Sorry Scott, I missed this post. Looks like you're about there. I use Uschi rigging line anymore. It's to scale and very stretchy and won't break or bend the masts. If you're planing to replace the rigging you might want to give that a try.

Scottrc that ship is a beaut! I just love it.

Ben: Really good decision to use the trumpeter kit. It is a night and day difference between the kit plane and the after market one.

Steve: I assembled them over a span of 12 hours or so. I had to take breaks pretty frequently otherwise I get headaches and my brain just doesn't function properly and I make stupid mistakes. I like to refer to it as "modeling fatigue". 

Scott: The Kansas is a beauty. Good luck re-rigging, hopefully your masts don't break.

Gamera: I think you are right, pretty sure I have spent more time on the planes than the ship itself.

 I need some help with the size and spacing of deck tie downs for making a mask for painting them. Even if you give me the spacing on a carrier model you have, it will be fine because I can just do the math to see what the dimensions would be in 1/800 scale.

Scott: She looks awesome to me! 

John: Nice work there. Seems like getting all those tiny planes up and ready was as much work as building the carrier. 

Drums: Wow, that's a BIG improvement! Those kit Kingfishers look, well, like some sort of weird mutant airplane. 

John, nice work. That had to be quite a chore to get the rest knocked out in ine sitting.

Ben, wow, that kit plane is s#!t, they didn't even try. The Trumpy planes are pretty nice. I guess you could paint green under the other colors. Not sure if the lack of light shining through the upper layer color would keep it from being seen. Can't hurt to try.

The Kingfisher was a tough capable spotter plane that did far more that originally designed. It didn't really have the power to carry much more than the 2 man crew and was somewhat unstable in the water, but it worked and and were sold to aother nations. It saved countless downed airmen and sailors and served longer than expected because there wasn't a huge need to devote design and manufacturing resources to a spotter plane that worked. They were slowly being replaced in 44 by the Seahawk.

I have been away for a while, and may be away again, but I had some time to rig the Kansas.  I tried a .003" fillement line and I am not happy with it.  I may re-rig it it I don't break the masts. They are quite brittle.

Drum,

No matter how much time you put into the Trumpter clear planes, it wil lbe well worth it. I see so many of these models where people had put a lot of time and effort into a very detailed model and then use those cartoon character planes that came in the kit.

Drums01 whatever you end up achieving I know is gonna be neat! Looking forward to seeing it. Dang shame so many came broken tho. 

Time to toss someting into the mix as it has been quite some time since my last update. Today I am going to talk about the aircraft for my USS Arizona. For any of you who have this kit or read any review, the OS2U Kingfisher float planes that come with the kit on initial inspection look off. Here is what they should look like:

- first take is that they are flat or look squished. This is a kit plane:

Then on second look you will notice that the wing profile is totally wrong as is its pitch. OK, I'll stop the numbers, the entire plane is wrong. From the engine cowling, to the entire tail section, the center floats profile is totally wrong, as are the wing floats and bracing. Pretty much everything is incorrect with the kits OS2U's.

Modelers like us are lucky in that there are after-market companies who make 1/350 OS2U replacements. There are 3d printed versions, but I purchased mine from Trumpeter, they come as six (6) in a box:

Looking at the drawing and comparing it to the kit and Trumpeter versions, you will immediately see the Trumpeter aircraft are very accurate. Here are a few photos to compare them to each other:

The Trumpeter aircraft as you can see are molded in clear, very hard and brittle clear plastic; regardless if you us a cutter or razor knife, etc. Actually two came in pieces when the box was opened. Sure glad I only wanted to show two of the three...

One thing I did not understand was why they chose to mold the fuselage/canopy section in three pieces; the bottom that also has the wings attached, and two top halves split down the center of the canopy(?). You need to be very careful when assembling the two top parts so not to graze or frost the canopy section. I used CA glue for the front engine cowling and just a dot for the rear where they connect under the tail. For the center I will attach it using paint, in this case clear / future as the adheasive when painting the aircraft.

I was hoping to paint the lower half center interior green so it would reflect through the canopy, but with it split, I am not sure it will show through very well. In the photos above you see what comes in the box (less prop). I want to add a few more items to the planes, much like I did the boats. The photo below shows more detail for what I am after:

- bracing for the wing floats

- cable braces for the center float

- antenna and antenna wire

- air speed sensor on the left wing leading edge

Not so sure which ones will end up on the finished aircraft, but wish me luck. Next update should show them further along. 

So long for now....

Ben

It was my day off from work today and I had a strong motivation to finish the airwing. Took quite a few hours of work at the bench and I think I went through my music playlist about 2-3 times.

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Also painted the deck and dry fit the elevators and island to see how everything fit.

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For the figures I have decided to go with the Eduard models pre painted 1/800 scale set. Painting 1/800 scale planes was hard enough, trying to paint 1/800 scale humans would be nearly impossible for me. 

Regarding figures, for 1/350 you can choose between PE, injection molded, or 3D printer made people.

A simple search in Google or Ebay will give you numerous images to look at and see which type you would like.

Shapeways also is a good source for the 3d printed figures too.

Tamiya makes a set that is injection molded and attached to sprue so you can paint them while attached and just touch up once added to the ship.

