Sweet job on the airwing Chris.

John, nice start. I have that kit in the stash and am curious how she builds. I'm probably going to kit bash it but if it looks good I may just build her OOB.

Mongoose: Those planes are stunning.  I wish my planes could be as detailed as yours but my painting skills are very limited on 1/800 scale planes. My only complaint is that ohio drink holder in the background.  

I got quite a bit of progress done this week. The one big thing I would like to focus on is the MAJOR fit issues with the island. What I have assembled so far took an hour due to all of the trimming I had to do and the fit is still not quite right.

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I was also able to get the deck assembled and just finished up getting the camo painted on my planes." alt="" width="500" height="350" />bust reducing exercises" alt="" width="500" height="350" />

Thanks guys, having done all this work it feels good to know they look the part. 
I took a break this afternoon because my fingers were cramping up from holding and flipping these planes around to do all the decals. Stopped in here to read what everyone else was doing and Joe I had to laugh at your post about patience! Patience turns into cramps on this build lol

All the decals for the planes I have are done now, 65 of them. Feels like I was in a weekend GB trying to finish by my 6:03pm deadline  I have 5 that I'm not going to use. Each has it's own little problem, landing gear caddie-wampus, wings folds look terrible, things like that. My screwtops won't be here till June and I know I have helos around here somewhere, now just have to find them 

The 2nd flite of F-14's required some brush painting on the tail. Figured out an efficient way to trim those out of register decals and this set looks much better.

I don't have any decals for F-18's so I used a combination of what was left plus did some brush painting to make them look more interesting. Recreated the stripe down the spine and added numbers. This build is all about drawing people to it in the display case as opposed to accuracy...I know, I'm the  hehehe

Time to relax and have some wine with my wife. More later in the week. Hope your builds are going strong! 

Mongoose: Oh gee, that's a pile of work! They're coming along great!

Mongoose, that is just some really amazing work on your planes. I am truly in awe of your skill and patience.

Today I worked on more planes. All the A-7's are done. The intruders vikings, and the Greyhound are painted and decaled. I did a basic layout in the hangar bay to gage how many aircraft i could get in here. All the A-7's fit in the bow. Will probably mix and match once it's time to fix them to the deck. 

I was just going to prep the planes for the hangar but it's so tedious that I decided while I was in the zone to just keep going. Tomorrow F-18's, remaining F-14's then some nose weight in the intrudes and vikings, then paint canopies, then flat coat them all being careful not to coat the canopy. I experimented with flat coat first. The Tamiya metallic blue comes right off the gloss coat though so a little slip of nthe brush is easily wiped away with a toothpick and no one will ever know so that's the process to settle on.

Joe: I have also been having issues with posting images from postimage. Also, nice to see you join us.

Goose: That is too funny that you found that camo scheme. I have just been free handing the masking.

I will hopefully get some more progress pics up tomorrow.

Keyserj

 

 

GMorrison

 

 

Keyserj

I have 42 planes +2 helos. I already was planning on doing the paint before bending the wings because it would be pretty hard to hand paint camo on folded wings. Here is the first sprue of camo. I masked areas off with silly putty that I got from the dollar store.

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What camo scheme is that?

 

 

Bill

 

 

 

 

It is just a random camo pattern but it is kinda based off the photo below.

 

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keyserj I came across your camo pattern tonight while i was researching the A-7's for my Enterprise. it's Persian Gulf 1988 on the USS Enterprise at least. Check this out

Now it's time for me to get all caught up on the stellar work everyone has been doing. And Lord knows, there is whole lot of quality been going on here.

Mongoose: Wow! There is so much remarkable work you have been doing that I need to acknowledge. Your work on the hull looks great to me. Appears to be a nice effect to me. Then there is your aircraft. Really amazing work, detail and painting. I love your approach to the folding wings. I'll be keeping that in my mental file for when I build a carrier. Great smarts going on there with the magnets on the elevators. Clever. The hangar deck and the accompanying lighting is just amazing. Your overall work is incredible.

GM: The Midway is looking great. I can really appreciate the excellent progress.

Mach71: Your Blueback display came out fantastic. The simple stand does it justice.

