CV-9 Essex and CV-19 Hancock

[Pieter]

Very nice solution for the Hellcat canopies, they look much beter than the plastic version.

[StevenVD]

Thanks, Pieter.

All crates are now sealed with Pledge and now I wanted to install the props. I made the shafts from fine brass tube.



I painted those aluminum. I used both Hellcat and Corsair props for the Hellcats. Corsairs were out of the question anyway because changed the Essex island to 1944. I learned too late that in the Rabaul operation in november 1943, land-based Corsairs had been refuelling on Essex. I could have moved the Helldivers over to Hancock, use the Dauntless and the Corsairs and like that I would have 13 more planes than my current result. Oh well, I'll have Essex in an intersting 1944 camo now.



For the Avengers the same tube was used but the cowling had to be filled with an Evergreen rod first.





Then the Helldivers appeared to have prop spinners on the pictures of Essex, so I scratched those from nodes with a spherical end.



Vallejo Grey blue was used for the camo.



Two pictures of the installed props. The crates without them might have to be hidden in the hangars. I tried to give pitch to most PE blades, but in the Helldivers I avoided this because the blades are shorter..

[StevenVD]

Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color Gray is used on the Midnight Blue area of the airwing.



This wash decants fast, so to get a weathered look you should stir from time to time. The brush is useful to spread.



The deep panellines are often ridiculed in Trumpeter airplanes, but I wouldn't want to do this from scratch on about 100 of them.











For the light grey on the underside I will probably make a mix of this and a darker tone.

[Dan K]

Wow. That's a lot of fine work.

[StevenVD]

Thanks for the reply, Dan. I did use a brown wash on the plane undersides. The Helldiver wings used the black wash but this was too conspicuous.













The rigging still needed to be done, therefore scrap PE connection parts were all cut the same length and used as antennas.





Only when these were checked to be fixed, rigging could be done.



The Helldivers had two strands of rigging, the rest was done in one take.





The Avengers had a hole drilled in the turret to insert a piece of wire for the MG. Now the canopies all need the frames painted with the sticky Gunze.

[StevenVD]

For the matt coat I keep on using Vallejo's polyurethane varnish, preparing the wings for it on a spraying disk:



The varnish completely removes the light scattering.



But sometimes other things were removed too.



To avoid this on the visible side of the wings, I placed them between the gums and took them one on one to spray.



The planes were also coated, not masking the canopies that already had antennas on them. I tried to spray around these.







The coat can get a white crust in the panellines, but this can be removed with a knife showing the dark wash beneath. Now the wings could be fixed with CA glue, checking references. There is no indication in the models themselves on how the wings bend. I find this a missed opportunity as the stowed position is probably the most current in ship models. The last step will be covering the clear glue at the wing base with some paint.

[StevenVD]

The airwing is now put aside until the hull is ready to close. Some jobs need to precede this.





Essex and Hancock both needed this badly fitting catwalk on the front forecastle. Not all attachment points fit.



Hancock's front anchor deck is painted in Lifecolor deck blue after the anchor chain area is masked.



Building this twice means you can reuse the mask.



The light grey is then misted with black and will get some metallic polishing where the chain goes.



All details are painted Lifecolor light grey 5L, used in both ship's schemes.



Hancock still needed it's bottom plate trimmed to the bow modification.



Both anchor chains were cut from a single Pontos set.



Through the open hangar hatches near the rear elevator shaft the lower hangar deck would be visible, so I had to make a fa�ade for that. Because you only see the extreme right side, I made about a quarter of the complete elevator shaft.



So this gaping hole will be invisible.





I used the large unused plastic fantail part for the elevator side.



Hancock somehow had a kink in the bottom plate appliance, even with extreme pressure applied there remained a gap where the torpedo bulge begins. I will flood that section with a wave later on.



The portholes on the bow are awful, thankfully all can be replaced with the Pontos set.



CA glue is royally applied arond them, filling in the oval holes.



Then all glue that is superfluous can be removed.



Also the bottom plate joint needs to be grinded.



Results of the port row of portholes.



A CA glue corner weld helps to flatten the joint at the boot topping.



Like that the Essex hull is also restored, now about 30 portholes still to be replaced.

[StevenVD]

On both ships the stern is also sanded smooth. The Essex plate had some shrinkage to the extremities, that was filled in with CA glue.





In Essex's hangar the planes with obvious defects like missing propellers or a surplus of wash are now added. The one Princeton Hellcat is also dispatched.



I needed some firm clamps to get the deck flat.



The rear part only fit well if I left a gap in the deck. No problem if you have a replacement deck.



