The Ship Model Forum

Ok this is the start of my five ship tribute to Task Force 18 The USS Hornet, USS Vincennes, USS Nashville, USS Cimarron & the USS Gwin as representative of DesDiv 22 the USS Monssen, Meredith & Grayson along with the Gwin.... (out of these seven relatively new ships, only three survived the war, The Nashville, Cimarron & Greyson, the rest didn't make it through the coming year)

The kit used as the basis is none other than the Dragon/DML USS Livermore in 1/350th scale......

Along with this I will be using the Krakken Hobbies USS Kearney backdate set, (for the 12 .50cal AA fit) The Inifini brass .50 Cal set and depthcharge rack set, (for the longer stern racks the Gwin carried) And the GMM photoetch set.... (primarily for the railings and anything else that works better than the kit parts)

Away we go....



Starboard side camo pattern


Port side camo pattern


Deck Blue decks


Ready to assemble the hull


I don't know when I'm going to finish it but I'm planning a seaway display, rolling seas, North Pacific, like in April 1942.....

It will be scratchbuilt along with the USS Nashville as there is no available kits for them

Interesting project! Should keep you off the streets at night for some time to come!

There is a resin Nashville available, albeit in her 1944 fit. Might be easier to start with the hull and the basics, then just have the superstructure to modify. Maybe Matt at Kraken Hobbies will design a conversion set!

Love the camo. Look forward to seeing more pics.

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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! Looking forward to seeing it come together




Matt @ Kraken Hobbies

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If you can find one at a reasonable price...

There is also the option of converting the Very Fire Cleveland as well....
The way I look at it, with both options above I would have to completely rebuild the superstructure anyway.....

building the hull is the easiest part of it and any rebuild of those kits would be so close to scratch, it makes no sense to go to the expense...



Thanks, I tried to come as close as I could since there are no good shots of her port side.... I'm still going to have to fudge her superstructure camo though I have a good shot of the starboard side but the port is a complete mystery....

Two more progress shots....

Everything glued together at this point, touch ups and flat coating coming after installing all the minute deck furniture....


Stern view showing the wraparound stern camo.....


That's all for now, will post more when ready....

EG

Thanks Matt...

I'll be updating this one from time to time until done, the other ships will have their own posting...

Maybe I'm eyeballin as well..... (do I see a Vincennes update advancing over the far horizon there? Maybe I need to get the noc's checked) {chuckle}

Ok, Deck furniture is now on but not painted yet... probably should have painted it first.....

Focs'l.....



K-Guns and stanchion mounted reloads... (and yes that crooked one has been straightened)



Furniture complete, I added it now cause I would have had problems mounting it with the superstructure inplace...

Port side aft...



Starboard side aft...



Once I get them painted off and the deck paint touched up I think I'm going to start on the base.... Force 5 seas, moderate wind 6-8' swell, some whitecaps..... Make my first stab at a ocean water base using the Frank Spahr technique for water bases....

Onward....

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Thanks Matt....

Right now I'm thinking through the forward superstructure O1 deck, Bridge and Pilothouse... It starts with part A8, I'm going to have to modify part A8, the O1 level deck and remove the 20mm splinter shields, they overhang the bulkhead and the .50 caliber MG splinter shields do not..... they sit in the same location, but flush with the bulkhead below and are smaller in diameter....

USS Monssen May '42 (from several dozens of pages ago in the thread, I believe Rick posted it but I could be wrong)



This is after the Raid but before they made it back to Pearl so it's time period correct...

You can see both the pilothouse tubs and the O1 deck splinter shields

Thinking on doing the CA infused paper method of replacing the shields but need to figure out an accurate diameter, maybe thin brass would work, I do not know yet....

Anyway, enjoying the build, will post more as I go...
I bought a piece of HD foam to create the seascape yesterday, I think it's time to put it in it's base before I break it or drop it.....

Ok I've found another shot of the 12 MG installation showing all 6 positions on the starboard side....

USS Woolsey DD-437..... Looking at the midships MG positions opposite the aft stack



Sure looks like the same splinter shield to me, below it there is no mount post that is present for the 20mm mount... Looks like if is mounted right on the midship deckhouse edge with a halfmoon floor, probably gusset supports underneath....

From the looks of the '41 Kearney update set the shields for the pilot house will work for this as well just remove the shields from Part B1 and add a half moon floor..... Half the shield sits on the deck and half on the extended floor....

So I would need four more pilothouse gun shields....

Matt, I would consider adding four more shields to the update set to make a complete '41 King Board update set for 12 machine guns...

Ok, another shot of where I'm at, just finished up carving the initial foam seaway....



Well now to go to texturing and paint....

More later.....

EG

Base is almost done....



For comparison...



Look close to me...

Coming along very nicely!

Matt

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Thanks Matt!!!

Holding off on the superstructures a bit while working out the camo pattern for the superstructures.....

Trying to get it close, no way to get it exact....

Nice - I like the camo and the seascape.

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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

Thanks Martin, It's appreciated... Been working on the superstructure Camo, It's not going to be exact but from the pics I can find this is as close as I think I can get it....



Unfortunately there is no good image of the Port side, fairly decent on the Starboard side, (although with some indistinct sections) So the port side is a composite of the snippits available and a bit of artistic license....

It's what I'm going with....

EG

I remember seeing rafts of these ship in thePSNS Reserve Fleet back in the 60's, handsome ships. As to tub construction, I have had excellent results with the archival Strathmore artists paper which are available in various thickness and surfaces. Some of these models ar almost 60 years old. Simply painting the paper is sufficient, though printer thickness papers need CA. I have see good work done with brass as well which has the advantage over styrene of staying bent (mostly).

Keep up the good work! Tom

I do have a 3.74 MB photo that I have been trying to learn how to do some basic photo clean up on that I can email to you if your interested, just send a PM with your email address and I'll get it sent off. When I saw and scanned (49.3 MB)the photo at the National I knew I wanted to crop the image of Gwinn and by the time I was finished the image was down to 3.74. I'll try and do a search of my photo scans to see if I have any other Gwinn images today.

Roger Torgeson

Hi Roger, any help would be greatly appreciated.....

Thank you....

EG