1/350 Trumpeter lexington

There's a lot to answer here, so..

That's a nice kit. It goes together easily, I liked building her.

If you haven't yet bought the deck, you might rethink it. As you noted the deck is stained.

Measure 21 is correct at the Battle of the Coral Sea, which the model is patterned after.

The horizontals are Deck Blue 20-B and the verticals above the waterline are Navy Blue 5-N . There is not any Haze Gray 5-H or Ocean Gray 5-O.

Super simple, big blue ship.

At Coral Sea she was freshly painted and appears kind of shiny.

The aircraft are a little bit of a challenge. They were blue gray over light gray.

http://www.angelfire.com/dc/

These are not FS colors; that system was developed post-war.

If it's your first airbrush foray, I would suggest you try the AK Interactive US Navy Camouflages Part 1. It contains 5-N, 20-B, 5-H, 5-O, and the ship colors Sea Blue 5-S and 5-L Light Gray. Not the same as the aircraft colors, but those might look fine.

I didn't paint the model with these paints, as it was some years ago. But I'm trying them now on some other subjects.

They are acrylic, they work fine for me in my Badger 105 straight from the eye dropper bottle, and they are really nice and opaque.

You'll want to buy two sets- big blue ship.

 The GMM set is a good choice.

Do post your progress!

Bill

First ship model.  Have you worked with PE before, especially ship PE; railings, radar, etc?

Hmm,  first airbrush job.  New to wooden decks.  Uncertain about USN World War 2 colors.   Got a bit of money invested in the package that you don't want to screw up  Am  I right?

Before you bite off more than you can chew, pit down the aircraft carrier kit and invest in a good learner kit.    I recommend the Tamiya USS Fletcher in 1:350 scale.  Pair that with a set of PE from Gold Medal Models or Flagship  Models.   I can't recommend Toms Modelworks for a NOOB.  Their brass is soft and easily mashed by an errant thumb.   You're out about 60 bucks

You are going to build it and make mistakes.   You will.  I still do.  You are going to learn how to best paint a ship by airbrush.  You are going to learn how to measure and install rails and keep them straight and upright.  There are about 2 feet of rails vs 6 feet on the carrier.   Less frustration.   Fewer repetitive sub assemblies of guns.  Less frustration.  
In the end you will have a more satisfying experience building the carrier if you invest your time in a learner kit.   Otherwise you will either bash the big kit against the wall or box it up, forget about it for a while , then sell it for a loss at a model sale. 

I suggest 1:350 scale even if your goal is a  smaller scale.  Once you have taught your 15 dancing thumbs what to do with rails that are a quarter inch tall it is easy to transfer that knowledge to something half that size.  
Kits larger than 1:350 run into the cost factor 

thanks for all the help and by the way i have already ordered the fletcher by tamaya  bought the eduards pe coulnt find the gold medals p.e i still need to order turrets for both kits lexingyon arrived today fletcher is on its way left out early this morming

yes i got the lexington for$65.00 i received the nautalis  deck as part of a combo deal 

so are you saying the grey on the hull of the ship will be 5-o navy blue above the waterline and deck blue 20b on the deck and above the deck and would those colors be the same for the fletcher as well

Everything that is a vertical surface would be 5N above the boot stripe (the black band at the waterline).  All horizontal surfaces, decks and flight deck, would be 20B.

As to the Fletcher, depends what period you want her as to what paint scheme they would be in.

Measure 21 is overall Navy Blue 5N.  Waterline to masthead

Measure 12, as worn prior to Coral Sea was 5N or Sea Blue (5S) from the waterline to the hangar deck level.  Ocean Gray 5O on & above hangar deck to the level of the flight deck. 
Haze Gray (5H) on superstructure & masts.  Measure 12 was called a graded system.  Measure 12 Revised (Ms12(R)) was a modification which included 'patches' or 'waves', but with the same color progression bottom to top

The Tamiya instructions include a full scale size pattern for the Fletcher in Ms12(R).  20B on the horizontal/deck surfaces.  

