WIP - 1/350 USS Lexington (CV-2)

[LE BOSCO]

a beautiful and good personal work continue on this path ,and it is sure to be a masterpiece
cheers
Nicolas

[boomstick68]

Impressive detail work.

[lvsquarerigger]

I worked on pocket #2 and continued the production line process. This time I made the vents a more correct height and slanted the top from the get go. I still have to make what is listed on the plans as an arch but, like pocket 1 have no idea of what it looks like so will do as I did there and just make something. When I got done with this I decided to do the two boats for these pockets. The open one goes in pocket four so don't get confused. I had an interesting little journey to land of the lost with the front railings on one of them. I had both rails on the glass, trimming off the little nibs, and as I positioned the single edge razor blade to hold one of them it jumped! I saw it go up but not where it landed and thus began the search we are all so familiar with, namely where did that little !@#*^^$*)$ go????? I looked everywhere and decided to let it go for the night. Today, I knew it had to be there somewhere, I took my bench apart, moved things to the bed behind me, looked on the chair, and found nothing! Oh well at least I got the bench straightened up a little. As I went to pick the angel under repair off my seat there it was! I gently placed it on the glass, immediately finished trimming it, and glued that little so and so on before it decided to take off again. A word about the boats, I cut the chocks from the GMM PE and glued them on the bottom of the boats. Was not happy with the fit or the way they looked so was checking photos and couldn't find any of the pockets with a boat chock in them. The best pics I have do seem to show a set of padded blocks on the deck when the boat is out but that's all. I'm debating between making some of styrene or hanging the boats off the davits. Not sure which yet. But there's time for that. For now enjoy.

[anyahajobuzi]

Whoaa! Not much is gonna be left original with all this scratchbuilding
I love it when accuracy is the guide of a modelbuilder!
Very nice, as so many others said it: it will be a masterpiece!
Carry on with this carrier!

Laci

[lvsquarerigger]

Adventures in boat pocket building.

First let me thank all of you who have commented recently as I was totally out of it and did not do that.

Next I started the third boat pocket and it went pretty smoothly. The fun began when I finished that and was looking at pocket #2 and how the landing would work for the ladder up to the flight deck. Seems somehow I made the upper deck too close to the top and only a midget might have been able to use the space. As I checked it seems like the most plausible explanation is I mounted the deck above the line instead of below it. However it happened I had to remove the deck and ladder and then lower the deck after cleaning up all the glue mark mess. I didn't get any pics of the process, was too engrossed I guess, but did get one of the finish. Now on to #4. Enjoy the pics.

[lvsquarerigger]

No progress to show today but a little bit of how I'm getting where I am. After my episode with the too high deck I took a close look at how the ladders come down from the flight deck and enter the pockets. On the side view plans you can see how the ladder drops below the upper deck level almost to the top of the lower railing. While the kit has these pop outs going up in reality they go down. I had done each pocket figuring I would add the upward piece of deck when I had all of them done but now I see I have to cut them down and build them out that way. The one photo I'm showing gives a very clear picture of one of them, #4, and from that you can pretty well figure out how the other two are. The kicker on this is I was looking at that pic for clues on the boat supports while in the pocket as I was not happy with the PE ones I had used. The pic in question is from Squadron at Sea and is one of four on the page so in the book it's kind of small. That's the beauty of the computer, crop and then you can enlarge and see so much more detail as the bonus of the ladder mount turned out to be.

[Rob Jansen]

lvsquarerigger,
Thank you so much for posting your work and progress. I am currently building a 1940 Saratoga and your research and references are very helpful.

[lvsquarerigger]

lvsquarerigger,
Thank you so much for posting your work and progress. I am currently building a 1940 Saratoga and your research and references are very helpful.

Thank you for following my travails in building and anal retentiveness. Feel free to drop a PM or two. I'm retired so don't have a work day schedule but do manage to keep busy.

James

[lvsquarerigger]

Progress. I have all four pockets done, almost. Missing a couple of short inclined ladders and I've already used what I could from the GMM PE set and a small pack from L'Arsenal. So I talked to Tony and will order some more along with some mesh I want to use for the circular portion of the 5" gun tubs. They'd all ready be ordered but for some reason Paypal was giving me a hard time so I'm waiting 'till after the holiday, tomorrow, to straighten it out. For all intents and purposes, almost, I'm ready to crank up the airbrush and go at the pockets and the new hull sides. Along the way a little bit of serendipity came into play. I had just put a spot of CA on my little pad to use with my home made applicator, a straight pin stuck in the eraser of a pencil, when I noticed a little smudge on the paper. A closer look with magnifiers showed my escaping rudder and prop from the #4 pocket boat. Hurray! So I immediately glued it in place. Still have to do the supports for both boats but all things in time.

[lvsquarerigger]

Where to start? Been working on the boat pockets and boats themselves. Lets start with the boats. I had put the rails on the captains gig (not sure of that but it's the fancy one with a couple of cabins) and had a malfunction while I was trying to glue the supports on the bottom, namely I bent them, so took them off until I had the supports done. Since I had them off I did a little more sanding on the deck seam lines and then reinstalled the rails. The open boat was pretty simple and no trouble. Then it was on to the rails for the lowered sections of the decks and they were a pain. Nothing I had fit so had a brainstorm to cut down some of the L'Arsenal ones I have. First try failed so I went back and cut one section off the bottom and that fit. Much easier than the piecemeal way I tried first. So got the pockets done and then went to the boat lifts in 2 and 4. The kit again has it all wrong with the lifts being glued to the back of the pocket when pictures show them mounted to the roof at the front. Also they just have a hook dangling when in actuality they were small traveling cranes. So I made my own but did use the hook from the kit part. Now it was time to break out the airbrush and paint. I'll have those pics tomorrow.

