1/350 LPH-5 USS Princeton

[grayson72]

In this shot I'm adding the supports for the forward flight deck safety netting.

[grayson72]

Another shot of the elevator well with the catwalks added and helo pad numbers applied.

[grayson72]

Here's the helo's just prior to painting. I had to do quite a bit of filling with Mr. Surfacer. I replaced the rear tail wing with styrene and added a post for the rotor blades.

[grayson72]

Here's the ship in it's current state, it's probably 99% done but there's a few more details I'd like to add.

My dad was at my place for the weekend and I presented it to him, fortunately (or unfortunately) he flew up instead of drove so he couldn't take it with him when he left. Despite missing a few details he really loved the model and the plaque that came with it.

He actually has a piece of the deck that I'm going to put inside the case as well.

[ArizonaBB39]

She looks fantastic!

[grayson72]

She looks fantastic!

Thanks man!

[Cliffy B]

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to not be swayed towards 1/350 for my CV-9 project now, thanks a lot...

What can I say man, you've done her proud! Nice, clean, and skillfully executed. Can't wait to see what you do next

[grayson72]

So now I've got some more time to do more details here's a list of things I'd like to do:
- Add searchlights to the island near the forward gun director
- Rigging on the island
- A lot more deck vehicles
- More Helos
- I was going to add a crew but my dad said he'd prefer it without them so I'll skip that
- There's some large piping that goes along the sides of the hull that I have clear pictures of so that should be an easy add
- I have all the unit citation ribbon decals for the island along with some "E's" that my dad remembers being on the dual guns so I'll add those.
- I need to build and add all the starboard side deck edge antenna that was on board at the time, there's 11 of those (ugh).
- One really cool thing my dad mentioned was two .50 cal brownings that were mounted to the stern when they got close to the coast of vietnam, he said he actually custom made the swivel mounts for them so they could be attached there. (he worked in the machine shop).
- I'll probably add some more flag poles fore and aft on the flight deck.
- I need to add some more railing fore and aft where the other dual 5" guns used to be.
- I've got some additional details that can go along the catwalks like fire hoses, piping, small stairs going from the catwalk to the flightdeck, life rings... I have these details already in PE but what I don't have are the small doors that go along the catwalk. Do you guys know which PE set has these?

I also need to fix/cleanup the helos that are on board, I don't like shiny anything at this scale and some of their rotors are wonky.

Any other details you guys can think of that can be added at this stage?

[grayson72]

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to not be swayed towards 1/350 for my CV-9 project now, thanks a lot...

What can I say man, you've done her proud! Nice, clean, and skillfully executed. Can't wait to see what you do next

Appreciate the comments Cliffy, I have both the Arizona and Bismarck in 1/200 scale. I'll start with the Arizona, I have no idea when I'll start though, I'm kinda burnt out right now. I'm gonna stick with this larger scale from now on in the hopes that it will limit the amount of models I can buy. I already have more than I can build in my lifetime.

[sgtryan13]

I love it! Great conversion your dad will be proud of. You pulled it off beautifully, looks just like a kit would be expected, no evidence that this is a conversion of a ship from a diffeent era with a different fit.

[Devin]

Amazing work on those helo pad markings.

[grayson72]

Thanks guys, if anyone is interested in doing a conversion like this I'd be happy to share the PowerPoint file. It could be made to work for any scale.

It covers the entire ship at once which is necessary because the port side helo pads are offset from the centerline 4 different times.

The current available decal set for the helo pads, for the Princeton anyway, aren't accurate.

Here's the main shot I used to create them.

[Crazer]

Really cool build, good work on the conversion. I am building a Princeton as well, from the Dragon kit. I'm doing her as an ASW carrier, and boy does the Dragon kit need work. Lots of hull detail is missing, those pipes you mentioned being especially prominent. The radar fit is also incorrect, or rather incomplete.

I see you have the Italeri UH-34 Seahorse kit. I am trying to find that kit, but boxed as the HSS-1. I'd love to build a 1:72 Seabat to go with my Princeton.

[LE BOSCO]

Just superb grayson!! amazing work
congrats
Nicolas

[grayson72]

Started working on her again, adding the details I mentioned above.

Fruit salad anyone?

[sgtryan13]

Awesome conversion, I love it! really, you pulled this off beautifully, no way can you tell that this "kit" was of an entirely different ship and era.

If you are still loooking for small doors for the catwalks, check out gold medal models 1/350 doors and hatches set. It has a bunch of small different shaped hatches that are probably just what you are looking for.

[grayson72]

Excellent, thank you for the tip! Glad you enjoyed the build

Also, if anyone can identify this emblem(s) I'd much appreciate.

[Devin]

Could it be the ship's insignia?

[grayson72]

Maybe, was that a common practice to put the ships badge there?

Also, for anyone who wants to have some accurate fruit salad on the superstructure, I used Hawk Graphics 1/350 USN Signal Flags decal set.
You have to cut out each tiny individual ribbon to create an accurate citation board. On the starboard side I placed them directly on the bridge which was a pain considering all of the existing detail awaiting to be destroyed by one slip of the tweasers.
So for the port side what I did was cut out a spare piece of clear decal paper and applied the ribbon decals to that, once that dried I sprayed it with the clear sealant.
Once that dried I was able to closely cut out the whole thing and apply the entire citation board to the bridge in one go.

[fly1po]

In this shot I'm adding the supports for the forward flight deck safety netting.

Looks good! I servered aboard the Sweet Pea for over 3 years ('64-'67). Eventually becoming Fly 1 petty officer (Fly 1 was the forward 3rd of the flight deck),..spent many hours on the flt dk, often sleeping on fire hoses during stand by flight operations off the coast of VN.
keep up the great work.