The Ship Model Forum

Greetings,

Just completed, 72 biplanes in 1/350 scale for the Trumpeter USS Saratoga kit. In 1936, the air group for Saratoga included Grumman F3F's flown by VF-6B "Felix the Cat", Curtis BFC-2's flown by VF-2B "Top Hats", Vought SBU-1's flown by VS-2B "Pointer Dogs", and Great Lakes TG-2's flown by VT-2B "Flying Dragons". I used Trumpeter clear styrene kits with photo etch from Gold Medal Models, Tom's Modelworks, and items from my spares bin. Decals from Starfighter (set 350-24) along with various leftover items. Airbrused Tamiya paints with smaller details done with very fine brush and sealed with flat clear. Conflicting information on tail colors, I went with white and red based on Fry book and Starfighter decals description.

The clear styrene Trumpeter airplane kits included many small parts that were difficult to see during assembly, especially the tiny F3F's. The photo etch sets add excellent details, but include several very small parts which are difficult to position. A nice decal sheet is included with the Trumpeter USS Saratoga kit which includes markings for some of the air group, but the Starfighter set is far superior and includes marking for all of the air group.

Not an easy task - many hours of tedious, repetitive work to complete 72 biplanes. Questions and comments always welcome, many thanks for having a look.

Bill

More photos . . .

very nice!!!!

Impressive and nicely done!

_________________
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

Beautiful work. One hit about working with clear parts, i always start with masking of the parts that have to start transparent and prime the sprues with black primer before starting the build.

Wow. Love it!

Amazing!

_________________
Have fun, Monkey around.™

-Steve L.

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As a guy building a 1/96 scale carrier, I can state that building the air det is a project entirely on it's own.

You've done an amazing job with these aircraft. They look great!

_________________
ICBM Address: 44:78N 063:63W

Ex RCN, HMC Ships Gatineau, Athabaskan, Charlottetown, St. John's, Montreal, Charlottetown, Summerside, Montreal.

Many thanks everyone for having a look at the images and commenting!

Bill