Official Shiver Me Timbers Ship Group Build NOV2010 - March 2012

Finally after my mishap many many moons ago, my rescue boat is back on the bench.  I will post some WIPs soon.

Hi all,

Another update to my CV-2 (USS Lexington) build.  I have started cleaning up the resin pieces in the

Yankee Modelworks back date set.  Lots of fun since this is the first time I've worked with resin.

Getting the pouring stubs off  is a lot of work on the large flat pieces.  I've been using a combination

of sanding sticks, sand paper, and, a razor saw.  Get your sanding sticks in the manicure section at

Walgreens or a similar type store.  Cheaper than hobby stores and many more grits available.  Sanding

will produce loads of resin dust and I understand that it's toxic to breathe.  At least hand sanding on a hard

flat surface doesn't throw the dust in the air.

I have also installed the flight deck.  The deck is in 3 pieces and the fit at the bow is horrible.  I took care of it

by cutting off the first three sections of deck-edge safety netting and doing some heavy sanding.  All the netting

will eventually be cut off and replaced with GMM photo-etch after the flight deck is painted to represent

unpainted or stained Douglas Fir.

I've still got a little more clean-up to do before painting the flight deck.

The middle and forward sections of the flight deck fitted together nicely.  However, there was a pretty

large gap between the middle and aft section.

This required some thought.  First I considered using blue painters tape down each side of the gap

and filling it with Tamiya putty.  Then, I thought about stretched sprue.  Both would require sanding

and possible loss of the fine planking detail on the deck.  Then I remembered I had some Evergreen

plastic 1/48th scale 1"x3" strips!

A perfect fit!  Problem solved with no sanding, filling, or loss of detail.

Painting the flight deck is next on the agenda.  More pix then.

All the best

Ray

Is anyone still following this group build?  I was the last one to post here 9 days ago...

All the best

Ray

Hey Ray.  Yes I am still following this build.  Just havnt been around much is all as of latelly.  But now that the warm days of summer are pretty much gone i expect i will be around a lot more.  Nice build you got going by the way.  Sorry i havnt been a good host.

Goodness

Having wrapped up the F-18 group build I can give more attention to this one. Started removing the deck gun tubs to be replace with those from the Gold Metal Models Arizona set.

The first attemp was using both a Dremel tool and a x-acto knife.

I found it was faster to just use the knife.

Took about an hour to do, now I just need to clean the areas up a little bit.

Hi All,

Another small update on my Lexington.  I've assembled the kit parts of the island and stack and have

been up to my elbows in resin dust sanding down the stack base to fit onto the kit parts.  It's too flimsy

to cut it down with a razor saw.  Actually, most of what I've been doing is staring at the backdate set's

instructions and trying to visualize a path forward.

Since the flightdeck is going to be painted to simulate unpainted pine, I've been thinking of pre-shading

it with a wash of MM Flat Sea Blue to show the slight spacing between the planks.  Another problem is the

arresting gear pulleys and cables.  Should I assemble the PE pulleys and glue them down before painting

the flightdeck and then go back and brush paint the pulleys?  Or, paint the deck and arresting gear

separately and then glue the gear to the deck?  Lots to think about.  The ship is progressing but at a

snail's pace.  Pix to follow later.

All the best,

Ray

Hey Ray ya sounds like you got some decisions to make on what comes first the chicken or the egg.  I myself like to paint first then glue but thats just me.

finally got off my lazy butt and work on Hancock. show some photos tonight.

Looking great Raider!!!!  I like the PE railings.

Thanks, still needs work with trimming out things.be o.k. in 2 weeks.

port and starboardside will be done this Sunday and Monday. also the bow area wil be updated.

I think that's what I'm going to do.  Airbrush the arresting gear sheaves while they're still on the PE fret.

Since each sheave consists of 2 TINY circles are connected and have to be folded in half to make up

a single sheave,  I will glue the bases to the deck, m place the "pennant", then fold in half.

This ought to be fun since the folded pieces are less than 1/16th inch in diameter...

Pix soon

Ray

portside is almost done. added new bulkheads and fuel pipes with a updated bow area.

rounddown needs work. but overall it starting to look like a 27c. island this weekend. whales look o.k on deck.

As an old "Whaler", I'm loving your choice of aircraft...

Keep up the good work

Ray

start work on the island this weekend. the layout of the deck will look like this.

she has a island. more tomorrow.

flightdeck has been drawn up. waiting for painting neek weekend.

Raider:  Looks great man.  That thing looks like it is MASSIVE!!!!  Is it or is it just the Pictures make it look big???

it just the photo.

landing area to be work on.