and  oh did I mention its Free?

Alright y'all, lets try this again!

So one of the things I noticed when I went to start painting is that I shouldve painted the deck before I put all the photoetch on...

Hmmmm;

 I hate to burst your bubble . Just have to . None of your pictures showed . PB must be holding them for ransom . I have this ship and would've liked to have seen what you did .  Got them on the second try . Thank you .

 Oh By the way . Can you imagine what scratch building that big Radar is like in 1/96 ? Can you say 134 parts ?   T.B. ------ P.S. Your P.E. Looks great !

Thanks! Yeah I used photo bucket but re-uploaded the photos through imgur and now they're showing no problem. Darn photo bucket! I really enjoyed the PE with this kit. I'm painting now and wished I waited to put them on and attached everything. Slowly painting around parts right now, should have pictures up by this weekend!

Your PE work is outstanding!

Too bad about not having painted the deck(s) first. I'm sure that with the patience it took to work on your PE you'll have no problem gettting the deck(s) painted.

I took the easy way out this morning with painting the decks, I whipped out the airbrush. I'm now going back and hand painting all the parts that need to be haze grey. The next challenge I have is painting the flight deck. The academy kit only came with decals for FFG7 but included the parts for the long hull variants (I think this is because they did release the Reuben James kit). So I'll be painting the deck markings with my airbrush. I did find the decal sheet that has the markings I need as well as the ships name and other USN markings from Hawk Graphics but I haven't heard anything back from them about my order.