The Ship Model Forum

Martin,

Thanks for the kind words and where to find the 40' launches.

I got a set of the L'arsenal 26' whaleboats, but they just won't look right. I think I'm going to use those to replace the Trumpeter ones that go forward of the davits.

Next up is a wash on the elevator wells before installation (they are sitting on the aircraft box at the top of the flight deck photo), then install the flight deck and paint the hull....

Bob

Bob,

One thing I found out AFTER I finished my Lex with the aft elevator in the lowered position:

The aft elevator was slow and cumbersome, and at some point was locked in the up position. So...depending on what time frame you are going to represent your Lex, having the aft flight deck elevator down might not be "accurate". That being said, I think it looks cool when down, so you should do what pleases you.

Just a anal-retentive note on "historical accuracy". Yes, sometimes I do take this stuff too far...

_________________
Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Ship Model Gallery

Martin,

This is the only pic I've ever seen of the Lex with a bow wave:



and it's down, so that's what I was going to go with.

There might be some in the Wiper book, I suppose, but I haven't been able to get one. Lost out on bids 3 times for one on eBay!

I did manage to get the Stern book, but it cost a fortune. It's been a great resource, though, so I'm not complaining.....too much!

Bob

Cool. As I said, I was just passing on some info I had gotten. It was apparently sometime after this they locked that elevator in the up position.

_________________
Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Ship Model Gallery

With the release of the Special Hobby 1/32 F2A-2 (not to mention the Trumpy 1/350 ones!) plus the Trumpeter SBD-2 (and Yellow Wings markings) as well as the upcoming 1/32 TBD-1, I am definitely starting to think of doing my 1/350 Lex in her early '41 configuration. I alread have the Yankee backdate set and am assuming that the ship was painted pre-war gray and mahogany, but can anyone tell me what the AA configuration was at that time?

I'm assuming that at the very end of the yellow wings period (Jan-March '41), her air wing was SBDs, F2As and TBDs. I THINK the SB2Us were gone by then. I hope so, as a 1/32 Wind-indicator is pretty unlikely!

BD

I wouldn't assume that.

_________________
Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

Tracy,

May I ask why not? If I'm wrong (anyone), please feel free to let me know!

Thanks!

BD

Blue Devil,

The pic in my post towards the top of this page is Lex in Oct 41, and she's painted in Measure 5. All vertical sufaces Dark Gray 5D, above the top of the funnel Light Gray 5L, and the white bow wave.

I haven't seen anything that says exactly when she was painted that way. I do know there is a pic of her in the Stern book getting her CXAM radar in June or July '41 (I forget which at the moment), and she appears to already be dark gray, although you can't see the bow to tell if she has the bow wave.

So at least in June or July, she was already sporting 5D instead of Standard Navy Gray.

Bob

I have a few color questions concerning LEX at the Battle of Coral Sea. I take it the flight deck color should be 20/250N Flight Deck Grey and the ship’s vertical surfaces should be 5N Navy Blue. What would be the color of non-flight deck horizontal surfaces?

-Would LEX have had the two light grey stripes that ran the length of the flight deck? Theses stripes seem essential to aircraft recovery and I can’t imagine they would not be there, but they are not shown in painting diagram for my 1/700 Trumpeter LEX.

-Should the flight deck be noticeably darker than the ship’s vertical surfaces? This helps in picking/mixing paints. MM Acryl 20/250 Flight Deck Grey is just slightly darker than Intermediate Blue. It is a little lighter than Deck Blue or Navy Blue and much more grey.

-I am thinking of painting the vertical surfaces and non-flight deck horizontal surfaces MM Acryl Intermediate Blue (this is consistent with the model’s painting guide) and painting the flight deck in Flight Deck Grey (the model’s painting guide suggests paint the flight deck in Deck Blue). How does this sound?


Thanks for the help. Rich Durham

Oh gee, I've never seen that picture.

NOT!

OK, so I feel kinda silly. On the other hand, I DID want to do the bow wave, so now I can!

Thanks for the help, and anyone else who has info on her configuration in early (Jan-Feb) '41 is more than welcome to pitch in. Obviously assume I know NOTHING other than she had the widened flight deck and still had the 8" guns.

Thanks again!

BD

I'm looking at JANUARY of 1941, and an August picture shows a Ms 12 scheme.



So I'm back where I started Still looking for any info on EARLY 1941.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

BD

Maybe not....Trumpy has a Devestator coming out soon....maybe a SB2U is not so far away.

_________________
"It is best to remain silent and let others assume you are dumb than to speak up and remove all doubt"

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BD,

According to both Stille's "US Navy Aircraft Carriers, 1922 - 45" and Stern's "The Lexington Class Carriers", Measure 12 wasn't adopted until September, 1941, so you can't have a pic of Lex in Measure 12 in August.

The pic must be miscaptioned, or she's in Measure 1, prior to the addition of the bow wave.

Stern doesn't give any definitive references to how she was painted when, other than to say it appears Lex was in Measure 12 in March, 1942, when her main battery was removed, and she was in repainted in Measure 11 at the same time.

Of course, none of that helps you with Jan, 1941. All Stern says is that both Sara & Lex were painted in Measure 1 as war approached, but he doesn't say WHEN...

