I'm multi-tasking. I rarely have more than one modeling project running at one time. Right now I have two (or more). One is the 1966 Ford Fairlane GTA that I'm posting on another forum here. This one is a Trumpeter 1:350 CV-9 Essex. This kit was given to me 6 years ago as a gift when I ran a modeling clinic for Middle Schoolers. It's been on the shelf waiting for this moment. I also had another Trumpeter kit in this series; the USS Hornet which my older grandson has almost finished except for painting. He's now 16, getting his driver's license and is now getting harder to get into the shop to finish it. I suspect he'll request that I do it.
I built a super-detailed Tamiya Missouri which I described on this site a number of years ago, and it set the bar for my ship modeling projects. That one had bells, whistles and bells on its whistles. That means this one's got to have the same thing if I'm going to display them in the same place.
While I have a load of PE left over from the Missouri project, I still need more Essex specific PE to account for all the catwalks, antenna and other carrier-based details. In looking around at what's available, I'm zeroing in on Gold Metal Models (GMM) Essex primary and auxilliary. It's a bit pricy at about $100 for both sets. There's another one available for almost $200 from Korea that includes tuned brass gun barrels for everything down to the microscopic 20mm Oerlikons. I'm not going to go that far. $100 for PE is rich enough for me.
Trumpeter models, especially the older ones (this one is 2002), have lots of parts and details, but aren't so hot regarding fits. If Tamiya or Hasegawa built this model it would go together like a watch. While this too falls under the "Can't spray solvent-based paints in the basement" rule. For the Missouri I used Life Color's Navy set. I liked those paints. they covered well, had no odor, and dried quickly. Vallejo has the first two points, but I find the drying time is long and I'm basically impatient. Patience is not my strong suit. Persistance is my strength. People often misunderstand the difference based on the level of modeling that I do.
I started this elaborate build following the instructions, but I will have to deviate when the PE arrives (haven't ordered it yet). Trumpeter separates the hull into an upper part above the water line and two lower parts cast in sort-of hull red, one as a water line plate and the other a full below-the-water-line hull. The upper part needed some cleaning up on the parting line on the bow and the stern. The lower part (I'm doing a full-hull model) needed clean up on various parting lines and two lumps which were the sprue connection. On the Missouri I replaced the prop shafts with steel rod and then painted them with the "white lead" that real prop shafts are painted to prevent corrosion and fouling. I will probably use a similar deal here.
It was researching what color were these shafts that led me to post an entire build thread in the WorldAffairsBoard Modeler's corner. The man that posted his picture standing on the Missouri's prop strut was "Rusty Battleship" aka *** Landgraff. He was the yard superintendent where the Iowas were re-fitted in the mid-1980s. He passed recently and will be sorely missed. He was on the board that was overseeing the reconditioning of the Iowa making it a museum ship now stationed in San Diego.
After the clean up, I installed the 3-part hanger deck, the little bits and pieces that go on it, and started installing the various bulkheads that line the hanger deck perimeter. In reading the GMM literature it said that Trumpeter's chocks were too tall to line up with their PE railings, I sliced off a little bit of each one with the fine razor saw before I fully separated them from the sprue. We'll see if they fit correctly when the rails go in.
In true Trumpeter fashion, a lot of other bits were separate pieces like many of the rectangular objects on the deck. There were about 15 of these pieces.
Next came the exterior walls of the hanger deck. Some of these pieces needed trimming becuase their length was too long to fit properly. I used Tamiya solvent cement and an occassional dab of thin CA. Several of these joints will require some additional filing and filling to get a good fit.
Unlike the Yorktown kit which had no hanger deck interior detail, the Essex kit does have quite a bit of interior details with walls that have shapes representing the trunks, ducting and spaces making up the walls of the hanger.
That piece in the above picture didn't settle correctly to the deck and the outer wall was not flush with the hull below it. I didn't realize how annoying this was until I glued in the next piece (these are below the island). This next piece glued in flush and not there's a distinct discontinuity between the two, AND the first piece is glued in very soundly and would take some destruction to remove.
This really affects my sensibilities, but I don't know what to do about it. I may still try and pull the piece apart and realign the outer portion.
Since there is a hanger deck it deserves to be see somewhat. I started opening some of the roller doors to expose the insides. For the square-edged doors I used my fine razor saw and cut along the seam lines.
For the ones that had a radiused corner I pre-drilled and drilled 1/16th away with an 1/8" drill to form the radius and then cut up to that. Clean up was done with files and sanding sticks.
The thin separators were deep enough that they held up to cuting, filing and handling.I continued aft and cut more doors open. I didn't open them all or roll the doors all the way up to add some interest. I used some filler to close up some tiny cuts from an errant razor saw. Incidentally, the saw I'm using is available from MicroMark. It's only 0.005" wide and cuts as fine as an Xacto blade. It has one drawback. The blade is so hard...and brittle... that if it drops on the concrete floor it shatters. I've lost many more blades through dropping than by wearing them out. I tape a large chunk of styrene rod to the handle so it stops rolling off the work bench.
I have a wonderful book with detailed prints of the construction of the USS Intrepid, an Essex class sister ship, and will be using it for the super-detailing information along with a pile of pics that I've downloaded. One of the details I'm adding is the changes to the port side sponson that was the terminus for a cross deck catapult. In 1944, this catapult was removed and two, quad 40mm bofors guns were installed. The sponson already exists so what has to be added is the shaped bulwarks that surrounds the decking. I'm going to cannibalize my old Tamiya Missouri (built in 1985) which is being used for scrap. Here's the sponsor in a fuzzy enlargement of the port side of the Essex showing the guns.
Notice the open WT doors and the roller doors at various heights. I was worried that I had to make the sponson too which fits the contours of the curved hull, but that's already in teh model. Making the bulwarks will not be too difficult our of 0.010" styrene sheet.
Here's a blowup of the plans from the Interpid book showing this detail.
Notice too that there are no circular tubs that need to be made. Again... easy peasy.