The Ship Model Forum

Well since I had to pack up and move to a smaller house than what I was renting, I had to suspend the "Lifetime Diorama" build, cut it in two separate pieces put it into storage with the 1/700 scale fleet (300+) ships and submarines, I was able to get a small area of the house I bought to at least set up my work bench and the wife said I can build 1 ship at a time until our new house and shop are built. My wife asked me to build the KITTY HAWK since that was the ship I was serving on when she and I meet some 26 years ago, she also asked to detail the hell out of it since it was my first ship. I served aboard her from 1989-1993, I saw her totally taken apart and slowly come back together during her SLEP dry docking.

Now about the project:

I will be building the 1/350 scale USS KITTY HAWK kit from Trumpeter, I will be somewhat back dating it to the time period from when I served on her, but my mods are not going to be over the top to get it 100% correct, as I have over looked the kit and have not really got into it to determine any of flaws or things that are just wrong, nor have I seen a review as of yet for the kit and its overall appearance.

I will be however using the photoetch that came with the kit as well as the aftermarket detail photoetch set, as well as other standard 1/350 photoetch sets as needed, probably would be wise to invest some money into Evergreen plastics stock as I am going to be using a ton to give this kit a super detailed look to rival those of Laci, Doug, Ryan and countless more as well, I am not giving myself a time frame to build time but it is going to be the main build for the immediate future. I have already began my research, finding my pictures of Ms. Kitty during her time in Philadelphia, I have some nice black & white pictures I took of her then. Also a lot of the details are going to be from memory of her, but also as well I will be using NAVSOURCE as well. Research is going to be like a trip down memory lane.

I will be posting pictures along the way during this build and give feed back to anyone on what I find out as to the kits overall design and any flaws I might come across.

The plan for this project:
This kit is going to be heavily detailed including a full detailed hangar bay, LED & Fiber Optic lighting, I will be building it as a full hull and it will be left in a "Pretty" state, I will use the aircraft but I will add enough to make the full airwing during our "South Trans Atlantic" cruse. I am going into heavy detailed areas of the ship and do my best to make what I see. I just want to do this ol' girl justice.

Well until the next time I have something to post.............Everyone have a great build.

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Great Jim, looking forward to your build.

Looking forward to seeing this come together Jim

My build has stopped for the time being, I am moving to a new place and have spent the last 3 or so weeks painting and bringing the place up to how I want it..... One of my Modeling friends is my new
landlord, which is great..... I will have the use of his workshop once we manage to get another friends stuff that he has had in storage there. we did get some furniture moved in last week.... most of my stash is in the bedroom closet(Big Closet) I have until the 30th to move the rest.....
I will set my workshop up in the bedroom for now......

Happy Modeling

John

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Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

Hey Red & John thanks for the comments, I am looking forward to starting this project since I have not worked on one thing since December.

John, I feel the pain on the moving stuff as well as the work on the house, I my brother can relate!!!!!!

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Oh I painted and decorated 4 in the space of 2 years for ex Father in law and a Friend, that was 5 years ago and I swore I would never do another.... I would not have moved if I could have continued to afford the rent..... But my British Pension is losing money with the Dollar/British Pound exchange rate.... This is the last house painting I am doing......

Happy Modeling

John

_________________
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

Ok, First thing to be addressed on this kit.

THE HULL:
1. injection points "On my kit" are pretty high, jagged and at best need a lot of attention, there are two towards the bow and two towards the stern. Also, the centerline of the hull, again (On my kit) is high as well it will need to be completely sanded away prior to drilling for mounting holes, this ridge could offset the holes drilled out for the mounting base.

2. Most of the details molded into the hull is "nice" for the actual ship, locations are close, but there are NO open "Boatswain hawls for the mooring lines. there should be "I think" 3 on the bow area forward of the sponson level to the anchor windless deck on the bow. These will need to be drilled out and shaped with thin evergreen round stock or putty around the opening.

MORE TO FOLLOW...................


On thing I noticed while looking over the kit, the kit comes with {2} Bridle fingers, depending on the era your building, Kitty Hawk had the outboard finger removed sometime between 1985-1987, and she retained the inboard finger until after her arrival in Japan, where she had the last bridle finger removed. I am not totally sure as to the time frame of the first finger (CAT 1) being removed but I know she did not have it during her SLEP overhaul, but did retain the inboard (CAT 2), I use to get a kick out of walking out on that thing in port.

SO, keep this in mind during your builds and the time frame your building for. Just a heads up.

