1/350 CVL-23 USS Princeton

[StevenVD]

Now the ship's davits platforms will get some attention.



The parts you get from Dragon are very decent and scaled down fine according to pictures, but understandingly they lack the fine detail of the perforated girders attaching the platform to the galleries above.



I doubt these are available in scale, especially the small girders aft of the platforms, so why not just try to make them at home? It means drilling will have to precurse cutting, to avoid ripping the piece.



After cutting precariously along the borehole line, some filing is needed to get a flat glueing side.



The holes didn't have to go all the way, because part of the piece is hidden.



The hole sizes for both the large and the small girders are 0.5 and 0.3mm.



The rest of the girder parts is constitutued of PE scrap. Enough of that already available!



This can be of use on the model.



Some components are transferred from the kit parts.





Fixing this was surprisingly hard, but at last both sides are finished. It must be mentioned that a girder on the starboard side interfered with the walkthrouh on the gallery. This was partially milled away to be able to locate the girder, it would also hamper the kit part. Now the perforations on the ship girders are naturally reproduced.

[Joe Simon]

Very nice! I love the structural work. Those replacement bombs will really add to the look of the planes. Maybe Hasegawa on the kit picture.

[Harpy]

Going to be a neat ship.

[StevenVD]

Thanks! Let's fix some things today, beginning with the smoke stacks.





With some brand new Tamiya Light Grey I primed the inside of the girders for the stacks. This is not part of the ship's camo, but just to avoid that you can see the brass where I won't get to afterward.





The whale barges are already fine, the rudder is even maintained from the kit. I thought to replace the bottoms of the life rafts, but this is really too fine for a wire mesh.



The front lift had to be hammered carefully in place, using a damper.



I know that I had payed attention to mark the stacks relative to their position, but the front two were apparently switched up. Having seen some other parts in the manual been switched, this coulod be Dragon's doing. Alas, the PE was attached according to plans, so it had to be detached and mutated. Now the stacks are aligned just fine.







Some of the fitting problems are due to the step in the blister parts joint. I only filled the gap but didn't elevate the hull side.



And why not fix the island already, as it was always a liability on it's wobbly base. But it als has some fitting problems, causing a slight angle to the deck. This was fixed by adding a strip of styrene, cutting a gap for the catwalk and shortening the girders down below. Also the radar dish base further to the aft had to be bent slightly. Now all is ready for further detailing.

[StevenVD]

On the starboard side, some ladders and railing were added and a forgotten piece of styrene catwalk was replaced. I will also scratch new island supports, apparently one is missing in the kit.

[StevenVD]

The island support structure is one of the few things in the kit I found to be a bit too simplified. The girders are too narrow and there is also missing one compared to the ship's arrangement. The first of three heavy girders is left out and the other two seem rearranged.



I've cut out the pieces from a sheet of aluminium. The shape is not so linear as on the Dragon pieces, to distribute the weight of the island.



A metal strip is shaped around them.





Some ribs are added for detail.



Below this island some of the earlier work has to be removed to make this scratchwork fit.



A small part of the catwalk had to be removed to be able to depose the three girders under the island.









All is firmly set into place. How I am going to mask off the hangar doors afterwards, we'll see later on...

[StevenVD]

I decided to have the antenna pylons lowered, which should ease the deck fixing part later on.



This shows San Jacinto from a site useful for its late war radio/radar installation diagrams. https://nara.getarchive.net/media/cvl-3 ... nto-21ccab.



Also, the pulleys for lowering the barges are fixed, using the scrapped plastic parts for location.



For the Mk.13 airplane torpedoes' construction, I make use of an interesting site, mainly about the 80's Falkland war but also touching the Mk.13, https://wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com/201 ... lands-war/.



This diagram shows a TBF with a torpedo in it. It needed to be adapted to its new engaging method. The fuse had to be covered to avoid an early arming. Also, a sturdy tail construction was needed to protect steering abilities.



To slow down the descent, a wooden drag ring, amiably called "the pickle barrel" was clamped over the warhead. It was shed when immersed.



Let's inspect the Master-Model ensemble.



It has ten turned parts, of whom nine will do, considering the TBF count on Princeton. The over-amount of PE parts is well considered because of multiple bending casualties.



While not numbered, the 4 different part types are easily distinguishable.





It's hard to remove all 9 bomb carts unscathed. Especially the wheels and fiddly turn handles come of quickly.



Soon though, nine carts stood on the cardboard, secured with gum.







Then the madness was really taking on. The tail plane should not require any glue, but practically all small parts will loosen while bending the very fiddly connection parts. Luckily you get plenty try-out parts.



The propellors were from the double counter-rotating kind. These sit snugly on the end axis from the lathed torpedo body.



You still have to add pitch to 18 1mm-diameter propellors. I keep them apart until after painting, because they probably were bare metal.



The tail is fixed and then the pickle barrel keg is added.



So you get a nice superdetail surprise, but don't underestimate this little kit.

[StevenVD]

Today the Princeton won bronze in masterclass ships at MCW Happening, for which I had concocted a display reusing my old Bismarck fishtank. Like this all would prove safeguarded against curious onlookers and adverse weather conditions, as both of these abundantly imposed themselves today.



