The Ship Model Forum

I have been working on this on and off for a long time, I was on a roll with it this past fall and winter until disaster struck when I discovered that my detail set came with duplicate sections for the aft deck, and no middle section! I have since been given a replacement deck from another manufacturer, it is not nearly as detailed as the KA one, nor does it accommodate the 100s of PE parts in the KA set meant to go in the deck, so I am probably going to get creative and splice in sections using mostly the KA deck.

I scratch Built the hangar details that will be visible through the open (not all the doors will be open) roller doors fore and aft, as the kit is void of newrly all hangar walls and details.

Overall, this kit is pretty underwhelming in terms of detail and the fit is ok mostly.

I came up with an idea to simulate the oil-canning effect on the hull that I am pretty happy with. I drew the panel lines on with a drafting pencil, then masked off each one individually and weathered each plate with pastel chalks. The process went pretty quickly and I really like the results I got without having to scrape or sand down the middle of each plate.

The model will be depicted as she was en-route to launch the Dolittle Raid, when she had the B-25s parked all the way aft with a smattering of USN birds parked in between them and wildcats on the bow in case of an emergency. And yes, I know the USN birds do not have the correct markings for the raid, I tried to make the tail stripes and red circles myslef, but I wasn't happy with the results and in the desire to actually eventually complete this beast, i decided I could live with the inaccuracy and pushed ahead.

Martin Quinn was kind enough to gift me his packet of Hornet research materials he used on His 350 build of her, which saved me a lot of time and were a big help!

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Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

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Here are some shots of the oil-canning I did to the hull.

_________________
Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

Very subtle oil canning - beautiful, Ryan.

And some shots of the hangar; crew are from northstar, quite a few lost limbs and heads removing them from the sprue, seems like their resin is getting more and more brittle each time I order a new set of figures, may be time to switch to another brand, but these are so detailed!

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Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

Great stuff! Glad to see you are back at her!

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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

The paintwork is looking great so far, and those figures bring a lot of life!
I like how you used them to tell little stories in the ship.

Hmm.... I think my Tirpitz may develop a "turbine problem" and have to stay in port when you roll this beauty out on the show circuit. Seriously, you're doing a great job on her, Ryan. I can't wait to see her in person. I'll be asking you some more details about your oil canning effects as well when I see you. Very convincing!

Thanks very much fellas! This has not been one of my favorite builds, not by a long shot, but I am very happy to have figured out an oil canning technique that I like and is relatively quick and easy to do. This one is too close to the end and too much money invested in it, otherwise I would have been very tempted to scratch the project a few times along the way. If I can get it finished in 2023 i will consider it a complete success.

_________________
Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

I am VERY seriously debating on picking up this kit and the KA set. I will be watching this build with interest.

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Gabriel

Ok, back at the Hornet with something to show finally. The deck is installed, and some of the weathering applied. I had to cut up sections of a different brand deck to fill in the missing section from the KA set in the area of the island. I cut up the duplicate KA section (the KA deck is much nicer than the replacement that I believe is Pontos) to use as much KA decking as possible.

Installing the KA deck as the instructions advise seems like an impossible feat, I did not even attempt that. I sprayed a few light coats of deck blue prior to installation, taking care NOT to have an even and uniform paint application, to add to the wear and weathering effects. I then cut the deck into sections separated by the tie-down strips, and glued each section in place, followed by the PE strips which I pre-painted and did some pre-weathering to, then touched-up the paint on each Pe strip that was chipped from removing from the fret, and repeated. I averaged about 90 minutes per inch to install this massive deck, monotonous to say the least!

When the deck was installed, I coated with a thin coat of future, then gave each section a wash of black oil in the planks.

_________________
Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

Wow!

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http://www.3xblackcats.wordpress.com

Glad to see you overcame the deck problem. Looks fabulous!

Looks great, Ryan.

Thanks guys, this one is not one of my favorite builds by a long shot so I appreciate the encouragement!

david, I'm not sure what enclosures you are referring to, I am not trying to bring this kit up to snuff so not working off of plans or detail pictures, aside from the basic hangar details I added, i am not adding much that isn't in the kit or the MK1 detail set. that being said, all the kit and upgrade parts that are supposed to be installed under/before the flight deck are all already in place.

_________________
Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

Ah, yeah those came in the KA set, they are tucked under there already though if I recall correctly, they have it as one large enclosure which I didn't bother to address since it is nearly invisible under there anyhow.

_________________
Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

Looks Great!

You have said a couple of times that this isn't your favorite build. As I have this in my stash I have to ask why?

Take care,
Chris

Thanks a lot Chris.

As far as this not being my favorite, the word I keep coming back to describing this kit is "underwhelming". The fit is ok, not great, and bad in some spots. Where this kit really falls short is the details. There are very few surface details on the parts, and what is there is soft and toy-like. Pretty much this entire kit feels toy-like; giant parts void of details, which at this scale really stand out like a sore thumb. The aircraft suffer similarly, but at least they do have decent panel lines scribed into them. The hangar is non-existent except fort the deck. Combine those things with the price tag and the problem I ran into with the MK1/KA wooden deck section missing, and most of the fun has been sucked out of this build. There is massive space and opportunity for super detailing with scratch and /or 3D parts, but I am pretty tired of beating expensive sub-par kits into submission.

_________________
Enlisted men are stupid, but very cunning and deceitful and bear considerable watching." - Marine Corps Officers Manual, 1894

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

Ah. I understand now. I have the MK1/KA kit as well. I had hoped to add additional detail to the kit to help with some of the missing details. I'm working on improving my skills before I start this kit.

Thanks for getting back to me on this. I still think you are doing a great job with it though.

Take care,

Chris