First thing I meant to point out. Pay no attention to Trumpeter kit color instructions.

It would seem sensible to paint the DD Measure 21 for practice.

I agree with both Ed and Bill. The Fletcher would be a fine starter kit and if you do her in Measure 21, you’ll get some practice with those colors. As an example, here’s a Tamiya 1/350 Fletcher in Measure 21.

Steve

thanks for all of the help i appreciate it very much..it seems it was very good for me to join this site

i just received my fletcher wow this thing is small ..i think its smaller than my 1/530 arizona by revell ..can nly imagine what a 1/700 scale would have looked like

Oh My!

That ship is in a case in a place of honor at the R.R.Museum ( My Office). Just don't want folks to think That trains are the only things I like. I personally thought she was a blast to build. She's practically " Shake and Bake". I hadn't done an exact paint job for years and she looks just like the Box Top Art !

The Fletcher is a very nice Kit to start with. Take your time and you will get experience and skills quicker than you think. Great bunch of Guys here to help you with anything you need to know and ask. Most important thing is to remeber it is a Hobby and have fun with it along the way. Model when you want to and not when you think you have too.....Cheers Mark

One note, there were no Fletchers at Coral Sea.

USS Fletcher spent most of 1942 in and near Guadalcanal.  She would have worn Measure 12 (Modified) for mush of that time.  Which would be interesting to model.

Tamiya's kit represents DD-445, USS Fletcher.

There are two broad categories of Fletcher, "round bridge" and "square bridge."  Then each of those varied between West Coast built and East Coast build versions.  So, at least six broad variants.  So you want to figure out "which" Fletcher you want to build, and also "when" as well, as the fit-out changed through the war.

NavSource photos are really your friend here.  You can get conversion parts form outfits like Shapeways to change either of the two main kits (The Sullivans or Fletcher) to the variant you want.  There are a staggering number of sources of aftermarket bits and bobs, whole 5"38 cal turrent and gun mounts from l'Arsenal and the like.

That's a lot to chew upon.

So, sticking to USS Fletcher may be the best bet; sticking to before 1943 probably best matches the kit OOB, too.

CapnMac82

One note, there were no Fletchers at Coral Sea.

Hah!

Wrong Admiral Fletcher.   Frank Friday Fletcher 1855 - 1928

Your Fletcher, Ed, is the Admiral for whom the DD class was named.

His nephew, Frank Jack Fletcher, was the Commander of Task Force 17 which was a part of the USN force at the Battle of the Coral Sea. His flagship, I guess, was the Yorktown.

In any case, I'm just teasing our friend for his statement that "no Fletcher's were at Coral Sea". I know he meant destroyers, but I had my fun. Sorry Cap'n!

In any case, I think we'd agree that a first-time ship modeler will be plenty busy building a Tamiya Fletcher OOB, don't worry about bridge designs, oval versus slab sided funnels etc. just yet.

ye i read there were 175 fletcher class destroyers built in ww2 the workhorse of the fleet i plan to build fletcher as it was originally built so i can get practice before i attempt the lexington my plan was to build a diorama scene of the coral sea and midway but i dont see that happening...midway had 50 different ships most cant be found and i cant find a listing of the coral see except for the us and ijn carriers involved...also my paints arrived the only paint i could find that had true ww2 color paints was tru color acrylics going to try that out they arived today also my gold medal for lexington arrived today stll waiting on eduard to get here  for the fletcher was just shipped today...we will see how it goes i ordered them from aizona hobbies in phoenix arizona the paint that is anyone know of a closer retailer to roanoke va....

i just saw a picture of the sexy girl fletcher as she was commissioned in june of 1942 she looks just like she does in box art measure 21 dont know if im up to that level of camo painting yet nav source does have great pictures too bad they dont have any color of the lexington

You're getting sucked into the addiction.   Like the pusher says ... the first one is free.

