The Ship Model Forum

Fantastic work, Terence!!!

I have been, and am still following this build and your details with great interest!
Kelley

Very impressive work! Looking forward to this one!

Your attention to detail is outstanding.

Thanks guys. I'll try to be better about posting every couple of weeks.

Terry,

Fantastic work so far!!! Can�t wait to see her in person, should bring to the auction Tuesday, I�d bid handsomely for it

Matt

I've glued down the starboard hanger sections. Added a few fun items along the way. It's not perfect and I'm missing some stuff but at least I can see the similarity in pictures.

Task Force 48 provided me with a picture that I was intrigued by and wanted to run with. The picture below shows a Sunday service being held at the center elevator area. You'll notice that the bulkheads around the elevator are very dark. I don't know what year of the war this was taken but given the number of times the Enterprise was painted, it seems it was dark at one time or another. We thought there was a very good chance these were painted deck blue to prevent the elevator opening from being a giant white target square for dive bombers to aim for if it was down in an attack. Going with this assumption, I've decided to paint the bulkheads around the elevators deck blue. I can't prove this but it adds interest to the hanger area and I like the idea. Don't fret modelers, I also have pictures of this same area painted the same color as the rest of the hanger...so go with your creative spirit.

Here's a photo of the rear hanger section. I've created elevator wells because I've never seen this done before. Looks pretty cool...guess the elevators will be up now.

The bow elevator well is interesting in that it's stepped because the hull is too narrow at this point. I saw this in the general plans and verified it with a repair photo taken after the kamikaze blew the elevator out of the ship in May '45 off of Okinawa. See the lower right of the picture where you see the step begin.

I've also added the raised hanger catapult in the forward section. I can't imagine using this thing. The ship would have to be dead still unless you wanted to launch into a 90 degree crosswind and then you're what...30 feet above the water. Crazy! Attached is a picture of a Hellcat being launched off one of the Essex carriers. I've always been fascinated by a picture of the Enterprise hanger when it was being salvaged. It shows the battle record of the ship on a bulkhead but I've never been able to figure out where is was located. I think I found it when I put in the stair to the Gallery deck. It looks like it's on the bulkhead between the two starboard forward roller doors. The stair appears in the background. Then finally a picture of the mid-section of the hanger.

Speechless!!!!
Absolutely fantastic detail!!!
I plan on modeling the aft auxiliary elevator and AFT bulkhead hangar door on my build, but haven't figured out how I want to tackle the hanger catapult. You have captured it extremely well! The hangar deck gray color and sheen is very nice as well.


Um - 'how-too's' or 'dids' are welcome!
Kelley

Thank you for the kind words Tom. I'm glad this thread is helpful to you. The hanger deck appears very glossy in all the pictures I've seen. I'll probably have to flat it to weather but will re-gloss it to finish.
Everything inside will eventually all be glossy for the simple reason that it reflects the most light. Anything will help in the dark interior. No special techniques to report although "gluing" PE with future works really well when you can float something onto a flat surface. you can work it around before it dries, it dries super thin and it's waterproof.

Terry,

Really really wish you would bring in the shrink ray you have invented to one of the club meetings

Don�t know a word strong enough, but simply fantastic work my friend!

Matt

I agree with the general comments. I've nothing to add really, other than to say I am looking in on your build thread here and am very impressed with your work

Thanks guys, I appreciate the compliments. It�s all in the shrink-ray. They�re tough to come by and cost a fortune but worth every penny :)

I don�t think I�m a rivet counter but if I see an opportunity to make something take longer than it should�I will. I think I have a fear of finishing things. At any rate, I spotted some other problems in the hanger that bothered me enough to fix them - a stair and landing that connects to an exterior stair amidships and a stair at the bow that leads up to the forecastle deck.



A photo of a burial at sea, not sure of the battle, shows the missing stair area which should connect to a stair on the outside.

I feel a little awkward using an image like this to illustrate a trivial build so I apologize if I offend anyone. It's a powerful photo.



At any rate, just as I was making progress, I received this photo and I had to take a few steps back.





And...a few more.



But I�m making progress. This is port stern. The corrected stair area should have some mechanical ducts in front but I had to leave them out for painting. The stair extends a little too far out into the roller door opening...but it'll have to be good enough.





Here�s port amidships



And port bow.



Overall



Cheers

That's excellent attention to detail, and very neatly executed also.

Terry,

Your pursuit of perfection never ceases to astound me. Knowing first hand what you are working with and the level of detail that you are adding is truly awe inspiring.


Can't wait to see the latest updates in person.

Matt

Love it!

Thank you all for the kind words.

Back when I started, I filled a bunch of portholes to reflect the Midway timeline and drilled out the rest. I've needed to put PE portholes over the holes ever since but not had any idea how to do it.



Yeah...these buggers are tiny!

I settled on just Futuring (AKA - Johnson Klear / Pledge Floor Gloss, whatever - it'll always be Future to me) them down and it worked great. The Future gave me time to place them and there was no glue build-up! I put a few more coats of Future over them to seal them down.



Without doing this, they easily flaked off. A couple more coats seems to have sealed them down pretty good and painting will really stick'm down.

Great work Terry!!!

Looking forward to the next update!!!

Kelley

Amazing amount of detail work! Has me tweaking!

Any more progress to show?! This is such a great build so far that I hope it hasn't died!