Ben: Your last bit of work on the boats, platforms and superstructure is just more and more of your masterful techniques in detail.

Keyserj: Excellent start to your Kitty Hawk. Looking forward to your progress on the water base. I'm also a newbie to that and I'm learning a lot from everyone's work on them.

As always, I'm anxious for further activity from all of you. Wonderful work everyone. Cheers!

modelcrazy

Joe, I was thinking the belt looked more like the belt on the North Carolina, but unless your looking for a precise recreation I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Joe, I was thinking the belt looked more like the belt on the North Carolina, but unless your looking for a precise recreation I wouldn't worry about it.

Sorry for not being as active in the GB as previous... life happens. In this case it has been a few things such researching, negotiating, and driving 450 miles to get a new wheelchair van for my son. Another thing that has kept me from participating is the 67 2cf bags of mulch 13 50lb bags of potting soil, 10 bags of top soil, and 26 shrubs - bushes - or perrenials that I got planted or spread doing some serious landscaping in the yard. Combined this has added up to near a three week sabatical. I should be getting some work done on the Arizona this weekend with pictures to follow.

Joe Rix: that looks like it will be a challenge to get looking correct in scale, but I agree that the second kits fit is a better starting point.

Mongoose: the carrier and its lights look great, as does the canopies of the F-14. I'm not sure about the stars and bars though, wow (big and out of register).

Ben 

GMorrison

 

 

JOE RIX

 Steve is correct. It is the torpedo belt and I'm not quite sure why they felt they needed to mold it as a seperate part. It gives the hull a rather..well..interstellar appearance. I've given a lot of consideration as to if I need to do some extra work on it. It is not currently glued in place but, it might be fine once I do. Just another head scratching aspect of this kit.

 

 

 

NO, WAIT! FULL SPEED ASTERN! It won't fit any better than it looks now. I don't much remember the math, but it should be about 2" thick, which on the model is about 0.0025 ". This is the time to sand it WAY down. If you have a lower hull and plan to use it, glue the top and bottom together first.

 

So, you noticed that there's no belt on the lower hull? Seems odd for a torpedo belt.

Add that first using sheet styrene. I used 0.010. Thinnest I had. Then use that as a gauge to sand down the upper belt to match. I went back and squared up the edges with a razor blade. It also extends way too far astern. If you care, nows the time to fix that.

Actually I went a step further. Again, only for a full hull. The underwater hull is way too shallow draft. So I spliced in a layer of basswood to make up the difference. Then added the lower armor plates. Frankenship.

Oakland is Atlanta with new parts, including the 40 mm tubs in your photo in place of the original twin 5" gun houses. So it could be pops spread apart by years.

 

 

 

JOE RIX

 Steve is correct. It is the torpedo belt and I'm not quite sure why they felt they needed to mold it as a seperate part. It gives the hull a rather..well..interstellar appearance. I've given a lot of consideration as to if I need to do some extra work on it. It is not currently glued in place but, it might be fine once I do. Just another head scratching aspect of this kit.

So, you noticed that there's no belt on the lower hull? Seems odd for a torpedo belt.

Add that first using sheet styrene. I used 0.010. Thinnest I had. Then use that as a gauge to sand down the upper belt to match. I went back and squared up the edges with a razor blade. It also extends way too far astern. If you care, nows the time to fix that.

Actually I went a step further. Again, only for a full hull. The underwater hull is way too shallow draft. So I spliced in a layer of basswood to make up the difference. Then added the lower armor plates. Frankenship.

Oakland is Atlanta with new parts, including the 40 mm tubs in your photo in place of the original twin 5" gun houses. So it could be pops spread apart by years.

TheMongoose

 

 

modelcrazy

That looks better Joe, I know you're much happer with it.

Chris, I think what you're seeing in is the torpedo belt. 

 

 

 

 

ohhh that's interstellar (i wrote interesting but auto correct liked this better and it's a rather unique description). Have never seen something like that. Love learni new stuff!

 

modelcrazy

That looks better Joe, I know you're much happer with it.

Chris, I think what you're seeing in is the torpedo belt. 

 

ohhh that's interstellar (i wrote interesting but auto correct liked this better and it's a rather unique description). Have never seen something like that. Love learni new stuff!

