The Ship Model Forum

Nice work.

I did not post a while, but the progress is there.

I added the prominent bracing between the hull side and the top of the armor belt. Called boat fenders in the plans, I assume they were to protect the boats from being tipped over by the armor belt shelf. Exit doors were also added.
[attachment=2]starboard midships.jpg[/attachment]

I am gradually building up hull sides, and redoing the sponsons. Forward 1.1 platforms were too thick, but could be fixed. Forward 5" platforms were of a wrong shape, so I rebuilt it completely. Rear platform is ok, but in 1941 there were no protruding side wings at the very rear.
[attachment=0]starboard sponsons.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=1]starboard sponsons 2.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=4]port sponsons 2.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=3]port sponsons.jpg[/attachment]

The details for platforms are being redone. Today I spent many hours to solder the SS Models bitts. Lex needs 8 big and 4 small ones. These were done from "Battleship" and "Cruiser" sized bitt sets, soldered by SMD paste solder.
[attachment=8]bitt1.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=7]bitt2.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=6]bitt3.jpg[/attachment]

I spent half of the last night to make the degaussing. My problem was to find out how it was guided at the bows. All photos which I had accessible had deep shadow in that area, or it was obscured by something. Eduard set was designed to go upwards under the front 1.1 sponsons, and converge at the breakwater, which would be a very unusual arrangement for a capital ship - ALL external degaussing cables I found on other ships went through the plating a few meters behind the anchors. For example on West Virginia. On one of the Lex photos, I could make out a diagonal step upwards in the cable, before it was hidden by the deck. Robert Apfelzweig's model also had the step like this, but the area where he went through the hull side was in the capstan compartment - and such a cable would interfere there alot! I thus searched for a suitable room on the upper or middle half deck levels, and decided to use "Boatswain stores" room area on the middle half deck, especially as it has suspicious markings without caption in General Plans booklet. Thats where I guided the cables in. The holes would need to be closed later.

Tonight, hull side doors, boom bases, etc are on my plan ;)

So, did some work on the Lex.
I scaled all plans from the General Plans brochure, scaling them by adjusting DPI values so that the length of the flight deck matches the kit.

MENG made an error in the fore 5" platform. Well, printed the mirrored plan out, glued on 0.5mm plastic sheet, there's a new platform, walling around it is the old one cut off the kit part, still to be sanded down a bit. Sponson openings for both fore 5" platform and fore 1.1" platforms were too shallow, looks like the MENG forgot the plastic thickness! Some sanding stick work for me ;)

Rear platform lost all its bulwarks. It looks not bad, but the rear 1.1 platform and rear 0.50 MGs were above it - I will need to re-scratch them. Also, plans have no protruding stations at the rear edge of this platform.

No work today yet - spent most of the morning building a spider hat with my daughter for tonight's Halloween Party ;)

So, the state by now is - I shaved off all wrong detail from the hull. Waterline plate is glued and sanded to fit. Deck lost its injected safety nets, and gun galleries are in progress of loosing their plastic bulwarks. I also made some paperwork, and marked, what I need to do on each hull side. I will be starting with the degaussing cable tonight, and then play from it in respect to doors, ladders and booms. The Airgroup can also be started, as Buffaloes from Trumpeter arrived in addition to the kit's Dauntless and Devastators, plus SS-Model and eduard PE, with Starfighter Decal Lex Airgroup decals. I would probably start painting the myriad of seamen, got alot of them here. Most likely, I would be placing her airgroup for launch with 10-12 buffaloes, and 6 each SBD and TBD spotted on deck.

Eduard Set seems to have the bulwarks for the platforms exactly as I deducted, so lets hope they would fit MENG kit instead of trumpy.

Just got the eduard set in my hands. Neighbour company was empty today (3-man IT company on a day between the weekend and 2 days holidays mid-week...) but the office building owner was there, she reached someone from that company and they gave their OK for her to open their office and rescue my parcel ;)

Thanks!

[quote="PetrOs"]Thanks! Yeah, own business as secondary job, second child ETA in 5 weeks, primary fulltime job as IT project lead for a very huge company.... Little time for own modeling...[/quote]

Congrats on the kid!

And yes business ownership is fun. I've got a pair.

Hope the Eduard turns up in top shape!

Thanks! Yeah, own business as secondary job, second child ETA in 5 weeks, primary fulltime job as IT project lead for a very huge company.... Little time for own modeling...

Ah yes, business ownership...it is always high adventure!

I know your pain.

Dang, I got stuck. Eduard set arrived today to my store when I was away. The neighbour company accepted it, locked inside their office and drove off for long weekend, to be back in over a week. They took a few parcels with goods for my customers too!

