Aircraft Carrier Group Build (July 07 to July 2010)

silentmodeler - Toms Modelworks and White Ensign have some generic PEs (rails etc) in 400 which may be to big and 500 which may be too small. The only specific AM i have seen at 426 is for the Revell Arizona. Sorry cant be of more help

I am currently putty-ing the gaps between the propeller shafts and the hull, to be followed by hull priming/anti-fouling red ABish.

Here's an update on the F.D.R. CV-42.  The deck is ready to be married to the hull, the island is ready to receive all of the masts, and then I'm gonna repaint my CAG and land them onboard.  Then I think I'll be finished.  Here's some pic's:

scorpr2 - looks good to me! are the numbers decals or hand painted? I would just touch up the 42 just a tad...

raider-hall - good question! how do you weather/dirty a carrier? pinwash to bring out some details? scuff the flight deck? Um, I dont have a clue! :)

silentmodeler,

As JMart mentioned, there is limited PE out there for the odd-scale carriers.  It seems that Gold Medal Models might also have a set or two.

scorpr2,

Very nice job!   Thanks for sharing your work with the group and myself.  I am looking forward to seeing the finished product.

JMart,

Weathering would depend on the vintage of the ship, and how long the ship has been in action.  The Navy takes great pains at keeping their ships in relatively good repair.  The flight decks get washed down every day at sea, so in scale, would not show too much wear and tear on non-skid.  The wooden decks were stained with a mahogany stain, and during WWII they were then painted with a blue paint.  Wear on them would show both the mahogany color and light wood color in different areas of the deck that saw more action (typically down the middle).  The island would be fairly clean, unless you are showing a battle damaged ship.  There would be some stains along the sides where different pipes drained overboard.  You could show some rusting around openings, but this would be seen more often on the older ships.  Always use a reference photo or two of the ship for the time period that you are trying to show.  Once most ships reach port, one of the first activities is to scrape off rust and paint what is needed to make the ship look good.

Scotty and Jmart    thanks for ur help and found out that one of u mention abt GMM and found out that GMM has the set for the ships i have.

Raider and scrpor2  great job on the carrier!  i like the weathering you guys made  impressive  I should try someday with my ships.

okay here is the pictures   click and enjoy smiles   any feedback or comment are welcome

you might see some errors i make under the flight deck like i mention abt open gaps.  Its my second carrier i built  so im still new to ships smiles.  first one was the IJN Akaki for pearl harbor gb.here is it if you are interesting

i enjoyed building the hornet   it was one of the toughest project i ever built.  I might get other hornet in 1/350 scale  who knows.

Scott -thanks for the info! All my 13 years in the USNR have been landlubber but still know that "if its not moving or alive, you paint it!" lol . I also imagine would be hard to work some weathering in at the larger scales, something for me to research more for sure.

raider-hall - nice pics! why dont you tag the links with the combo, that way the pics show on the thread

silentmodeller - nice job, specially for only your second carrier. I know what you mean about the dark pics, something I have struggled with... I use a desk lamp with a flexible arm and bring the light very close to the model before taking a pic. One thing I would suggest (not that Im an expert, recently returned to the hobby! LOL), is to invest in some decal setting solutions, like Micro Sol and Set (few others out there), would help you get the decals in place and avoid some of the silvering and "halo" seen in some decals. Thanks for sharing! cheers

http://is129.photobucket.com/albums/p226/raider-hall/100_1259.jpg                                     http://is129.photobucket.com/albums/p226/raider-hall/100_1261.jpg                                     my thumb is still hurting,best i could with it.

scorpr2 wrote:

I think your HORNET looks really good!  I especially love the B-25's!  One thing that I use on gaps is a bottle of liquid paper.  I think it works really well.  After it dries you can scrape the excess off with a toothpick.  Again, I really like her!  Good job!

thanks scorpr2 smiles, and  can u explain what is liquid paper?  i never hear of that.  and where i might find it?  thanks

Jmart  thanks for ur comment.  ill keep that in my mind about the decal solutions.  thanks again smiles

raider-hall - That is some serious SB going on, impressive!

Here is my own humble WIP on the old Monogram Nimitz.Old kit, very VERY simple and lacking details, will be a quick fun build to get back in the flow before I tackle bigger/better projects.

For the base, I tried to make it faux wood. Basecoat of MM Wood, followed by Future coat, then burnt umber oils. The Future keeps the oil paint from "sticking" right away and you can then brush the oil to resemble wood texture. Another Future coat seals everything in.

The shaft/hull joints. The shaft attachment points were very bad and "pointy" (yes, should have taken a "before" pic!). I glued the shafts in place and then built up some structure to the joint with Tamiya Liquid Surface primer. I had to then carefully sand around the joints to smooth them out. Next I need to sand/polish the area to get rid of the scratches.

The superstructure is very simple, coarse and lacking detail, specially the electronic components. No point really on scratch-building new components, much less spending money on PE replacements. Will build OOB and just try and shave some of the excess plastic off. Sorry to bring down the overall quality of the GB with this kit, but hey, you gotta start somewhere! : ) 

Silentmodeler, liquid paper is kind of like white-out in liquid form in a bottle.  You should be able to find it at any local dollar store, Wal-Mart, Target, or even some discount drug stores.  Or you can try where ever you get office or school supplies.  I hope this helps.  Sorry it took me so long to get back to you, but I've had life problems lately.  I'm sure we all know what that's like.

