Thanks everyone for your kind words regarding the little floaty thingys. 

I am really taking my time and trying to be as authentic as possible to the early 1941 ship.  I am still working some very small issues I will bring up later during the build up of the hull and superstructure. 

Rest assured that I have not pooped out of the GB and hope to have something to show of the hull and base sometime soon.

Other than that, I am really enjoying the builds going on here... carriers, battleships, and deck mask, oh my!..... (lions, tigers, and bears).

Ben

Ben: They look friggin' PERFECT! 

Yes beautifully done.

Nice work Ben.

DRUMS01

...
And here are the finished little floaty things which are smaller than a US Quarter:





I am calling them DONE and now making final presiding before the spraying of the hull and superstructure.

Ben

 

practice makes perfect, those are stupendous!!

Those look excellent Ben! Each a kit in itself!

I believe I finally have something worth posting... my completed OSU2 Kingfisher aircraft. This will be my third attempt at getting something accurate and period correct for the early 41 USS Arizona. My first build was the kit planes which looked awful. Second attempt was the Trumpeter planes but I painted them too dark. I also was looking at them through the photos and thought some of my detailing was a little out of scale. Everything else you should already know if reading the whole string. 

Actual aircraft from USS Arizona:



Color I am going for on my planes:



Remember that the Arizona aircraft are suppose to be Non-specular Blue-Gray (ACUS 06) over Non-specular Light Gray (ACUS 05) bottom (almost white); only one roundel insignia on top of the left wing and below the right wing; no stripes on the tail.

Once again I added the antenna to the left front corner in front of the canopy; the left wing sensor probe; and added new two piece PE pontoon struts. I sourced them from spare Eduard PE that I modified to fit the aircraft. 

Here are the kits pontoon struts:



This is my replacement struts:



And here are the finished little floaty things which are smaller than a US Quarter:





I am calling them DONE and now making final presiding before the spraying of the hull and superstructure.

Ben

Gamera

 

Scott: Those masks look neat! Much easier than trying to measure and cut them by hand. Is it possible though to take a pen and just write the numbers on the mask if they're confusing? 

 

You know, I didn't think of that

Ben: Dang! That Kingfisher turned out so good! Good luck with the replacement! 

John: Have a nice vacation and see you when you get back. Those teeny sailors are going to look good. 

Scott: Those masks look neat! Much easier than trying to measure and cut them by hand. Is it possible though to take a pen and just write the numbers on the mask if they're confusing? 

I didn't know they made ship masks. I guess if they make a wood deck they should be able to make masks. Looks good Scott. 

John, I hope you have a great vacation weekend. 

Ben: Righteous painting of the Kingfisher. I'm sure your correct one is going to look grand.

Scottc: Pre-cut masks for anything rock. I have some mask sets for some of my other ship kits in my stash and I'm looking forward to that ease of painting.

I got the decks painted and am doing the masking with the included masks using a sharp knife, tweezers, and toothpicks.

They come with a nice map that shows what mask goes where.

However, there are no number, or marks on the actual masks. I needed to really look and then plan out what order I was going to place the masks.  To complicate things, some masks are not diecut according to the map.  

Overall, its been a fun process.  The masks are diecut quite well and stick well.

Also, color photos from that era are notoriously hard to take as is. Most are "colorized"; the ones from LIFE being an exception. And even then, there are many reasons why they can't be taken literally.

Ben: The detail that went into painting that Kingfisher would drive me crazy. They are really starting to look the part.

I finally got my figures today but, there is a catch. I am going on vacation tomorrow and won't be back at the bench till after the fourth.

The internet is non existent and the cell service is spotty where I am headed. really going to miss seeing everyones updates and hope you all have a wonderful time while I am gone. When I come back, I will most likely have some great stories to share though.

Well, if it helps, the one you did looks good, a little dark but good. As Bill has mentioned somewhere on the thread, the smaller the scale the darker the paint looks. When you repaint your next plane, lighten the correct color just a tad and see how that looks. I have a feeling that new Kingfisher is going to look killer.

Really nice work everyone! I cannot include all of the individual remarks in this e-mail, but suffice it to say we have some skilled modelers doing beautiful work in this thread.

As for me....

Well there has been two different times that I was going to post an update, but I was not happy with the end result. The last was from the build of the OSU2 Kingfisher aircraft. It wasn't the modifications that I added, but instead it was the paint application and here is why...

One of the reference photos I was using shown the float plane with a dark blue topside and a near or white bottom side. For some reason I was focusing on this photo during the build. It also had the star and bars insignia instead of the older navy blue roundel with the white star. Also if you look close this photo is a try-color scheme. 



