Merit 1/350 USS Enterprise CV-6

[JTninja]

I also stepped a bit from the instructions, and have been dry fitting each hanger wall individually. I figured since when I glued down the hanger deck and had a slight fitment issue, I'd probably have fitment issues above deck too. Ive got it now where the flight deck should actually fit on top. Also deciding which hanger doors stay open based on dry fitting, like the one you found too late, that stays shut. Also, because wall part D6, you have to close a hanger door with piece F4

Also, check fitment with B4 and C2 on the starboard hanger wall. I have a gap 1mmx18mm at the aft part of the joining.

[rshoker]

Matt,

You are blazing a trail for us, and saving me many hours of frustration by high lighting problems, so thanks. A basic question, what color are you going to paint the hanger deck and walls? Also thanks for the heads up on the 40mms, I bought the alliance model works unshielded quads and the ,model master brass 20,s.

Keep up the good work

[taskforce48]

Thanks for the kind words Phil and Bob!

A basic question, what color are you going to paint the hanger deck and walls?

Randy,

Good question, as I understand the hangar deck was painted a gloss grey and the walls white on the real Enterprise. I aim at showing the ship in her "Enterprise Vs. Japan" fit where she was not the most pristine ship in the fleet. I will probably use Tamiya XF-82 Ocean Gray2 (RAF) which to my eye makes a good deck gray. The hangar walls will probably be either white with heavy weathering or a very light gray with some subtle washes. Haven't decided yet.

I fixed my little goof up with the shutter door and removed a section of the inner bulkhead to allow a pass through.


This left me with a gap in the deck. I cheated and found a locker/vent in the spares box and strategically placed it there


Did I mention you will need to watch for gaps in this build?


In particular this nasty one


I used a styrene strip filling technique which filled most of it and used gap filling CA and Mr Dissolved Putty to finish the rest



This piece almost caught me again, but I stopped at the last second and looked closer.


This is what it should look like after removing the reinforcement tab. The Cross beam on the right should stay there, even if it looks like disposable sprue





I can only assume more left over Yorktown engineering?



Here she lies tonight wither base coat of 5-N. starting to look like a fighting lady!

Matt

[Gordon Bjorklund]

Matt, Your Big "E" is looking good. The build notes that you and JT with his Yorktown build are sharing with us should make this kit a breeze to build for all that come after you two with all of the pitfalls known upfront. Keep the posts coming.

[MartinJQuinn]

She looks great, Matt. From here, you really can't notice the overstated hull plating.

[taskforce48]

Thanks Gordon & Martin!

I am doing some preplanning now of painting. Although the Time frame that I am building the E in as the simplest of paint schemes,MS21 can be very boring and monochromatic. Trying to capture a seriously used and abused weathered look will help but that flight deck will be one big slab of blue. I originally was intent to do this straight out of the box, but I got to wondering what I could get to help spice it up. I found Starfighter Decals decal set for the air group. Included is yellow deck markings which the blurb on the instructions say that photographic evidence proves she had yellow markings at this time. That got my gears grinding, yellow markings on a Blue deck? Seems to defeat the purpose of camouflage. So onto the hunt!


I came across this image reportedly of the Enterprise in 1942


I don't believe it to be 42' due to the lack of splinter shields along the cat walks around the .50 cal guns. The markings on the plane would seem to indicate late 1941. It does clearly show yellow deck markings on a Blue/Gray deck

I found this image titled as the Big E at the Battle of the Eastern Solomon's


Upon further examination( my apologies if this is obvious to plane marking experts) it's not the E but in fact the Hornet. This is given away by the tail end of the deck edge aft 1.1 gun. Enterprise did not carry this weapon here. What is interesting is it shows a late 42' USN flattop that lacks deck markings.

In this image taken from a film reel, we see the Enterprise at the Eastern Solomon's


We clearly see deck markings, but they are smaller in size than the earlier color image. Obviously have been redone probably to reduce visibility and maybe changed to white?

Here we see one of them close up


This frame a from film of her attack at Santa Cruz shows no sign of deck markings. After her repairs at Pearl, maybe decided to paint them out.



So that lead me to this photo of the E reportedly in November at New Caledonia, heavily weathered deck


No sign of markings


Then there is an image in the Ship Craft pictorial reportedly of her at New Caledonia, I challenge total accuracy of the date as it claims to be 11/21 and to have F6F's onboard. I don't think they are F6F's but in fact F4F's which would better align with the date, but we clearly see markings.




So, did she have markings and if so were they white or yellow on 11/13/1942?

[Goodwood]

They would most definitely not have been yellow, that much I can be sure of; you're right in that the first photo is clearly of pre-war vintage, but it also looks (to me, at any rate) to be a colorized version of a B&W photograph. As for the film stills, I wouldn't much trust them either, given the limitations of the media at the time (particularly that which might be used aboard Navy vessels). The top-down image at the bottom seems to be the most definitive for what you're looking for, but I'd re-check the number of 20mm AA guns shown just to make sure; after her hasty refit at New Caledonia, I think they added a number of emplacements alongside the flight deck during her overhaul at Bremerton, Wa. (when she received her Hellcats).

This is, however, only the opinion of a layperson with limited experience in this kind of nitty-gritty research.