[mark_sch]

Great job
Mark

[PetrolGator]

Your insanity is certainly producing a heck of a result. I can't wait to see her assembled.

[lvsquarerigger]

Thanks guys. And yes Petrol my insanity can be a real pita at times but for me the results are worth it all in the end. Just for fun imagine me when I was still working running a plumbing service company and what I demanded of my service techs.

[lvsquarerigger]

This is about the third time I typed this. Had some kind of computer glitch but finally went through system restore and it seems to be fixed. Oh well, that's windows for you. I got everything ready and drug out my small compressor and the airbrush. Had things set, I thought, according to how I had seen others do when spraying small stuff. Give me a house, a room, cabinets or furniture, an airless sprayer, HVLP, I'm fine. Airbrush? Totally new to me. So today was as much learning as doing. I managed to get the primer done, only loosing one 5" gun from the tape. Then the navy blue and it was a different story. Took a little to get used to managing the air from the trigger along with the paint and distance. By the time I was done it wasn't too bad but I'm far from being good. Also got my thumb in the way and knocked the captains gig off the tape too, right down into the dirt! Anyway there was only a little bit of it stuck on and I haven't really looked closely, just kind of don't look and it won't be too bad. So the seams on the hull panels do need more work as I thought they might, it's amazing how paint shows up the flaws. So for that part it's more fill and sand.

[Rob Jansen]

Thanks for all the pictures on your progress!!! Will save me some fret I'm sure. Great job!!!

[lvsquarerigger]

Thanks Rob. Sounds like you have one of your own either in stash or underway. Her are a couple of more quick pics. After painting I first scraped the high points of the added piece on the hull, you can scroll back up to the pics of the finished paint if you want to see the seams and high points, and then some putty to fill in the seams. I was talking to the paint guru at the local hobby shop, AKA Bryan, and we were discussing putties and he says the Tamiya is the best he's seen available so I got a tube to compare to what my Bondo does. He did say it shrinks just a little so I let it dry a full 24 hours before sanding. I just finished and must say I like the results but not sure of it's the putty or all the wet sanding that went into it. So here are a couple of pics of the finish before I get the paint out again, not sure when, and then I can see if it really is as smooth as it seems.

[Rob Jansen]

James,
I currently have three "pokers in the fire"; a 1940 (ish) Saratoga, a 1944 Hancock and a 1982/83 Enterprise (my ship).

On the shelf is a planned Bon Homme Richard SCB-125 (from the Ticonderoga), a 1944 Saratoga (from Lexington), 1942 Enterprise (from of course Hornet) and a 1945 Bunker Hill (Franklin kit). Not to mention at least three battleships (including the DREADED Arizona) and about a dozen destroyers/frigates!!!

So your research on the "Lex" will be most helpful. the Saratoga and the Enterprises' are of course MY favorites.

I could not agree with your friend more; I really like the Tamiya Putty to it's exclusive use (as with Tamiya Spray Primer and Masking Tape). It DOES however shrink, so I just use two applications as a "process". I think that it wet sands better than anything I've used...but that's just my two-cents (for what it's worth)

I promised myself I would NOT get too carried away with accuracy on my current Saratoga project and just do the obvious changes...yeah...you know how that's working out.

[partis]

You are doing a great job on the Lex. Have this Kit to build so watching with interest......Cheers mark

[lvsquarerigger]

James,
I currently have three "pokers in the fire"; a 1940 (ish) Saratoga, a 1944 Hancock and a 1982/83 Enterprise (my ship).

On the shelf is a planned Bon Homme Richard SCB-125 (from the Ticonderoga), a 1944 Saratoga (from Lexington), 1942 Enterprise (from of course Hornet) and a 1945 Bunker Hill (Franklin kit). Not to mention at least three battleships (including the DREADED Arizona) and about a dozen destroyers/frigates!!!

I can not imagine that much stuff in line to be done. I'm used to doing squareriggers that take years to finish but when I got into this plastic kit I thought it would be out of the box, glue it up, and it's done! HAH!!!! Shows what I know about plastic. This kit has been a real learning experience for me and of course my "It has to be correct or it isn't done" attitude really does get in the way.

So your research on the "Lex" will be most helpful. the Saratoga and the Enterprises' are of course MY favorites.

I could not agree with your friend more; I really like the Tamiya Putty to it's exclusive use (as with Tamiya Spray Primer and Masking Tape). It DOES however shrink, so I just use two applications as a "process". I think that it wet sands better than anything I've used...but that's just my two-cents (for what it's worth)

I promised myself I would NOT get too carried away with accuracy on my current Saratoga project and just do the obvious changes...yeah...you know how that's working out.

Unfortunately I do.

[lvsquarerigger]

You are doing a great job on the Lex. Have this Kit to build so watching with interest......Cheers mark

The thing about this kit is how committed are you to the actual timeframe it's supposed to be but isn't? Also the ways they just f____d it up royally by not paying attention. From the wrong propellers and rudder to the details or lack thereof on the bridge and funnel structures. The usual big things are the fit of the bottom hull to the top, if you're doing a full hull, the fit of the front sponsons, do not just glue them on as the directions say or you will have a lot to do to make it fit, and if you're really nitpicky the distance of the bridge and funnel from the starboard side. Hope you enjoy your kit as much as this has challenged me.

James