Ships of the American Flag GB 2019 -2021

Black cat models has some nice 3d figures as well

https://blackcatmodels.eu/en/118-figures

Another thought.... Mix in some flat toothpicks, same length but from slightly different sections.  Would give you a slight body taper and slightly different body sizes.

I am quite amazed how these tiny little figures contribute to the display. I did have couple fall overboard and go MIA but Eduard models supplied enough figures for two carriers.

Not sure how but I was able to bend one of the figures so that he could sit on the tractor.

Oh yeah, a few figures can make a world of diffrence when it comes to realism.

Nice and exciting work on the Big E Chris.

I agree with figures on a carrier, they are needed.  I am really considering adding them to a few of my 1/700 carriers I built because the display is lacking that personal touch the figures seem to give.  

Got the new WEM PE sheet for the shears on the Gato.  Annealed it yesterday, so hopefully I can make the bends needed a little easier this time around. 

Since the boat itself is not all that eyecatching, the PE decks and fairwater/scope shears and the Shapeways deck gun and 20mm's will add some eye appeal.

I plan on looking upward alot during the build, to do justice to USS Wahoo as she left Pearl on her last patrol.

Haven't touched much plastic lately as we have been in a house rebuild and I had to get my lady's kitchen back to functional.

I'm looking forward to it GH.

goldhammer

Haven't touched much plastic lately as we have been in a house rebuild and I had to get my lady's kitchen back to functional.

 

Steve: This might be a bit off topic but how many GB badges do you have in your posession? Seems as though the gif in your signature is endless.

I think he quit counting long ago, and I doubt he has all of them in the gif.

I've got a little something to show for the week. All the decals are done, the island is attached and all the lghts are lit!

Im waiting on the Flory washes to show up. At this point I'm really avoiding building those hose reels. Holy cow they are a headache!

just gorgeous mongoose , that 2nd to last shot really shows the deck weathering .

That is awesome looking Chris!

goldhammer

I think he quit counting long ago, and I doubt he has all of them in the gif.

Yep, at last count I have 65 badges, but not all of them are in the GIF and that was a couple years ago! Like GH said, I quit counting long ago. I should go through and update now that you reminded me.

Wow! Chris, she looks amazing! I can't wait to see this build up close!

Fleet Admiral Steve,

Would you add to my fleet a 1/350 Cyber-Hobby USS Independence LSC-2, please?

However, I'll probably make her in to the USS Cincinnati LCS-20.

Thanks!

Was telling my wife about looking for all the people I needed on my carrier...546 by my calculations. Was explaining the different options we chatted about and that after laying them out on the deck I decided to order a sprue of the Tamiya guys, 144 in a lot and they are 3d. She said...ohhh, like the peg people in the game of life? Visualize my hand hitting forhead lol. Now, it turns out Life is popular so the $17 Tamiya people are cheaper, also a good laugh. We then went to the game of battleship thinking those pegs are already white. No luck there though. Although they are nice and cheap they are 20mm tall. Dang.

Anyway hope you enjoyed my miscellaneous ramblings about how the ordinary can possibly end up adorning our models someday 

Bruce I have you down.

Chris, yes, life is expensive. I need about 2 more IJN pilots kits but Northstar are out of stock and it takes up to four months to receive.

Chris, your wife has a good idea with the pegs from game of life. Hasbro and ebay probably sell replacement parts so that you wouldn't have to buy a whole game of life set.

Sorry everyone about the slow updates but I was one of those that was locked out and in a loop preventing me from accessing the forum for over a week. Also some summer projects and honey do lists have pulled me away from the build just a little. I also fuzed my old airbrush compressor that I use for my airbrush solid. It was over 30 yrs old and the cheapest one on the market back then. I guess I can't complain as 30 yrs isn't bad for something like that. Considering much of the remaining model is going to be sprayed, I had to re-think what I could do while waiting for it to arrive.