Thanks! That is very interesting info!

I don't know precisely when the splinter shields were added, but one way you can tell is by the color. The Navy hadn't finalized a formula to dye canvas to the new paint colors until I think November or December of 1941. Note that the "shields" around the AA on her forward 8" gun houses are bright in [url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/USS_Lexington_%28CV-2%29_leaving_San_Diego_on_14_October_1941_%2880-G-416362%29.jpg]this picture - they are canvas wind shields and not metal splinter shields. The difference in color should help you determine what is metal and what is canvas still.

Also - to explain what you are seeing on the PAINT in that photo...

The Navy changed from the pre-war #5 Standard Navy Gray to a new system in 1941, as we know, but they did not want to simply toss and waste all of their old stocks of paints. Instead, they went on a campaign to convert the old paint to a 5-D equivalent with the addition of a [URL=http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Ships/S19-7/1941AprilMINYPaintManufacture.html]dark tinting paste[/url]. This, however, cause adhesion problems and the paint would come off due to wave action or if the surface was salt encrusted when the paint was applied. What you see "color" wise is 5-D greatly worn off below the flight deck. There is relatively fresh 5-D on the forward island and base level of the stack, with faded 5-D above it, where it is harder to paint.

Just got a question - the booklet of general plans shows all her sponsons with railings around. The pictures from October 41 as she leaves the hunter's point shipyard in Warships pictorial 33, page 22, shows splinter shields at least around the 5" gun tubs. 1938 pictures show gun tubs with railings. So, can anyone tell, if my assumption is right, and the splinter shielding was added in october 41?

Going to be exciting to see how this kit turns out.

I'll watching your build with interest.
Cheers

In my store, I had a stack of USS Lexington kits from MENG. I was looking on them, as I really like the looks of Lady Lex and Sister Sara. So, as many accessory sets came together, I decided to go to build her.
I got following stuff here:
MENG PS-001 kit
LXMX Lexington set
Wood hunter deck
Artwox wood deck
Lots of doors, ladders, and other goodies in my store and in my private stash.
I also consider to get new armament from Blue Ridge - 5/25 and 1.1 guns, plus the .50 cal MGs either from Blue ridge or PE.
I also ordered the Eduard PE for both Lex and Sara, especially for some walkways and degaussing cables

The state of the MENG kit is consistent with the time between august 41 and april 42. I decided to show the earlier part of it, as she was painted in MS5 camo - dark grey with false bow wave. There is controversy of which color the deck was. I decided to make it mahogany stain - it was definitely repainted to blue by mid-october, but it could have been as early as june. As I like the looks, I will go for mahogany. The ref photo for weathering is this https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/USS_Lexington_%28CV-2%29_leaving_San_Diego_on_14_October_1941_%2880-G-416362%29.jpg, probably with the deck freshly repainted blue.

I tried to darken the deck test piece to mahogany with the Clou wood stain, it worked well. A bit lighter then on period pictures, but as she was badly weathered by october, it would work fine. As a tone ref I used these pics
https://www.pinterest.de/pin/403987029047601476/
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1a/24/3f/1a243fc4e6942c09223d2441ec6d9c8d.jpg

The kit itself is not bad. Some small details are omitted, for example the 1.1 guns are not there at all. But as I usually replace such stuff with resin or PE, its not a big loss at all. Adding stuff is easier as sanding off the wrong details. Other things to replace are deck edge nets, too thick bulwarks on the platforms, or radar antenna, all provided by Eduard or LXMX set.
http://www.hnsa.org/resources/manuals-documents/booklets-of-general-plans-online/


The great plan set is available for july 41 as a booklet of general plans, which I use. Only mod since then was radar added and 3" guns replaced by 1.1".

Painting would be done by Lifecolor sets, I had some good experiences with their paints.


As I started, the hull has some omissions:
- some portholes are wrong or missing. As it is relatively minor, and I HATE drilling portholes, I would not touch it at all.
- some prominent details missing - boat booms, tubes, fenders, doors, etc. Nothing I cant fix. Some molded on "bars" on sides are not looking nice, or are out of place. These are now sanded off, and would be replaced. Only two such bars stayed in place - one in correct place for garbage chute, and one also in place for gasoline pipe in plans.
- prominent degaussing cable is missing. Eduard set has it, but has it wrong around the bow (in photos it is plain level there, eduard has a knick in the cable path upwards), so I will need to fix it

Right now, I added the waterline plate to the hull, sanded off the wrong details, and now reconstructing them with Pe and plastic