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

[lvsquarerigger]

Here you can see the modified radar room installed. You can also see the area at the back that Chris had added the same splinter shields as I put on the island structure.

There are a lot of questions here. The top AA platform has shielding modeled on three sides but not the fourth. In the photo I found of Lex just before she was sunk it seems the same type shielding was also along the bottom rail which was modeled smooth. Will I find more evidence to help either way? Does the back area I have cleared have the same?

More research required. Inquiring minds want to know.

[Elvis965]

Coming along nicely, Jim.

Great idea with that homemade jig!

Bob

[lvsquarerigger]

Coming along nicely, Jim.

Great idea with that homemade jig!

Bob

Thanks.

The jig comes from my woodworking background. If you're making more than one of something or it is difficult to make on your tools make something to hold or guide them so you can.

Jim

[lvsquarerigger]

This is the part that seems to gather the most attention gaging by the hits on the pics. How to fix the deck widening sponsons so they fit. Since I had seen the problems others had and their solutions I did not glue mine on first as the directions show. Due to the problems with the upper and lower hulls waring and flexing I had to wait till they were joined and flat to dry fit the flight deck. I waited till I could dry fit the deck and view the problem from a different perspective, namely making a piece fit rather than adjusting one already glued on.

The problem seems to be the front edge of the sponson. If you fit the sponson to the front of the deck it hangs over the edge. If you fit the edge it leaves a big gap at the front.

My solution was to mark where the front edge of the sponson needed to fit at the flight deck itself. I then sanded this part to fit. Now the guides originally on the hull were holding it out so I cut and sanded them back as needed. Now they fit. It does move the edge very close to the hawse holes but still clears them so I thought this was acceptable. As you can see there is still a little sanding and filling to be done but not much at all.

For some reason my pics are in a very high state of resolution and this causes problems with the image capacity of the website. The settings on my camera do not seem to be adjustable but then again I'm not that much into that stuff so who knows? The image limit is about 150 and almost all of mine exceed this in their original state. I reduce them to 640 x480 and this works for most of them. There are still a few that exceed the 150 limit and these I had to reduce to web size or 320x240. I only have a basic photo program and this is all it allows. I wish it were different but it's the best I can do with what I have.
Enjoy

Jim

The beginning

The results

The results

The port side

[Elvis965]

Nicely done, Jim. Excellent solution.

I was one of the folks who followed the instructions and glued the flight deck pieces to the hull, which led to the requisite "SON OF A #$@%&!" when I dry fitted the flight deck.

Tracy's solution worked quite nicely as well, fo those of us who dove right in!

Bob

[MartinJQuinn]

Great stuff, Jim. Looking forward to more updates.

[lvsquarerigger]

Nicely done, Jim. Excellent solution.

I was one of the folks who followed the instructions and glued the flight deck pieces to the hull, which led to the requisite "SON OF A #$@%&!" when I dry fitted the flight deck.

Tracy's solution worked quite nicely as well, fo those of us who dove right in!

Bob

Were it not for all the builld logs I found I also would have been one of those. Fortunately I had the problems of others to help steer me in the right direction.

Jim

[lvsquarerigger]

Coming along nicely, Jim.

Great idea with that homemade jig!

Bob

Thanks.

The jig comes from my woodworking background. If you're making more than one of something or it is difficult to make on your tools make something to hold or guide them so you can.

Jim

As a folowup to this I was looking at it later and pondering (is anything ever acceptable or is there some way to make it better) I still didn't like the way the individual pieces had to be so wide at the bottom just to make them possible to handle. Then the lightbulb went off, better late than never, why not use my handy chisel to pare them down, so I did. With that I had a thought to make the next batch, if it proves there are more, even wider and sticking way out so they could be installed easier but only glueing the side and not the bottom. Then when it is well set come back and pare them down getting the desired look. Hmmmmmm.