See the Fletcher page on DestroyerHistory.org https://destroyerhistory.org/fletcherclass/

Good information there.   Of the 175 of the class,  about a third to half were called Round-bridge.    The later units were termed square-bridge.    It was a construction expediency   Forming the round-bridge secdtions took more time & tooling than welding together flat plate to make angular facets -- or square faces.

See too the progression of armament during the war

The table does not account for 20mm guns, and 40mm guns are specified by number of gun tubes, not mounts.

For a square-bridge, here your option is the Trumpeter USS The Sullivans.   However it is not recommended for a noob.   All of the armament needs to be replaced.   The stacks need work.   The concrete walkways on the deck need to be sanded down

For a novice ship builder, your idea of dios for Coral Sea and Midway seems to be a rather large bite.  Once you see how long it takes to do an individual ship, (at the speed most of us build at), you might think of scaling it down to the major units involved.

The space required to do a dio of a Task Group in 1/350 would take up a good sized room on it's own.  Granted you can compress things somewhat.  I'd just do the major players and shelve them next to each other.  For Coral Sea you are looking at 5 carriers and Midway 7 of them.  That is a lot of shelf space on it's own.

That said, I hope you can do it in your lifetime.

One of the members here has done Task Groups of most of the major Navys in the world, and has spent years getting it done.

i am 54 years old dont know if that will happen or not....lol

Yes at both battles, there was a lot of space between the two fleets.

Oh my, I just found the Blue Ridge Models USS Sims 1/192. Dear God save me.

Not done yet....Neosho is in there somwhere. 

yes i just read up on uss simms 

  Budstopshere;

       Be careful with the smaller ships. I did the Butler in the All Blue and I have a hard time finding her! I forgot to tint the paint to allow for scale! This is okay on the bigger ones though. Remember the " HORNET " was known as the " Blue Ghost".

      Now as far as battle groups and "Task Forces" I would refrain from thinking 1/350 This is 1/700 scale territory. Now, remember the Task Force was not small, I hope you have room. If not, just do the primary players.

     Like a dufus I did the DesDiv 112 Group of Gearings from my time. 1/350 and it took a whole desktop to get it done. Neat bunch of little models though. And of Course the Ozbourn D.D.846 was flag!, as in real life.l

   I must make a point here though. Each ship was different. Some had been built on the East Coast as the Ozzie was and some on the West Coast. There were noticable differences in real life to these ships. You would be smart to get as many referrences on the Fletchers as you can . The U.S.S. Kidd would be a good place to start. She is a museum and they might be able to help you with information.

     I don't think any two were ever the same, what with yard and BuShips changes. They constantly evolved from ASW and Convoy escort to shield ships for battle groups and as the war progressed changes were made to deal with Kamikazis and the like. Think mostly All Gun destroyers with less torpedo tubes, for instance

A Coral Sea dio, at 1/1200 rould require a fairly large stadium.  The US forces might just would fit in a basketball gymnasium.

Ship separation is typically 5-6 miles, more for carriers.  For some perspective, 1/1200 of 5280 is 4.4 feet.  We still teach to avoid  CPA (closest point of appraoch) less than two miles; anything under two ship lengths is considered a versy serious situation (as in potential Coutrs of Inquiry, for "hazarding").  UnRep (Underway Replenishment) is  a hairy business, what with ships at 200-250 feet apart.  (And there's a "suction" effect when you bring ships that close, especially when oe is a deep-displacement vessle like a carrier aor oiler.)

Which does not stop a person from settign up a shelf with all the ships in 1/1200 (note, all destroyers are teeny at 1/1200, 3.75" for a Fletcher).

But, all props to you for even considering it.  And, don't let hoary old reality stop you from populating shelves with ships of all kinds.

The Trumpter Lexington can be built into a very nice model.  Tamiya's Fletcher is an excellent kit, too.  Great choices.

Ah, wargaming. I had the fleets at Jutland (well the capital ships anyways) in sets from GHQ. The scale was 1/2400 and I remember the line was Micro Armor or Micro Nauts.

Those gamed pretty well with the Avalon Hill game. Kind of fit in the living room.