Resurrection GB

Thanks, Brandon and John.  I don't think I'll every build another ship without first putting it on a base--for it's own good.

Neat displays, CM.  I'm seasick already.

Those turned out great!! That is an amazing way to display all those ships. Well done!!

BK

Thanks, GreySnake!

So here they are, at sea.  I thought about taking a group shot of all four together, but that made the ships too small to see much.  I apologize in advance for taking up so much space.

1/700 Fujimi USS Lexington

1/700 Fujimi USS Saratoga 1944

1/700 Fujimi USS Wisconsin

1/700 Hasegawa USS Alabama

Thanks for running the GB, Galatians.  I appreciate the opportunity to re-fit the ships after their disastrous sortie in the storage box.  I should have put them on bases in the first place, so I won't make that mistake again!

I look forward to seeing how everyone's projects come out during the rest of the GB.  Fair winds and following seas.

Nice work getting the paint off, Galatians!  I haven't tried to do it for years, and it wasn't much of a success.  Looks like you are going to pull it off!

Is your dog a Rottweiler?  I knew people years ago that had two, and they were just big babies.  My kids were small, around nine or ten--and the dogs had no trouble playing with them.

As for the classics, no, I never read Jane Eyre.  Wishbone never did a TV show on that book.  But I did read Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey.  I enjoyed both of them.

Do you remember the episode where Wishbone played David, as in David and Goliath?  I found it on youtube yesterday and watched it again.  It's titled "Little Big Dog."  I've seen worse versions with human actors.  

The book that gave me most trouble was Don Quixote.  That was a bit much to plow through!  Wishbone's version was much, much easier.

I was cleaning out a closet just two days ago, and found the box where I stored all of the books, so when I get some time, I going to start reading through them again.

Anyway, back to the plastic. 

I went through all the pieces that were lying in heaps in the storage box, and separated them for each individual ship.  I was surprised that a couple of them weren't as badly damaged as I first thought.

Lexington only had the flag staff knocked loose.  Unfortunately, when I tried to re-seat it, I broke the whole thing off, so I made matters worse.  I managed to fix it without further damage, so that's one done.

Alabama lost her flag, both her float planes, and a few of her 20mm guns, so that's not going to be too difficult.

Wisconsin had more damage, including part of the forward superstructure, a 5inch gun, a number of the 20mm's and her flag.  All three of her Kingfishers fell off and fell apart.  The pieces are shown below.  Worst is the photo-etch Mk 37 gun-directing radar, visible just above the Kingfisher on the right, with the base over to the left of the superstructure.  It not only got knocked off, but it was smushed all out of shape.  I hope to be able to straighten it out and replace it, instead of having to build a new one.  It will have to be repainted since some of the paint chipped.

Hardest hit was Saratoga.  She has a lot of gun platforms protruding from around the flight deck, and a number of them were knocked off completely; one had only come loose, but kind of flops around.  Photo shows a few of the gun decks below.

A couple of her 40mm's came off, along with about a dozen of the 20mm's.

One thing I learned after building my first ship (which was the Lexington) is that white glue holds these kinds of parts as well (or better in certain circumstances) than super-glue, so all these pieces were attached originally with white glue of some kind--either Elmer's or craft glue; so it shouldn't be too difficult to soak off the old glue with water and replace the parts with fresh glue.

Maybe I'm being too optimistic, but I'm hoping to finish them over this weekend, and set them out to sea.  I've got each ship glued to it's base already, so I don't have to touch the ship while I work on repairs.

And that's the story, Wishbone!  

You're welcome Checkmate! Wishbone is definitely the perfect name for a Jack Russel and Sergeant sounds like a cool name, too! Thanks to Wishbone, that used to be my favorite breed. Now I have this baby:

She's a bear. And that's pretty much her name (in English).  She's fun to pick on....

As for classics....Have you read Jane Eyre? I always thought classics would be kind of boring, but that one convinced me otherwise! Another good one was the Hidden Hand by E.D.E.N. Southworth. 