Rich: Non flight deck horizontal surafces should be Deck Blue 20-B. According to the Stille book, the flight deck is supposed to be Sea Blue 5-S also. I can't find anything definitive on the flight deck stripes, at least in the references I have. The pic below from Lex at Coral Sea appears to show stripes on the flight deck. I would assume they would be flat white or light gray.



Bob

Not sure where Stille got his info (no criticism of you Bob), but the flight deck was not 5S at the time of Coral Sea. Sometime in 1941, all USN carriers had switched over to 250N Norfolk Blue. This is a VERY vibrant blue color. Check out Michael Vorrasi's article on the subject by clicking here.

If you look at the picture in Michael's article, it looks like the deck stripes on the Lex are light grey. I've heard some new information on color of the early war flight deck stripes/markings is coming out in the next few months, based on stuff found in the archives. From what I could find when I was building my Lex, she carried two stripes down the flight deck. You can just barely make them out in this picture:


If you right click and save the picture to your PC, you can open it and zoom in for a better view.

The lines you see in the picture taken at the Coral Sea are tracks in the flight deck, not markings. Interesting that this picture of Pearl Harbor, dated a few weeks earlier shows the Sara moored in the same location. Note that her deck appears to have been widened, but she doesn't have any discernable deck stripes.

One thing I just noticed in this picture...what's up with the turret tops of the BBs along Battleship Row? Three of them look to have very light turret tops? You can see the same effect on one of the BB's in the picture of Sara as well...

_________________
Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Ship Model Gallery

No offense taken, Martin!

I wish I'd seen that article before I painted my flight deck. I just got done painting the deck details in 5D and touching up the bleed through on the deck stripes, so I sure don't feel like repainting it to Norfolk 250N at this point.

Although I could probably redo the deck stripes to light gray....I was just getting ready to attach the flight deck to the hull and spray the 5D, too.

Ugh....maybe I will just leave it be. It looks good, if inaccurate!

Bob

It is certainly correct that the TBDs were aboard in early 1941, as VT-2 had them in June of 1940. Additionally, VF-2 was completely equipped with the F2A-2's as of November of 1940.

It's also pretty certain that the SB2U's were gone in early 1941 as well. The SBD started to replace both the SB2Us in the VB squadrons and the SBCs in the VS squadrons, but not all at once.

The early SBD-1's were rejected for carrier use and (typical!) given to the USMC to equip VMB-2 in late 1940 and VMB-1 in early 1941. The Navy wasn't really thrilled with the -2's either, but didn't have much choice but to send these to the fleet. Lexington got one squadron of these, VB-2, and was still flying them in December of 1941. (The rest of the -2s went to VS-6 and VB-6 on Enterprise.) So in early 1941, VB-2 had lost the SB2U's in favor of the SBD-2

However, I'm not sure of the exact date when all of the SBCs were gone from Lexington's Air Group, but it will be linked to to the introduction date of the SBD-3 model, which as near as I can tell, was sometime during mid to late 1941, but not earlier. I have a reference which states that in December of 1941 VB-2 was still equipped with SBD-2's and VS-2 was now equipped with SBD-3's. So it's possible that VS-2 didn't lose her SBC-4's until later in the year.

This same reference also indicates that the two VS Squadrons on both Ranger and Wasp still had SB2Us, and strangely that the Hornet's Air Group VB and VS squadrons were equipped with SBC-4s!! In any event, Hornet certainly never took any biplanes with her when she went to the Pacific. But it does indicate that it took a while for all the units to be equipped with the newer SBDs.

So a build of the Lexington representing a non-yellow wing air group with SBDs, TBDs, and F2As is correct for 1941, but more likely representing a mid to late year period rather than an early year group.


Tom

G'day all!

A while back I bought the Trumpeter 1/700 Lexington on impulse. She's about 70% done at the moment, only a few of her guns are mounted, the lower hulls had its first coat and is not yet attached, the ships boat arent on yet ect...

I have a little problem at the moment. Im not a fan of the lighter guns that Trumpeter provide, and so I though Id mount spares from a Dragon Lexington (CV-16). The shields mounted fine, but Im having a hard time getting the guns to slide in. My genius idea backfired... tut tut tut

She's also my first attempt at weathering. Im not sure if Ive overdone it, but would welcome suggestions!

Anyways, heres a pic. Im not sure at posting pics yet, this being my second one, but I hope it works!

http://www.warshipmodels.com/~users/Ste ... LexCV2.JPG

Cheers!
Steve

You've got the hang of posting pics, Steve =) Looking good as well

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De quoi s'agit-il?

Coming along nicely Steve. In general, the weathering looks pretty good, but it looks like the wash you used pooled on the top of the armor belt and is a little too heavy - I'd dab the excess up with something next time.

Specifically in regards to Lexington, I would say that yes, you did weather her a little too much. Lex was repainted in Pearl Harbor in late March 1942, a little more than a month before she was lost. She may have gotten dirty, but not that dirty.

_________________
Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Ship Model Gallery

It's a good first attempt I'd say. One thing I would have done differently is the underhang on top of the stack... I think the weathering is too intense there. You've got a large overhang protecting that area from a lot of the weather as well as a lot of height, so that area is not going to get a lot of weather effect from wave/spray either.

_________________
Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman