1/350 USS Bennington (CV-20)

[Rdutnell]

Update 38
In modeling it seems that often times you spend a lot of time on a model and don�t see much change. Then there are those times where something that takes very little time makes a big difference. Looking at the pictures from the last update, I like the �Movie Theater�, but the scene looked naked. So, I decided to make some changes to my layouts. First, I moved two F6F�s from the flight deck down to the hanger deck near the theater. I also put 2 jeeps in the area, deciding that I will put more jeeps on the model than the four I was planning on. The change is incredible. Such a minor change really makes the scene look better.

I think I�ll keep putting things in the hanger. That was fun!

[Rdutnell]

Update 39
I haven�t done much since the last update, but once again, adding a little changed a lot. I started by adding a few men and a couple of jeeps around the planes I previously added.

I then added 6 SB2C�s to the aft end accessing the aft elevator. I originally had them positioned centrally, accessing the port side elevator, but they are too big for the door (unless they could remove one of the supports, which I didn�t want to do).

I plan on putting more men doing various things around the planes, but I�m out of men, except 4 saluters and my deck equipment hasn�t arrived yet. Neither have the extra planes I bought.

In the mean time, I think I�ll paint the stripes and numbers on the flight deck.

[Captain pugwash]

Not complaining Rdutnell.
Do you manage to get any sleep between builds.

Great work lol

[Rdutnell]

Good one!

Actually, between builds, I'm good. It's when I'm building one that I tend not to sleep much.

This is my third model since getting into it and as you can tell, I tend to get obsessed with whatever project I'm working on, work, school or play. I once heard that Einstein didn't really sleep, he took cat naps. Not to compare myself in any way to such a great man, and I don't even know if it's true, but that is what I tend to do when I get obsessed on a project, again be it work, school or play.

I have never had a problem sleeping. If I'm tired, I'm asleep within 5 minutes of my head hitting the pillow (my wife says that it's less). So, if I'm doing a project and I lay down and my brain kicks in thinking about everything I need to do, I get up, because otherwise I'm wasting time. I'm not sleeping and I'm not getting anything done.

The last artistic obsession I had, before I started modeling, was school related. In a Landscape Architecture class I was in, we had to design and build a gate for the Jacobson House (Jacobson was the first art professor at the University of Oklahoma). I worked on it night and day and my whole life revolved around "The Gate." It was worth it. I really love the way it came out.

CHEERS!!!

[Rdutnell]

Update 40
I pulled another all-nighter and painted the markings on the flight deck.

I started with the plans I have, plotted to scale.

I used this to print out what I originally thought were going to be decals. Instead I printed them on regular paper. I then stuck a strip of Tamiya tape to a cutting surface and taped the paper print out over it.

Starting with the port side lines to test my system, I then cut out the stripes and removed the paper.

Next, I aligned and taped these new templates to the deck. Knowing that the camera reveals all, I took a lot of pictures to help with this process.

Feeling comfortable that the method would work, I prepared all of the templates...

Cut out the shapes, and removed the paper.

I then stuck them on the model. I should mention that this method did not work for the intricate figures on the elevators. For these, I simply put Tamiya tape on each elevator, drew the required pattern and cut it out.

Note that in the last photo above the elevators have been �framed." Fortunately I remembered that this feature existed before the next step, painting� See next update.

[Rdutnell]

Update 41
To paint it, I started with one coat of deck blue to seal the tape, followed by two coats of black. It worked extremely well and there were only a few places that I had to touch up.

I couldn�t help myself, so I put the flight deck and island on and took more pix.

Next, is trying my hand at weathering, starting with the flight deck, unless the rest of my lights show up.
CHEERS!!!

[Rdutnell]

IKES!
I was finally looking at the catwalk details, including the GMM PE plans and was shocked to read, "Remove all plastic catwalks from Flight Deck's edges." For some reason I was thinking that there would be railing there and the catwalks from the GMM kit went elsewhere. I guess I didn't look at them close enough. Anyway, if I would have been paying better attention, I would have cut them off before painting. Oh well, I guess the gloss varnish I have to apply before weathering should protect it.

[Rdutnell]

Update 42
I wasn�t going to work on the model this evening, perhaps do a little research and planning, but nothing hands on. Well, in the process of looking at the plans for something else, I discovered a couple of lines on the flight deck that I missed painting. I couldn�t let it go, so I went ahead and painted them.

