The Ship Model Forum

Finished up the railings all the way around...
Ready for painting of this assembly.

Scrolled back in the photo folder and threw in a little before & after...

Cemented the upper and lower hull sections with super glue from the inside; note the bent micro brushes.
Filled the gap at the bow.
Provided dry-fit comparison to the actual area starboard and aft of the superstructure�crane is not perfect, but much better than the kit part � provided before and afters
Cleaned up and masked the elevators
Masked/prep�d the lower hull, the crane, the Mk 25�s, a lifeboat, and the fesnel lens (the ball)
Created life raft baskets from short-stantion rail from the WEM CV-6 PE set.

Created life raft baskets from short-stantion rail from the WEM CV-6 PE set.
Attached life raft baskets around Mk 25 decks and crane deck
Applied neutral gray on the upper hull and misc parts

Been away from the bench most of the summer. Kids. Need I say more.

Manage to sneak down here and there to do some masking of the walkways around the flight deck.....

Finished masking the flight deck edge walkways with Tamiya tape and Parafilm, and painted the edges and bottom of flight deck gray.
Coated the hull with Future.
Then used Microscale 1/16"" Black Stripe decals to create the boot stripe between gray and red sections of the hull.

Been spending some nights at the bench....
I attached the flight deck. Then got all the PE ready to go. I started with the safety nets on the elevators, then at the bow, stern and end of the angled deck. After painting I cleared blocked holes with a straight pin.
I had removed the molded-in stairways back before I painted the deck, now I made all the stairs (22 of em) and pushed them through the openings and tacked them with a touch of super glue.
Next I put a door at the bottom of each stairway. Then I made the railings and glued them over the stairs and doors.
Then I cut catwalks and glued them over the railings from the bottom (ship upside down)
Next I did more railing in various spots around the sip where required.
Then painted everything and touch up the whole walk way around the deck.

Next will be the hose reals and lifeboat baskets.

More pics of PE stairways and railing as described above.

Just picked this model up a week or two ago, so I'm watching this build closely.

PE Hose Reels:
Bent the stands and glued one reel side to the stands.
Twisted black thread around .1oo� / 2.5 mm plastic rod and coated in thin super glue.
After the dry, sliced thread/rod with razor to simulate hose.
Then glued other reel side to hose slice.
Glued reel side / hose slice into other reel side /stand.
Dry fit first one in place on forward port side.
Twenty-something more to go.

As I was making all the PE hose reels and lifeboat baskets, I was studying my references and looking at the deck a lot, and realized I really should do the deck decals first, then attach the �fiddly bits� after.
Furthermore, I discovered some new detail around the deck edge that I�ll have to scratch build; saluting guns/platform and the Basic Point Defense Missile System (BPDMS) director structure on the starboard side. (Thanks for the info/pics members Timmy C and Charles Landrum! )
As I mentioned in another post specifically on the topic, I prefer to slide decals rather than mask, paint, unmask, touchup and all the cleanup in between colors and after. So I shot the deck with a last coat of Future and I�ve begun applying the Starfighter Decals set 700-9. Started with the #10s, electrical outlet warning outlines, as a test to see how they�d go down. So far they nestle right down with Micro Sol setting solution and the carrier film �disappears.� (See photos below, Micro Sol still drying on a few.)
Note you�ll need to trim away as much carrier film as possible as these decals weren�t precut and don�t slide individually. I also noticed that the angled landing area outline doesn�t match up to the outline etched into the kit deck. Fortunately the spacing is larger on the decal, so I can cut it into more sections (comes in 3 sections) and overlay the sections to make them line up to the deck etching (perhaps that�s what Starfighter intended?? ) and I think it will work fine.

Angled deck outline decals

Those hose reels look like some tedious work looking awesome though thanks for sharing...

Sir, you must have steady hands to work on some things that are that small.

First, I want to say that the Starfighter deck decals are great, (more on this in a moment), but I wish the instructions advised the Revell modeler to remove the etched-in angled deck outline on the kit deck part before laying them down. As I mentioned above, I had to cut the outline decal into even more sections to get it to line up with the etching. In the end, I just couldn�t get all the various sections to line up exactly straight, and it just didn�t look good to me.
While I left the white/yellow center line which, because it was a single long piece, went down straight, I coated the outline decals in Micro Sol red and slowly removed them.
Instead I went with my old stand-by; Microscale white decal stripes (91111 & 91131) and solid white decal (FS 37875). Obviously it was much easier to lay single long pieces and individual white blocks exactly where they should go over the deck etching and measured for proper distance between each.
Finally satisfied with the outline, I moved on to the rest of the Starfighter deck decals. Again, they are great. However, a few words of warning�they require to be cut out of the sheet; they are very, very thin, and thus require a very soft touch to nudge precisely into place. But once in place they look outstanding. They respond perfectly to Micro Sol setting solution and whatever carrier film you do leave on �disappears� nicely. After they dried 6 hrs, I covered them with Future by hand. And after that dried 12 hrs, I hit the entire deck with Testers Dullcoat in the can. The decals look like they were painted on with hardly an edge noticeable.