At the front four crates will be visible through multiple hatches.



The catwalk I added last time interferes with the ceiling under the deck touching the hangar front. It can be clipped.





Hancock will have the deck edge door uncovered to let through airplanes.



It only needs smaller clamps in the middle, to keep the deck edge flush with the hull.



Hancock receives two Helldivers in the hangar.



A lot of dry-fitting is needed to remove the excess guiding edge under the deck.

Some show-off pictures with the islands and the main guns.















Now placing the catwalks on both ships intermittently.



Most can be placed with the deck upside down, but the gallery in the hold&fold has the railing above deck level and will come later.

[ArizonaBB39]

These are fantastic, wow!

[StevenVD]

Thanks, BB39!

This week a lot of PE was assembled to the deck edges. Starting at Hancock because that was done by the book, while Essex now looks more like the Hornet deviations in the manual.









The deck edge elevator support structure should have been built on the hull, it's hard to have all PE contacts touching it.





The blocks guiding the deck parts together have a certain negative tolerance, causing a warp whem pushing them together. This is remove by sawing the blocks after the deck is glued to the hull.





Now there is less deformation.



To remove torsion in the deck seam, a round scalpel is turned in it, lifting the partly disconnected deck section. When it is flush, CA is dripped in.







The seams are now filled and sanded. To finish the catwalks, the underside must be supported by lots of small parts. Pontos made a part number error in the instruction, but I could find out the meaning comparing both booklets. Only one has the error with part 395 mentioned in stead of 396, this becomes clear when the parts are counted and compared to the catwalk extremities. Another difficulty is finding the purpose of the many different types of steps offered in the sets. Some are only shown in the parts description but not assembled on the pictures, while there are some dead ends found on the catwalks that are not treated in the manual. Ay bending errors on these steps lead to broken parts.























To place the deck-edge ladders I compared to the Trojca 3D-plans. These indicate that long hull carriers seem to have less of these at port side, but I had followed Pontos' instructions and placed the ladders at the same locations.



The boarding ladders are assembled to Hancock, but these are too fragile and I break some steps off. At the second one I even broke the entire ladder, so some glue is still visible here.



Here the 60 foot booms are attached, apparently the port one is mounted differently in Hancock.







The antennas were mounted to check the continuity of the deck edge.

[StevenVD]

Building the ladder for the boat stowage. I leave the boat off until after painting.



And now the quadruple Bofors 40mm.



For the 360� tub magazine racks Pontos has numbered the lower part a higher number. Therefore I used the wrong part as the lower one, getting a wrong diameter and I had to remove them after gluing.



You only need about 8 installations per ship, but there is resin for 25 and PE for even more. Therefore I build 25.



First the barrels are added, but the fit to the resin is not great.



The pins don't go in far if they fit at all. Barrels are not aligned well or they show a gap.



It's good I have some experience with building this type of gun, the manual is mangy on this and doesn't show this rail to be curved.



I mounted all rails after bending over a drill.



Strangely there is one component that is only provided half the required number. This is the pinion elevation wheel section under the gun. It has two halves but is meant to be folded double. When I noticed this (it's not mentioned in the manual but was present in my former experiences) I used the halves as a whole. It's not very noticeable.



All guns are mounted.



The chairs for the crew are too fragile at the 180� bend.



This can be repaired though.



The railings are added minding the direction with etch lines.



These levers are bound to break because of the way they are removed from the fret, straining the bend lines. Four bends in one millimeter of PE seems excessive.



The optional resin covers for the gun gear housings are useful to attach the splintershields. Bending these is instinctive, no angle is 90�.





In the visors aren't incorporated the protective frames, so these should be attached later.



They had to be rolled over a small diameter drill. I managed this and had my 25 gun emplacements.











Now for the 20mm Oerlikons.





The Essex set got 62 barrels and the Hancock one 63, so I guess that's standard 60 and some spares.



A grave error from Pontos is that the pins in the bases are a fraction too long in combination with the galleries PE underside plates. The pins surpass the thickness of the plastic galleries and the plates are not perforated. Imagine having completed the painting of these guns and then noticing none of them fits in and then either having to drill the PE galleries or grinding the pins.



Here I corrected a drooping gallery by cutting the plastic and bending the PE plate.



Also the location of some port gallery gun location holes is too close to the deck edge. I corrected this and filled the unused holes.



Then I grinded all 125 base pins.



The PE gun breeches are bent 7 times. 2 of these bends can be done by hand over a metal edge, the rest needs tweezers.



Here all is ready.