When I was doing this I noticed the gun tower I installed on the deck, before I decided I should wait until I was farther into the build to start putting things on the deck, had a huge gap between its bottom and the deck. This has kind of been bugging me for a while (you can tell my attitude about modeling is changing) so I went ahead and fixed it too and filled some other cracks on the structure.

Before�

After�

It definitely looks better, but I see now that I missed a spot when I repainted it.

CHEERS!!!

[taskforce48]

Love the Western being shown on the Hangar deck! That is a something you don't see everyday.

Keep up the good work!

Matt

[Capt652]

You know Russell, it will be a shame to hide all the great details on the hanger deck with that flightdeck. Maybe you should finish with risers to elevate the flightdeck so one can see inside!

Timm

[Rdutnell]

You know Timm, when I first got the idea to build the Bennington, I looked at a lot of models and wondered why people would detail areas that nobody will ever see, like the few I have seen that used the entire compliment of 100+ planes. To me that seemed like a lot of time to spend on something that would never be seen. Well, now I know why. It's not about seeing it so much as the fun of building it.

Still, the decision to include lights in the hanger drove my decision to liven it up by putting figures, planes and objects there.. But, I am only putting things where they can be seen through the open doors.

[Rdutnell]

Update 43
There�s not a lot to report today, but I did redo the projector. It�s still too big, but I built the smallest enclosure I could build to house the chip LED. I�m not crazy about it, but I can live with it, and at least it now has a table.

I also started on the hanger deck lights. I installed the aft most light and laid out where the others will go. There are six going in the hanger.

To get the lights where I want them I�m using 3/16� tubing as conduit. They can�t be smaller due to the size of the connection at the light. A vertical piece of conduit is installed along the port side bulkhead through a hole drilled in the deck. (I put them on the port side because that is the side that will be displayed and the conduit won�t be visible.) The top is cut at a 45 degree angle to match up with a horizontal piece of tubing installed just below the tops of the headwalls. It doesn�t need to go all the way across, because the light is in the middle, but it looks better that way. A slit is then cut in the bottom of the conduit, the wire side is placed through the slit and the light is pushed in almost all the way, is bent at 90 degrees, and is then pushed the rest of the way in so that just the end of the light is protruding from the conduit. The wire is then run through the top of the vertical conduit and the horizontal piece is aligned with the vertical piece and attached.

I only installed the aft light because I don�t want to install the others until I know that I am through putting stuff on the deck. But I did make them and installed the vertical parts of the conduit. When I finish placing stuff on the deck all I have to do is run the wire through, align the pieces and glue them in place.

Next, though, is cutting off the plastic catwalks.

[Rdutnell]

Russell,

Nice work! The movie showing on the hanger deck is a neat idea. I'll be watching how you finish the catwalks around the flightdeck. I used the GMM PE and attempted the cutouts and bulkhead openings, and if I did it again i would try to make it even more realistic.

Timm

Ikes!
I cut the plastic catwalks off, scanned Arnold's catwalk profiles and plotted them to scale using AutoCad. Again, Ikes! There are several differences between the two ships, but the bad thing is the way the doors are depressed with stairs going down to them. Now that I've look at them closer, I seem to remember reading something about this on a post before I started this adventure. I think it was Tracy discussing it.

Anyway to do it right would be difficult, perhaps beyond my ability. I will have to see if they sell short stairs (I guess I could cut regular ones), because I know I don't have enough, even using extras from previous builds. The biggest problem I think though may be that I don't know if the bulkead adjacent to the catwak is tall enough on the model to allow for the sunken doors. I put a door up next to it and it looks tight.

I was going to start working on this, but I think I need to decide if I want to do the recesses or not before I start drilling doors or gluing closed ones on.

So you did all the recesses? What did it take? Was it hard?

[Rdutnell]

Update 44
After considerable thought on how to treat the Gallery Deck headwalls along the catwalks, I decided to drill everything out. I started by copying the Gallery Deck plan and profile sheets from Arnold, scanning them, importing them into Autocad and plotting them to scale. I then cut the port and starboard sides apart and made small 4 page booklets of each side. This allowed me to place the model and sheet right next to each other for location of the doors, access holes (?) and ladders. Some of the doors I cut out so they will be open, others I simply placed PE at the spot for a closed door.
I started with the port side and while I was at it, I decided to try to do a better job of getting rid of seams and re-glued some of the gun supports as a couple of them were loose.