So with the deck complete, it was back to the flight deck edge detail. I�m glad I decided to do the deck decals first as I knocked off the PE safety nets aft, port, and on a few elevators while decaling.
I decided to start with the recently discovered Basic Point Defense Missile System (BPDMS) director devise and its platform on the starboard side. Thanks again to forum member Charles Landrum for the excellent references. I again stole from the CV-62 Indy kit and adapted its platform to fit, notching the rear lower corner to fit the edge of the deck below the superstructure.
I then scoured the spares box and leftover PE. After a few attempts I came up with what you see in the pictures. From the 1/700 CV-6/CV-8 PE leftovers, I cut out part of an AA gun and two airplane wheels/struts. I bent back the struts and glued the trimmed wheels to the sides of the AA section to simulate the BPDMS. I glued that to a small spare plastic sprue for a �stand�. I drilled a hole in the top of the platform to receive the stand.
With my razor saw, I then sliced a slot 270 degrees around the platform. I cut 3 sections of safety net to size from the spare PE from the GMM CVAN-65 PE set, and slide them into the slots with a touch of glue.
Then I added 2 support posts and dry fit the structure. Now I just have to paint it and attach.

All hose reels and lifeboat baskets are made, but before I finish the delicate edge details, I need to finish the lower hull and attach it to the base.
So I stained the base and dry fit the hull.
Then I tackled the PE anchors and created the hull anchor hole �lip� with some ring-shaped pieces from the spares box, then trimmed and bent the anchor to look as if it were drawn up into the �hole�.
After painting, I dry fit the anchors to the holes and slide them through a tiny drop of superglue and let dry. Once dry, I tacked the �anchor in the hole� assemblies in place with a touch of superglue.
And with that, the refined hull bow is completed.

Now for the rudders, drive shafts and props��

She's looking very nice John. Looking forward to the end result here.

Hit the hull with Testors Dullcoat (can) and attached the rudders, drive shafts and props.
Next I started the details around the outer edges of the ship.
First was the Landing Signal Officer (LSO) platform. I originally intended to use the platform from the Dragon CVS-37 Princeton kit, but it turned out to be the wrong size and shape. So rather than trim it, I decided to save it (as I may build that kit eventually) and scratch build my own for the Big E. Using Kinsey's book as my reference, I fashioned the platform from scrap PE, and leftover PE safety netting. Attached and painted it.
Next was all the antennae. I cut sections of rigid .005 mm wire and hammered one end flat. Then I bent each to about a 30 degree angle. I then used the triangular PE Windbreak Support Frames left over from my WEM CV-6/CV-8 PE set to represent the lower support frames for the antennae. I then super-glued these parts under the edge walkway in the appropriate places around the ship.
Next I cut and bent 3-rail sections of 2 Bar Close Stanchion Railing from the WEM CV-6/CV-8 PE set to represent the upper/outer support frames for the antennae. And finally cut the top-most part of the hand railings from the inclined ladders in the Tom�s Model Works PE set #754 to represent the support structure between the upper support frame and the antennae.

Finally got to spend some quality time at the bench during the long holiday weekend.
Finished up all the antennae, and placed all the PE lifeboat baskets, then hand painted them all. I worked the deck color, MM36076 Eng. Gray, into a ball of sticky tack with a spackling knife and let it set up for a few hours. Then I worked balls of it into the baskets to simulate the folded canvas/rubber life boats.
I simulated the rack of 4 light gray rectangles on the starboard side with PE catwalk and sections of square styrene rod.
I glued the scratch built crane parts into place and stretched fishing line between beads of superglue to simulate the cable and hand painted these parts in place.
Placed all the hose reels. (2 are yet to be found in the nooks and crannies around the floor of the shop!) Truth be told, I�m not crazy about them. They�re clearly not to scale. Kind of wish I�d left the molded ones�.but live and learn.
I glued the Basic Point Defense Missile System (BPDMS) director platform in place on the starboard side and I made the saluting guns out of spare PE.
Being pretty much done with the edge detail, I placed the ship on the finials on the oak base and took pics from 360.

On to the superstructure. And from the initial dry-fitting, it�s gonna take some work�.

More pics