Ok, back to our current hobby..... I'm really amazed at the outcome of your sea bases. Too bad Floquil's discontinued that line. Good job remembering the wake!
Brandon, I have to sing your praises! The brake fluid is working. I know I've only just begun, but still I wanted to share a photo. Hopefully soon Angel will be ready for her new look.  

Galatians 2:16

Thanks guys for your care over my pup! Checkmate, I find it really cool that you keep finding old Wishbone memes. I used to love that show! Also, the moving parts models are throwbacis! I had that Dauntless too, I believe. Dropping bomb was so fun! I painted one of the bombs with the stereo typical "shark face look".

Great job, Jeaton01! I love the fact that you are putting in a resin cockpit. I wish to do the same on my Angel, but price at this moment may prevent that.....bummer ;) Will you be keeping the same paint scheme and type of decals or trying something new? 

 

And, back to the GB--I've finished up the four sea bases.  The tutorial suggests dry-brushing the whole base lightly with white; then dry-brushing the ship's wake with white.  When that was done, I sprayed the whole thing with Floquil's Crystal Coat, which of course is discontinued now.    It gives a nice glossy finish, and dries very hard.  Here's what you get.

Nope, Steve.  Just Grants in Creston Park, then downtown had JC Penney, Sears, and--best of all for model kits--Woolworth's!

I have a 69 Boss 429 that I stripped and it's sitting in a bag atm. I plan to repaint and assemble that before too long. Just what color it will be, no idea. I'll have to look at what I have on the shelf.

On your F-16 pit, oooff. Painting with it all closed up will be a chore. Slow patient work I guess.

BK

Galatians 2:16

Great job, Jeaton01! I love the fact that you are putting in a resin cockpit. I wish to do the same on my Angel, but price at this moment may prevent that.....bummer ;) Will you be keeping the same paint scheme and type of decals or trying something new? 

 

Thanks, G2:16.  My first thought was to put the markings that came with the kit on, but I'm on the fence about that at the moment.

Ok, so here she is. Obviously not much has changed. Thank you BrandonK for the brake fluid idea. I plan on trying that since my purple power plan failed. The cockpit needs help. On the bright side, the pre-shading is done there! Any suggestions for a flawless interior? Thanks guys!

Also, I believe I have updated all the photos that needed to be loaded to the finished roster at the beginning of this group build. Checkmate, your ships have been added. If anyone has been missed, (though I've checked twice) please, please let me know! Thank you! I noticed a few other guys never showed back up, too. I hope those guys are well.  

Thanks guys for your care over my pup! Checkmate, I find it really cool that you keep finding old Wishbone memes. I used to love that show! Also, the moving parts models are throwbacis! I had that Dauntless too, I believe. Dropping bomb was so fun! I painted one of the bombs with the stereo typical "shark face look".

Great job, Jeaton01! I love the fact that you are putting in a resin cockpit. I wish to do the same on my Angel, but price at this moment may prevent that.....bummer ;) Will you be keeping the same paint scheme and type of decals or trying something new? 

checkmateking02

 I used to get these way back when at the local WT Grant department store. 

 

My Lord, I haven't heard of WT Grant in eons. Did you have Masters or Gold Triangle stores up there?

Thanks, John.  I used to get these way back when at the local WT Grant department store.  Monogram's "quarter-inch" scale was the preferred kit type for planes.  I had a lot of them back in the day, and they almost always came with cool moving parts.

I especially liked the Dauntless that dropped a bomb and the Avenger that launced its torpedo.

John,

Hope to see what you do with the Monogram 109.  I have the same one in the stash awaiting "restoration" (though mine's only from around '68-'69).  At the moment, the Monogram Hawker Hurricane from the same time frame is in the queue.

Gary

That it is.  And the gear would rather fold than stand most of the time.  I'm gluing these in the down position.

