1/700 USS Bunker Hill CV-17 (1944)

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
Scott,
I will only be using the kit supplied p/e stuff. That will include the SK, the SC-2, the deck edge elevator underworks and the latticework deck edge mounted antennae. I did have to buy the Trumpeter 1/700 USN a/c set for the SB2C's. Honestly, not looking forward to all of the a/c. After finishing 53 single 20's you know...
This is a commission job, (rarely done by me...hardly time to build my own stuff),, but I'll have some extra cash for the Nats! I told the guy I'm building it for, "I'll build it out of the box". Of course, he knew nothing of what I spoke, so then I had to explain....... .
See you in KC. We'll figure something out..where and when stuff.
faithfully submitted, Tony "16"50 brass barrels are less of a pain than a bunch of 1/700 a/c" Bunch

[Ron Smith]

before final attachment of the flight deck. Man I'll have to be careful attaching the flight deck....I can imagine a whole lot of touching up if I'm careless with the Tenax!

She looks great so far Tony. I suggest Ambroid Pro-Weld and a Touch&Flo applicator for the flight deck, they've worked for me in the past with prepainted assemblies. Pro-Weld has as fast a set time as Tenax with slightly better strength and a lot less of the pinhole bubbles Tenax is prone to leave.

Actually I'd probably use a couple very small drops of Slo-Zap (yellow label) to tack it in place then run a bead of thin CA along the seam with a wire.

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
Ron,
I appreciate your input. I'll get some of the Amroid Pro-Weld and the applicator. I did not have a "warm fuzzy" contemplating the attachment of the flight deck to the already painted hull. We're talking lots of hours in prep and painting!!
I don't want to and I don't have the time to do any percentage of this project over again.
So far, so good!
faithfully submitted, TonyB

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
Just a quick look at the flight deck before a whole-lotta work yet.
I painted the, "non-flight deck", steel areas with 20B.



This is actually an assumption here, as I did not go back and see what other modeler's have done with the flight deck's, "non-wooden", perimeter.
I did what made sense to me. Am I mistaken?
The camo now needs to be finished on the flight deck's vertical area. Here is an "old" question: should I used the corresponding color, (of the 5-O, 5-L and BK) as the hull and flight deck meet..including the,"beneath", areas?
To quote Kwai-Chang-Kane, "I strive not to know all of the answers, but to understand the questions". In other words, am I making sense?
What color is the bottom of the 20mm galleries and flight deck areas that overhang the hulls' sides? I am not so sure, but my defaault will be ...same as surrounding areas.

Here is the island ready to go together...

Here is what's left after all of the above is finished!!!

Did I underestimate this build or what???
I estimated 30 hour to completion. I have spent nearly 30 hours masking and painting...live and learn.
Maybe someone oput there can learn from my mistakes....
faithfully submitted, Tony Bunch
ps one month till completion..no matter what!

[Tracy White]

Managed to get some more work done on it this weekend but I wanted to give those who are waiting a status update as to WHY it's not out.

It's all Randolph's fault!

Actually, there's still a lot of details in general to try and nail down for some of the ships (CV-17 Bunker Hill early on comes to mind) but I have almost NOTHING on Randolph. All I've got are what's posted on Navsource's Randolph page and it's pretty skimpy. The only shot of her port side, for example, is during her shakedown. So if anyone has access to a Randolph cruise book or knows of any good sources of photos for her I'd appreciate it if you could drop me a line!

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
Tracy,
I could probably access a Randolph cruise book, but not from the 40's; but the 60's.
Question:
Re: CV-17 in Ms32-6a: Should the twin 5" mounts be 20-B on the roofs, or same as the camou'd area on the sides..just extended to the horizontal surfaces?
Thanks, Tony Bunch

[Tracy White]

Re: CV-17 in Ms32-6a: Should the twin 5" mounts be 20-B on the roofs, or same as the camou'd area on the sides..just extended to the horizontal surfaces?

