WIP - 1/350 USS Lexington (CV-2)

Mgunns · Post by **Mgunns** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 9:47 pm

Hello LvSquarerigger:

Glad to see you back. As mentioned great build log. Look forward to more of your posts as I have a Lexington now on the shelf and intend to tackle it.

dbiggied · Post by **dbiggied** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 7:02 am

lvsquarerigger wrote:Boy! Don't check in the forum for a few days and of course everyone decides to comment or question. Any way Doug, in answer to your two questions I have one of my own: Do you have a set of plans of any sort? And the short answer is if you go back to page 13 of this log I describe how I found the picture in Squadron at sea, there are a few on pgs 13,15,17, and 19 that show Lex under construction and you can see the bulge very clearly. Most particularly the one on 13 is looking forward on the hull and you can see how the hull dips in and then the bulge starts out. If you scroll down slightly I detail how I made the adaptation for this but there's only one picture of the model and it really doesn't show up well.

On pg 14 I detail how I did the pockets and there's a blowup and crop of one of the pictures on pg 36 of Squadron at Sea and you can see the pockets very clearly. What I usually do is copy the photos and enlarge them so I have a bunch of 11x17 papers that I can look at and see the details a lot better than the small pics in the book. I also have a large collection of pics that I have found all over the place online to refer to along with the books you mention and a few others.

Hope that helps and if you need more or are still confused don't be bashful about asking.

James

There ya go...until my Squadron at Sea book gets here, I'm not firing on all cylinders

Right now, I'm working with the HNSA set of plans...pulling them into photoshop, reducing them to scale, etc. In addition I have the Classic Warships #33. The section plan posted above in reply to my question allowed me to visualize it better than anything, even if it was from Saratoga,

Doug

dbiggied · Post by **dbiggied** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 7:17 am

And I assume you meant this picture:

I couldn't figure out how to get the picture to quote from your post, so I had to download it, push it to my pic host, and repost it. Ugh.

Anyway, great pic...The vents show up clear as day. I'm assuming that the covers (lids?...doors?) were left open normally, and closed when the ship was at combat stations...I suppose I'd be insane to try to pose them open...

lvsquarerigger · Post by **lvsquarerigger** » Thu Dec 24, 2015 11:42 am

Well it's been awhile, life, burnout, and frustration at not being able to get the PE I wanted, although it was available but out of stock, along with a serendipitous happening, have all combined to get me going again.

It started when I got a message from ancestry.com in reply to my search for some records of my dad. It was from his nephews wife asking about my dad. It seems they had been trying to find out more about him and his family. I replied and a little bit later serendipity kicked in. It seems that while going through old papers from my dads sister they found some letters he had written and his service record. It seems what my mom had told me was correct, almost, but not quite. I had thought he was shot down while flying from the Lexington but that was not correct. He did serve on her, was gunner on a tbd-1, and was not shot down at the battle of the Coral Sea. He was transferred to torpedo twelve, on Saratoga, and was shot down in a raid on Sabang. He was captured and being transferred to Japan for interrogation when he and his pilot tried to take over the plane. They were shot, landed for transfer to a hospital in the Philippines, where he died a few days later. So most of those questions I had about his service are now answered but a new problem has presented; now I need to do Sara in May of '44 dress. Oh well, at least Lex has been a good preparation. I'll know a lot of things NOT to do as well as what TO do. The PE I wanted is supposed to be here Saturday and then we'll see what transpires.

James

lvsquarerigger · Post by **lvsquarerigger** » Wed Jan 13, 2016 1:50 pm

Took a little longer than I expected but at least there is some progress even though it's not what I had hoped. I figured that after finding the PE I wanted it would go pretty smoothly. I wonder what gave me that idea? I have tried brass and styrene to get what I want. The styrene does not want to conform to the curved shape I need whether I use brute force, various forms of heat, or whatever. The brass will shape but is a real pain to get the fine strips I need and then get straight, then curved, and then put together. My efforts at soldering this small stuff didn't pan out. CA glue isn't much better. I did finally manage to get one piece made although the faults are obvious. At least I learned a lot of what not to do. So now I have one done although I will not use it on the ship. I still have 12 more to make. Hopefully they will go a little better than the first.

James

lvsquarerigger · Post by **lvsquarerigger** » Mon Jan 25, 2016 1:05 pm

It's not that I haven't been working on the lady but that what I am trying to do has been so frustrating! Getting the grated deck to both form and scale is driving me nuts. Ok that's a short trip so no comments. I tried using styrene strip but couldn't get the curves to hold. I tried everything from candles to small torches. It was either too cool to make it hold or too hot and it shriveled like spaghetti. I finally settled on bras and that is another can of worms. I got strips cut from my sheet, formed, and decked over with the grating. The brass strip is too thick so now I'm starting with a thinner one. I still can't get it as thin as it should be but as with some things in scale you gotta go with what you CAN do. So I have all twelve platforms done but only one has the thinner strip. I now have to go back and change the other eleven. I cropped a photo from Squadron at Sea to show how thin these decks really were but it's kind of fuzzy. Same for the one where I show the two different ones side by side on the port forward sponson so you can see what I'm talking about. Will still have to do the supports and then the hinged support once they are in place.

My pics are a little fuzzy today. Camera? Photographer? Whatever they're fuzzy.

