LHA-1 Tarawa WIP

Previous pictures.

I like how this isturning out so far! Just a suggestion, instead of the light gray for the Helo's, why not put them in the three color "Land Attack" scheme that they arrived in theater in, or one of the many improvised sand/brown, sand/gray schemes that they wore during the war for a little time context?

Looks great but WAY too small a scale for me to work with.

Mike

Thanks Buckeye.

Stik, yes that'd be cool. I still have the Super Stallions and a bunch of Phrogs to do. The Cobras are done, thank you very much. Too much brain damage to even touch them again.

Pictures would be appreciated.

The Harriers get a darker gray camo as was home mixed and applied on the way over.

Yeah the Harriers arrived in the Dark Green/Extra Dark Sea Gray wraparound scheme. They were rapidly repainted into numerous improvised schemes using Ghost Grays or the Land Attack Blue Gray in place of one or both of the original camo colors. Each squadron appears to have approached that challenge in a slightly different manner. 

And what is a new project without a new book, ehh?

My modeling hobby is simply an excuse to buy books.

Lol! Good old Osprey...

I am liking what you have done so far on a Problematical Kit.....Cheers mark

Lookin great so far. Was able to board the Tarawa when she came over for a port call in the 90s. Massive ship.

Got started on the yellow critters.

The Choppers look great all done up. The Tugs will certainly add some Colour to the Flight Deck.....Cheers Mark

Beautiful work as usual Bill.

Steve

Man do I envy your (and others working in 1/700) ability to do the details, painting, etc. on those aircraft and other little parts. Just trying to paint the tires on my 1/350 jeeps and trucks for my Liberty Ship is driving me nuts! What did you use to mask the aircraft?

Mike

I'm working on this kit too, and I agree that there were a lot of corners and edges that didn't fit well.  My puttied areas look just about the same as yours.

I'm building mine as USS Peleliu in 1985, just before Harriers joined the airwing.  That means I won't have that monster long yellow stripe on the deck, but rather two parallel dotted white lines.  And no exhaust stains for the deck, just scuffing.

What color did you use for the base color on your flight deck?

Surface_Line

I'm working on this kit too, and I agree that there were a lot of corners and edges that didn't fit well.  My puttied areas look just about the same as yours.

I'm building mine as USS Peleliu in 1985, just before Harriers joined the airwing.  That means I won't have that monster long yellow stripe on the deck, but rather two parallel dotted white lines.  And no exhaust stains for the deck, just scuffing.

What color did you use for the base color on your flight deck?

 

Surface Line, I have a question and an answer.

That big yellow stripe should still have the dashed white lines down either side, which as you know are like all of the other deck markings- raised ridges but no decals.

For the other viewers, basically the deck decals are the red/ white "foul line" denoting the area to be kept clear during flight operations; the ship numbers; the numbers for the landing spots; and the elevator edge warning stripes. Everything else, like the white dashes mentioned before, the yellow stripe and the white landing spot coordinate markings, is up to the modeler.

I did all of the white stuff using white decal I stripped from a spare sheet, and painted the yellow.

Q: how to you intend to do your white dashed lines? I still can, as I miss them, but doing it with decals will take forever, and mask paint just seems beyond reason. Your thoughts?

A: A base coat of Tamiya XF-53 Neutral Gray, then the yellow stripe with Testors yellow enamel and the white deck edges with Testors white, then Future, then decals, then dullcote, then a haze of XF-57 Buff to set the operations area in the Gulf, then the jet blast spots using XF-69 NATO Black, which is the darkest color I've used so far on the ship. I have never used nearly so much Tamiya paint before, but the discovery that their thinner is perfect for their paint, "Doh!", and something about the location of operations and the scale has made it all come together pretty well, I think.

Still using Testors enamels for the reds, yellows, whites and so forth.

1943Mike

Man do I envy your (and others working in 1/700) ability to do the details, painting, etc. on those aircraft and other little parts. Just trying to paint the tires on my 1/350 jeeps and trucks for my Liberty Ship is driving me nuts! What did you use to mask the aircraft?

