The Ship Model Forum

Woo Hoo, first one to start a WIP thread on this thing! Do I win some kind of prize???

***disclaimer- I know next to nothing about this class, so all of my observations will be about the kit's quality, not accuracy compared to the real thing***

Anywho, the kit arrived in the mail yesterday ($135 shipped from Tower Hobbies, not bad!) and I couldn't help myself, I had to start her. I think my desire to start her was two-fold, first, I did not want another kit to just go into the ever-growing stash, and I bought this with the intent of doing an OOB build. I know myself well enough to know that I don't resist temptation well, and if WEM releases a PE set I will be too tempted to use it. So I figure if I build this thing before any PE is released then there is no temptation

My initital impressions are very good: Dry fitting reveals EXCELLENT FIT . I installed the bulbous bow, and the fit is tight and perfect, leaving a very minimal seam.

I started assembling the well deck, and Again, fit is perfect, leaving sharp corners and minimal seams. Well deck detail is decent, not amazing, but not bad. Lower bulkheads in the well are nicely detailed with the padding, upper bulkheads could use a little more attention though.

The separation line between the hull and superstructure is a little strange, and will present some interesting seams to be dealt with. This is not a fault in the kit per-se, as the separation is where it would be on the real ship. Fit of these two large pieces is again, very good, so that should minimize the frustration in this area.

Dry fitting all of the well deck, hangar, and flight deck pieces reveals that there will be a very minimal need for filler used throughout this model.

Looking over the rest of the kit's parts, there are a few smaller details that leave something to be desired, especially my first love, the M-2 .50 Cal! It is overly simple, though that is to be expected in a plastic part that tiny. Other than a few small things though, this looks to be an impressive kit that can be built into a very nice model right out of the box, with minimal frustration, and is a great platform for those of us so inclined to super-detailing.

My only real gripe is that there are no rails included on the PE fret for the long runs of catwalk inside the well deck. that really sucks, especially if you want to keep this kit a true OOb build, as the well deck looks "off" without those rails.

I was super excited to check out the UH-1 Huey though, as this is the first plastic offering of this little workhorse ever! I like it, and will assemble one this weekend to show everyone. And before anyone asks, yes, I would be open to selling the Hueys... for about $60 a piece I have a feeling you will see me trying to mold and cast these little babies for use on my other ships...

Sorry for lack of photos, I forgot my camera battery charger, so had to use my cell phone.

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Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

Wow, she's huge. My stash is gonna grow.

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James

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/users/James-Guard/user-index.html

Goodness Ryan, you've got a lot of projects going! I can't wait for more progress. Seeing all your builds makes me want to build some modern subjects. I still can't get over how big those Nimitz class ships are

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-Abram
ModelWarships Gallery Page
Joslin Models Facebook Page

Hello,

I saw a finished model at the Revell stand at Telford last year. An impressive ship and you have a good start on your model

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Cheers,
Christian
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AKA "Painter"
VMF'06 - German Gamblers
Veritable Modelling Friends 2006, Germany

Once again, "Hi, my name is Ryan and I'm a modelholic."

Well, my plan to keep this an Out of the box build lasted almost a whole 24 hours!

I decided that I just could not in good conscience let the blank canvas that is the well deck bulkheads go to waste. I mean it is such a nice clean slate begging for some scratch additions like pipes and junction boxes and other doo-dads. Sooo, I dressed up the walls, but just a little, I swear! Just an hour or two of scratch additions to those walls makes a huge difference.

And since I dressed up the well deck, I figure that maybe I should go ahead and light it up... I mean that's only considerate to the details inside, ya know?

I keep telling myself that I am going to keep this one simple, relatively quick and not go overboard...

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Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

Here is a leaked photograph of Ryan's USS New York under construction. MAN OVERBOARD.

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James

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/users/James-Guard/user-index.html

Man, that rusty Liberty ship sure taught you a thing or two

Well shoot, if you did all of that to the well deck then you just HAVE to give the hangar the same treatment if only for balance

I keep telling myself the same thing, "I'll go easy with this one..." 3 hours later I have a very intricate plan laid out and the bench is littered with plastic shavings

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Drawing Board:
1/700 Whiff USS Leyte and escorts 1984
1/700 Whiff USN Modernized CAs 1984
1/700 Whiff ASW Showdown - FFs vs SSGN 1984

Slipway:
1/700 Whiff USN ASW Hunter Killer Group Dio 1984

Hey! Wait!

