Lexingtons last battle, 1//700

[JIM BAUMANN]

ha!

Your skills as a renowned figure modeller are showing through....

Very good indeed--

Top modelling!


Jim Baumann

[marijn van gils]

I forgot to mention about the glue spots.

The secret is the Tamiya glue in a square glass jar with green cap.
It is a plastic cement that is very thin and leaves no residue. After putting the part in place (or lightly tacking in place with some superglue), you apply the glue with a fine brush to the joint, and cappillary action draws the glue in the join. It simply melts the plastic parts together but has no "gluing" components and therefore leaves no residue. It is very powerful, but evaporates very quickly which makes it perfect for gluing thin items like sprue without melting them too much and thereby damaging them.
Where you apply it, the surface canlook a bit shinier, so in reality you can see some "glue spots" on this model too, but it is barely noticeable and doesn't matter anyway because it is not visible at all after painting.

I love this this glue!

Marijn

[marijn van gils]

Haha, simultaneous posting!

Thanks Jim!
I must say your work is a major inspiration for me to try something with ship models too. So thansk again!

Marijn

[PetrolGator]

Haha, simultaneous posting!

Thanks Jim!
I must say your work is a major inspiration for me to try something with ship models too. So thansk again!

Marijn

For what it's worth, your detailed approach is an inspiration to another generation of modelers.

[Devin]

If I may ask, how do you attach fine brass wire to the stacks, as in the below photo, without excess glue residue? Are you using Future or some similar product as an adhesive?

[marijn van gils]

Thanks guys!

On the stack, the only brass wire used is the yardarm (sanded while turning in a Dremel to taper) and small flagpole at the top rear , and the range light boom at the port side centre top. All the other "brass-coloured" long thin items consist of stretched sprue: the rails and conduits on the surface of the stack, the strengthening ribs on the splinter shields, and the support bars under the platforms. They only look like brass because the plastic is tan coloured.

The main advantage is exactly the ease of gluing. It allows me to use plastic cement instead of superglue. I explained how I glued the "conduits" and which glue to use above. For support bars, I use a similar system:
- after dryfitting and cutting to correct lenth, I tack one side in place with a very small amount of gell superglue. If there is one side that needs attaching to resin or metal, this is the side I will choose.
- I move the other end to the correct location, holding the entire model in such an angle that gravity helps keeping the support bar in place.
- next I apply the Tamiya green cap plastic glue to the second end.
- finally I apply the same plastic glue to the first side to strengthen that join. If one side is attached to metal or resin, I use liquid superglue, applied with very thin copper wire, to strengthen the join. If both sides are attached to metal or resin, I use superglue for everything. If there are any glue spots (frequently with superglue), I scrape them of carefully with a sharp scalpel.

Other advantages are ease of obtaining very fine diameters, and ease of cutting (especially handy for cutting the splinter shield ribs to length AFTER gluing oversized pieces in place).

Maybe you noticed I prefer to paint as late as possible, much later than most ship modellers. I just inherited this habit from my armour and figure modelling, but it does make it possible to be very flexible during construction, and to be messy but be able to "clean up" the mess by scraping away any glue spots or other mess.

Hope this helps!

Marijn

[Apophysis]

What an amazing detailwork! Love it!!

Regards
Dirk

[marijn van gils]

Thank Dirk!

Meanwhile, I also got the hull ready for painting. Only some of the small stuff is left to do: all the smaller AA-guns (about 60 of them), directors, rangefinders, searchlights, FC antenna, port boat davits, and the safety nets. All of those will be installed after painting. The funnel, island and crane are left separate for painting too and are now only tacked in place with Blue-tack.














The 5inch guns. I used the kit parts, with turned brass arrels (the smallest I've ever seen! ), Gold Medal Models railing, and some copper wire, streched sprue and Flyhawk PE detail. You can also see how the splinter shields were thinned and the ribs redone with stretched sprue. Gussets were added under the platforms. Note also the degaussing cables, made with 1.6mm fishing nylon line.




And some more details:




The firehoses on the forward part of the flight deck, inspired on photo's from the event. They are made from 0.2mm copper wire, annealed in the gas coocking fire to remove its' "spring".


Layout of the planes on the rear part of the flightdeck. The aircraft are not detailed yet (not even cleaned up!), I just placed them with bluetack to check out their position and number. I did this as much as possible according to photo's of the event, but I took the liberty to have one hanging in the safety nets and another on it's nose from an explosion. If you see anything wrong here: please speak up now or hold your peace forever! Now I can stil change the layout...


All comments are welcome!

Best wishes,

Marijn

[PetrolGator]

Did you attach those fire hoses prior to painting?!

Your Lex looks spectacular even without a coat.

[marijn van gils]

Thanks Chris!

Yes, with all the bends, I could only think of making them from copper wire, which requires CA glue. For a correct look, it is important that they lie flat on the deck, so I had to glue them along most of their length. Because of my clumsyness, I have to scrape away a lot of excess glue to get a clean result, which would ruin a paintjob. Besides, I find it mucht easier to properly paint, shade and highlight them in situ.

I wish I could have done the (stretched sprue) arrester wires after painting though, but the hoses are lying over them...

[Devin]

Fantastic work, even unpainted. The fire hoses and random spotting of the planes really gives it a look of authenticity.

[Quincy]

Wow!!!!
Super cool��..



Bob Pink.

[kylewoody]

1/700?! Beautiful, love the hoses across the flightdeck, it will look killer when painted up.

Kyle

[LE BOSCO]

Hello Marijn


I am speechless ,this is just amazing congrats for this lexigton,which,I am convinced ,will be a masterpiece
felicitation
Nicolas

[marijn van gils]

Thanks guys! But a masterpiece, I don't know... I'll be already happy if it turnes out close to the image I have in my head.

I hope so too Kyle! It is a relatively simple detail that should be a nice contrast from the very busy aft deck, where most of the crew will be abandoning ship and all the planes are, but it should still make this relatively empty part of the deck look busy and attractive enough.

Thanks Devin! I find randomness is one of the most difficult things to achieve when composing something. It takes quite some time and experience, and of course it is always best to use period photo's as guidance. The fire hoses took me multiple hours to position and glue, but since they will be very visible on the finished diorama it is certainly worth it.

Marijn

[J. Soca]

This is going to look mighty great when she is on water and tilted a few degrees awesome job on the spread out hose



Jose

[J. Aguilar]

Very nice job Marijn. what about your fantastic dioramas?




cheers


JAM

[marijn van gils]

Thanks guys!

Yes, she will be tilted and a bit down at the bow. There will be a lot of figures on deck, descending from ropes, and in the water. There will be small boats and liferafts around her, and of course the destroyer USS Morris next to her. I hope it will make for a lively scene that leaves no doubt about what is going on.

So JAM, you see I am still making diorama's, only now the subject is naval history.
I have always been a diorama modeller at heart, whether working with armour, figures (even single figures), boxed diorama's, or now ships.

Cheers!

Marijn

[MartinJQuinn]

Holy hell - that is sweet. I envy your level of skill.

[hypno7]

I envy too that level of skill, everything looks very beautiful and clean. Masterful work!