USS Langley: Breakthrough

I am declaring it finished- on the way to Nordiccon in a couple of minutes.  Still have some PE crew left, but ran out of time.  I can add them later.

Photos some time this weekend.

looks very good 

I finally finished the last aircraft (at least for now, until I break ones putting them on the deck.

I have begun gluing them to the deck.

That looks fantastic. You have done a great job on that.

I finished the bombers!  Here they are on the flight deck (not glued in place).  I just need to put the kit props on four of them, will have one with engine turning decal.

Also, I mentioned earlier that one of the torpedo bomers was so bad I had it in maintanence on the hanger deck.

BTW, I found, before I drove to the store, that I had a set of the punches.  Tried them on the two sheets of plastic I have- A brittle sheet cracked, a softer sheet distorted badly.  I guess I will go back to cutting them with scissors.

for a nightmare , you've turned them into a dream .

 fantastic work. I'm just glad it's you not me, I'd had small piles of smi-identifiable bits laying about. 

Beautiful work on the Aircraft.....Cheers Mark

WOW !!!!!!!!

Those look fantastic.

Oh my 

They look great

Here are the first two level bombers (Martin BM-2).These are a nightmare!  The landing gear is terrible.  Sometimes it breaks with the first bend.  It just doesn't want to stay in place when it is bent.  It has taken four days to get these two planes finished.  I have learned some tricks- two jigs, a PE bending jig fastened to the top of the block, and an assembly jig for holding the rest of the plane steady while I install the top wing.

BTW, wingspan is about one inch.

You are doing a suyper Job Don. As for working with P/E, I have been using it for over 20 Years and I still make mistakes, some minor andd some major. You just keep learning with the stuff.....Cheers mark

yer welcome    hope it helps out

DUSTER

Don

Not sure how close you are to one of their stores but Harbor Freight  has a 9 piece punch set:

  PITTSBURGH  Hollow Punch Set, 9 Pc.Punch holes with precision ground flutes and cutting edges ^$9⁹⁹

and a more pricie

LIFETIME CARBIDE Punch And Die Set, 9 Pc. $3499

 both sets include a 3/8 punch

Just a thought to help ease the process a bit.

 

Yep, I have a Harbor Freight about 20 minutes away.  I'll take a run over there tomorrow and see if I can pick up a set.

Thanks for the tip.

Don

Not sure how close you are to one of their stores but Harbor Freight  has a 9 piece punch set:

  PITTSBURGH  Hollow Punch Set, 9 Pc.Punch holes with precision ground flutes and cutting edges ^$9⁹⁹

and a more pricie

LIFETIME CARBIDE Punch And Die Set, 9 Pc. $3499

 both sets include a 3/8 punch

Just a thought to help ease the process a bit.

the Baron

 

 

missileman2000

...I want the torpedo planes with engines running and am having trouble with my turning prop decals... 

 

 

 

How would punched-out discs of thin clear plastic work, Don?  I'm thinking of something like grocery packaging, or the plastic packaging used with dress shirts.  Sanded with a fine grid, they could give the look of spinning propellers.  Or would the material be too thick to look right in that scale? 

 

Well, that is the base of it, but I then put a decal on.  I scan the kit props, than use a function called rotational blur, which blurs the edges of the blades.  Problem is that the needed diameter (3/8 in) is one I do not have a punch for, so I am having to cut them by hand with scissors, without scraping the decal.  I am now trying to cut the disks first, and then see if I can apply the decals properly centered.

Aha!

     I used to do that on the old REVELL carriers I built. I used a small art paper punch(smaller than normal Holes)and.005 plastic sheet from a notebook cover!

missileman2000

...I want the torpedo planes with engines running and am having trouble with my turning prop decals... 

How would punched-out discs of thin clear plastic work, Don?  I'm thinking of something like grocery packaging, or the plastic packaging used with dress shirts.  Sanded with a fine grid, they could give the look of spinning propellers.  Or would the material be too thick to look right in that scale? 

missileman2000

I am saving the fighters for last- they are TINY, TINY TINY!  

yeah mate and the older we get the smaller they are .

steve5

really nice work don 

 

I gave up on the TBs, and moved on to the TM2 regular bombers.  I want the torpedo planes with engines running and am having trouble with my turning prop decals.  I hope to have good decals by the time I get the level bombers done and will then do the torpedo planes.  I am saving the fighters for last- they are TINY, TINY TINY!

This is an impressive thread Don (like all of your normally). 

It's aldo a fun and informative read. Looking forward to your next update.

Ben / DRUMS01

really nice work don 

I started to put the star decals on the wings of a couple of the bombers I am building, and discovered something about the decal sheet folks building this kit should be aware of.  The decal film covers the whole decal sheet, like homemade decals.  Didn't notice that until I had cut a strip of two stars and had it in the water.  I was able to take them out and trim them, but it was a lot of work.  Cutting around those tiny decals to trim them is no easy task either.  Good news is that the film is thin and very transparent.

Started the planes with the F4B.  It is tiny!  I stopped that and decided to come up the learning curve with the Torpedo bomber, the largest of the planes.  It has a wierd origami style LG, two pieces, with hard to understand diagonal folding.  Have lost two PE pieces (one aircraft worth).  Oh well, the missing bomber will have already been launched

That looks amazing Don. You are doing a great job. Keep up the fantastic work.

WOW Don great job.  The stripes look just right.

Back to work on the Langley.  Too much PE- had to take a month to do easier things.  Today I finally took a deep breath and got to work on the yellow markings on the flight deck.  Decals don't work on the rough wood.  I figured best bet was to mask off and drybrush.  But it was a one-shop thing- if they didn't look right there was little chance of correcting it.  It worked!

Remaing work is to build the aircraft and place them on the deck, and add figures around planes, and in the safety nets.

Each airplane is a biplane with lots of PE rigging.  These will not go fast- a dozen to do!

I got all the boats and other stuff back on, that I knocked off putting the flight deck on.

Also began putting down nets.  That is going well once I figured out the placement.  The drawing on the instruction is not very clear.  Once you start from the bow, you just repeat pieces "1" you are close to stern, and hope the pieces for that match up with the strings of 1s