1/350 USS Essex CV-9 1943, Pontos++

[Plastic Habit]

Ahoy all,

Well, I have decided to give it a go at another ship. Hopefully I can bring this one to completion by not stepping away from it as I have my other two ships. The good thing is I can always go back and finish them at a later date. The obtainment of PE for this build is also inspirational and motivating.

I will attempt to model the USS Essex (CV-9) as she appeared in 1943 with hanger deck detail scratch built. The main PE set will come from Pontos 1/350 USS CV-9 Essex 1943 Detail Set(35006F1).
Other PE will be from AMW, Tom's, and L'Arsenal. In doing the detail and other scratch items some decisions on how to go about this build had to be made. Here are some so far:

Due to using the Pontos wood deck no change will be made to the flight deck shape. However, the kit deck pieces will not be used. Instead the wood deck will be affixed to .02 sheet styrene cut to shape.

Again, due to the use of the wooden deck the bomb elevators will be placed as they are on said deck. This may throw off some of the scaling and accuracy of the main (hanger) deck.

Deck elevators will be in the down position necessitating the opening of the hanger deck floors for the kit elevator pieces. Of note, the forward elevator pieces(E35) is larger than the hanger scribed pit. The aft deck elevator will be no problem as its new location taken from the wooden deck will be cut into the .02 sheet styrene.

Most of the outer bulkheads will be scratch built from three layers of .01 sheet styrene glued up together. This is to facilitate a few things.
1. By using three layers of .01 the majority of bulkheads will measure .75mm in thickness as opposed to the 2mm thick kit pieces.
2. In making the inner layer slightly smaller around the roller door openings this will create the door guides into which I will place a couple of .005 sheet styrene strips.
3. Meshing of openings in outer bulkheads for air intakes and vent openings might look a little better than if I tried to do them on the kit pieces.

Hanger deck interior kit pieces D10 and D17 will not be used.These will be scratch built along with the flight deck foundations, interior bulkheads, platforms, etc.

I'm really hoping I can go through with this without getting bogged down in the details and end up moving on to something else. (There's plenty of it in the closet)

[Dadeo911]

Looks like a great start. I have the same kit and detail set sitting in my stash. I will be watching how you progress.

Chris

[Zad Fnark]

Ditto.

I have Franklin on the short list. This should give me inspiration.

Ed-

[DanCinSD]

[Devin]

Great idea making the hangar deck walls from scratch. The kit pieces just do not fit AT ALL, so you may as well go for the scale thickness.

[Plastic Habit]

Hey all,

Well, I haven't really gotten into the building phase yet as I am trying to work out how I'm going to do the detail. One thing I did find so far, which maybe of interest for those using the Pontos detail set, is that the bomb elevator at the base of the forward part of the bridge structure on the kit piece is not in the same location as the wooden flight deck. Also, the Pontos wooden deck does not have the location for the forward bomb elevator at the base of the #1 duel 5" turret.

Some of the PE items have been soldered together so they can be ready for when I need them. Started some detail work on the port side using WEM mesh and a shutter from AMW. I'm holding off on finishing the port side bulkheads so I can see how well my roller door prototype turns out. I've added some slats to one door, but will do the others before painting and see if they will look like individual slats in the end.

I had started drawing the hanger deck details right onto the hanger deck kit pieces but decided this would create a problem. I want to start gluing the deck pieces to the hull and get some painting underway which would have destroyed all the drawing I would have done. Now, by drawing the hanger deck detail onto some .02 sheet styrene I can refer back to it as I build the detail.

[Plastic Habit]

Well the build goes on slowly.

I'm still trying to figure out how some things will be brought together. Here are a few pics of what's going on.

The build is not going all that quick because for -1) I'm a slow builder, and 2) I believe I am over analyzing things.

But I'm having fun none the less. Plus I have an small OOB project to step away to if I feel like taking a break from Essex for a few minutes.

[Devin]

I think you're doing this, but can't really tell from the photos: the portholes should be perfectly round, meaning perpendicular to the hull. The way Trumpeter did them is to make them parallel to the waterline, which is incorrect, and gives the oval shape.

[Plastic Habit]

Here are some new pics of the starboard side bow portholes. The PE ones have been added in this section so far.

I agree Devin, that pic really didn't tell the real story.

[Tracy White]

Looking good. Before you go too crazy on the roller doors, keep a look out for the one that was further inboard than the others. It's easy to spot on plans once you know what to look for - it's the set that has bits on the deck edge and closes inboard of that.

[Plastic Habit]

Thank you for the reminder on the inset roller doors Tracy. If I'm not mistaken there are three on the port side, one for each set of roller doors aft of the side elevator. The inset roller door being the aft most of each set. The first inset has the mooring ring forward in the opening and the other two insets have the mooring ring set in the aft portion of the opening. Below is a buildup of one of my inset roller door openings.

I have one question that hopefully someone can answer or confirm. Did Essex herself have the two mooring rings cut into the hull bulkheads below the port side 5" open singles at the forecastle deck? Like in the pic below from AOTS Intrepid. Alan Raven's drawings show none and I can't remember if there was a pic online that didn't show them. Help would be appreciated.

[Plastic Habit]

Well I can't say I have gotten anything of real significance built up yet.

Most of the things I've been doing is more picture searches and looking over AOTS Intrepid.

I'm also still drawing out the plan for the deck levels on my .02 styrene sheets.

I did however add three IJN destroyers for my short breaks away from USS Essex. They will be built OOB.

[Tracy White]

Did Essex herself have the two mooring rings cut into the hull bulkheads below the port side 5" open singles at the forecastle deck? Like in the pic below from AOTS Intrepid. Alan Raven's drawings show none and I can't remember if there was a pic online that didn't show them. Help would be appreciated.

There's a slightly better copy of this photo on page 328 of Warship International Vol XXXVI No 4, 1999 - it doesn't look like they're there to me.

[Plastic Habit]

Slowly but surely things start coming together. Taking four days away from her didn't help the cause either.

Finished the last of the major bulkhead pieces, drilled portholes in the bulkhead piece that has the vents.

After coming back from my little break I started seeing how I was going to do some of the interior detail.

For right now I am concentrating on the hangar and forecastle deck portions under the island.

Nothing major has been glued down at this point.

[GazzaS]

Taking your time looks like it works for you. Your detail is crisp and clean. Impressive.

[MartinJQuinn]

Impressive work!

[Channell]

Superb attention to detail!

[Plastic Habit]

Well, I was able to get more done on the main deck level structure under the island. Man how life can slow you down.

Still have bulkheads to glue to the interior faces, but I want to wait until I have the supports in on the forecastle deck level in this section.
Once the forecastle deck is done I'll be able to start work on getting in the housing for the boiler uptake trunk in place and the horizontal trunks for the vents and air intakes to the mesh on the hangar bulkheads.

Started working on that one foundation that stands at the projection room.

I've never done much scratch building like this, so my hat is off to those that do entire ships from scratch.

[Plastic Habit]

Hope this is not the wrong thing to do, but I'm going to do it anyway.

After doing some scratch building I couldn't believe how happy I was with my efforts. I wanted to step up my building skills in doing this project, and to my surprise
I might actually be able to do this.

I just wanted to share my feeling of joy and hope everybody has had and continue to have moments like the one I'm having.
Even knowing that I could be on the other side of the spectrum tomorrow.

For such a small section it feels like a huge accomplishment.

[Devin]

Looks good!