I've probably read this entire thread about 5 years ago when I was given the Trumpeter 1:350 Essex Kit, but only recently have started construction, so I hope I'm not being hopelessly redundant. In 117 pages, I'm sure that many have documented an Essex build.
I'm going to attempt to do it with the same level of attention and details that I used in my Tamiya Missouri (which I posted in 2012 when it was finished). To keep people from having to search out that post, here's a link to it.
viewtopic.php?f=60&t=101887That build was difficult, but so successful vis a vis what I was striving for that I now have the bar so high I may not be able to replicate it. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try. As a result, I purchased the standard and enhanced GMM Essex kits, and a set of enhanced 40mm quads with shields from Alliance Model Works. The guns were required since I've already modified the forward port sponson to include the late War added extra 40mm gun mounts. My mod is not 100% accurate since I based it on the existing Trumpeter sponson to which I add the gun tubs, solid rail and faired lower portion under the tubs. But their sponson is shorter than the sponson that housed the extra guns. The viewers who will see this model probably won't notice, bu I would bet there are readers of this thread who will notice. C'est la vie.
I'm doing the ship in Measure 21 (all navy blue vertical surfaces and deck blue horizontals). I used Life Color's naval set for the Missouri and did Measure 22 so I was left with all the grays (except haze gray). Since I did my Mo with "natural teak deck" because of the specific time period I modeled (after the deck blue was holystoned off on the way back to Pearl after the Surrender signing) I didn't use much of the deck blue so I have that for the Essex. But I'm almost completely out of 5N Navy Blue. I don't want to have to buy another Naval Set and have even more grays left over, so I'm going to try and mix my own using Tamiya colors. I love how Tamiya airbrushes and have more experience with it than anything else.
My progress so far has been to build all the hangar walls, detail the fantail, and do a lot of filling with Tamiya putty. This is an old Trumpeter kit (2002) so the fits were marginal. I'm very spoiled with Tamiya and Hasegawa kits, but the subject matter is terrific so you put up with the extra work. Besides, whenever I complain about a modeling project being difficult, my wife reminds me that it is a hobby and I shouldn't complain about since nobody is forcing me to do it. "It's not work!"
I chose to complete the fantail since so much of it is unreachable after some of the structures are in place. The same can be said for the bow area. I brush painted the fantail area, will probably airbrush the bow and air brush the rest of the work. I opened up a random number of roller and hangar doors since I want to show the interior of the hangar since Trumpeter was nice enough in this model to include some of the shapes. They didn't do this on their Hornet which my older grandson has been building.
https://s19.postimg.org/pyimkfyar/Essex ... l_Comp.jpghttps://s19.postimg.org/5k33ikuab/Essex ... Comp_2.jpghttps://s19.postimg.org/l5kf2l3oj/Essex ... nded_1.jpgI added some chain I had to the bow, but honestly, you won't see much of this. It's not like the Missouri where the anchor hardware is hanging out in the open for everyone to see.
https://s19.postimg.org/em612o51f/Essex ... nstall.jpgI'm going to use some LEDs to illuminate the hangar deck. To make this happen I pre-installed a plug-in connector to the mid-bottom of the full hull piece and then added a conduit to penetrate both the hangar deck and one of the side hangar structures so the wires can be run along the ceiling without being visible. I used a piece of brass tubing CA'd into the hole. This way the wiring will feed though the structures without hanging up on anything.
https://s19.postimg.org/81eupvohf/Essex ... ctor_2.jpgAll those obsolete ac adaptors laying around in drawers all over everyone's house from all those useless electronic devices make great power supplies for LEDs. I've just purchased another useful part of this circuit, a micro circuit LED driver. It's a little component about the size of an old discrete transistor. You put in any DC (or rectified AC) voltage from 5 to 90 volts and out spits 20 ma current perfectly suited for typical LEDs. You can string as many in series as you'd like realizing that they each drop 3 volts (or thereabouts), so if you're using a 12 VDC adapter you can run 4 LEDs in series. Since the circuit is limited to 20 ma, you don't need any current limiting resistors in front of the LEDs.
https://s19.postimg.org/6avtnwm8j/Essex ... el_Top.jpgIf there's any interest in me continuing ANOTHER Essex build, let me know. Otherwise, I'll just post the conclusion.
Login
Register
FAQ
