The Ship Model Forum

Hi guys. It's been a while since I get back to the modelmaking track. Because of lacking materials my 85% completed cruiser Askold has to be put on hold since this March. But after several month of boredom I decided to open a new project on the newly aquired USS Langley kit from Commander Models(I believe one of their subsidaries is called Iron Shipwrights and all the marine-related models they produced is sold under this brand).
And there is also a thing that I would like to bring up, according to Trumpy's 2018 catalog, it seems that Trumpy is about to release a 1/350 version of USS Langley sometime later this year, with both the carrier and seaplane tender version provided. So this ISW kit of mine,could well be the very last resin USS Langley being built before the release Trumpeter's plastic kit.
Anyway I started the construction roughly two days after I received the kit, and here are some recent progress:

First thing would be preping the hull. The hull that ISW provided was molded into a completed solid single piece one, which is exceptionally heavy and rigid, unlike Combrig or PCR who tend to hollow their hulls and spit them into two pieces by the waterline. The only two shortcomings for us fullhull modellers is that the bottom of the hull is everything but flat and it lacked a pair of bilge keels.
The uneven hull bottom was also full of many hollow bubbles and holes which will certainly give those trypophobians goosebumps.It has cost me nearly half tube of a Tamiya white putty to get the bottom flat and smooth.

At first glance,I suspect the kit might have some serious fitting problems, and later building experience has proven my intuition to be correct. So I decided to construct this ship module by module,test fitting almost every part to the hull once I finished it.
First major business was the brige superstructure. The Langley was originally a collier, so she retained a lot of characteristic feature a Proteus class collier should have. Like the bridge, completedly supported by stilts. The stilts were made of brass rods since the original kit instruction intend to secure the bridge only on two resin stands.
The bridge roof part is heavily distorted and is beyond any repair, so I replaced it by a scratch-built roof, and two extention platforms for searchlights. I hollowed the protruding pilothouse and its windows and added glass to it and the main wheelhouse directly behind. Also some navigational equipment(binnacle) have been added into the pilothouse. It appears that the birdge fits quite ok on the forecastle.
Here's some pics of the bridge.

Some miscellaneous details added to the hull. The hawse, pair of photo etch anchors(These USN type anchors were spares from a Flyhawk cruiser set, and they fit surprisingly well), and a pair of bilge keels made of ABS strip.

After that it comes to the infamous complex system of truss supporting towers, beams and girders. It is infamous not because of the complexity,but rather the erroneous design of the photo etch parts. Basically half of the truss towers didnt fit to the hull either in heights or overall widths. Some crossbeams also didnt mate to the supporting towers properlly. A considerate amount of effort has been done to compensate all these errors in order to make them fit. And here's the progress of the photo etch work so far.
The truss towers are labeled in an alphabetical order.From Tower A to M,A being the aftmost tower located on top of the stern deckhouse, while M being the foremost short tower located at the forecastle. I started to work from the K tower which is right behind the bridge superstructure, in this way I can do an early check on fitting problems with the superstructure should they occur. And again I am proven right, the aftside of the bright needs to be sanded a lot before the two truss pillars could fit between them.
As of now,I have finished tower G all the way to tower M, after repair,they fit considerable well to the hull.

There're two travelling cranes inside the support towers, one fore,one aft. Right now I have finished one of them. I cut away the window section resin in the crane cab and added a scratch-made windshield to it. Also there are two huge L shaped cranes on each side of the ship which have to be scratch made. I have finished the starboard side one.

Beautiful work. We haven't seen many build threads on this kit.

Agreed. I'll be watching with great interest. I have this kit in the stash and would really like to build it someday.

_________________
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

Fantastic work so far. Very interested in following this one

_________________
Just finished:
1/350 USS Santee 1944

Current projects:
1/700 USS Catamount 1960
1/350 USS Columbia 1945
1/350 USS San Francisco 1944

Very good so far!"

I always liked the Langley-- all that lovely spidery girder work....

I think David Griffith also did an excellent job on his in 1/700
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

best wishes

Jim Baumann

_________________
....I buy them at three times the speed I build 'em.... will I live long enough to empty my stash...?
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IPMS UK SIG (special interest group) www.finewaterline.com

This is a terrific photo you took:



Good job!

Like Jim, I too like Langley for the same reason. Also why I like the Akagi so much. Enjoying watching this build.

_________________
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Building:
1/48 Lancaster (HK)
1/350 Akagi
1/350 IJN Kongo

Thanks Jim That's a very helpful reference

Hi moderators,much appreciate for all your support .since I only got time to continue the project when I'm off-duty, so it might progress a little bit slowly.
I was rechecking fitness between the bridge and truss towers and discovered that the bridge sits a little askew(the entire bridge tilts backwards towards the stern) when comparing to the truss towers and the main cargo holds. That's because the forecastle deck is actually a small angle slope. I did noticed that when preping the hull but due to my oblivious mind,I forgot to take it into consideration when making stilts.
This problem has been corrected by getting rid of the aft,port and starboard side stilts and fitting new, longer ones. The two stilts supporting pilot house have also been shortened a little bit. Now the bridge rests quite well on the forecastle,plus the PE ladder on the aft side of the bridge was replaced too with longer stilts installed,the original ladder does not fit anymore.)
There is also a set of "X" shaped cross bracings between the bridge's port and starboard side stilts.This is yet to be made.

Again some small progress here. I have fixed the tilting problem of the bridge and added cross bracings to the side stilts of the bridge. Also added is a set of access ladders to the overhead crane.
I was getting quite exhausted by the constant correcting work to the PE parts ,so I decided to move on to make a few air wings to clear my head and help me refocusing on the PE job.I managed to build two bombers before the day is over,and here they are.It appears that the smaller divebomber fits quite well inside the hanger. The torpedo bomber however, did not have its wings retracted to yhe fuselage so its wings are kinda sticking out from the hanger. I decided to place it on the flightdeck afterwards.

The K,J,I towers that you see here have been intentionally shortened so they could fit on the hull. Tower L and M originally all had their vertical legs levitating above the forecastle, and two sets of scratch-made extension parts solved the problem.
I haven't got the time and extra energy to clean up my garage.So ur,my workbench is kinda messy,I hope you guy won't mind it

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Flightdeck support is almost finished. The aftmost tower and its connecting girders still needs some ajustments so they havent been attached to the main frames yet.
I recoated the entire hull with a special resin primer.This primer is way more adhesive towards resin surface when comparing to Mr.Color's B524(traditional universal primer). If properly applied, the primer wont be teared off even with the strongest masking tape.

Lots of hard work, but looking great. Love those aircraft.

Yeah, what Dan said.

_________________
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

Awesome work on all that PE, it's sharp looking. You have more patience than I!

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Brett Matthews

Thanks Brett, working on these erroneous PEs can get quite excruciating sometimes.