WIP - 1/350 USS Lexington (CV-2)

[lvsquarerigger]

Hi all,

I have just acquired a Trumpeter 1/350 Lex. My dad served on her at the time she sank and I have looked for a good kit to build but never found anything to suit. I tried a 1/700 scale but did not like the results. Once I got my kit I started looking online for info and found myself here. What a great happenstance. I have seen several build logs and gotten tons of info. What I thought would just be a simple model assembly has taken on a whole new course and now I am looking to get PE sets and additional details.

I have seen Pe sets from GMM and Tom's and wonder if there is any difference or whether one is better than the other.

Just for info I normally build old squareriggers so plastic is a whole new world for me.

Thanks to all who have contributed so far.

[lvsquarerigger]

Ok I'm getting antsy waiting for plans and PE and such so started doing some building but staying away from anything that needs PE or so I thought. Also avoiding what I thought would have to be modified. I've been working to brace the lower hull to match the upper and started on some of the subassemblies, bridge and stack but not going far enough to get into the mistakes in the kit or at least I thought so and again proved myself wrong.

I went to Chris's build log and found out I was already too far just by starting the stack. Undeterred I cut as he did on the base, removed the aft section and cut off the curves and generally followed his lead. Once bit I was leary so looked at everything on the different builds before proceeding any further.

The question I have is there are several mentions of stretched sprue. Sprue I understand but have no idea of the process of stretching. Help please?

Jim

[Tracy White]

* Get a bunch of extra plastic sprues, cut them into pieces maybe 4-6 inches long... you'll find a comfortable length.
* Light a candle.
* Hold plastic over flame... put bending or pulling pressure on the plastic.... as it heats you will feel it soften and become pliable.

expect that the first number of times you will not get the result you want.

Pull smoothly on the plastic as it heats. You can vary the thickness with practice based on the speed and distance at which you pull. THe higher away from the flame the slower it heats.

[lvsquarerigger]

Thanks Tracy. I thought that might be what it was but was not sure. Could also use a hair dryer or paint stripping heat gun. I used to do somethnig similar when I still worked in the plumbing field. Sometimes pvc pipe needed bends different than what you could get with fittings, or perhaps you got caught without the necessary fitting, so I would use my torch to heat the pipe, slowly and delicately, until it softened enough to bend. Should be much the same.

Jim

[Timmy C]

Also make sure to check out Jim Baumann's guide on stretching and rigging with stretch sprue:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=37536

[lvsquarerigger]

I thought I'd first give a little insight on what I normally work on. These are shots of the two I had going when everything went to hell a few years back and they got tucked away in storage. I was just starting to rig the Charles W. Morgan and had the bowsprit pretty well done. In the pic you can see that it got broken off halfway out, the top piece is gone off into that land of lost socks and such never to be found again and the mast of the COnstitution was broken just below the top yardarm. The mast got fixed but there was a lot of other damage not apparent in a casual view. SInce that was the one closest to completion I decided to devote most of the time to that. You'll also notice that my shelves and work table seem very empty, not counting the necessary supplies, BUtterfingers and Whoppers. All my tools and such were still off in storageland doing their best to stay hidden. But this is what I am used to working on.

Note that although they are built from kits it is just a bunch of sticks and string to start. They are assembled stick by stick, string by string.

Jim

[lvsquarerigger]

This is some of the deck hardware.

[lvsquarerigger]

This is a shot giving a good idea of the detail in the rigging.

[lvsquarerigger]

And this shows the ratlines pretty clearly.

[lvsquarerigger]

Ok. Here's my work table after I finished last night. You can see the Constitution in the background as she has no place else to be. You can also see the bridge and stack pieces laying around and if you look closely you can see the elevators in the corner. Then there's my container of clamps, a lot of which are in use in the background. I'll explain what that is further on.

[lvsquarerigger]

Not sure why but I seem to get through with this one. Hmmmmmm.

This is as far as I have gotten with the bridge following CHris's details. I squared up the front, tossed the provided deck and made a new one.

Jim

[lvsquarerigger]

This is what I have done to the stack.

The base level I removed the curved walls and everything on the rear deck.

[lvsquarerigger]

The radar room is way off. Chris shortened and narrowed his but in the pics I saw it did seem shorter but not narrower so I just shortened it. Glued it up and let it sit overnight. The cut the curve off the back and recurved it to fit. Haven't yet filled the windows.

I was browsing photos and found some of the reason for the discrepancy. It seems earlier on the Lex did have a big room with lots of windows on the funnel. But sometime between "38 and Oct. "41 that changed as seen it the two bottom pics.

[lvsquarerigger]

The top is next. Chris says there was a vent below the top and he detailed how he provided that by raising, cutting, and it seemed like a lot of work for nothing to me. I used a miter saw to cut down at both ends and on both sides. I ran masking tape from front to back and then used a cordless dremel to cut it out. It wasn't perfectly straight but by staying to the waste side it only needed a little filing to clean up.

[lvsquarerigger]

I then built individual chases for each stack. This is as far as I will go with this till my PE arrives when I will add the rest.

[lvsquarerigger]

This is my solution to the upper and lower hulls not matching. I used 1MM styrene to match the supports on the upper hull. To this I attached tubular styrene for strength. Clamped them and left overnight. Then I trimmed the tubular back to the sheet and had a pretty solid brace. I installed the ones I made and will check after they set up to see if more are needed. These were what was in all the clamps on the table to end the night.

[lvsquarerigger]

I was debating whether to attache the lower hull or the flightdeck first and both methods have been used in the builds I have looked at so far. I noticed a gap between the hulls and decided to check out which one was at fault. I think this pic clearly shows the culprit as you can see the light coming through in the middle between the upper hull and the table but this was not there with the lower hull.

Such interesting things to deal with.

[Tracy White]

Some of the photos you're posting are a bit small... I don't know how your version of photoshop works, but if you've got the size it around the 800 x 600 level that should work and help viewers see your work.

[lvsquarerigger]

I'll look at that. The resizing program has automatic sets of 640 x 480 so it may be possible to set it higher. The ones for the hull were too big in size even at 640 so reduced them to the web setttings. Will see what I can find out.

Jim

[lvsquarerigger]

I'll look at that. The resizing program has automatic sets of 640 x 480 so it may be possible to set it higher. The ones for the hull were too big in size even at 640 so reduced them to the web setttings. Will see what I can find out.

Jim

I tried resizing it to 800x600 but it's too big a file. Perhaps I'll have to change the settings on the camera although I set it in simple mode and not the highest definition but then i'm not a digital kid. I just stumble my way through these things.