I can't tell you for sure but based on what I can see on other ships the top is treated as a horizontal surface whereas the sloping glacis plates are verticals.

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
Tracy,
Allrighty then.
Just love painting three colors on a teeny weeny 5" twin mount!
It could be worse; I could have to paint a 1/700 carrier in Ms32-6a!
Oh wait a minute...I am!
Thanks again, Tony

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
Here is CV17 after the boot topping and the hull red have been applied.
Once again, I used the Testors Acryl colors...




This is the first time I've applied hull red since I was a hardcore ship modeler back when I was in my teens...long freakin' time ago...like the 70's!
gettin' there!
faithfully submitted, Tony Bunch

[abramsteve]

G'day guys!

Tony, a great job! Im in awe of those skills. Whilst building the Trumpeter 1/700 Franklin, I had major problems with a bowing of the lower hull, made attaching it to the rest of the hull a pain in the neck! I wimped out and painted her in Ms 22, instead of 32. I didnt decal her, bar a flag, and have used her as a test bed for some new techniques.

Seeing Tony's Randolph has inspired me to blow my extremley tight budget, and buy another Franklin. However, after dry fitting Ive got another buggered lower hull join. Has anyone else had that problem?

Anyways, great job again Tony. Im inspired!

[Tracy White]

I've got the Trumpeter CV-10 in 700th at home but haven't seriously worked on it... I'll take a look at it this weekend and see if mine's the same. I had a similar problem to Tony's with my Dragon CV-9 Essex in terms of hull fit. so we'll see if the Trumpeter kits are "consistant" in that department as well.

[Guest]

G'day guys!

Tony, a great job! Im in awe of those skills. Whilst building the Trumpeter 1/700 Franklin, I had major problems with a bowing of the lower hull, made attaching it to the rest of the hull a pain in the neck! I wimped out and painted her in Ms 22, instead of 32. I didnt decal her, bar a flag, and have used her as a test bed for some new techniques.

Seeing Tony's Randolph has inspired me to blow my extremley tight budget, and buy another Franklin. However, after dry fitting Ive got another buggered lower hull join. Has anyone else had that problem?

Anyways, great job again Tony. Im inspired!

I didn't have a lower to upper hull fit problem with my DML Randolph, but did end up with a good sized gap when fitting the flightdeck to the hull.

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
Dear abramsteve,
Thanks for the boost!
With the Dragon Essex kit, I had some upper to lower hull fit problems....I ended up cutting sections away from all of the cross braces on the upper hull half.
This allowed me to progressively cement the upper and lower hull halves together to allow more nearly a perfect vertical butt-joint....then I sanded and sanded and sanded. Some of the hull-side recessed details, (at the waterline), were nearly sanded away. If you look at a few of the earlier pics of the hull, (after being assembled but before painting), it is somewhat apparent that there are areas that are really not truly butted to each other. There is a vertical, "step", that goes from high side down to high side on top and there were some areas that looked pretty good, (only justification for all of the extra effort), and that's where I left it. After a lot of sanding, I said, "I'm done with this task", and I have not looked back.
Another issue:
The flight deck dashed line decals don't match any flight deck photos I've studied on a number of different S/H Essex Class carriers. There are too few dashes and the dashes are too thick. The center line dashes are about half the thickness of the, "pair", of flight deck edge dashed lines. That much is correct.
The pics I studies from Navsource, (numerous short hull ships), showed all the outboard dashes to number 72 from end-to-end. The Dragon...and the GMM 1/700 USN carrier decals both have too few and too coarse dashes....49 dahses from end-to-end. The center dashes numbered 43 on the decal sheets, but that included going over the elevators with no dashes. CV-12 had the center dashes continuing through the elevators' centers...no interruptions.
THIS INFO IS BASED UPON MY STUDY RESULTS>>>>>YOUR STUDIES MAY VARY!!
Having said all of this, I proceded to spend the last two evenings adding the, "wrong", number of flight deck dashes...bugs the out of me.
If this were my own project, I'd probably paint the dashes on for two reasons:
1) The dashes would be correct in number and thickness.
2) There would not be this wavy parrallax clearly visible when looking, "all the way down", the flight deck.
NOW I KNOW WHAT THE A/C ARE FOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To hide the mistakes!!!!
faithfully submited, Tony Bunch