Comparing to other brands there is no stop for the barrel, so take care to have the rear flush.



All barrels but one are added, I needed 5 extra breeches from my Veryfire stash but only found 4.



I thought placing the guns on a painting stand would ease things.



But I forgot to introduce the splintershield supports, so how am I going to make those fit now?

Then there's the shape of the splintershields. For an initial Essex or Hancock the shape is correct, but I noticed in the ref pic above that Essex must have been changed later on to the chamfered type. That meant that half of the PE had to be adapted. I had some of those from Aber, but not about 60 of them.



Pontos did arrange them thus so one tool movement could perforate two shields at once.



Sadly this did not cut all through, it only bent the corners. I had to file these off.



Now two different parts wait to be bent en masse, the gunshield supports and the elevation handwheels.

[StevenVD]

So I did have to remove the barrels again to get the gunshields in between.



These brackets are not always willing to remain straight after the shield, there is no restraining groove in the shield like on the one Infini example below.



This is placed on the base again.



The barrels are brought back now.



These elevation wheels take a while to bend the handle and add to the base.



This concludes the Hancock guns, but not the Essex ones. These need to be updated to a Mk.14 visor.



This gyroscopic visor is fed with some electric wires and air tubes connected to a pump in front of the gun shield.



All crosshair visors were clipped and the pump was added from a piece of PE I cut out of the Pontos set.



The visor was assembled from 3 Evergreen profiles.



These were cut in 1mm sections.



The change to the guns looks like this:



These are now ready to paint. I still need to assemble a few Mk51 directors for the Bofors guns, these had the same Mk.14 visor.

[StevenVD]

I'm getting through the kits and even the Pontos PE is dwindling fast.



But one evident thing that was missing from the models were the port fuel lines. Trumpeter has omitted all that run below the hangar walls.



To recreate the track some pictures and plans needed to be compared. Hancock and Essex have some small differences.



Hancock has a larger sponson at the front hangar door, where the fuel lines are running externally.



I wanted to cover the deck rounding in metal sheet, so the wood deck can level out on it and I can add some missing detail there. You see CV-18 Wasp with holes provided probably for stanchions.



Four plates are cut from metal.



These are bent on a thick brass tube.



Now it's repeated over a thinner tube.



Hole outlines are indicated.



The drilling and cutting was done after the bending, so there would be no deformation.







Then the parts are glued to the plastic and rubbed flat.



16 directors of about 4 mm are made, I hope these will suffice with the ones already placed.



Only two HF-antennas are indicated in the instructions, but there are a few pictures of Essex having at least 3 and maybe more. Hancock has them flush to the venturi.





I indicated where I put the antennas. To Essex I also added some venturi parts around the bridge and completed the railing, loudspeakers and ladders. I noticed both ships had some tubes running along the stack, so I made these from wire.







In this upgrade the Carley floats are not improved, but that would also not be visible under the catwalks and galleries. The floater nets are present in the set, but I will paint these separately because they are etched translucent.

[StevenVD]

Still more PE needed to be processed.



The floater net baskets are needed 53 times per ship and are rolled over a 1,6mm drill.



They keep their shape without glue, but I took no risks and connected all 432 corners with CA.



Different kinds of connectors are provided, but I only find evidence for the L-profiles.



Here all supports are connected. They have to be butt-glued to the baskets and need to be flush with the galleries.



I started to mask Essex after the Deck Blue parts were painted with Lifecolor and sealed with Pledge. I could reuse the maskings for Hancock, but then I would have to complete Essex' camo and repeat everything on Hancock. Seems easier to do the base painting of both in one move.



I was not convinced of the Veryfire searchlights on Hancock and there were none left for Essex, I surely wasn't going to use the kit lights. I decided to replace with Eduard resin. I ordered their 3 different sets.



Two 24 inch and two 36 inch lights for each are used, with all necessary detail.



This can be called an instruction sheet.





Look what Hancock is trading in, it's no loss.





Now to complete the masking of Hancock, that will still take a day.

[StevenVD]

In this update the painting phase is initiated.



All Deck Blue parts that could be masked, were finished. Only some areas under the stern are not practical to reach.





The hangar doors are closed down with some ready-made cardboard bits. These can be cut so they need no glue and get stuck with some pressure. The large front door was covered with an internal bit that was stuck with tape.





I changed my plan to paint the floater nets and first attached these to the model. It seems like that should be done before the attachment of the Carley floats, because the floater net supports take all necessary space between the gallery supports. Also, the floats are too broad and protrude from the side, pushing up the nets. I did need to remove them and put them back after the nets.



