The Ship Model Forum

Hey everybody! I'm new to this site and modeling but I've always wanted to do it. I've picked up quite the project for a 1st timer. It's a 9.5 foot model of the USS Lexington AVT-16 with working deck and task lights, working portside elevator, working catapults, and retractable aircraft arresting wires. This thing is huge! As I said it's 9.5 feet long, 25 inches from the waterline to the mast peak, and 19.5 inches at the beam. The model was originally built in 1955 and used by the Navy to train officers and deck crew on basic flightdeck operations. It's been renovated a few times but the work is kind of poor and has the look of being rushed. Here are some pics of the way it is now.









Here is the light control panel



This is the wiring inside. I hope to cut grooves in the wood to run the wires through. A lot of the wiring is damaged from taking the flight deck off over and over. I'll place metal covers over the grooves to hide/protect the wiring.









I want to convert her back to the way she was when she was a CV. I would also like to open up a bit of the hanger so you can see inside, redo the superstructure a bit to make it look a little better, replace all of the quad 40mm AA guns (somebody broke all the barrels off and painted the nubs red to make them look like missle launchers for some reason), and just general paint and work to make it look a little realistic.

Seems like a lot of work but if I take my time and think it out it's doable. Tell me what you think!
By the way, what scale would this be? I want to but the right parts to scale. I'm thinking 1:96 or spmething but I may be wrong. Thanks!

Where did you take the measurement of 9.5 ft from? At the waterline or overall?

_________________
De quoi s'agit-il?

The measurement is overall length.

I have ran into a bit of a suprise with this though. I removed all the lights and wiring from the aft 3rd of the flight deck. While doing this I noticed that the deck is part wood and part metal. I am trying to figure out if this is how it's originally built or if this is the result of a past repair job. I might just build an entirely new flightdeck. I seems like it might be a PITA to get the metal and wood to blend together well. We'll see.

Using Navsource's length for converted Lexington, including the bridle catchers at the bow, the scale works out to be 1/94th scale, which, if measurement inaccuracies were taken into account, could very well be 1/96th.

However, what's odd is that the model does not incorporate the enclosed bow that the real Lexington received when she got the angled-deck, and that the model's bow shows her to be one of the "long-hulls" with side-by-side 40mm tubs, but Lexington was a "short-hull", with only one tub.

Here's Navsource's picture page for CV-16: http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/16.htm

_________________
De quoi s'agit-il?

Was Lex ever converted to have a long hull bow? I know a number of short hulls were modified and carried this configuration for the brief period between their SCB-27 and SCB-125 conversions.

_________________
"It is best to remain silent and let others assume you are dumb than to speak up and remove all doubt"

http://nssavannah.wordpress.com/

I have the original instructors guide for this. After I read it and looked at the pictures it seems this model was built with the open bow and angle deck. It also originally had the 4 dual 5-inch turrets forward and aft of the superstructure. Did any of the Essex class carriers have this configuration? I may just convert the deck to be the old straight deck. The only problem I run into with that is how to do the flight deck lighting. Looks like some research is needed. (or guess work)

From Navsource's photos, it appears only Antietam had the open-bow, angled-deck, 5" twins config, probably because, as I recall, Antietam was slightly different from the rest of the Essex modernizations as she was a the first test-bed of sorts.

_________________
De quoi s'agit-il?

If this instruction model was built in 1955 it was probably Antietam as Lexington was still an active attack carrier at the time. Lex became a training carrier in 1961. Maybe the navy only added the superstructure and some parts of the deck (bridle catchers) of Lexington after 1961 as the right superstructure and flight deck layout is important for training flight deck crew while the exact bow shape is not. I think this object is historically important as it is now so I suggest that you do not try to bring it up to the shape of the 'real' Lexington. BTW I think Loren Perry used to work as a navy recruiter with a smilar looking model of Long Beach.

If I did build a straight deck version I would just build an entirely new flight deck. The old one would be left intact. There is no way I would do any serious cutting on anything that is twice my age. I just plan on improving/ reworking the work that somebody else had done in the past. Without the Navy rushing me I have plenty of time to show some TLC. I know all about how the Navy can rush the work sometimes. I'm a GSEC (Chief gas turbine systems tech, electrical) and have been in for 12 years. I currently push boots at the Navy bootcamp at Great Lakes IL..

Thanks for all the good info!

My guess is that it was originally a straight deck model, with the angle being added later. The shape is not correct at the stern and this might explain the "composite" flight deck.

_________________
"It is best to remain silent and let others assume you are dumb than to speak up and remove all doubt"

http://nssavannah.wordpress.com/