1/350 FFG-48 USS Vandegrift, Academy& Pontos

[Themongoose]

Our local club has a Marine tribute build every September. This year I�m going stretch the topic a bit and build a ship named after a Marine! I�ve got 5 weeks and I�m going to need every day of it given how much work this Pontos kits looks to be. I spent a few days roaming through the forum looking at past builds and storing up lots of pictures. A few questions have highlighted some good resources and taught me some basic info on these ships. Hopefully I do it jsutice. Only my 3rd ship. I�m going to try and post pics and talk about what�s next so if you see anything I�m on my way to screwing up yell at me

This weekend I�m planning to finish the hull. The rudder is offset now, the deck is extended, the stabilizers were shortened and the extra long groove has been filled, I made 2 stabilizers for the hull, and I redid the sonar up front based on drydock pics of Vandegrift.




Dry fitting the deck now. Next I plan do mark off the bilge pump holes on the hull. Then just a few scratch items to add based on photos showing shields around bilge holes and along the hull.

[Timothyo]

Nice start! Jeepers, only 5 weeks to finish- how often do you get bench time? Good luck and I am looking forward to following your build!

Regards,
Timothy

[Themongoose]

Nice start! Jeepers, only 5 weeks to finish- how often do you get bench time? Good luck and I am looking forward to following your build!

Regards,
Timothy

Thanks Timothy! Yeah, I'm counting on some extra time over the next couple weeks. Hoping to get a 4 day weekend. A bit worried about it myself but I gotta do it

So far the weekend has been good. The hull is finished up and ready for primer. Will probably do that before I leave for work in the morning. Touchups Monday night and then i start the deck.

Gotta find brass stands for this. I went to Hobby Lobby and all the big box stores this weekend and had terrible luck. Anyone know a good place online for me to get some brass lamp finials? I was thinking those needed added before i closed up the deck to the hull. Any unique approaches to this i should be aware of?
Chris


Made the stabilizer fins from some 030 sheet checked on location from a couple drydock picks. It was interesting to see that 3 of 4 ships had slightly different stabilizers. The sonar is 1/4� acrylic rod sanded on my drill press. It�s slightly smaller than it would be if to scale. My alternative was to have the sides go way up the hull. The model seems a bit narrow up front so I thought keeping the ratios for height rather than width was best. Let me know what you think?


Here I didn�t use all the PE. The vertical bars in PE were flat so the plastic looks way better. That top rail though was a must and really finished it off.


The sonar is 1/4� acrylic rod sanded on my drill press. It�s slightly smaller than it would be if to scale. My alternative was to have the sides go way up the hull. The model seems a bit narrow up front so I thought keeping the ratios for height rather than width was best. Let me know what you think vs the drydock shot?

[Timothyo]

Perhaps this thread may be of interest?
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=35635

[Themongoose]

Perhaps this thread may be of interest?
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=35635

Perfect

[Themongoose]

Hull is ready for final primer coat which I�m not planning to do untill the deck is attached. Started on the superstructure tonight. Working on a method to mount the louvers for the turbine air intakes. Look at this one (best method of 3 attempts) and let me know your thoughts.




Getting a consistent depth needs some work if I continue this method. Had a little trouble on alignment with the 1st one(on the right in the backside shot) but have a method down for that now. Looking at the close up a little cement to smooth out the edges would be beneficial
Any other thoughts?

[Themongoose]

Made myself a jig to improve how these look. Each vane can now be straightened out and then a rail put on the end to hold them tight.

[Themongoose]

Got those vanes straightened out and now onto some paint
Here�s the helicopter bay complete with oil stains and a grimy floor.



Worked heavily on the hull. Citadel�s chaos black primer followed by some light and dark ghost grey mottling, then oversprayed the boot line with grimy black. Think you can see the shadowing affect in some of the pics.






Now for some dry time and then tomorrow apply my special blend of hull red

[Themongoose]

Well the paint came out smooth but I feel like I covered up too much of my marbling coat. There�s still some shadowing behind the red and maybe it will show up a little better after the flat coat. If nothing else I�ll weather it some when i get ready to do the rust and algae.


I painted up the sonar according to my dry dock pic


And I ended up doing more To the shaft and prop than I thought i would. Academy had a bulbous piece where the shaft entered the hull that doesn�t exist, the supports were rectangles so i tapered the edges, and i was able to use a Dremel cylindrical stone in my drill press to thin out the prop blades.

[url=https://themaddmongoose.smugmug.com/FFG-48/i-2xCrTHt/A][/url

[Themongoose]

Back to the aft superstructure tonight[8-)] no parts have been lost on this mission so far.

The only thing I cannot figure out yet is if there will be a short ladder to go on the left side. Pontos shows the stock molded ladder remaining here. Only found 2 short ones on the frets so this may stay as is or maybe i have something from the 1/700 destroyer i did that would work. Hmmmm?