Nice work, John.  Is that the 1/48 Monogram 109?  The one that had retractable landing gear?  

Galatians, sorry to hear of your troubles, may everything be on the upswing for you and yours.

I actually did some work on my Monogram 109E today.  I took it apart which went well, that glue I put on in 65 or 67 was still holding OK but it wasn't the equal of a good #11 blade.  I am putting in an Airies cockpit I had laying around I have a vacform Squadron canopy here as well, the original canopy is very thick and has poor optics.  The dremel tool was started up and the fuselage lost a lot of weight.  This model is great for kids as there aren't very many parts and the thickness of the fuselage seems to prevent warps and gives plenty of glue area.  My granddaughter put one together when she was 10 or so and I helped with the paint.  Makes a nice model.  Here's a photo of that one with the survivor.

The parts:

Starting to put in the resin interior.  Seems like the fit is pretty good after the grinding.

Small steps--.  Hope she does well!

For the sea bases, I've tried to keep the paint and techniques similar so they could be displayed together.  About 11 years ago, my wife and I toured USS Alabama in Mobile, and they had a diorama set up with the task force she sailed with--all these little ship models sailing in formation!  I thought it was impressive.  I hadn't built a ship model in years, but I started soon after that.

Thanks for your comments.  What's left now is to dry-brush some white for the wakes, then get the ships put back together.    

Excellent work Checkmate! Will you be considering a large-scale diorama incorporating each of your stands? I think that with the uniformity of color and texture you'd have a real shot at that! 

Also thank you for your understanding and compassion. Thank you too BrandonK. It means a lot to me!

And my pup is doing much better, though we have to work with her for some trauma issues. Today she let us get closer than before with nail clippers. Small steps! 

It's very good to have you back among us again, Galatians.  I've had this GB in mind for quite a while--ever since I opened the storage box and found my ships in bad shape.  I appreciate you starting it up.  I had some other projects to finish, so I was late starting out here.

I was sorry to hear about the struggles you've been facing.  It's been hard going for you; more than enough reasons to take a break from the forums and from modeling.  Still, the whole concept of your GB is about rising again, as it says:  "though he were dead, yet shall he live."

Thanks for your kind words.  And:  I do hope your dog is doing better, too!

Peace to you!

Now, as for progress in the GB:

I see that I didn't take any photos of the priming; either that, or I lost/deleted them somehow.  Not that it's too important--but after getting the waves and wakes in shape and fitted to the hull, I spray everything on the base top-side and bottom-side with a white acrylic primer.  I paint the underside and the sides of the sea-base black. 

Priming helps as a base for the paint, but it doesn't really stick to the foil that well--even though i asked the salesperson at Walmart for an acrylic metal primer.  I found that out when I taped the base to a small box so it was raised up off the table top for painting.  When I took the base off the tape, it pulled paint and primer with it, down to the bare aluminum.  Fortunately, it was on the underside of the base.

The photo above shows the basic blue paint finished.  The original tutorial only uses two shades of blue.  The original tutor used Testor's "Blue Angel" blue from a spray can for the basic color, then an "offset" color of lighter blue.

I used acrylic craft paints from Michael's:  Navy Blue and then several other shades to blend in--Mediterranean Blue, Dark Blue, Hyacinth and Turquoise.  Things look a little rough in the photo, but it will all blend together acceptably before things are done.

I found that things work best when you paint the base (Navy Blue in this case), then when the final coat is dry, apply another thinned coat of it--then add the "offset" colors while this thin coat is still really wet.  It seems to help the "offset" colors diffuse and blend together better.

Thanks for looking, and--again--good to see you, Galatians!

If you are trying to strip paint you have a few options. First, Purple Power and Easy Off are great at stripping paint off of kits. If those don't work due to stubburn paint you can also use automotive brake fluid and that will pull just about any paint. Then just wash it up and prime and paint. If you have the patience and time you can also sand it down to a good finish, reprime and repaint. But, that is a ton of work. Brake fluid is my go to for the tough jobs. Let us know how it goes.