Jim

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
Jim,
That is some serious top notch work you're doing.
I have found that extra effort really makes the project more worthwhile and fulfilling when finished!
I have a corrected rudder for your Sara/Lex. Keith Bender made it and copied his master.
If you're looking to correct this area of deficiency, I'll send it to you.
I'll send a picture of it to you if you'd like. PM me for a picture.
Tony

[lvsquarerigger]

I found this photo of the Sara but it clearly shows the stack vent that Chris had used on his Lex and I was duplicating to the best of my ability. I wonder why it wasn't incorporated on any of the models?

[John W.]

I found this photo of the Sara but it clearly shows the stack vent that Chris had used on his Lex and I was duplicating to the best of my ability. I wonder why it wasn't incorporated on any of the models?

Jim -
Great progress.
Since you are obviously committed (maybe in more ways than one by the time the project is completed!), you might wish to check some photos of the splinter shields for the 5" guns before you go too far down the road. I, too, am working LEX (as well as HORNET on a different CASF thread) and have made a great effort to get as many pictures as possible. Check out the following photos on the Navsource link on the Home Page here, the pictures are in the LEX folder, under 'LEXINGTON in WW II'. Photos 80-G-16803, -16807, -16806, -7398, -76560 show the 5" splinter shields to be taller and shaped differently than those in the Trumpeter kit. There are also oval slots in the shields which I presume enable lines to be passed through them and to be secured to the bollards on the gun deck. Also, the shields continue on a perpendicular to the ship's centerline and between the separate 5" mounts for a few feet - not included in the Trump molding at all. I suspect these mods were done at PH when the other last minute changes were made before Coral Sea. It seems that many of the models I've seen of LEX during the Coral Sea time frame have stayed with the lower, and deck-edge mounted splinter shields as depicted in the kit.

[lvsquarerigger]

I found this photo of the Sara but it clearly shows the stack vent that Chris had used on his Lex and I was duplicating to the best of my ability. I wonder why it wasn't incorporated on any of the models?

Jim -
Great progress.
Since you are obviously committed (maybe in more ways than one by the time the project is completed!), you might wish to check some photos of the splinter shields for the 5" guns before you go too far down the road. I, too, am working LEX (as well as HORNET on a different CASF thread) and have made a great effort to get as many pictures as possible. Check out the following photos on the Navsource link on the Home Page here, the pictures are in the LEX folder, under 'LEXINGTON in WW II'. Photos 80-G-16803, -16807, -16806, -7398, -76560 show the 5" splinter shields to be taller and shaped differently than those in the Trumpeter kit. There are also oval slots in the shields which I presume enable lines to be passed through them and to be secured to the bollards on the gun deck. Also, the shields continue on a perpendicular to the ship's centerline and between the separate 5" mounts for a few feet - not included in the Trump molding at all. I suspect these mods were done at PH when the other last minute changes were made before Coral Sea. It seems that many of the models I've seen of LEX during the Coral Sea time frame have stayed with the lower, and deck-edge mounted splinter shields as depicted in the kit.

I had looked at the photos there before and went back to recheck which ones you wre referring to. I went to Navsource and got their homepage. Clicked on Carriers and then on Lexington-CV2.

This brought up the construction and pre war years along with a few model pics at the bottom. Then clicked on the link under those to World war II. All those pics start with an N S (I presume navsource) prefix and none of the numbers you cite match anythng I can find.

Help please?

Jim

[lvsquarerigger]

Jim -
Great progress.
Since you are obviously committed (maybe in more ways than one by the time the project is completed!), you might wish to check some photos of the splinter shields for the 5" guns before you go too far down the road. I, too, am working LEX (as well as HORNET on a different CASF thread) and have made a great effort to get as many pictures as possible. Check out the following photos on the Navsource link on the Home Page here, the pictures are in the LEX folder, under 'LEXINGTON in WW II'. Photos 80-G-16803, -16807, -16806, -7398, -76560 show the 5" splinter shields to be taller and shaped differently than those in the Trumpeter kit. There are also oval slots in the shields which I presume enable lines to be passed through them and to be secured to the bollards on the gun deck. Also, the shields continue on a perpendicular to the ship's centerline and between the separate 5" mounts for a few feet - not included in the Trump molding at all. I suspect these mods were done at PH when the other last minute changes were made before Coral Sea. It seems that many of the models I've seen of LEX during the Coral Sea time frame have stayed with the lower, and deck-edge mounted splinter shields as depicted in the kit.