Joe, that's a big improvement! And if you're happy with her that's the main thing. 

That looks better Joe, I know you're much happer with it.

Chris, I think what you're seeing in is the torpedo belt. 

Joe that's looking really good. Definitely made the right choice there. The fitup looks like it won't take much effort from the angles you show. Is that lower hull port side actually sticking out that much or is it just the test fit? Looks like you'll need a saw if it's not test fit  lol

Ahoy Mates. I regret my prolonged absence from the GB. I've been rather distracted by other requirements in my life and as such, I have not kept up with activities here. The main thing I had to deal with while still in isolation was that my 94 yr old mother was rushed to the hospital 100 miles away for emergency surgery on an incarcerated hernia. We pretty much were not optimistic they should would pull through it but, that tough old lady came out just fine. So, I'm still off work on self imposed isolation while I help her with recovery. 

I will get around to catching up on everyone's efforts soon but, I need to get around to posting updates on my Oakland while Postimage is not acting up and jacking with my pics. It's been a real issue the past couple of weeks with my pics not appearing for a period of time and then suddenly they're fine. At the moment they are there so I figured I'd better move forward with that first.

As you may recall, I ordered a second kit to start over on in order to rebuild the cockeyed forward superstructure. The new kit arrived a few weeks ago and it took me awhile to get into the swing of things to start over again. The first thing I noticed when I opened the new kit was that it was a darker gray plastic and it had a wee bit of texture to it. It took me a bit to realize that the sprues had been pre-painted or primered. Even the hull parts had been painted red rather than molded in red plastic. I've never encountered this before. Needless to say this adds some extra work in sanding and scraping all of the gluing surfaces so that the Tamiya cement will properly weld.

It took me a good amount of sanding, scraping and test fitting to finally get the new superstructure into a better alignment but I've got it into a much better shape. Also got the bridge windows drilled out straighter. Here's where I'm at with it for the moment. It's not all fully cemented yet. Still some dressing up to do.

Here is some pics to show the contrast in kit sprues. The lighter color is the from the first kit. The hull and forward structure is from the new primered kit. I am only using the parts from the new kit that I needed to fix the initial issues.

So, all in all I've got it nearly all the way built to where I left off when I discovered the mishap. It took a lot of work and renewed motivation but, I'm much happier with it.

modelcrazy

Looks good. The blue is fine. Anytime you try to paint a clear canopy with a color it just won't look perfect. And wow, those old decals were huge.

 

You aren't kidding! I think the stars & bars are 2x what they should be. It'll be an eye catcher from a distance tho and that's what i want for the display case i plan to build in the basement.

Mongoose: Those look fantastic!!! Since the canopy is reflecting the blue sky the blue looks perfect to me. 

Looks good. The blue is fine. Anytime you try to paint a clear canopy with a color it just won't look perfect. And wow, those old decals were huge.

looking good mongoose , I don't mind the blue at all . for the scale it should look good

Yesterday I started on detailing the planes. So far just the 2 F-14's. bought the airwing decals years ago. Looked fine until looking closely at them. 1 sheet, with all the colors, is way out of register, maybe 1/16". You can see it in the 1st pic. The rest is going well. Bet there's a couple weeks of work here since my day job is back to full time.

That's Tamiya X-13 metallic blue on the canopy. What do you think of it vs the black or clear blue options people use?

That looks sweet Chris! Very cool 

Keyserj, also get some acrylic varnish (thin) and spread the whole base with it. Let every thing dry for atlest 24 hours and sometimes more. Work on something else while it sits aside. It's exciting when you find out that you can make a sea base. You didn't know you had it in ya.

John: That looks really good! 

Whenever I really start in earnest on the LCT thankfully I want her just anchored off a Philippine beach so hopefully no wakes to worry with at all. I did get some work done on the hull but not sure it's worth posting photos of.  

Gamera: Thanks for the kind words. It is my first sea base and it is turning out better than I expected.

Here is an update on the hull. It is now painted and will be ready for weathering once I get the deck and superstructure is built.

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I start my summer job tomorrow so it may be a while before I have more progress pics.

John: It looks cool to me, I like it! 

Mongoose: Wow, the lights are amazing, love that!