All the pipes, junctions, and do-hickeys are in the wrong places by .003 mils to the right! The flag is 2" too low (and has 49 stars), the blue container is a dumpster NOT a nuclear warhead transfer facilitator, and the hull is painted IJN red!!!
(Not to mention all those glue marks on the hull!)

Sheesh!

It's so hard to find modelers who pay attention to the proper details nowadays! GET A GRIP SAILOR AND GET IT RIGHT!!!

hehe

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Мощность для рабочих, которые просто пытаются построить простой судна под строгим тиранов! - В. И. Ленин

Hello from Elk & Steelhead country and Cody the Incorrigible Cat

Oh boy, I sure can't count on you lot to talk me off of my super-detailing ledge huh?

Anyways, cliffy, the hangar is actually pretty nicely detailed, so I won't have a lot to do in there. the detail throughout everyplace but the upper well deck makes me think that this was either:
a- an accidental oversight on the part of the CAD designer, because it is just so out of character with the rest of the kit, or
b- perhaps the result of a rushed deadline with the release of the Bronco kit looming on the horizon???

Either way, it was not too hard to fix, I am going for the general impression factor here, not total accuracy, so some reasonable artistic license is being taken.

My first accuracy observation though is this:
the fore end of the well deck is completely wrong. I'll illustrate with pictures later in the weekend. But there is a ramp that is missing entirely that goes to the vehicle storage area, and there is a solid featureless wall where there should be another giant access hallway to the lower vehicle storage area. Needless to say, both of those issues have been successfully rectified.

Now I am at a pause in the build, do I light the well deck or not???... I'm on the fence, since the well is only visible from the stern, it is not like i will be placing her on my shelf wired in to light up like my CVN's where the interior can be seen from normal viewing. Basically, if I light the interior here, it would be solely for the benefit of you clowns (used in the nicest possible sense of course) and any spectators or judges at a competition. Since this is solely for me, and not really being built as a true competitor (my Reagan is being built to compete), I am leaning towards not lighting her. Due to the construction of the well deck in the kit, overhead lighting is not an option, as the underside of the flight deck is the roof of the well deck. Lighting would have to be from the side (which is accurate to the real thing), but I think in this case it might be more trouble to do that than this particular build is worth.

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Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

REALLY looking forward to this build, my GM New York arrive the week after Christmas, and I have been trying very hard to not start it before I have finished some of my other projects.

You could solve the well- deck question by simply closing the stern doors...... Yes you can call me a heretic!
By the way are there any good shots of the well deck and the hangers online? Most of the shots that I have seen on google images simply showing the outside of the ship.

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Never argue with an idiot, he will only drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

Tracy White's posted a few of the better ones in the CASF thread on the class: viewtopic.php?f=51&t=46799&start=20#p524796

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De quoi s'agit-il?

Picture Time!

Ok, so I described most of what I did in the posts above, but I'll give a small recap:

The well deck sides were detailed with some PE doors, and rails, some hose reels from a 1/350 yamato, and the rest is different thicknesses of soldering wire and bits of the circuit board torn out of an old cell phone. I gotta say that it was fairly simple and stress free, and I really think the results are just what the doctor ordered. It's a shame that most of it will be lost int he depths of the well deck.

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Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

And here is the rear of the well deck.

The kit part here is completely wrong. This is how it should look: http://www.navy.mil/view_image.asp?id=56242

On the kit part, there is a solid bulkhead, and the underside of the ramp that leads from the flightdeck to ... well, nowhere actually, just a ramp from the deck down into a solid wall. there should be a ramp going up from the well deck to an upper vehicle bay, and a "hallway" to a lower vehicle bay.

Anyways, it was a pretty simple fix, cut a coulpe holes, add a ramp, and a structure, and you're in business.

I took some artistic license with the ramp artwork. I really like how it looks on the picture of the San Antonio, and figured I would do something similar for the New York. I don't know if this is on the new york, but pictures are scarce, so I don't know for sure that it is not there either!

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Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

Excellent, excellent work Ryan. Love seeing your progress.

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-Abram
ModelWarships Gallery Page
Joslin Models Facebook Page

Nice work Ryan, that's looking good.

thanks fellers!

