The Ship Model Forum

Chris fantastic job on the Lex, looks really good man :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1:

Loving it

I ended up having to junk the stainless steel railings I was trying to use and painted up some more conventional brass PE. In the interim, I glossed the water for giggles.

[attachment=0]Lex1.jpg[/attachment]

Thanks. It's similar, but Chris has this mastery with the airbrush I'll never, ever approach, so I used watercolor-like work. Much of the "foaming" on his build was due to an understanding of color that still blows my mind.

Very well done!! The water looks fantastic! The technique looked similar to Chris flodberg's and the result turned out just as satisfying! :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1:

Aop

Outside of crew, outer railing, and some additional rigging, the ship itself is done (outside of dullcoat.) I've gotten the major portions of the sea base done, though I still need to encase the foam a bit more in the seabase, but it too is almost done.


[attachment=0]Sara1.jpg[/attachment]

Inspiration. I have another view of Sara going flat out in calm seas. Her wake and incredible power are evident.

[attachment=8]Lex1.jpg[/attachment]

This is the base "primed" in black with some surfacing agent painted on. I mainly do this to visualize what I want to do with the wake.

[attachment=7]Lex2.jpg[/attachment]

Base color.

[attachment=6]Lex3.jpg[/attachment]

I'm propagating the main wave back after adding turbulence along the hull. I might switch from cotton to rayon for easier manipulation. Cotton is a PITA with all the little balls in the threading.

[attachment=5]Lex4.jpg[/attachment]

Continuing with the port wave.

....and here's the fruit of my labors.

[attachment=4]Lex5.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=3]Lex6.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=2]Lex7.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=1]Lex8.jpg[/attachment]

In total, this is what I do for water:

1 - Use several layers of semi-thinned gel medium. Sand between every 2-3 layers to prevent a wedding cake look.

2 - "Paint" on the wave pattern using an opaque, thin surfacer. This will allow for easy visualization of the pattern you want. Take a photograph if needed.

3 - Mix your base coat based on photos. Mix several shades of the base color for water coloring.

4 - Begin by mixing in progressively lighter shades of thinned acrylic paint along the base. See my second picture. Mix and blend the different blues to achieve something that represents the discoloration subsurface from air mixed into the water.

5 - Complete cotton along the hull and aft wake.

6 - Begin at bow with the wave separate from turbulence produced along the hull, as per picture and other references.

7 - Expand backward. Use significantly thicker strands of cotton along the wave.

8 - Fill the wake out with slightly thinner bits.

9 - Let dry. It's best to be somewhat conservative with application unless you've had a lot of experience with the cotton technique. The gel tends to apply opaque and dry clearer, so it's often hard to see HOW much actual coverage is down. Example: wake along the stern was waaaay too thin after drying. I added more. Don't be afraid to do two or three coats of thin surfacing agent, either. You want to minimize cotton "fuzz" and blend.


I can't say this is the best water building technique, but it works for me.

I've been a bad modeler. I've barely worked on anything, played entirely too much Skyrim, and let Lexington gather dust. Given that the wife's been out of town, I've turned back to entertaining myself with plastic-ish toy boats:

Done:
* All AAA (minus .50 cals) attached. Items are a mixture of BRM and 3DmodelParts printed weapons. Both are insanely nice.
* Scratched the funnel grills with a piece of brass for the stem-stern direction and styrene beams port-starboard. The grills proved to be highly annoying, frankly. This is version 3.0.
* Did some more weathering on the hull. Alas, the photographs are simply not showing it.
* Scratched/rebuilt cranes with styrene (again) using AMW's awesome land-based crane booms. Design wise, they were spitting images of the ones found on Wee Vee and far easier to work with than the GMM set I had.
* Attached aft catapult and crane.
* Launches painted and attached. I hate this part of [i]any[/i] build. Hate.

Left:
* Paint/weathering touch ups and filler along the railing. Effectively "tighten up" the model.
* Aforementioned AAA guns
* Rigging
* Crew
* Waterbase
* CXAM radar
* Itsy stuff

I'm sure I'll find other things I need to add. :\

Here's what Lexington looks like as of today:

[attachment=5]Lex1.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=4]Lex2.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=3]Lex3.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=2]Lex4.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=1]Lex5.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=0]Lex6.jpg[/attachment]

Really great work Chris :thumbs_up_1: .
Now let's see what you make with the Ersatz York :) .

Greetings Christian

Thank you all. I've been busy, so not much has gotten done on Lexington. I'm not sure what turrets will go where, save No. 3, to be honest. I'm hoping to have the funnels done once I get some badly needed grills and launches attached soon.

I love "what ifs." I plan to do the "Erstaz Yorck" as an actual SMS Yorck, 1918-1919. Because cool.

That is looking really good, how a battlecruiser should :big_grin: I like your choice of hypothetical 1941 look (I did mine 1920s style). I'm also a fan of the blue No.1 and No.4 and red No.2 turret roofs, something different to the battleships that I think all had the same colour on both front turrets with one of the rear ones different.

Very nice!! She is a real beauty! I really like her sleek hull. The model is looking fantastic! :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1:

Aop

:big_grin:

My extremely slow build of the Lexington continues. I've assembled and painted -most- of the lattice structures (save really fiddly bits,) done a first bit of fading/salt on the hull, and painted the forward superstructure. I've also assembled a lot of the deck detail, but haven't gotten around to attaching them.

Done:

- Much of the mast assemblies
- Forward bridge (minus .50 cals)
- All other AAA
- Basecoats
- Turrets. Lexington is part of ImagDiv6.

I'm absolutely falling in love with 3D printed bits. Searchlights are a combination of ShelfOddity and Blue Ridge Models. All AAA is from 3DModelParts. The crew will be a mix of thickened Eduard figures and BRM figures. Cage masts were a one-off from 3D and of which I'm incredibly grateful for.

I'm still mixed on how to proceed with the funnel grills. I'm either going to tap a friend for some photo etch bits or go to Carl for 3D-printed versions.

In-process
- Weathering. I'm not too happy with how this looked when it dried, so I'll [i]gently[/i] dab the white streaking to remove a lot of it. Lexington will be shown in heavy seas, returning from a ferry operation to Wake/Midway/Imaginary Island.
- Hull detailing. I managed to get the "01" after ruining tons of old, brittle Midship decals. Oy. I need to order more of something [i]fresher. [/i]

Way off:
- Attachment of cranes, catapults, AAA guns, and everything
- Sea base
- Rigging.
- Crew.

Here's where it stands now:

[attachment=5]L1.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=4]L2.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=3]L3.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=2]L4.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=1]L5.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=0]L6.jpg[/attachment]

Nice work so far! I think the funnel grill is acceptable, very similar to what I did on mine. Battleships don't see much in the way of cowlings, cruisers however do by the time frame you are building so maybe on the forward stack if you wanted a small cowling? I also agree that 1.1's or any other aa gun(seen a couple of drawings with something on that aft deck) would have not worked out so well there. I had them in a similar place as yours but after looking at the big 5 and some other BB's, felt blast damage would be cause to not leave them out in the open. I haven't decided whether I should mount them over the top of the aft most case mate gun or on the main deck a little aft of it abreast turret #3 :thinking:

Loving the build so far, possibly my favorite class of never builts

Matt

Next to the Enterprise, the Lexingtons are my favorite carriers. Cool seeing a model of what they would have looked like had they been continued as planned.

Great progress!

Made some progress in what little modeling time I've found. Most of my focus has been on the ship's two funnels. I first focused on the forward funnel base by adding some ventilators, grills, and bits from my Maryland donor to add some visual interest to this area. Ribbing on the funnel was also restored.

Note on the grill: This is a prototype. I was hoping to get away with, erm PROTOTYPING a funnel grill design. Being that it's rather bare, I'll either:

* Pull it off and add two more beams running port/starboard.
* Add styrene to either side of the stem/stern member, glue, add pressure to properly curve, then glue to funnel. Repeat successfully four times. Sand. Hopefully profit.
* Solder an entirely new funnel grill from scratch.
* Cheat by making a 3D design and having it printed.

I'm still not sure where I'll go.

[attachment=2]Lex1.jpg[/attachment]

I decided to move on to the aft funnel and work on the searchlight platforms. The original IHP resin bits were cast rather thick (and the port/starboard examples weren't entirely even) so I decided to utilize one platform as a pattern and cut new ones from sheet styrene. Here's where it stands with reinforcement and some support girders. I'll add the second, higher platform to each side tonight.

[attachment=1]Lex2.jpg[/attachment]

Overall, here's Lexington as of 09/28. Once I finish with the aft funnel, I'll eat my fear and resume work on the bridge. Once that's done, I plan to get the boat deck (between funnels) planned out, designed, and installed.