It had some competitors:







After the finishing of the torpedoes, I realised that I had still all double 40mm Bofors installations to do. Luckily I had provided myself with an extra pack of Aber barrels. This I allowed to do myself only after repairing the holes in the railing caused by removing the flattened deck details.



The barrels were soon milled shorter again and fixed to the carriages.





After a few days' work, they matched up to the quads and the 20's. Also, 8 gun directors were made.





If you wanted to get a preview with the wood deck on, here you go. This could not be maintained on the model, that was specified to be starring "naked" in this and next weekend's contests. Also, the galleries would have been shrouded.







At last I imposed the ship above the deck, showing the airwing on it. It was fixed with gum.













I forgot to add a few things like the prop guards and the chimney antennas, the rest can stay like that until next week.

[Jon]

Outstanding progress. Thanks for sharing so many photos. Watching closely.

[marijn van gils]

Great progress Steven! That's really taking shape now!
Pity I couldn't make it to Willebroek to see it in the flesh (and enjoy the show in general!). But sometimes (most times? ) family comes first...

[StevenVD]

No problem, Marijn, other occasions will arise, even if you don't attend IPMS Antwerp next week there's still BSMC summer edition. @Jon: stay hooked, it will keep moving fast.

Today, North Star was knocking on the door.



The package contained another one.



In it was a bag with a print wafer.



All precautions didn't prevent some of the sailors walking the plank.



But let's look in detail.











There must be 2 ringfighters among these, but the other ones will no doubt all be suitable to pose on deck.

[marijn van gils]

Hoboken won't be possible for me neither...
But I'll certainly be in Putte, for the 2 full days!

Enjoy those figures meanwhile...

[StevenVD]

Thanks, Marijn! I surely did. Princeton won a special prize at IPMS Antwerp, while winning bronze in the ships' category. A donation of 50 euros was given. It almost covered half of my expenses that day!











I bought the Russian Kondensator atomic cannon, that seems to be a 406mm naval gun planted on a tank. I'm looking forward to building it, but first finish the Princeton...

[Goodwood]

I really really want one of those Kondensators...dunno why, but...

I like big guns and I cannot lie,
Them other tankers can't deny...

[steinerman]

Absolutely incredible, Steven! Your attention to detail is a thing of beauty!

Love what you've done so far! - and have fun with that cannon!

[StevenVD]

Thanks for your nice comments. The gun will have to wait a bit, because I want to do the Voyager upgrade, which seems to have gotten scarce already. Painting Princeton will be easier if the weather keeps improving over here.

[StevenVD]

About time to show the last update before painting starts. Some of the changes needed I discovered only lastly by comparing to reference pics.





I replaced the flagpole with some 0,6mm wire.



The front smokestack has some differences that are not optional in the kit for the 1944 configuration. The last pictures of Princeton show a few details that compare to pictures I found of the modified Independence air uptake and three platforms for 35 foot whip antennas. There were WEM parts for these but they are impractical for not being three-dimensional, so I made some platforms out of scrap parts.



Especially the supports under the platforms were hard to fix.











Then I discovered a fact that was already mentioned earlier in the "CVL fans" topic, about the port whaleboat launching deck being substantially larger than had been provided. I had forgotten to check this out, only finding out that Princeton also had this deviation from a lone rescue dinghy dangling behind one of the port aft gun tubs where Birmingham is hosing on the stern. There were even two ladders leading to this deck, while being missing completely on the starboard side. Fixing this would be easy but for the hole that had to be provided in the catwalk parts already fixed to the deck edge. This was done by drilling, but it could only be accomplished when the catwalk glue was undone and I could manipulate the part on the cutting mat. Not having any spare watertight doors from WEM, I used a backside from Dragon to add one to the elongated platform.





Another missing detail were the docking steps supports to the hull sides. They were not authentically reproduced in the WEM set, but altogether I could use some of the parts intended for the wind barrier to add the details. This I would be omitting anyway. A forgotten piece of catwalk PE at the island substructure was also added. Part of this would have to be removed a day later, when I was trying to mask off the hangar ports.



These paper masks are fixed with PVA glue, filling up the ports with the folded lips.





The elevators are also masked off, though I won't be priming the entire deck because it will be covered with the Pontos parts.





Now the PE can be primed with Tamiya grey paint and afterward I will be covering the whole ship with the lightest camo color.

[StevenVD]

I almost missed some extra ammo racks behind the tubs, but they were very evident on Independence "Crossroads" pictures. It seemed to be subassemblies of four rows on a plate, making it easier to build.

[marijn van gils]

Looking great Steven!

You're making good progress. I guess you're getting hooked on ships?

[StevenVD]

Thanks, Marijn, amazingly Princeton is the only ship in 1/350 I had in my stash. I got some smaller models like a French sub on 1/400 and a liberty ship. These will not come on the table soon, but the Princeton should come together this year. Today I finished the hull primer. For this, I had to mount the model upside down on the turntable, which is an uneasy moment.













While painting, some small areas couldn't be reached. I enclosed some PE gratings in the extended port air ducts and the main mast would have been easier if it had been pre-painted.















Before I do the guns, I have to arrange some pieces and improve the paint flow of my airbrush. It seems like the nozzle leaks, while it has recently been replaced. Maybe the needle is too bent.