Diorama - 1/700 USS Ajax AR-6 & Knox FFs

[Russ2146]

Carl,

This has the standard boats, at least upto 1967

http://www.hnsa.org/doc/boatcat/index.htm

[NukeMM]

Work on the diorama continues with assembly of the frigates........





And I painted the donuts and found a launch that my suffice.......

[NukeMM]

Thanks to Bill Code, I have an F-8 Crusader to place in my dio.



I've been working on the hangar superstructures, today.

[nick]

This truly is one heck of a diorama Carl!!

It's very nice of you to do such a dio of Subic Bay! It means alot!




Nick

[Sr. Gopher]

Hey there Carl. I was just looking around at aircraft on Wikipedia , when I stumbled across this photo...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Phili ... -04086.jpg

I was somewhat surprised to see this, and the location seems to be in line with your diorama too, as well as the building...

[NukeMM]

Hey there Carl. I was just looking around at aircraft on Wikipedia , when I stumbled across this photo...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Phili ... -04086.jpg

I was somewhat surprised to see this, and the location seems to be in line with your diorama too, as well as the building...

Well, how cool is that?!!!!

Thanks, Gopher!

I was actually, just now, Googling for images of that area with, or without, ships at that pier or for different angles of it in the same time frame. I was searching for "subic bay" 1982 and/or Boton Wharf or Boton Pier and Cubi and Boton, etc.

Your find is the best I've seen for such searches!

Besides the bevel to the plane's base, I think I got it pretty good. There's even a shot of the other side of that one building.

[Russ2146]

Cubi_PT_1989.jpg (79.54 KiB) Viewed 1911 times

[NukeMM]

Cubi_PT_1989.jpg

Never to be out done huh, Russ?

You're awesome at this!

[Russ2146]

You won't believe this. I found it on the VP-6 vets page

[Sr. Gopher]

Out done again by Russ!!

[Russ2146]

I'm Sorry.

[Sr. Gopher]

It's fine. Just wondering though, what are those things in the background of my photo, the ones next to the damaged building?

[Russ2146]

The photo itself appears to be of the effects of Mt. Pinatubo's eruption.

The roof of the building appears to be damaged. The objects to the right of the building appear to be military shipping containers for large items. In other words, a given large item often has a shipping container designed specifically for it. Sort of like ammunition containers for things like engines, generators, radar antennas, etc.

If you notice the horizontal lines on the cylinders, That is where they open. The top half lifts off the botton. That seam has a water and air tight gasket. Some containers have special air valves to accomadate external air pressure changes like you would have on a cargo jet, get maintain conditions inside the container.

[NukeMM]

[NukeMM]

Work has shifted from the FFs to the Ajax after receiving a replacement O1 deck piece from Davd at LCP. Thanks, David!

I have the deck sections attached and I've added PE doors and styrene lockers and 40 links per inch black anchor chain.

I've airbrushed the hull and bulkheads Neutral Gray and I've hand brushed the decks with Engine Gray which will be the non-skid color.

I have masked off the forecastle for the non-skid pattern and hand brushed the rest of the deck with Gunship Gray.

I busted off the previously attached canopy over the pilot house top (twice! ) so I am going to attach it a third time later on in the build.

[NukeMM]

[NukeMM]

The remaining non-skid areas have been finished, including the white bordered ones which were a double-mask job. I used 1mm tape and then 1.5mm tape.

[NukeMM]

Here's another item that I am pondering......the areas that appear to white on the Ajax; i.e. the deck in front of the bridge, the canopy atop the pilot house, and the deck aft of the forward stack.

When looking at the tops of the forward missile launchers on the frigates, they appear to be white, too, but most likely the same color as the hull. I think this may be the case with the white areas on the Ajax except, maybe, the canopy which actually could be white. And is this "canopy" made of canvas or metal?

I've painted the lighter deck areas with Neutral Gray just like the hull and the "canopy" is unpainted white styrene.

The pics of my model, below, are at slightly different angles showing how the light gray can look more like white.

I'd like second, third, and forth opinions.

[bwross11]

Carl,

Just one man's observations; in the case of the deck in front of the bridge. The upper surface could very well have been white; on Preble we had a deck that was white. The compartment directly below was an electronics space and supposedly the white helped keep the temperature down.

With regards to the ASROC launchers being white on top; here again, the Preble's launcher top was white (I got the pictures to prove it)!

Other than that the project is coming along quite nicely.

Best,
Bruce

[GTDEATH13]

Carl I will second Bruce regarding the white decks/tops.

Asroc launchers and sparrow launchers had white tops to protect them from heat. Any surface that had electronics or ammunition below could have been painted white.

Regarding the Ajax, if the bridge was an open one, that it could have been white...

Just my 0.02$