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Well I got up this morning thinking about getting stuff started on the KITTY HAWK, then after I fixed my morning coffee it dawned on me that I have not set up my work bench yet, so, I am going to get things organized at the bench and hopefully get started this evening, things are going to be going slowly for this build as I am going to take my time and get it right!!!!

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Well the work bench is organized, 1/2 my tools are missing, well, still packed up but at least I have something to start with,
I started going some very basic work on KITTY HAWK, I got the injection points cut off, filled with putty, sanded and shaped. These areas turned out good. I have also dry fit the hangar bay deck to get the height of the hangar bay bulkheads. I will be getting those started in a few weeks, getting the layout correct and all the additional things made for the bays. I will be doing more dry fitting tonight to see what is covered and what is not, for areas that I will be detailing more and correcting.

There are a lot of areas that need attention and opening up, getting the grills opened and adding mess screens, is going to be the next phase I am looking to tackle, doing the openings is not hard but will be time consuming getting the screen openings perfectly square is the challenge, I have screwed these up so many times in the past and I am not going to make the same mistakes I had before.

I am actually taking a different approach to this build than any other I have done in the past for 1/350 anyway. I am planning on doing a lot of dry fitting and plotting my wiring and lighting, as this is the VERY first ship I am lighting up. I have taken a lot of notes over the years watching how others light up their ships and I have developed a great plan on how to achieve the effect I want. I plan on using several different colored lights with fiber optics attached to route them to the proper places, I am also hoping to get the navigation lights done as well, doing these is a real challenge but one I am up for trying out.

Now, for more on the kit it's self..............................

I was pretty surprised to see that there is NO display base included in the kit like the rest of Trumpeter's kits, personally I don't use these except during building to keep the ship stable, I am going to be building a display case for the ship once I get things past the prelim building phase.

Also, looking at the kit more and more closely I have noticed that the kit is designed mostly in the final fit prior to decom, but there are several parts from other era's. If your depicting a certain era look at the parts list closely as well as the instructions to see what is there or what is going to need to be built. Thank GOD I am depicting Kitty Hawk after her SLEP overhaul, not so much to have to change.

I am planning to get some more basic prelim work done tonight, I'll post pictures of this build soon as I have more to do to get something worth posting.

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Found a great photo reference site for the KITTY HAWK as well as other ships called

http://www.seaforces.org

This site has KITTY HAWK pictures from her final configuration dating all the way back to her being a new ship, great for back dating the kit. Just a tip for those who do not know about the site, like me I just came across it myself. OK, now I'm off to cut some plastic.

I just went back to the main site, and it is a treasure trove of information on the navies of the world................CHECK THIS SITE OUT!!!!

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Good find Jim. Thank you as I am building her now and this helps.

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James

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

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Jim, the Kitty Hawk is such a good kit not much needs done to a last config ship. I have the KA set but prob won't use half of it. I have a thread started already but I need to get busy on her. Thanks again for the great find. Remember, hangar reference is worth GOLD so please don't hesitate to share.

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James

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

Hi everyone, well not a lot of progress made but I did make some, still in the sponson build up stage and doing test fittings, working on the lighting plans and how I am going to work that out. I am hoping to have some pictures of the progress this evening. I must same that for those who have this kit and for those who are planning to get the kit, so far I have found very little as far as fit problems, the sponsons are a bit fiddly when attaching the decking to the housing. It is not a bad issue but can cause a mild headache, I have only had to use minor filler to close up the gaps. The biggest issue I found so far was with the forward port weapons sponson, the alignment pin and receiving slot do not fit well and the bottom of the sponson was kicked out away from the hull, to fix this issue I drilled out the slot on a 45* and filed it to a sharp edge and the fix was much better.

I have attached the wave breakers to the hull that are near the elevators, use caution when attaching these as the alignment slots are a bit bigger then the pins, allowing for these to be slightly askew, I drew a line across the hull to aid in getting these level, I also have to add minor filler to the top of the parts to hide the attachment slot that is visible along the top edge. Like I said before so far there is only very minor fit issues and to the best of me observations this kit is not a putty queen.

I hope that my observations on fit issues and what I have done to correct them is helpful to others with this kit, I am taking this build slowly and fixing everything I come across that I don't like or feel it is up to par. Making notes along the way and sharing them here has been a nice change of pace for me and hope is helpful to others.

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Can't wait for more updates Jim. I too had the same issues with the sponson decking and that port forward sponson. I also found a typo in the instructions on step 13. Part N13 should be A13. But, with all that is RIGHT about this kit, I'll take those any day.