I had looked at the photos there before and went back to recheck which ones you wre referring to. I went to Navsource and got their homepage. Clicked on Carriers and then on Lexington-CV2.

This brought up the construction and pre war years along with a few model pics at the bottom. Then clicked on the link under those to World war II. All those pics start with an N S (I presume navsource) prefix and none of the numbers you cite match anythng I can find.

Help please?

Jim

Was cruising around other links and found a Naval History one I had visited before but followed a new link to the Battle of the Coral Sea and found pics with numbers starting with 80 G but only found one in the 1600 series 80-F-1602.

Went looking in my folder of Lex pics and found 16803 and 16806 along with a couple of others that are not identified. I hadn't really paid attention to these as I'm waiting on the arrival of my 5" guns from L'Arsenal.

Seems like you've opened another can of worms.

Isn't it a ball tracking down all this stuff!

Thanks,

Jim

[lvsquarerigger]

Here are all the pics I have of the 5" gun galleries. I've tagged the two from the series John mentioned and I had to resize the last one to get it under 150 so it would fit here.

[MartinJQuinn]

You realize the if the photographer turned slightly to the left in the top photo and took some pictures, all our questions about the shape of the island would be answered? Jeez...soooooo close, yet so far away.

[lvsquarerigger]

You realize the if the photographer turned slightly to the left in the top photo and took some pictures, all our questions about the shape of the island would be answered? Jeez...soooooo close, yet so far away.

Just the thought I had as I looked at it. Or if the guy bending ove with his elbow in the way was back a step, stood up, or oh so many variables.

[John W.]

Open a can of worms? Moi? No. I have had many folks point out details that have been useful to my efforts. I wanted to return the favor. What you do with them is your business.
I measured my LEX kit's 5" splinter shields at .070" high which translates to 24.5" in 1/350. In the top picture, you can see one of the sailors leaning on the splinter shield which seems to come up to his arm pit in height as he leans on it. This is in front of the gun (that is, to the port side of the ship). It looks as though that is the lowest part of the splinter shields at that, with some parts of the shields apparently another foot or so higher in between the guns. To my eyes, the top of those splinter shields are not a uniform height. Anyhow, I am 69" tall and my armpit is about 49 - 50" high. Those sailors in the pictures are probably close to my height. Ergo, the Trumpeter splinter shields are at best half the height shown in the Coral Sea pictures, and they are only mounted along the outer edge of the gun deck anyhow.
Oh yeah, and also note the columns that support the flight deck edge (top photo again) and located halfway between the gun mounts. They probably support fore / aft girders under the flight deck edges.
Not that you should lose any sleep over any of this. Even though you have taken a great deal of time to do a great job so far. Nope, don't worry about it.
Jes trying to help before you come to a decision point . .

[lvsquarerigger]

Open a can of worms? Moi? No. I have had many folks point out details that have been useful to my efforts. I wanted to return the favor. What you do with them is your business.
I measured my LEX kit's 5" splinter shields at .070" high which translates to 24.5" in 1/350. In the top picture, you can see one of the sailors leaning on the splinter shield which seems to come up to his arm pit in height as he leans on it. This is in front of the gun (that is, to the port side of the ship). It looks as though that is the lowest part of the splinter shields at that, with some parts of the shields apparently another foot or so higher in between the guns. To my eyes, the top of those splinter shields are not a uniform height. Anyhow, I am 69" tall and my armpit is about 49 - 50" high. Those sailors in the pictures are probably close to my height. Ergo, the Trumpeter splinter shields are at best half the height shown in the Coral Sea pictures, and they are only mounted along the outer edge of the gun deck anyhow.
Oh yeah, and also note the columns that support the flight deck edge (top photo again) and located halfway between the gun mounts. They probably support fore / aft girders under the flight deck edges.
Not that you should lose any sleep over any of this. Even though you have taken a great deal of time to do a great job so far. Nope, don't worry about it.
Jes trying to help before you come to a decision point . .