James

lvsquarerigger · Post by **lvsquarerigger** » Sat Apr 23, 2016 11:46 am

OK. I think I have found a way around my funk and have done some painting to get going. Broke out the airbrush and primered the hull. Noticed a few things that need attention but moved on to doing the gun forward pockets. First airbrushed the bulkheads and then brushed the decks.

I had to enlarge the cutout on the underside of the flight deck and also painted them. At least now I can Get that glued back on.

Now for those pesky fold up decks. I brought my fine/coarse diamond file in from the wood shop and patiently

filed them from a .85 thickness to .45. Could probably do a little more but not sure they would hold up. Its that what is feasible not what is the actual scale dilemma. So I have the six for the forward platforms now just need the six for the aft ones.

For some reason my photo editor was acting up this morning and I had to switch to a different one. Got the job done so that's what matters. Now to wait for some replies to my posting on the main forum and then move on.

PetrolGator · Post by **PetrolGator** » Sat Apr 23, 2016 11:55 am

Really glad to see you back at this. Modeling funk is not an easy thing to overcome. Keep it up!

lvsquarerigger · Post by **lvsquarerigger** » Sat Apr 23, 2016 11:57 am

Thanks Chris

Ship Model Gallery · Post by **MartinJQuinn** » Sat Apr 23, 2016 6:57 pm

Yes, what Chris said. Glad to see you back at it.

Jim21680 · Post by **Jim21680** » Sat Apr 23, 2016 8:39 pm

I just caught a glimpse of the Lexington last night, as I was browsing through one of the rare color videos from WWII.
Shortly after the 5:10 mark into this film on the Battle of the Philippine Sea, you see a brief shot of LEX CV-2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5l6HEkKdjY

Now, I'm aware that she had already been sunk over 2 years prior to this battle, so her place in the film is a simple mistake.
But, of other interest is that the film is mostly in color. In this short glimpse, her flight deck appears to be an odd gray color, with lighter-colored lines and L E X markings.

Is it safe to say that this is a false-color modification, generated from a true black & white film?
The water is a realistic-looking blue, but I thought Lex's early flight deck was a darker brown with yellow markings. This would support the case of it being a false-color film.

ModelWarships Gallery Page · Post by **ArizonaBB39** » Sat Apr 23, 2016 9:52 pm

In late 1941 her deck was a gray-blue with those light colored markings as you saw. I'm on my phone, otherwise I'd post links to the pictures and to my build log of Lexington (you can find it in picture post: works in progress, probably in the second page).

Post by **Timmy C** » Sat Apr 23, 2016 11:04 pm

Here's a screenshot from the film posted by Jim - had no idea she still wore LEX at the stern when the deck was painted in war colours.

taskforce48 · Post by **taskforce48** » Sun Apr 24, 2016 1:11 am

It's colorized and not original. The lack of the red dots in the national insignia and striped tails of the aircraft I feel say water colored but ship and aircraft not.

Just my $.02

Matt

lvsquarerigger · Post by **lvsquarerigger** » Sun Apr 24, 2016 8:47 am

Martin, thanks for the welcome.

Abram and Timmy thanks for that photo. I also think it was colorized but it's a great shot of the deck lines and LEX on the aft section. I had already decided that was how I was going to depict her when I got to the deck but now I feel confident instead of just "Well that's how I think it was".

ModelWarships Gallery Page · Post by **ArizonaBB39** » Sun Apr 24, 2016 3:43 pm

taskforce48 wrote:It's colorized and not original. The lack of the red dots in the national insignia and striped tails of the aircraft I feel say water colored but ship and aircraft not.

Just my $.02

Matt

Tail stripes didn't come until the end of 1941/beginning 1942. Check out my build log for pictures of the ship in this time period: 1/700 Lexington 1941. Sorry to hijack the thread for a little bit.

lvsquarerigger · Post by **lvsquarerigger** » Mon Apr 25, 2016 9:12 am

No problem Abram, the important thing is the information and thank you for sharing.

James

Ship Model Gallery · Post by **MartinJQuinn** » Mon Apr 25, 2016 9:49 am

Rudder stripes came into effect sometime in October 1941, if I recall correctly.

lvsquarerigger · Post by **lvsquarerigger** » Fri Mar 16, 2018 10:48 am

OK. It's been quite awhile since I've posted any work because there hasn't been any in that time frame. First burnout and then a lot in and from my workshop. Just one example. I was given a '50s era Craftsman contractor saw and restored it, built a six foot mobile base, added a table extension to the right, a router plate in that, a Biesmeyer style fence, and drawers and doors to go along with it. So I have been active just not modeling.

Now comes RV Petrel. For those of you who aren't familiar she is a deep ocean research vessel and is currently over the site of the Lexington. I was following along and posted some things on the Lex forum and it was pretty interesting and I was feeling like maybe I could work on my Lex again.

Then came the pics of the planes on the ocean floor. I viewed them and thought it was cool but it wasn't until later in the day that it hit me like a truck! Wham!! I was a basket case, in tears, didn't know why it was affecting me this way just that it was. My wife came home and as I tried to explain it to her I again broke down in tears. She comforted me, she is a double Reiki master for those of you who know of that. And I settled down some, but still upset. My modeling buddy Jon suggested I contact some of the people who had commented on the different planes as they seemed knowledgeable about the TBDs. I was looking through the different comments when there it was! He was commenting on one plane and listed the crew and there was my dad!!!! It hit me all over again. It took the rest of the day and well into the night to finally settle down.

Along the way I had started some work, the now rounded quad splinter shields and a couple of little details. So that's the story and here are some pics.

Enjoy

James