Ok.  I'm happy to say that the FDR is underway.  I know she's not the prettiest belle of the ball but I like her!  Especially since it's been about 25 years since I last put one together.  The kit is the old Revell box scale kit that's a re-box of the 50's.  The kit is strictly out of the box.  I can't afford to spend $20 on a kit and then $50 to improve it!  I do this for the fun and enjoyment of the hobby, call me old fashioned.  The paints I used were a mix of Humbrol and MM.  I used a Sharpie paint marker for the stripes on the f/d and the round down and the end of the bow.  Those paint markers are great!  My daughter picked some up for me at the book store.  And they come in various colors with different types of tips.  Very Handy!!  For the props, wheels, rotors, and canopies I used a black sharpie marker.  Paintin little details is tuff with shaky hands!  The decals tried to silver on the f/d, so I painted over it.  I did get some on the numbers, but I don't think it's too bad.  I did break a section of the mast, I never could get it back just right.  I used to be stationed aboard the MIDWAY, so I used the old pictures out of my cruise book as a painting guide.  Enough talk, time for pics!

Looking good so far... you and me both! (25 years since putting one of these things together...) Im also doing an old monogram kit, like practice for better stuff down the road still have fun anyways :)  Great that you can use your own experience as guide, my whole navy career has been landlubber lol

I also use sharpies on occasion, just be careful with the finish or painting over the sharpie lines, I have read in here that you may get bleed thrus and the black could turn indigo. The Xfine red sharpie is perfect for those small scale lifesavers...

thanks for sharing! cheers

FDR looks great! I don't know if you were planing to put a p.e set on her. that would really set her off.  By the way guys been having problems with my photobucket album,someone tell me if this photo came out all right. Thanks!     http://is129.photobucket.com/albums/p226/raider-hall/100_1294.jpg

scorpr2,  Your FDR looks great! I like the way u weather the ship   looks like it has been out in sea for long time.  I gotta to learn how to weather.  which class is it under?  I know its not Yorktown class or Nimitz class.

 Carrier gangs,  I just bought CVN-65 but the problem is it has bad explaining of how to paint since most of it is in japanese language.  its from ARII Plastic Ships, so im wondering if you guys know if there is a great website for the Big E?  let me know thanks. and also since im not very familar with all of ships in the navy  does Big E has greenish color below the waterline or red hull? 

Everyone,

 Thanks for sharing the photos of the finished products.  Those are some fine pieces of work!   I have been having some computer issues, and just being busy the last couple of weekends, so I had not checked in for a while.  The things you miss when you are away.  I did have the opportrunity to enter my USS Saratoga at a contest in Kalamazoo last Saturday, and I not only pulled off a 3rd place in the powered ships category, but the folks at Finescale were kind enough to take a few photos of my ship.  Perhaps it will make it into the pages of the magazine some time, but it was great just being selected.

Scorpr2,

Nice job on the FDR.  When I was on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), we parked next to the Coral Sea a few times in Norfolk.  I was on Ike from '86 to '88, then transfered to the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) to become a pank owner.  Anyway, I think that I mentioned somewhere early on that an alternative I have used for flight deck markings are the dry transfer stripes typically found in model railroad supplies.  On my Nimitz-class ships I used the dry tranfers for the base white and yellow lines, then added in the red portions by hand.  Painting over the transfers is easier than it may sound, and the results look better than the decals.  I did the same thing when I built the hornet a few years ago. 

silent modeler,

The hornet turned out nicely.  When I built mine I actually used a photocopier to increase the drawings in the direction tot hte size of the kit, then used the new drawings to make stencils for the sides to paint the camouflage on the hull.  I freehanded the stripes on the smoke stack with one of my airbrushes.

As far as your hull color question, I am not sure when the Navy went to the hull red color below the jack boot stripe (the black stripe separating the red and grey), but I think it was prior to WWII.  That said, go with hull red for the lower portion of the hull (Tamiya and the Model Master line of ship colors, if you can find them, have this paint available as it is a dark brownish-red).

traveller,

Gunze colors are even harder to come by here in the states.  One of my local shops carried it for about a year, but that was more than five years ago.  I have a preference for Model Master paints myself, as they provide Federal Standard numbers, that I find useful in the majority of my applications.  I also like the fact that you can apply those paints with a brush if necessary, where I have had limited luck with Gunze and Tamiya when brushing by hand.

raider-hall,

Nice photos once again!   I know how frustrating a computer crash can be.  At times it is difficult to think of them as making our lives "easier".

Raider-hall,

Thanks for the updated photos, the Enterprise is coming along very nicely!   It appears that you are using some photoetched parts on your ship.  I was wondering how that works with the paper that you use for construction. 

Have no fear about the November deadline.  I never specified the beginning or end of the month, and I may run it out to the Fifth of January in order to give folks who may take some time off at the end of the year an opportunity to wrap things up.  I will see if any others start mentioning an extension, and go from there (I am still considering building the Japanese I-400 for this build myself, and would need some extra time to do that as well).