[scottrc]

Hi Guys,

If this were my own project, I'd probably paint the dashes on for two reasons:
1) The dashes would be correct in number and thickness.
2) There would not be this wavy parrallax clearly visible when looking, "all the way down", the flight deck.
NOW I KNOW WHAT THE A/C ARE FOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To hide the mistakes!!!!
faithfully submited, Tony Bunch

Well, I just put the dashes on my flightdeck the other day. I made tripple sure they were strait. Then, this moring while drinking my second cup of coffee, I looked down the flightdeck and noticed that my lines would direct a pilot to drive his plane into the aft end of the island.

Looked like my painters must of had a tot or two while painting the lines.

Time to order more aircraft

Scott

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
Hi Scott,
Amen.....
I'd love to see progress pics if you have the time to post them. BTW, when my CV17 project is finished, I will have some extra a/c available to you; just let me know. I had to buy the Trumpeter 1/700 a/c for the SB2C's, as the Dragon kit had none.
I can bring them to KC if you'd like.
If you don't want them, but another Essex fan does....who/m ever should let me know.
I'll also have most of the GMM decals sheet remaining to let go of.
".....cuz then it'll be back to BB's...in 1/350."
Not finished yet, but it's been fun!
faitfhully submitted, Tony Bunch
ps must be something wrong with me, but one of those 1/350 Essex Class kits is starting to look pretty attractive!!!

[Poppop]

Tony: It's too late. You've been acquired by the 1/350 Essex tractor beams and you will be pulled in!

I suffered a similar fate after working the 1/350 New Jersey and helping my grandson with the old Lindberg Yorktown. The temptation was too great. Now there is a partially completed NJ (getting very close to completion) and a partially complete 1/350 Yorktown (camo and hangar deck done!).

Don't fight it... just give in and enjoy!

Charlie

[Tracy White]

Well Tony, if you do decide to throw in with a 350th bird farm you know who to talk to

I'm hoping to lay some paint down on the deck of my Essex this weekend. I'm going to try and paint most of my deck lines instead of using the decals, which are "sequenced" wrong. It should be fairly easy; cut a looooong piece of tape to width and lay it down in one strip over white paint.

Then cut out every other segment down the flight deck. This is the way the Navy painted the lines,

If I do get it going I'll take photos and post them

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
Charlie,
Ya mon, I con't resist..resistance is futile!!!!
Tracy,
I do have quite a few Trump 1/350 a/c, but only the Hornet, " in the house". I was tremendously joyous when the Hornet arrived...but then I had to buy More B-25's! Then I got the short run 16 B-25 decals from LP. She's still in her box...patiently waiting.
Great time to hunt down a Trump 1/350 Essex kit though...dirt cheap on Ebay.
Regarding Essex'ssssss....
My allegience would go to a short hull Essex but I can't say why.
WHY MUST I HAVE ANY ALLEGIENCE ANYWAY????
Kind of like to the Mighty Mo!!
What gives???
faithfully submitted...............Essex Fan............

[Tracy White]

I built the 700th Hasegawa Hancock as kid so I've always had a fondness for her, but I think the short hulls have a more interesting history. CV-10 Yorktown is my personal favorite but Lexington is a close second... both had interesting histories. I'm building a Ticonderoga though as my wife had a friend who flew off her in the war.

I will have many, many Essexi when done

[AndrexP]

�ps must be something wrong with me, but one of those 1/350 Essex Class kits is starting to look pretty attractive!!!

Tony: Here are some progress pix to whet your appetite�









(sorry about the photographic diarrhea...)