[Gordon Bjorklund]

Matt,
I think that it was Ron Smith who made a post about yellow flight deck stripes. I think that it is somewhere in the "Calling all Ships" section, but I don't remember if it was Yorktown, Enterprise Hornet. I think he said that it was the linseed oil used in the paint that caused it to look yellow in direct sun light and white in the shadows.

When I did my first "Santa Cruz" Enterprise, I painted the stripes white and then put a light coat of Tamiya Clear Yellow over the top to give it that yellow appearance because of that post.

[TOMLABEL]

Matt,

What a great job so far!! You are tackling those fit issues superbly! I'm in the middle of those myself and seeing what you have done greatly helps to know what to look out for. I also think your 5N paint job looks great!!

Keep up the good work and the posts of your progress!!

TOMLABEL

[taskforce48]

Sean, Gordon & Kelley,

Thanks for the feedback. Gordon, great idea on a way to emulate the yellow/white dash marks. It has been a crazy week and I haven't made any advances on the E, only planning and scheming. Hope to hit it again this weekend.

More to come.....

Matt

[JTninja]

The white/yellow debate is nearly as bad as the BB-39 paint debate

Here's a '44 CV-6 photo that shows the issue.



At first glance the markings are clearly white. But then you notice the elevator and the yellow marking. So either the white markings are only white because of the sun's glare, or the yellow marking is so heavily oiled that the white becomes yellow. Most likely the later, which might explain why in a few of your photos theres no markings, as they are so heavily weathered they blend in. Either way, Id recommend doing some test on spare plastic to find the weathered look you're going for. I do like Gordon's idea of the clear yellow.

[Elvis965]

A couple of links that may help:

http://shipcamouflage.com/specialtopics ... Decks.html

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=7216&start=460

Acoording to Mike Vorrasi, the stripes most closely matched 5-O. At least on Lex at Coral Sea. I can't imagine Enterprise would be appreciably different at Santa Cruz.

Also the flight deck in that '44 picture would have been Flight Deck Stain 21, I believe. In 1942 it would have been 250N Norfolk Flight Deck Blue.

Bob

[ModelMonkey]

The model looks really, really good! A favorite subject being well-made!

[taskforce48]

Thanks for all the info and comments, I wanted to take a few minutes as this last month has been crazy to update where I am at. Construction has been hit and miss, and I missed a couple of photo ops but hopefully this will help some others.

I painted the Hangar walls and deck with Tamiya XF82 Ocean Gray 2 (RAF), it is a dark gray with a slight bluish tone to it so to my eye a nice match for deck gray. Once that had about 48 hours to ensure it was good and dry, I masked the deck


I then painted the bulkheads with Testors 507-C RN (what's with the British colors on a USN ship? ) Again, not what the prototype was painted but to my eye a more scale looking color that has a built in dinge too it. I also sprayed at a downward angle to allow some of the Ocean Gray to stay under details to help emphasize shadows. I probably will come back with a wash in the most visible area's to give it a ittle more lived in look but I will se as it's tough to see a lot with the deck on.


I love Tamiya masking tape, careful application yields a nice and sharp paint job with minimal cleanup.


Moving away from the hull, I started working on the Island structure. The stair case at the back of the island is a fairly simple affair to assemble, just take note that the PE is from the Yorktown kit and will need to be adjusted in size to look right.


Yorktown instruction on the Left and Enterprise on the Right





Bottom of the stack cap that won't be seen


Top side that faces out, ejector pins marks and all. I don't have a photo but that nice PE piece from the Tom's Hornet set doesn't fit so I can use that


The Pri-Fly's assembled. The PE one was a real joy(sarcasm disclaimer) to fold into shape and add the braces to


You will note that the interior of the aft one is painted green, I dug around and found that interior walls were painted green and that interior floors were dark gray. Since the windows are large and I am trying to break up the monochromaticess of the ship, I figured see what happens, wasn't sure if it would show at all but with the camera flash it shows so maybe it will work out.


I think Merit invited a Dragon designer over for the weekend during the design of this part


I pinged one of the parts and just subbed a piece of styrene stock to fill the void.


The platforms that overhang the sides of the island were flat underneath so I used some .10x.10 styrene to give it some supports and give it some dimension.


Here is a shot of how she is looking now, I thought I have been taking more photos but can't seem to find them. Really coming together.

Hopefully will be done soon

Matt

[ModelMonkey]

Looking really good!

[MartinJQuinn]

Nice work, Matt! She is looking great.

[TOMLABEL]

Matt,

Awesome!!!! I'm really liking the colors you chose for the hangar deck! Thanks for posting these - and I agree with Martin that she is looking good!!

Also, it seems like they have improved the casting of the island of the ENT compared to Yorktown to include the aft lookout stations as well as the cable trunk AND the cutout sections for the crane.

I'm looking forward to your next post!!!

Kelley

[Navegantes]

Nice job, Matt.

I'm looking for this kit to build it. But, I'm not sure about the brando.
During my research, I found 2 brands with the same box art: Trumpeter and Merit International; both in the 1/350 scale.

Please, could you answer me if I understood very well:

Are there 2 brands for the same kit,with the same box art and the same code (65302) ?

Thank you very much.

I ' m following your job. Congratulations.

[taskforce48]

Thanks for all the comments guys. The kit I am using is released by Merit International. They have close ties to Trumpeter so it wouldn't surprise me if in some other countries it's Trumpeter. They do this with Pit Road in Japan.

Thanks for checking in

[Navegantes]

So, is it the same kit? But, manufactured by Trumpeter?