Revell USS Pine Island reissue

i'm in the process of rebuilding 1 of 2 i bought off ebay. i've made it into a full hull by building up the bottom with sheet plastic then carved & sanded to shape. i've replaced all the decks & superstructures with sheet plastic & removed all the railing except for the uprights. the other model i will turn into the uss curtiss which is shorter then the pine island.

I just purchased a kit - it seemed pretty lonely on the shelf at the LHS and thought that at 1:426 I could take a shot at kitbashing it back to the Curtiss (AV-4) in her Pearl Harbor fit.

At 15.19" The kit is indeed 1:426 (at least in length), but a bit wider in the beam.  The difference in length between the Curtiss class and the Currituck class ships is only 13'2" (just about 3/8" at 1:426 and not worth worrying about).

By and large, Revell seems to have done a decent job on this early, flat-bottom kit (including a nicely rendered seaplane which I can't use since that aircraft wasn't in service in 1941), but messed up pretty badly with the armament.  The 5" mounts are far too wide and the 40mm quad and twin mounts are about 1/2 the size that they should be.  Luckily, the Curtiss had only one enclosed 5" mount in 1941 - the rest were open and the ship had no 40mm mounts (I may have to kitbash the 40mm mounts in the kit into 1.1" quad mounts).

Ordered some 1:384 OS2U Kingfishers and 5"/38 open mounts from HR Products and hope to get working on the kit soon.

How are your builds coming along?

Mike

were you measuring the full length including the deck overhang at the stern or the hull only? if the hull then she is about right length for the curtiss but remember she has 2 stacks compared to the Currituck class 1 stack. i now have 3 pine island models which includes the 1 above which will be the curtiss, the other 2 will be currituck & norton sound. stripped the decks & above off the hulls to run thru a bandsaw to lengthen the hulls to correct length with an insert. will make these full hull as i did above.

The measurement is for length over all (from the farthest point of the bow to the farthest point of the stern) not including the overhang of the 40mm tubs aft (which do not count as structure).  At 15.19" that is dead on for 1:426, and the Currituck / Pine Island's length over all of 540'5" (compared to 527'4" for the earlier Curtiss / Ablemarle).

I have some spare stacks from an old 1:500 Renwal North Carolina that can be cut down and reshaped for the Curtiss.  Looking at pictures taken after the Pearl Harbor attack, I'm going to have to scratch build the rolling hangar doors (two on either side of the centerline).  The Curtiss also had a searchlight tower aft of the bridge that was modified to carry a CXAM radar set and will have to scratch build that also.

Still looking for information regarding the Curtiss's AA armament fit in Dec., 1941, but thinking that it could not have been more two 1.1" quads and some .5 mg single mounts.

Here's a photo of the Curtis in 1940 from history.navy.mil/photos - note she had three (!) cranes. Only the foremost 5" mount is enclosed and there are no 1.1" mounts in sight. 

Good luck with your builds!

Mike

I've been working on the same model for the last 2 yrs I'm doing the Sally sound during it's last deployment in Vietnam  .I have water lined it and I've rebuilt the decks including putting down wood decks and cut off all the molded on railings and am using GMM photo etch sets to replace all the railings,crane booms,ect ,I've also replaced the 5' mounts and life rafts .I've found SP5M Marlins so now I'm going to have one on deck and 3 more in the water for the sea drome .

Glad to see others building this great old kit.

1/400 Marlins? Very nice!

Love to see pictures sounds like a nice project.

COChef, where did you get the marlins from as I'm looking for a couple?

I got them from Shapeways . Here's the link to them.

www.shapeways.com/.../Frenobulax

You'll need to sand them a bit and replace the props with photoetch but other than that they look great,and if you want them in the water you'll have to sand/cut the bottom off a little (get good pics of them floating to get the angles right).

Here's a link to some great pics

picasaweb.google.com/.../USSSalisburySound

This is the sally Sound's website,

http://salisburysound.org/

Glad to help

COCHEF

Goodness! What a great site!

The PE set for that ship (also helps with the T-2) has one set of 4 bladed props for the Mariner.  I guess at the scale making them out of thin clear acetate or paper would work.

Thanks.

I made the extra props out of thin strips of left over brass fret and one out of clear acetate for running props as I going t have one Marlin taxing out to takeoff . The Marlin on deck I scratched a couple of sets of the wheels instead of setting it on a cradle . I'm trying to build a couple of maintenance scaffolding to show the plane being worked on. I'm trying to use leftover parts from the GMM set and stretched spru .

I hope all of your builds are coming along faster than mine. LOL