Mike

 

These pens are really great. I did some tests, and Future makes the ink run, but good old Testors Dullcote fixes it up just fine. The .005 pen is so fine that I was actually able to line on the outlines of the glazing, and then fill it in. It's not great, and I'm kind of itching to try more. I've done the tires on the tractors as well. Unlike Sharpie which is dark blue, this stuff is truly black. Give them a try.

Yeah, those dashed white lines.  Or should I say "those white dotted lines"?  I have been planning to use paint... long tape edge masking, with the "dashes' established by a standard-width tape athwartships.  Over and over, at a standard interval.

Alternatively, I have had good luck with Gold Medal Models WWII CV decals white dashed lines, slicing out the clear parts before the Solvaset application.

It sounds like you used a good recipe for colors on the deck.  I started with Model Master Engine Grey, which is pretty dark.  In my imagination I intend to use a "haze" coat like you did, but I haven't had any luck with such a thing yet.  Maybe I ought to use that nasty old Revell kit for practice.

I am swamped with a ship this size.  I have been working in ships from corvettes up to the size of the T-2 tanker.  This LHA is part of a planned collection of helicopter-carrying amphibs, an exercise in maintaining focus for a long time.  :-)

Rick

I am a Peleliu plankowner, and we deployed to WestPac in '82 with a Harrier det from VMFA-513.  The parallel dashed lines were called "tram lines" because they were easier for AV-8 pilots to keep aligned than a single line running under the nose.

We were commissioned with the single line but repainted the flight deck with tram lines about six months before deploying.

During the PSA after commissioning we had additional flight deck tie downs installed.  I grabbed a circular piece from the deck from where they were cutting out the locations to weld the new ones in, and have it still.  So I guess that makes me, literally, a plankowner.

So yuo are saying that at your time Peleliu had just those two while "tram lines", not fat yellow line in between, right?

So I am close to finishing the LHA-1 Tarawa. There's mostly all of the mast head detail and rigging left. I'm pretty happy with the way she has come out, and I look forward to wrapping her up next week.

1st ship ? Looks fantastic,all of the a/c and deck accessories are outstanding.

LHA-1 Tarawa as deployed to the Persian Gulf in August 1990. In addition to her helicopter squadrons, she carried VMA 513 "Flying Nightmares" (Detachment 2) six AV-8B Harriers from MCAS Yuma.

Bill,

That is one beautiful model. You should be proud of the effort on it, especially considering it is 1/700 scale. My hat is off to you sir.

Steve

I think this is a peachy keen model!

I just don't understand how you can work with the details of the PE and other small parts at this scale. I'm in awe.

Mike

Thank you very much for the kind words. The model is small, about 14" long. Absolutely packed with tiny details to do, so I had to force myself at points to keep at it.

At it's worst, I glued the upper hull sides and various interior bulkheads together, and the deck to that, with the intention of painting the lower hull red and then putting them together. It was a disaster. The lower hull, being one piece, wasn't agreeable to flexing, and the upper assembly didn't mate at all. When I did get it all clamped together and glued, the deck had a noticable warp to it. If the window had been open the ship would have gone out of it. The lower piece was warped, so I took it off again and went through quite a bit of hot water straightening. Next, the upper superstructure wasn't quite the same shape. Seriously considered a waterline model at that point, but it was the upper part that was wrong. So off came the deck, I tore out most of the interior bulkheads which only really meant anything with the rear gate open, and put it all back together on the bottom piece, as I should have from the start.

This is after painting and weathering...

The PE was ok if tiny, but there's a feature that has full height railings and columns between the various galleries on the sides, which didn't fit. The vertical spacing of the galleries was determined by slots in the side. So I snapped them all off and repositioned them a little more up/ down.

Congrats on a beautifully finished depiction of her.....Cheers mark

She's a beauty, GM! Always liked the Gator carriers.  Looks like we use the same hue of hull gray. And hull red. 

And yes, the Trump Harriers are nice.  But Ill need to look for 1st generation Harriers (ex-Spanish Matadors) if Im ever to try the Naruebet.  IF.  lol.

Thank you, Allan. I like the Gators too.