Heres a shot of my 2nd, maybe 3rd attempt, at soldering. I managed to get the front 2 edges soldered together. No luck closing the gap on the bottom edges tho. No matter what i did the solder just balled up. I don�t think i was getting the edges to touch and so it would wick along them. Anyone else with soldering experience who could add a few best practices for me?

[Themongoose]

Building away the day! I've got the major elements of the paint done. Tried out some oil caning on the side of the helicopter bay. I used dark ghost grey to preshade it and am pretty happy with how it turned out. Now starting to build up the masts and all the boxes that go on the deck.

[Themongoose]

ohh I feel like I�ve been keel-hauled. I knew this main mast would take some time and the wife wants us to see the play at the high school tomorrow. Jeeez, you�d think I had been locked in the work room for a week lol So I decided to take 1/2 day off work today to make up the time. Good thing i dId. Started on this at 1 and finished at 10:30. Had a dinner break in there and took the dog out but for the most part this thing was a killer.

Took me 3 times to get the legs level...best use of a tool here, I just cut the extra off the top of any post that was too long.



If you could look at the wind vanes close up you�d see 1 was pieces all glued together bwuhahaha, but you can�t so you�ll have to believe me when i say all the parts are there.





in total it took 4 hours to do the posts and latice. The rest of the time was all the little details. I�m super happy with it. Cross your fingers that no parts fly off when i use the air brush lol

[Timothyo]

That mast looks great! The whole project is coming together very well!

It is really nice you can take a day off to work on her- I do not think my supervisor would go for that!

[Themongoose]

Thanks Timothy! Feels like it�s really coming together. This morning I�m painting everything that goes on the deck. Did some weathering under the hull. Then the afternoon should come about to decals and railings. Close to done!
A little far off for a pic but wanted to show all the little Pontos boxes and parts.


Here�s some clear yellow under beige brown for weathering. I think the matt clear will blend this all nicely...here�s hoping:-)

[Themongoose]

Massive day on my Fast Frigate yesterday. Paint, all except the final dell coat, decals, and all the small stuff finished up. Oh and i made a quick base to hold it while I do railings.



Lets take a closer look from bow to stern...









Today i started on the rails. Lots to do but I should be done before the club meeting tomorrow at 1pm. The paint will definitely by wet lol. Will post a pick if i have time...mom wanted some painting done and some other mr fix-it work so ill just have to find balance with our hobby!

[Themongoose]

coming down the home stretch. Will definitely finish this week. I have some details to pick out with a wash and a flat coat to put on after that. She�s looking good adorned for the Homecoming with rigging, handrails, and her two big brothers on the helo pad to protect her honor...









And here�s today�s favorite screw up. Not sure where my prop went, lost in transportation haha, but the local club meet is today so i have to have something. I sketched out a prop blade and cut 5 out of cardstock. Glued them to a plastic sprue with a rounded end and it appears to do the part if you look at it from a distance definitely found myself behind the [8ball]

[Kubilay]

Handsome ship and very nice work.

[Themongoose]

FINISHED! Can't tell you how ecstatic I am over this one because I think the image I was trying to capture is really representative of the cruise. Here is the USS Vandegrift as fitted out in 1995. I've weathered her for an active cruise doing missile system tests as shown here (Wikimedia Commons):



And my representation:





Once I had the action up front I just couldn't set the helo on the deck so I have big brother taking off, the doors closing for his berth and the other opening to bring out her other brother.







And here are some other ones to show some details and how she fitted out.





I plugged the original hole for the rudder and offset it like the real thing. The prop is aluminum color on the drydock photos I have so recreated that look here.



Testors clear canopy/window glue used across the board.









6 weeks start to finish. I used MCW lacquer paints for everything; light ghost grey on verticals and a lightened mix with 10% white for center panels and oil canning down the sides(washed out in the latest photos though but it is there), and dark ghost grey for the horizontals with a 10% black mix for tonal variation. Primer is Citadel Chaos Black for the hull and MCW grey for the PE and plastic. Only 1 piece of Pontos PE was lost during the build and I was able to fold up a new piece out of scrap. The Desron on each side of the superstructure wasn't provided so I hand painted them. I also tried the Flexy 5k CA for handrails and some of the parts that stick out, like the flag mast, to see how it works. It takes longer to dry, more like thick CA in time. Acts like a medium CA. Is easy to remove and redo. More ships to come as I am way better at this than planes. Definitely going to continue using PE sets where I can. I'll be back for more after I build the bomber my daughter got me for my birthday!

[Timothyo]

That turned out really nice! I like it! Still amazed with your speed..... in comparison, I feel very sloth-like!

Regards,
Timothy

[Nino]

I enjoyed your FFG-48 model-building tremendously. Great PE work as has been mentioned so many times.
Thanks for posting here. Your Photo's turned out really well too.

I will keep an eye out for your next endeavor

Nino

(Land the Helo before someone complains...)