I am having nothing but fun with this one so far, in no small part thanks to the great fit and relative simplicity of this kit and ship.

I went to my LHS for supplies and was happily surprised to see that they had a bunch of the bronco accessory sets for their new york. Based on bigdaddymark's posts of the harriers, I bought those (for use on my LHD's) and I grabbed their up-armored humvee's and their AAV set.

The Humvees are decent, more detailed than the gallery ones, even if the doors are a little thick and blocky. at least these have a little more surface detail including the engine snorkel. the armored turret is really thick, but overall nice.

The AAV's are very different. The bronco ones have the explosive/reactive external armor on them, and have detailing on the back end with the escape hatch etc. all in all, I have to give the bronco ones the win over the gallery AAV's.

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Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

I'm glad to see the Bronco expansion vehicles are just as good as their Harriers! I may be picking up a few (hundred) LOL

Your WellDeck is looking Awesome. I like that you broke the PE up and added the large cleats. I'm planning on doing the same. Don't know why my PE set isn't set up like that already, but it's not a hard modification.

It's a shame that once everything is built that most of the hard work in the WellDeck is almost impossible to see.
I have to make mention those open hatches. Boy do they look good!!! What set are those from? All of mine are just the hatch, and not the hatch way. VERY nice addition.

Also your paint job is looking good! Can't wait to see more.

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God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it is hopeless.
~ Chester W. Nimitz ~
My Builds ~ http://ussnorthcaroilna.shutterfly.com/

Thanks Mark, I have to give credit to Tracy pointing out those cleats, it would have been an easy detail to overlook.

As to those open hatches, I love em as well. Funny thing about those is that they came with the completely useless dragon USS The Sullivans kit. The rails with that pe set are useless (have no bottom rail) but the hatches are very very nice, and as you pointed out, the frame for the open hatches adds a very nice touch.

If I were to find a bargain basement price on the Bronco new york kit, I would not mind picking one up to build right along with this one to get a true build comparison between the two kits to give a definitive answer to which one is truly the best kit.

I really wish bronco had added a UH-1 huey to their kit, I would buy a few packs of those for sure!

The side lighting is certainly do-able in this kit (obvious when you look at the pic showing how much room there is between the well deck and the outer hull) but I am going to go with a strip of LED's on either long side of the roof of the well deck for simplicity sake and to ensure you don;t end up looking into the bulbs directly.

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Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

Well deck= DONE!

I decided to go ahead and flood the well deck a little, I have seen lots of pictures of the Amtracs driving out of the deck with just a couple feet of water inside, then they sort of just plunge off the stern ramp, and that is the feel I wanted to capture in here, just to illustrate that the deck is meant to be flooded with water. I like the look, even though I am doing a full hull build, and well, as long as I like it that's all that matters in the end. The flooding will also give me some latitude if down the road I decide that I want to turn this into a diorama in a seascape, then I just have to sink the hull into the sea and I'm all set.

I proceeded with the overhead lighting VS side lighting, and I think it is an effective result. I went with warm white lights VS the natural white that I used on teh CVN's just to try something different. I like em both, the natural give off a more flourescent feel, and the warm, are, well... warmer!

I tied up an LCU in the well, though it is likely that they would move it out of the well if the Amtracs were maneuvering in there, but I wanted it in there, so there it sits.

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Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

A note on the build process: The directions call for you to attach the well deck to the lower hull, then attach the upper hull over the deck and the lower hull. Save tyourself a lot of time and frustration, and attach your completed well deck to the upper hull (underside of the flight deck) then attach that whole assembly to the lower hull.

Lucky for me, I studied the structures enough to catch this in the planning stage, and it made life simple, and painless.

Now on to the upper/lower hull fits. All I can say is WOW! That loooong, complex seam that I was worried about was simply a non-issue. The fit is so good and so tight, that there was only one micro sized spot that required any filler whatsoever. the rest of the nearly 4 feet of seam simply disappeared with a light swipe of a medium grit sanding stick. Very Very impressive.

Only thing that did make me scratch my head a little is the starboard side access hatches. The port ones matched up perfectly, but the starboard ones seem to be mis-scribed about 1/16". They must be mis-scribed, because the fit was perfect on both port and starboard sides, but the top and bottom halves of those doors simply do not match up. So they were sanded away and will be re-scribed.

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Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html