There is even some PE figures that come already painted; Eduard is one that comes to mind. 

Happy hunting!, I'm sure any you choose will add the extra detail you are after.

Ben

Keyserj

The figures are in one piece right?

Most are. Some you may have to fold the mirror image to make one. Those are call "3D" PE figures. They're not the actual 3D printed figures.

John & Mongoose: Great job on those airwings guys!!! 

Yep, 1 piece. I've got a set.

The figures are in one piece right? Never dealt with PE before so don't want to go buy something that is way out of my skill range.

Figure PE? They're flat 2D but in that scale not bad. Here is the 1/700 Hornet I did a few years ago with Eduard PE figures.

Two sprues down, two to go.

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I am thinking about ordering the Eduard models 1/800 carrier figure set. Anyone ever used a figure set by them?

Ben and Mongoose, thanks for your compliments.  My goal with this project is to make the planes and weathering as detailed as my skills will allow because I am seriously thinking about entering this in the local 4H fair model contest.(started this build because I was bored of sitting around the house) I have another model I already built for the fair but the Kitty Hawk has really gone above my expectations. 

I have an idea for a unique way to show the progression I make on the planes from start to finish so stay tuned for that.

Keyserj and Mongoose; those aircraft are looking epic!

And here I was getting bogged down on three OS2U float planes for my Arizona.

You two are blowing me away. 

Ben

Wow John that looks super good! Screw top for sure, no doubt.

Those are tiny, almost as small as 1/700. The toothpick idea seemed to work well.

The e-2 turned out really well. It is a bit off balance and is doing a slight wheelie but it will be glued down to the deck so that should not be much of an issue. Building this really made me realize how small these planes in the kit are. I painted the swirl with a toothpick and it was almost not fine enough of a tip on the end. Anything bigger would have made the radar have a white blob on it.

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Keyserj

Mongoose: You lost me with all of those big brain words you used in your reply.  I still get what you mean though, just cut off the wing and glue it to get what I want. The issue you are having with balance should not affect my e-2 since it is so light being a 1/800 scale plane.

 

 I made a new one tonight. Your pic was really helpful. It needed 3/8" of 0.035" lead wire in the nose, even with the fuselage full of clay, to keep the nose down. Your 1/800 will probably settle right down with a dot of glue under the nose.

Forgot to comment on your magnet question. I'll 2nd what MC said. You need a bunch to make something stay in place. I've only seen it done with AC magnets. Check out K&J Magnetics in for some cool experiments and more info than you'd ever want to know.

Mongoose: You lost me with all of those big brain words you used in your reply.  I still get what you mean though, just cut off the wing and glue it to get what I want. The issue you are having with balance should not affect my e-2 since it is so light being a 1/800 scale plane.

Dang It! Now that I've over analyzed the Greyhound I went and pulled the box down and am going to see if this effort can be improved on. This is the GB that keeps on givng! Love the challenge 

Joe MC Gamera thanks for the compliments! 

John, ask and yee shall receive lol Here's pics of the C-2 Greyhound Ikm working on. Don't mind the cockpit as I'm in process of stuffing it with clay so it will sit on the nose wheel. Keep this in mind on yours as those wings threw the balance way off which is why I ended up doing this after putting the halves together. My mistake, your profit lol

the wings on the little kit just aren't long enough so there was a compromise required on mine. Trumpeter kit is what I'm using. Note the wing in your pic is just aft of the walkway and the tips extend to the stabilizers. I opted not to cut into the wing (where the folded wing sits almost right against the engine housing) in order To use the larger area for gluing since there was no way to extend it without adding more to the wing section I had removed. In hindsight I could have cut much closer to the engine housing and gained about 1/2 what was needed in length. Hopefully that helps you out. looking forward to seeing more of your build for sure!

Mongoose: Your continuing work on the aircraft is absolutely stellar. I really like on your take on simply painting or detailing for the sake of drawing the eye as opposed to absolute accuracy. I subscribe to that thought and find it an effective and rewarding practice.

Ketserj: Solid progress. Boy, can I feel your misery you encountered with the island. Similar to all the work I had to do to get the main bridge superstructure to fit and sit proud on my Oakland. It's looking good though and appears the efforts paid off.

I haven't attempted to fold the wings on anything smaller than 1/72 however it looks by the picture that one could completely cut the wing off and attach it to the wing base and to the vertical stablizers. the picture looks like the folfed wings are very close to the stabs so at that scale you might not notice.

As far as magnets...yes, I have seen that done on 1/72 scale using several rare Earth magnets, but on the 1/800 you're working at, I believe the magnets would be too large to be effective. Also, the AC I was speaking about used eight, one in the nose, tale and each wing, with the corresponding positions located in the base. Otherwise your trying balance it on the point of a needle, which is impossable with just two magnets as far as I know.

I have a few questions now. The first one is mostly for Mongoose but any help is appreciated. Have you ever tried to do the wing folds on the e-2 hawkeye? I have an idea on how to do it but I would like to see if anyone has tried it and have been successful. Here is a reference for what I am trying to achieve.

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My second question is do any of you think I could suspend planes in the air with magnets so that it looks like they are flying?

Mongoose: That's friggin' epic! I love all the trim you've painted on the aircraft. 

John: She looks good too, looking forward to more!