LHA-1 Tarawa WIP

EJ; thank you for your service and sacrifices that you've made for our country. BTW EJ, my son is in the Corps, but you're correct. It IS the greatest Navy in the world.

GM; Thank you for your kind words and above all for your support. I know that your friend's son will enjoy seeing the model of the Tarawa. I'll bet he'll even volunteer where on the deck he landed his Harrier when he piloted back to the ship and what part of the hangar deck it was stored. 

I've noticed that I'm in the company of some great modelers here. I enjoy the hobby and will keep building and posting.

TigerII

Thanks Tiger.

More importantly, thank you to your family for giving your service. It means a great deal to all of us, in so many ways.

And thank you EJ for your service.

Great group of people here.

Essex LHD-2 is a little different than the LHA. A more modern ship that can handle LCACs. That would be a nice model too, I am interested in Gator ships.

I had lunch with my friend Jack the other day. His son just retired from the Corps, a Harrier pilot. He served on Tarawa and I am looking forward to showing him the model.

TigerII

That is an awesome build. I can appreciate it alot since my son is on its sister ship USS Essex on deployment. Hopefully he'll be home for the holidays.

 

I hope he makes it home for the holidays too. Please thank him for his service in the greatest Navy in the world.

I served aboard ESSEX, but the old one, CVS-9, "The Oldest and the Boldest". I now serve as the assistant treasurer for the USS ESSEX, CV/CVA/CVS-9/LHD-2 Association. We "oldies" are pleased and proud that the LHD-2 carries on the name and traditions of ESSEX.

I have the 1/350 Wasp kit and aftermarket stuff to build it up to be ESSEX. Gotta get on that thing soon.

EJ

Thank you Navy 07. Thank you Jockster, I love the way you Brits say "lovely".

So for Surfsup's GB, I am planning to build the Tamiya Bogue Class CVE as a Royal Navy Escort.

Wow!  Great looking build.  I work ships in 1700 also because of lack of room and 1/350 cost a little more (a lot) than I can spend.  Keep going.

Thanks my Friend. Look forward to seeing your Talents on the GB......Cheers mark 

Thank you Mark. I just jumped all over the Carriers GB, ordered the good old Revell Midway in this case the FDR box, and the Tamiya Bogue.

Thank you, Allan. I like the Gators too.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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

Beautiful work as usual Bill.

Steve

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

Got started on the yellow critters.