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_________________
James

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

James thanks for the heads up on step 13, I was looking at that last night and was trying to figure out what was going on, never dawned on me that it was a typo, I was so confused at what should have been an obvious error to find that I had to leave to bench and rest the brain. Amazing how you salved my issue without knowing I had that very issue, thanks buddy. Pics are postponed till I find my camera charger

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Well things are going SLOWLY for me and the HAWK, I have been studying pictures and testing a lot of things for this build, primarily the hull lines or welds I should say, I'm planning to show these in my build, so testing technics has been the order of business lately, I think I'm going to go with the masked scribed technic to get the results I want, NO, I am not doing every single weld on the hull but enough to give the impression of the plating of the hull.

I have never attempted this before (hull plating) but love the look I have seen others do in their builds of warships, plus it will give me a chance to better my skills. I have practiced a few technics others have done and some are just too damn scary to try. I am also at a point to where I need to do a lot of scratch building, no not the hangar bay, scratch building on the hull its self, I will do what scratch building I need to complete the gazillon vents and grill opening in the hull prion to the hull plating as that seems the most logical step to take. I just need to get to my LHS to get some materials to handle this task, plus I need to find my dremel tool so I can grind down the plastic inside the hull to finish opening up the grills and vents, drilling them open and shaping with a file is taking me way to long and it is driving me crazy.

I still have a few sponsons to finish building and then I will be ready to attach them to the hull, like I said in the beginning of this thread I am taking my sweet time on this build but it is killing me going so slowly, I mean I am use to building 5,6,7 - 10 ships a month but that was 700 scale, I guess I will just have no choice but to get use to the slower pace I set for myself. I'm still trying to find my camera charger but no luck so far, I might try to get so pictures with my phone but not sure I can scale them down small enough for the limits of the forum, we'll see what I can do.

MORE TO COME SOON.............................

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Well I have finally got more of my tools out of storage, things like my dremel tool which I have been needing for a while now so I can get the vents and grills opened for PE screening to replace the molded areas, there is way to many to continue doing them the way I was before, I'd spend several hours drilling out, file shaping, cutting, pulling hair out, banging my head on the bench, you guys get the idea.

I am looking forward to working on it today and see how much I can get done, lots of the "little" things and prep work still in the works at the moment but I am hoping things are going to pick up more now that the proper tools are back at the bench.

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed

Looking forward to your photos. What year again your building?

Hey Red,
Thanks buddy, I'm trying to back date her to what she looked like as she was after her SLEP overhaul, I was assigned to her in 1989 and served onboard her till 1993. Which most of the kit is designed as she was in her final appearance, there is not a lot of difference to her appearance with the exception of the fantail boarding platform, the kit has her bumpers instead of the fold down platform. So, I don't have a ton of scratch building to do except adding details that are omitted due to mold design limitations. I am hoping to have something to post as far progress but like I've said before what I been able to get done is all the seam filling and sanding. I have been able to get a lot of the grills done on the STBD side as well as all the grills and vents below the island structure. I am very happy with how they have turned out. I do have very minor filling to do from my knife slipping across the surface and scratching the face, it is nothing to get these to disappear, it is just a pain when you cause damage that is totally avoidable.

My plan for the day is to start attaching some of the sponsons to the hull and fill any gaps in preparation for priming the hull, tomorrow I am planning to get a plain ol' base to attach the hull to so I can add the parts to the bottom of the hull added, as well as getting the wiring started so I can get the hangar deck installed. If I was not lighting this kit I could have far more done then what I have so far, y'all know this is killing me going so slow.

I have noticed a few fit problems with a few of the sponsons, but the problems are from minor shrinkage from demolding the trees and parts. Some minor warping on a few flat surfaces, to fix these areas I am just adding some evergreen stock to stiffen these up prior to installing the sponsons permanently, for you guys that have this kit and have yet to start it, these issues are VERY VERY minor compared to some of the putty queens of the past, the kit is not perfect by no means but it is not bad at all as far as fitting things together, I think what issues I have found is simply do to my being somewhat OCD with my wanting a "perfect" appearance for this ship. Most would leave these issues alone and not stress over them but I can't leave well enough alone.

Again I am not downing this kit at all, as it is one of the better kits produced in a long time. We all know no kit is ever 100% accurate but this one is far better than others from past productions.

_________________
Jim Varnell
ABH2 USN/RET.
89-00
Eastern NC Modelworks

Up coming projects:
1/700 scale rebuild of diorama project 960 square feet.
(Table 1 underway)Feb.2017
1/350 USS ALASKA CB-1(started Aug. 2017) 70% completed