I started pre-shading some of the assemblies. While many of you already know about the pre-shading technique, some may not. My thought behind the shading is to force more visual depth and perspective. I hand painted the areas beneath the assemblies in a darker gray. Next I determine the desired orientation of the sun in the models display. When spraying the hull and superstructure top color I will spray it all at the same angle to achieve the soft shadows beneath. Here are some of the assemblies with the pre-shading done.





I did managed to get some of the kit sprayed before the compressor melted to include the first coat on the hull and several parts of the superstructure. Next I applied paint to the superstructure decks that were painted. Afterwards I marked out the places on the painted decks where the superstructure rooms would be and painted the interior floors. Within each brass room section of the superstructure I painted the inside light gray (almost white) like in the actual ships of the period. My plan is to detail inside the rooms a little and add people. I figure if you add people in the rooms you want to see them, right? I suppose if I was going to light the structure, like on some wonderful carrier build in this string, then perhaps I could forego these details and have some striking silouhettes (you all know who I'm talking about). While I love the lighted carrier option, I do not want to venture into that phase of building for this kit.

Here are the levels of the superstructure with the floors painted. Any color showing from beneath the rooms once attached will be touched up with USN Deck color. While I am not happy with the little bit of grit in the painted deck, I believe that after the dull coat and adding people, the little bit of grit will not be seen. 



Next I began painting the broadside guns. If you recall, I am wanting to show them with the canvas covers deployed. Looking at period photos, the canvas covers quickly bleached out to a lighter color than the ship's paint, looking something like this.





Here are the painted guns (the barrels will be painted later). 



And here they are test fitted to the hull to compare the colors, I think they look OK once assembled. There will also be some other small variations of gray in the build for areas  such as the open doors, main guns, rafts, highlights, etc. I hope some of that reflection on the hull comes through after the water is painted, that would be neat.



Regarding the display base, first I shaped the waves in the foam a little more, then I added the crinkled / stretched aluminum foil around the foam insert. To ensure a tight test I used the lower half of the hull to form the foil. As it dried I added to top half of the hull to see how it would lay, here is the results.



This shows a better formation of the water (waves) in the foil.



Much more to come..... and thanks for following along.   

Ben

Ben: I always enjoy your updates, you go so in depth about what you have acomplished.

Since the forum went down, I put the final touches on the Kitty Hawk and released her from dry dock. I would like to give a big thanks to everyone for your tips, without them this model would not have turned out the way it did.

Please use this first photo for the front page Steve.

For those of you who might ask, I did go back and paint the rod holding up the Viking that is making its landing approach after I took these photos. It is now white so that it blends in better.

I've had a massive set back on the Peleliu. I was putting some finishing paint work down by hand on the sides and the kit literally rapid rolled out of my hand and went deck down on the work bench. Now the super structure was not attached yet and was set aside, but the upper details and ALL the antenna shattered and went POOF. I can't find any of it, and I've really looked. SIgh!!!

I never really liked how it was turning out and I regret not putting on PE railings and such. SO, since I don't have the spare bits to fix the damage I ordered another Tarawa kit and will either rob parts or completely start over. I did also order a full PE set for it was well. Fortunately, I have the Peleliu super structure intact. The kit I ordered is not the Peleliu so the decals won't work. I may not like doing it again, but at least I have some experience with it to know where I made my mistakes before. I'll post up some pics later.

BK

Drums you had me laughing at the dinner table! That last shot of the waves in the foil is the money shot. This one's gonna be a show stopper.

Keyserj that carrier is beautiful! I think the contrast on your deck is spot on. That darker almost black color with the landing strip much lighter gray is it! The water base really brings it togther and makes the carrier itself stand out. Did you use a clear rod or do I remember you saying you were using sprue originally? In either case i had a similar experience to you and when i pInted it white it looked sooo much better. Didn't seem like it should but that's the way the light scatters i guess ;-)

I'm with you Ben, I finally got back on 

Oh well, it's working now.