John you are a card besides being a good researcher. Taking your mearurements at face value I agree with you. Now to measure the ones on the stack and see how they fare.

That one picture does do a lot to throw Trumpeters' research into the trash. I wonder how they can do such a crummy job when so much is available? Do they just take a stab at it and say goodenuff????

Have you made any adjustments to your model and if so can you post any pics? It would probably go over well on the calling all ship fans Lex thread also.

Jim

[John W.]

Jim -
In fairness to Trumpeter, I'm not sure how long the splinter shields were that high. I suspect they were raised at the same time the last work was done at PHNB. By the way, there are some good photos in the Wiper book showing at least some of the PHNB work being done: removing the 8" turrets for example. In my view, though, since the model was intended to be the Coral Sea fit, they could have done better. For those who are concerned about accuracy, we have at least some resources (such as this board) to make it as right as possible.
My love / hate, or perhaps more accurately stated 'stop / start', relationship with my LEX closely parallels my similar relationship with the HORNET. I only work on one ship at a given time, though I do put one aside for a period to work on another. After stalling out on HORNET trying to get the hull correct with several half hearted (or other half- portions of my anatomy), I picked up LEX and started out with a pretty good rhythm. I found a few things were off, including the splinter shields and the rudder, but they really aren't too hard to fix if done early. The main problem was the Flag Bridge which was changed during the PHNB work in March / April 1942. I had convinced myself I knew what the final result looked like, and built it accordingly. Still, I heard that Steve Wiper was doing an updated LEXINGTON photo book with pictures or documentation of the reconfigured bridge. I suspended work at that point because I knew that if I finished the LEX, the next day the book would come out and I'd be stuck. I returned to HORNET and have been going forward pretty well since then.
Here are some pictures of my version of the Flag Bridge. I note that Chris Smithers drew essentially the same conclusions as I did as to the shape of the Flag Bridge. There are pictures of SARA with a framework in the same area which was largely pipe and canvas or some similar material. I concluded that much like the simple shapes for the 1.1" splinter shields in the areas where the 8" turrets were removed, the same approach was used on the Flag Bridge for wartime expediency: lots of flat plates which could be placed and welded in a minimum of time. Note that my structure is incomplete, currently lacking the corrected details such as the correct positions for the searchlight platforms. I still have some cleanup work to do as well to fix a couple of flaws, but you get the general idea.

This photo shows that I have not yet changed the splinter shield height and size, but I will do so before attaching the flight deck. As you can see, my solution to the problem of fit of the wooden deck is to laminate 1/8" basswood to the underside of the FD and allow the basswood to force the hull straight. You can see that I have done some carving on the basswood so that it conforms to the hull flare. I also took the top off the boat pockets so I could detail them properly . I glued the bottoms of the pockets in place to add some rigidity to the hull sides so I could get the flight deck to fit square and tight before proceeding. If you look closely, you will see that I chose to expand the lower hull by cutting it lengthwise for the middle half of its length, then splicing in some (white) strip plastic strip to force the bottom of the hull outwards to meet the upper hull. Doing this also shortened the lower hull length slightly which also brought it into closer agreement with the upper hull length.

[lvsquarerigger]

Thansk for the pics and info. I was off and about all day yesterday so did not see your stuff until just now, the wee hours of Sunday. Have a friend coming over this afternoon to share some thoughts on different ships, he has a video on the CHarles W. Morgan which I am also working on, so it will be interesting to see what new insights, if any, come up.

My camera is in New Orleans with my daughter at her company convention, and no the pics she brings back are not for sharing here , but will add some more when it returns soon.

I've been fussing with the fit of the hulll right at the bow as there was still a slight overhang in a 3 inch area or so and I have been filling, sanding, filling, sanding, and stilll not quite happy with it.

Jim