[attachment=0]Lex3.jpg[/attachment]

Step by step....

[attachment=7]Lex1.jpg[/attachment]

After a few days off masking in my "free time," I managed to get the vertical surfaces and superstructure painted 5D. Thankfully, a preparatory layer of thin Future avoided all but one big chunk of paint that came off right where the superstructure sits. Win.

[attachment=6]Lex2.jpg[/attachment]

Here's the vessel with what bits I've started work on. I hadn't touched anything up to the point.

I've added two 1.1" gun tubs from my donor kit above the quarterdeck. I figured that the latter would likely be utilized almost entirely for aircraft handling and likely wet.

[attachment=5]Lex4.jpg[/attachment]

I'm not focusing on adding additional details to the hull. I have a number of brass muchroom vents, donor kit vents, hatch covers, boat cradles, etc that will be added to the ship's main hull to not only increase detail but to make the kit more realistic.

Note this midships aft superstructure where funnel #2 sits: [attachment=4]Lex5.jpg[/attachment]

I've cut and removed the knob-things and placed two ventilators from the Maryland kit after drilling out their holes to a major in-scale size. Note one is painted:

[attachment=3]Lex6.jpg[/attachment]

Sadly, I've only been able to do a few little things after painting due to a massive home improvement task that is now thankfully complete. I'm hoping to get the hull mostly done this week. I'll then focus on the boat deck, funnels, and work myself out (with occasional work on the scratch and detail-heavy bridge.)

Note that the plastic catapult is for placement only. I have the excellent GMM PE set for USN battleships. I'll be using catapults off of that.

[attachment=2]Lex8.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=1]Lex9.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=0]Lex10.jpg[/attachment]

[quote="PetrolGator"]

I'm not sure if I'm going to mask the deck off and airbrush 5D on the hull or stick to hand painting. I've had paint ripped off by tape in 4/5 ships I've done in resin, regardless of how hard I've scrubbed them or how much I've primed the ships. My one exception was after a Future treatment on the ENTIRE ship, but I'm still admittedly paranoid. I may mask off the entire upperworks and spray the hull, relying on the brush for her upperworks. I'm still not sure.[/quote]
I've had the same issue with tape pulling up acrylics. But never when I've used Tamiya primer underneath. I don't know what is different with their primer but it's always been foolproof for me.

With Invincible done, I'm back at this. I had planned on making serious headway this weekend....

...then the wife decided our kitchen cabinets needed new paint. Sigh.

Still, I -did- managed to prime the main hull after finished the AA gun tubs and begin work on the wood deck.

Process is as follows:

1) Paint the deck in your desired base coat. In my case, I used Tamiya's light deck tan.

2) Use [i]very[/i] sharp colored pencils in a variety of colors. I used two shades of yellow, a few dashes of orange, and two shades of brown. Make your deck look like a damn Thanksgiving decoration. Like this:

[attachment=2]Lex1.jpg[/attachment]

3) Resume with base color or a shade off of the base. I added some Tamiya flat white to my deck tan mixture and diluted it to 80-90% thinner. Over several layers, mute the lines until they're just visible. All lines should blend into the base paint and only bear a little hint of their existence. This was, well, mostly successful. A few darker lines are still visible on the starboard side of the second turret. I'll lighten it up after work.

[attachment=1]Lex2.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=0]Lex3.jpg[/attachment]

4) Future then use a darker oil wash to pick out the hull planks. This should be light unless your vessel has seen a lot of action, JMO. This has not been done.

I'm not sure if I'm going to mask the deck off and airbrush 5D on the hull or stick to hand painting. I've had paint ripped off by tape in 4/5 ships I've done in resin, regardless of how hard I've scrubbed them or how much I've primed the ships. My one exception was after a Future treatment on the ENTIRE ship, but I'm still admittedly paranoid. I may mask off the entire upperworks and spray the hull, relying on the brush for her upperworks. I'm still not sure.

All for now. Ideally, I'll post a pretty picture of her hull fully base-painted in the next few days. While that dried, I'll continue work on the forward superstructure and funnels.

Looking good! I have often wondered about the 1.1/ 3-inch aa guns on this class. Being mounted on the lower aft deck, I wonder if this would have been good or bad considering that at high speed I imagine this deck to be pretty wet.

Looking forward to seeing this one resurrected.