We are all glad to see you are all doing well now. Thanks for returning.

Bk

Hello Checkmateking02! Thank you for "resurrecting" my group build! I have wished for a way to do so for quite a while now. 

Thank you too, for your concerns over my health and whereabouts. I have to admit it has not been easy since I last spoke here, though that is no excuse for leaving you all hanging. I am sorry very much to you all for not carrying on and updating this thread. That was my fault and I do apologize.

Life, since I last spoke, has involved college (online transition at this point), illness (we are better now), housing issues, and an accident with my dog; and, honestly, it all sounds worse than it really was. Well, the dog one was aweful. She has made a remarkable recovery now though.

The truth is there were still plenty of good days between the bad, and I still ought to at least have found the time to update your successes to the top of the list. For this I am sorry.

As for my Blue Angel, I have been rather disappointe. I cannot seem to get the paint off! It is really perhaps the largest issue to overcom. If anyone has suggestion, I'd be grateful! The canopy is off and I want to look into cockpit improvements or at least finding a decent cockpit walk-a-round tutoria in order to paint it right. I will have to post photos so you know what I am dealing with. 

Great job on your projects Checkmateking! I love what you have done with the bases! I have a ship myself, and if you don't mind I may borrow your idea! ;) Great job everyone and I can't wait to post your photos! Thank you Checkmate for not giving up! Thank you all for your participation in this now truly Resurrection Group Build.       

Usually when I've constructed sea-bases, I use the hull before adding any superstructure.  That way, there's nothing to knock off or break.  With these four resurrecting vessels, there's still enough stuff remaining on deck to do damage to.

Anyway, I start out with a new piece of foil, cut to vaguely conform to the outline of the hull.  This is Lexington.

Then, I just pushed and shoved at it and wrinkled it and generally beat up on it, until it formed a wake pattern for the vessel.

This is Lexington with the finished wake.

This is Alabama with the finished wake.

I should mention that after the wake is formed, you should remove the ship, lift up the foil and glue it down to the base.  White glue works for this, because everything is going to be pretty securely sealed in once it's painted and covered with a gloss clear coat.

Also, throughout the painting process, the ship should be tested again periodically, so that it still fits within the wake.  You don't want to finish up with the painting and everything, and discover that you accidentally moved/shifted/distorted the wake--and now the ship won't fit in!

Brandon:  it doesn't seem to be very widely used.  There are some tutorials on youtube, but they seem more complicated than the link I posted.

This is a technique I have not seen before. I'm definately watching this for more ideas.

BK

BK:  none of them need to be completely dis-assembled, just repaired so I don't think they'll be too labor-intensive.  The most work will be creating the bases for them.

And they start out like this.  I placed each ship on a piece of cardboard, then measured out 4 cms from port and starboard, fore and aft.  I squared this off and cut out each base.

Next step is to wad up some aluminum foil.  The stuff tears easily, even though I used "heavy duty."  This will form the base of the waves.  You can scrunch it up and unravel it multiple times, until you get the waves the way you want them.

Next, you smear white glue on the cardboard, then flip it over and push it down on the foil.

Then you flip the assembly over and tuck the foil around the edges and press it flat on the bottom of the base.  I glued the edges down and sealed them up with clear packaging tape.

The result is a base with ready-made waves.

The ship will rest on this, but with a wake pattern I'll also construct from foil.  That's a difference from the tutorial (which I posted the link to).  The fellow on the tutorial used some kind of liquid gel-like medium to create the wake, but I didn't want to mess with that, so I'm using foil for the whole thing.

So this is only one base.  I've still got three more to do.  Thanks for looking.

4 ships in less than a month. That seems like a lot of work for a short period of time. Looks like the GB founder bounced. I haven't seen him around. The last post was last October. Oooff. Well, I'll watch this anyway.

BK