Some used Gunze paint is pillaged to coat the PE parts. I noticed the Lifecolor is very fragile on the PE and I hope to counter that with some primer.



IJN Grey looks a bit like pale grey, I had enough to cover the galleries.



The AA-guns were primered in USAF grey.





And now, painting all the plastic too.

[Dan K]

Basically, more wows on everything - air wings, PE work, overall builds. Outstanding stuff.

[StevenVD]

Thanks, Dan! Now there is a lot of masking and painting to be done. Both ships were completely painted light gray and then Hancock was painted Ocean Blue 5-O. Both ships are now masked for the Dull Black parts.

[StevenVD]

Dull Black is applied using Vallejo Air NATO Black as Lifecolor didn't include Dull Black in its US NAVY paint sets. I rather use the Vallejo Air dripping bottles than the Lifecolor pots with thicker paint.





For this I'm testing my newest H&S Evolution 2 in 1.







There are a few locations where the combo of glossy Gunze primer, matte Lifecolor grey and Vallejo Air black causes a problem. This won't be visible from the top and I reapplied a black coat.



And of course, if you don't completely mask a light grey hull to spray black on it, it will show. I noticed it while painting and decided not to bother as this can also be solved by post-shading.





Hancock still needed a paravane guide to the bow, found only detail pictures and not in the kit.



The Pontos deck is treated with Gunze Midnight Blue for contrast, this will later have to be coated matt.





Fading of the deck stain can be done with light sand color.



The transverse girders are toned up with an Aqualiner. One was unintentionally touched with the brush tip, showing up twice as thick.



I removed the deck holes for the PE, there are a lot in even one deck. Later on, even the complete offset around the deck will have to be removed and is replaced with PE. This will be hard to keep pre-painted.



All wood deck stickers are doped with contact glue to avoid eventual delamination.









The fit was perfect, only where I added the scratch deck edge I removed some planks.





The overspray on both ships is removed and here the island is shown as dry-fit. It will still remain like that, a lot of deck additions are needed.



And the Aqualiner even lasted through Hancock's deck, now to get that stuff off my fingers.

[StevenVD]

Today some deconstruction was inevitable.



Hancock's deck is fitting well after some trimming.



By expecting to tackle the elevator fit after the wooden deck application, I created a serious problem in both models trying to introduce the elevator platform between the PE supports.



It will only budge if the supports are moved (only 1 mm) after carefully snapping them loose. Repainting some details will be necessary but most of the damage will be covered by the elevator.



A chisel knife and a hammer can do wonders.





The rear support is a bit more recalcitrant because of the piping running over it.



First, the elevator is added to Hancock's hull, only then the rear support returns.



As this is the pre-overhaul Pontos set, it's strange you get 4x the deck edge elevator floor part. These wood parts aren't numbered, so it's not clear where more of these lift floors would go.



Though almost impossible to maintain the hard-edge camo because of the framing I provided this to the underside of the elevator. It can be referenced from one early Hancock picture.



Part two of the operation for Essex went as smooth as the first.









I think the extent of the damage is minimal and can be repaired.



Choosing the stowed position for the Essex elevator, I retracted the safety netting. Here also the camouflage is clearly visible.



Part three of the horror show involves a faulty bulwark inside Hancock's front elevator well. In this model the front area has some poorly adapted new parts.

The hangar bulkhead is pinched between the floor and a higher plate in front. Only after closing down the deck it appeared that the bulkhead was not flush with the elevator well. This makes the wooden elevator floor a mismatch with the well above it. Closing down the well with the kit elevator part to hide this seemed a drastic solution depriving the front hangar planes of top lighting.



If I could only bash in the bulkhead, but it is firmly held in place at the inside. I'll show the cross-section to demonstrate a solution other than to crack open the front flight deck.



The flight deck rests on a small support to protect the railing, while five millimeters of bottom plate is trepanated. This lays bare the supporting plate and the hangar floor continuation keeping me from dislocating the bulkhead.



Both of these plates are cut through with a milling device that can barely reach them.



Now removing the part through the bottom is easy.



Then it is restituted with two small extensions for the side bulkheads. It is now flush with the well.





The floor is then filled with putty. Soon the wooden elevator floor will cover this up. That should conclude the upside-down adventures, now the deck PE can be installed.

[FFG-7]

what makes you think the elevators have a wood floor at the hanger deck level & not a pit without a wood floor? check Sheet 11 - Second Deck of the plans in this link. CV-17 USS Bunker Hill Booklet of General Plans (1946) https://archive.org/details/cv17bogp1946