USS Washington, Atlantic fit, Home Fleet 1942 [1:700]

[pascalemod]

Hey there, so another build and this time it's an American one.

Kit:
Trumpter 1/700

Upgrades:

• 1. Toms Modelworks set 706 Radars
  2. Toms Modelworks set 760 NC-Washington upgrade full set
  3. 3D Printed from Shapeways:
  3.1 Gun houses
  3.2 5in Guns
  3.3 Firing control directors-radars
  3.4 Funnels
  4 Aber 5in guns
  5.1 Shelf Oddity cutters
  5.2 Shelf Oddity rafts of various sizes
  5.3 Shelf Oddity 5in Loaders

For the camouflage I picked the Atlantic one. It is hardest to do, it is rarely done. It also happens to require list modifications I think, at least at first glance.

On to pics in order of building.


Paints:

PAINT
Im painting her in Navy Blue hull, Ocean Gray main superstructure with blotches of Haze Grey. I use only Tamiya acryllics as this is my large library.

I made Haze Grey mixing XF82 and XF2 (white) 50-50. For Ocean Grey Im using XF82, and for Navy Blue Im using a combo of XF 8 and XF 17, while for Deck Blue I used XF 50. I probably added a bit of XF82 into all of them just to blend things a little. Deck is painted with splots of deck tan XF78 to show wear, and weathered with muddy browns to show the planking. Not terribly complicated but does the trick. For the hull I use XF7 and XF10 mixture (Red and Brown). XF9 hull red looks super wrong to me on anything and I like my mixture.

[pascalemod]

For Atlantic Camouflage I used this picture from Navsource.

[pascalemod]

I had about 5 months break from above pics progress, and restarted the ship proper after my Hood, Bismarck and Mikasa projects were all done.

So, it meant doing PE ....

[pascalemod]

This is where I am so far. I decided to remask and redo the lower hull, and ended up with a bit higher boot topping. I think I moved it by 0.8mm or something crazy like this but now I really like how it looks, it sits "right". The bit below hull is always substantial but I originally had it (on advice from this forum) almost equidistant. Boot topping was suggested to paint over lower hull and upper hull in equal measure. This is wrong, I believe. The boot topping in my view goes on the upper hull, and not on lower hull, below the break point. I also shaved off the little holes on the stern as they looked massively overscale and fixed the bow intrusion point to be more accurate. I really like how it came out now.

[Silenoz]

Nice work on the camo, indeed not the most easy one...

[pascalemod]

Nice work on the camo, indeed not the most easy one...

Thanks. I did it wrong way around also. The gray splotsches on the hull should have been added as a last step, whereas in my case i did prior to painting blue. So my masking was smaller pieces but I think later I learned this lesson and used bluetac instead of tape masking it. I also experimented too much with paints and the paint job isnt my strongest here. Still, the amount of weathering it will have hopefully will hide this.

Next step is redoing the boot topping a bit thicker, imagine the masking Im doing with the hull painted. Already need to redo the decal for 56 rear.

[MartinJQuinn]

Nice work on the camo, indeed not the most easy one...

Yes, agreed.

[pascalemod]

Nice work on the camo, indeed not the most easy one...

Yes, agreed.

When the kit has too many errors to fix and backdate, you might as well distract with a fancy paint job...

[ModelMonkey]

[pascalemod]

So onto Radars now.

In research I understood that during Atlantic phase with Home Fleet, in 1942, the ship carried these:

April 1942
2 Main Battery: MK38 with MK3
4 Secondary Battery: MK37 with MK4 - with aft MK4 on long supports.
1 SG Radar on front of the superstructure
1 Main aerial radar: CXAM-1

Any objections to above layout?

Help...

[ModelMonkey]

Looks good.

Mk.37 should be "angle-back" type and Mk.38 should be original 6-sided shield.

[pascalemod]

Looks good.

Mk.37 should be "angle-back" type and Mk.38 should be original 6-sided shield.

Yup, I got those ones exactly. I will show my progress there in the next post. But the MK37 didnt have Mark 4 on the aft radar, in the paint scheme I am doing. So thats good, less work for me!

Here I show the current state of affairs. The hull red is done - I will mist it over with diluted grays once the weathering enamels dried off. That will be my "varnish" coat as well. Very pleased with the battered outcome.


Here are the steps I took if anyone wants to use to weather the lower hull:

1) Gray and beige paint for lower hull
2) chipping fluid (I used AK)
3) hull red (mix of Tamiya XF7 Flat Red and XF10 Red Brown, with a touch of XF60 Dark Yellow - figure 50-40-?10 proportions)
4) chip away the paint to reveal the layers beneath
5) Repeat steps 2) and 3) and 4)
6) using fine paint brush added some rust lines along the boot topping
7) using fine paint brush painted a very diluted green muck line just below waterline (figure 10:1 dilution)
some hull streaks on the hull. I used tape to guide me for the hull plating on bow. Using thinner i made it a bit more diluted.
9) white salt streaks along the lower half of the boot topping to fade it, blending in also some of the rust
10) (not done yet) light mist coat of 10:1 gray paint, like XF19 Sky Gray to lighten it all up. It is optional step and can be an alternative to matte Varnish.

[marijn van gils]

Good job!

[pascalemod]

Latest: CXAM-1 Air radar antenna. The Toms Modelworks 706 radar set is used, which is separate to the NC-Washington 760 upgrade. Instructions are quite a riddle. Next is to strengthen the way the radar sits on the mast (you can twist it about now or knock it off - no bueno).

After this I tackle the main battery MK38 director and Mk3 antenna. Only two of them to thankfully.

[pascalemod]

Main radars are done (excluding TDS antennas and all that minor stuff which will be added later I guess).

I now began the arduous task of installing railings ...

[Voyteque]

This CXAM-1 Radar is fantastic! You made so clean, ongratulations!

[pascalemod]

Railings added to main and second deck levels
Rebuild further the superstructure by adding Washington specific parts (think Im stopping there, its driving me bonkers how many things are wrong on this kit)
Removed all rafts (you can see the scars on the superstructure - I will be installing resin ones when they arrive
Painted all radars for assembly

....

To do list - and this is mainly for me to keep track of things also:
- Add railings to the rear and middle superstructures
- Funnel antennas and walkways
- Add more ladders where needed - especially the rear mast and all the 5in gun turrets
- build rear mast, build fwd mast - use kit yard arms or not, Ive not decided yet. Same gos for the rear mast as I think it is quite thick and I have nothing that as accurate... in PE

Here are some progress pics...

[pascalemod]

So, a little update again for those who follow this build:

* All railings have been added where I could.
* Catapults and cranes glued (superstructures are still dry fitted as I will rig them all separately)
* Missing AA, boats, liferafts (on order) and FC radars.

Will do the Main mast next, after which perhaps its time to add rigging and glue it all. Can't wait! This has been a hard kit to build in terms of scratch building. I wanted none, and as I go along there is this or that necessary to add. Crazy. It is still inaccurate on rear and on middle superstructures but I degress, I want to move to my PoW and Provornyi builds by now.

[pascalemod]

Ive added the radars, and have also added some fixtures to the main tower front face, making it a little more busy, less blank. Just some small wire scratch building.

Im waiting on my resin rafts now to arrange them properly, hence the "scars" on the main superstructure. I also ditched the square rafts from the gun houses since this photo was taken, as I will add the correct oval rafts instead.

Waiting also on the rear mast rods to arrive as Im investigating how to build them properly.

[Vladi]

Lovely, congrats!