The Ship Model Forum

These photos hopefully show why I bothered to start building the hull from scratch. Merit hull has straight sides and even at the bow where there is seemingly a lot of curvature, the hull is actually more or less V-shaped not outward sloping as it should be.

[/attachment][attachment=6]Hornet40.jpg

Had a short break from modeling due to a trip to Beijing. Otherwise a nice city but air quality leaves a lot to desire.

First layer of planking is almost ready now and I have started sanding the hull. It will take a while to sand the surface but it seems that the hull has retained its shape and that the structure is pretty robust.

After a very long break some progress with my Hornet. Did not dare to remove the hull from the "dock" (a piece of thick plywood) for a long time as I was not sure that it would keep its shape. Well, now the hull is pretty much sanded into shape. I plan to cut the last section both to stern and bow from the Trumpeter kit and see if can make them fit. If not then I'll build them out of scratch too.

It seems that the plan to replace the hull with a scratch built one and use the kit parts from the hangar deck up is a viable one. Apart of the last 10 cm at the front, the deck is pretty close to the shape of the scratch built hull. Still need to cover the hull with 1 mm thick strips, raise the hull sides to the same level as the hangar deck and do the plating.

That is some work you have done to fix the problem. Braver than I would be.....Cheers mark

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Winston Churchill

Some small progress with the bow. Unfortunately the Merit hull was so much off that neither the bow nor the stern section could be used from the kit. Started scratch building the basic bow structure from 2x2 mm strips.

Very cool... reshaping 1/200 Trumpy hulls has been a favorite pastime of mine for a few years now so I feel your pain.

Respect to those who put in the effort and succeed... it's much harder to pull off successfully in reality than in concept! Your Hornet looks to be on the winning path.

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-Jason Channell

Current Project: 1/200 Bismarck

Hi David,

Thank you for the advice! I have had a lot of time to regret my decision to use plastic strips. But the real cardinal mistake I made in the beginning when I decided to glue the first layer of strips between the shears instead on top of them. However, this is the first time I have built a hull of this size out of plastic. I thought that using long strips or larger pieces of plastic could end up with the plastic warping between the shears. When I realized the error in my thinking it was too late. So I still have a few strips to glue.

Regards,

Jari

Curious as to how your progress has been and if you can post any update on this ? I am thinking about rebuilding from scratch a hull for the 1/350 scale Trumpeter kit as it appears attempting to correct the manufacturer error would be futile.

Thanks,

Bob

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Currently on the bench: 1/350 USS Indianapolis (1945)
Future builds: 1/350 USS New Jersey Modern, 1/350 USS Missouri WW2, 1/350 USS Hornet CV-8 Doolittle, 1/350 USS Pennsylvania BB-38, 1/350 USS Arizona PH, 1/350 USS Hornet Apollo Recovery