Ben, looking fabulous! Love the seascape!

John, outstanding! I'll get you up on the wall. You really did a great job on her  and the sea really sets it off.

Here's your ribbon Captain.

BK. sorry to here that

I'm happy you're not giving up on it. I have a 1/700 Dragon Tarawa if you want it to help out.

Chris: I used thin wire that is used for holding mesh and decorations on wreaths. I would have used sprue but I suck at stretching it so I gave up on it. I do have some clear sprue in my next build so I will have to save it for later.

Steve: Nice to see you back. This was a great place to start for my first group build. 

modelcrazy

I'm happy you're not giving up on it. I have a 1/700 Dragon Tarawa if you want it to help out.

Thanks for the offer, but I think what I've got should solve the issue. The biggest problem is the Peleliu kit just isn't out that anywhere, so the #5 decals I need may be a huge problem. The parts are the biggest issue and the kit I just ordered is a DML which is the same kit as my Dragon, so parts shouldn't be an issue. Fingers crossed.

BK

My new toys arrived, compressor, airbrush(s)...... My 30 yr old compressor fuzed solid as did my 35 year old airbrush. Here are the replacements ready to paint the Arizona.

This was l-o-n-g over due. I'm stoked and ready to paint / build.

Ben

Got a feeling the Eclipse is going to end up being your "go to".

Hello again guys, and apologies for the long absence (and equally long post, there is a lot of catching up to do)!

I know it's been about six months since I last posted an update, but my build was somewhat delayed by the "current global situation" (to use a handy euphemism).

Basically, I decided to add fiber optics to the SS United States, as not only do lights help brighten up a ship, but I wanted to get a bit of practice with using fiber optic cable for another project I have planned...

Anyway, I ordered some optical fiber from China early in 2020... shortly before everything was shut down! It finally arrived a couple of weeks ago, so I was able to resume progress.

So, after seeing all these beautiful ships nearing completion (or already finished), what have I got done?

Er...

Nothing much. For whatever reason, I decided back at the start of the year to put in the fibers first, then do the assembly. I guess I just assumed that the ancient Revell parts would fit perfectly, and that I could putty and sand around the fibers and portholes.

Well, that certainly wasn't going to happen!

First off, there was a massive step in the hull. I guess it was supposed to mark out where the waterline goes, but it made the hull look like it wasn't quite joined up properly. There were also some rather substantial sink marks in the bow, which are particularly unfortunate on a ship model...

So, I spent a couple of weeks (and a lot of putty) smoothing it out to get to this: 

Having done that, I test-fitted the bow section and superstructure. Guess what - more gaps! I should have done this months ago, while waiting for the fiber optic stuff to arrive (and while I had all the time in the world to do it) but hey, better late than never, right?

So, I glued in the superstructure sections, applied a bit more putty, and got to work sanding it all smooth. 

And that's as far as I've gotten at present. I've still got a lot more filling and sanding to do before the United States actually looks like a ship, rather than a loosely organised collection of plastic parts, but at least this kit's not being neglected any more. And, now that I've got all the necessary bits to build her the way I planned (well, most of the necessary bits at least), it means that I'll hopefully be able to provide more frequent updates on my progress!

Terry

Awesome Ben! My compressor has been pumping for about as long. I would like to install a foot switch on it some day.

Terry, that's an old 1955 kit, a classic. Being such an old mold I'm surprised it's going together as well as it looks like it is. It's looking sweet and is going to look fantastic with lights! Don't fret the time, you have all you need. 

Nice work here.  Glad others can post.  I can't. keep getting knocked off every five minutes. Having major problems with this website and don't know If I can put up with it much longer.  Got a lot a work done on the Missouri to show.

Hang in there Scott. I read what Aaron had to say so they are aware of the problem. I was able to get back on a few days ago myself. It;s odd how it affects one person deffrently than another.