So I pressed on by painting the top side with navy blue ( a little too dark). I still wanted the blue roundel with white star and red dot, like in 1941 and earlier. Another issue I found with my paint application was the dark blue over light blue over light gray (white) which according to anything I could find is totally wrong. In hindsight I am not sure why I painted it that way (?). I immediately saw that the dark blue roundel disappeared in the darker Navy Blue color of the aircraft (that is not good). I also really liked the red and white stripes on the rudder (tail) so I added them as well. So here was my first attempt at the build (I have since cleaned up the canopy lines too):



Now if I am to stay true and accurate for the July 1941 ship, the aircraft need to be in the lighter blue scheme and use the older insignia. It is funny that none of the photos I was using for reference were correct for the 7-41 OSU2 Arizona Aircraft (go figure?). The correct two tone colors are Non-specular Blue-Gray (ACUS 06) over Non-specular Light Gray (ACUS 05) bottom (almost white). My choice of decal placement and the striped tail were also wrong. In January of 1942 the order went out for national insignia above and below both wings and the red and white rudder stripes all to make aircraft more identifiable. This means my aircraft for the July 41 Arizona should not have the tail stripes, needs to be the lighter color, and have only one roundel insignia on top of the left wing and below the right wing. Below is a photo of an actual 1941 USS Arizona OSU2 aircraft, as it should look on my model. 



Now I am building new aircraft with my modifications to make my model of the USS Arizona accurate. I will be mixing the Blue-Gray (ACUS 06) color. I hope to present some new photos soon. Till then keep up your inspirational work! 

Ben

John: Oh yeah. that looks much mure the part. Nice.

BB: Looking forward to your PE efforts on the North Carlina.

John: That's friggin' spectacular!!!  

BBorBust

I will also be adding the Eduard PE detail set to my USS North Carolina.

 

You got it brother. That's the same set I have. BTW, don't even try to bend the SK-2 radar, it won't do it unless you want kinks in it. It you want a serious SK-2 PE radar look at Infini. They make outstsnding, and almost impossable, PE sets. Take a look back on page 52 to see my building of it.

I'll get back to her as soon as I reach a certian point on the Akagi. mainly everything but the deck, planes, AA guns and crew.

Matt, yes she does. Good job on her! just let me know when you want to call it done, take a good pic, hopefully with nothing in the background, and I post it on the wall. I will usually take a shot of my completed build with a white board, $1 from the Dollar store, behind it. Ships are a little difficult with their size though. I'll take any pic for the wall though.

Is it just me or does the Kitty Hawk look even more intimidating with the antennas down? I am pretty sure the antenna that looks like a flood light is molded upside down but it is not that big of a deal.

Steve and Bill: Thank for educating this land lubber on the different parts of the ship.

Matthew: Can't wait to see you build the NC. Should turn out great like the rest of your builds.

Everyone else: thanks for all of praise. 

I will also be adding the Eduard PE detail set to my USS North Carolina.

Kerserj,

She looks awesome! The 18 coming off the deck is really well done! Great job!

That looks incredibly awesome John. Very well done my friend.

Keyserj that's superb, the steam really creates the image of motion! You can be proud of that display for sure. 

The cables which the landing aircraft engages with it's tailhook is called an arrestor cable. It's held about a foot off of the deck and has shock absorbers to which it attaches with shorter lengths of cable.

The folul line or lines are lengthwise lines behind which deck equipment and personnel must remain during landing ops.

The poles off the port and starbard sides of the bow. They are High frequency antennas for HF communications. They drop them during air ops so a plane won't hit them during take off or landing, except the one that looks like a flood light.

What do you mean by the antenna was lowered during airops? What is the antenna even used for?

EXCELLENT JOB! Love the steam!!!

One thing though. They lowered the antenna when doing air ops.

Joe: I did use a rattle can for priming sprues if that counts.

After watching some videos of aircraft taking off and landing on carriers I noticed a few things.

1. Trying to hit one of those foul lines (I think that is what it's called) for catching the plane takes talent. 

2. When the planes are launched the catapult releases steam.

Here is my take on an f18 taking off.

You can't even see the wire I used to prop the planes nose up. 

I am going to be visiting the Grissom air museum this Friday. Really excited to see all the aircraft there and I can't wait to see the b-58 hustler exhibit they have.

Keyserj

 

 

JOE RIX

John: Your Kitty Hawk is coming along amazingly. Really tremendous work. I'm also impressed with your rattle can work. 

 

 

 

The Kitty Hawk is actually hand-painted. There are many deep crevices where rattle cans could not spray into.