1/700 USS Hornet CV-8

[AndrexP]

Some progress done on the airplanes, The rudder decals where printed on white decal paper and sealed with a clear varnish.

10 TBD's
12 SBD's
11 F4F-4's (one flew away into oblivion)
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Thanks for watching, comments and criticisms welcomed!

Beautiful work!

With regard to the air wing, how did you manage to so cleanly cut the brittle plastic on the clear Trumpeter planes? Did you use a saw, clippers, a sharp blade, ninja moves, etc?

Also, how did you re-attach the wings in the folded position? Did you use a jig of some sort? I have the hardest time getting them uniform, let alone getting them to stay put when I glue them!

Thanks,

[hypno7]

Hello Andrew,

thanks for your kind comments!

Regarding the airwing, it is somewhat of a "wasteful" method. What I do is use two planes to produce one. One plane where I clip the whole wing and one where I just clip part of the wing. That way I have a set of complete wings and a fuselage with half wings, both the set of wings and fuselage with half the wings extend beyond the point of the folding wing joint. Then with a set of files, I file the folding wing joint into shape. It is a shame to throw away all those fuselages, but they are relatively cheap. I don't know if my explanation is clear...

To clip the wings I use these nippers (very nice price/quality value in my opinion)

http://www.wiha.com/en-int/produkte/pli ... ronic.html

but I think normal plastic model clippers will do the same job.

To glue them, I use gel CA in very small amounts. With this glue you have enough time to reposition. The one from Pattex is even a little bit flexible when cured. The F4F's are somewhat straightforwad because there is a notch and its easy to position. The TBD's are a bit more tricky, but its just about taking your time. I didn't use a rig, and when you look closely, you see there are a lot of imperfections and unequal planes.

[AndrexP]

I don't know if my explanation is clear...

Roger, copy. Thanks for the thorough reply. Truth is, I hadn't discovered gel-type CA when I last tried to secure the wings onto tiny aircraft!

Incidentally, I too prefer 700-scale ships on reg bottoms. See my link for some, including a WIP USS Princeton (CVL-23) on its boxy, bulky kit bottom.