Note that the open doors don�t have a bottom. That�s because I�m going to do the recesses and I think I have a cunning plan to get that done. We�ll see how cunning it is in the not too distant future.
A couple of comments� First, this would have been a lot easier had I done it BEFORE I attached any of the gun platforms as it was somewhat difficult to work around the splinter shields. Second, the plans show objects that through an inquiry and rapid response on the forum, I have learned are refueling stations. I think I�ll use Tracey�s advice to scratch build them.
Until next time�
CHEERS!!!

[Rdutnell]

Update 45
Tonight I cut out the doors and openings on the Starboard side.

A point of note: At the 10 gun support (8 gun on Essex) the Gallery Deck plans called for a recessed door. This gave me a chance to try out the way I plan on handling them. I started by cutting out the door in the normal way, then cut out a square, a little wider than the door, in the support deck. When I was happy with it, I glued a square piece of PE to the underneath side of the deck, covering the square I just cut out. This particular stairwell appears to face out, so I cut a thin piece of 0.02� styrene sheet to make a small step. The only difference between this and the other doors is that the PE will be corrugated to simulate a catwalk rather than solid, as will be the step.

Next session I will scratch build the refueling stations shown on the plans using 0.02� plastic rod as suggested by Tracey.

CHEERS!!!

[Rdutnell]

Update 46
I haven�t been able to work on my model for the last couple of days because I have been too busy, however, my office and workshop are one and the same, so my model is in easy view when I�m at my desk. The island that I redid incorrectly has been bugging me, and finally, I couldn�t take it anymore, so I cut the forward turret off and redid it AGAIN. I�ll swear, this build log is turning into excellent documentation on how NOT to build a model. Nevertheless, the more I do this, the more a stickler for details I am becoming.

Before � Starboard side

After � Starboard side

Before � Port side

After � Port side

After � From Front

Bennington � From Front

So, I think I am fairly happy with the front modification, except for the paint job. The photos show that I did a piss-poor job of filling and sanding. I will probably end up correcting that poor effort. In any event, I know I�m not finished with the base island for a couple of reasons. To begin with, the kit island has a ladder going to nowhere right in the middle, below the funnel. I�m not really sure why it is there, because it isn�t on the Bennington, or on any other picture that I have seen of Essex class carriers. Plus, I really liked some of the piping details I have seen on this Forum, including Chris Toops� Essex (http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html) and Timm Smith�s Shangri-La (http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html), and think that I am going to try to add some to my model.

[Rdutnell]

Update 47
After looking at the picture of Bennington in the last update, and other pictures I found, it was clear that the quad gun mount on top of the bridge was also modified, which meant that I had to modify it too. The modification consisted of moving the headwall beneath the gun mount up even with the front edge of the mount. Because of the circular nature of the new bulkhead, I opted to use PE. The fact that I had the perfect sized PE sprue from the Missouri kit didn�t hurt either. While I was at it, I spent some more time filling and sanding to remove seams.

I also noted on the plans that Bennington had a �Trash Burner Smoke Pipe� on the aft starboard side of the funnel.

This feature is also visible in pictures.

So I made one out of styrene rod, attached it, and repainted.

I think these last efforts have paid off well, because it looks a lot better than it did a few hours ago. But I don�t think I�m finished putting piping on the island yet.

[Rdutnell]

Update 48
Switching tacks again, it seems like I have three models going at the moment, the hanger, the flight deck and the island, I decided to install the bough running lights using the LED chips I bought. This was easy to do and simply required drilling a hole in the gallery deck bulkheads at the right locations and gluing the lights in place. I did run some thin conduit for the wires to the center line of the ship, but going aft I simply taped them to the underside of the flight deck. I apologize to all of you people doing such wonderful work on the undersides, but at this point in my modeling life, I�m only concerned with the exterior and interior points that are visible. (Ignore the mislabeled elevator in the first picture.)

The lights are a little bit bright but this will be toned down when I paint the lights so that they can be seen even if they are off. The directions say that enamel dampens more than acrylic, so I will have to test to see which I like best, but I�m thinking enamel. Also, I need to put an L-bracket around the lights so they look a little more life like.
It�s a 3 day weekend, so stay tuned�

[Rdutnell]

Update 49
Today I had a go at putting piping on. As with everything else on this model, it took some research to determine where the lines were. Clear, detailed pictures of Bennington are hard to come by; so much of what I did is based on pictures of other Essex class carriers and even other models. It may not be 100% accurate but it should be close, and it is close enough for me. For the most part the material to make the pipes was solder, based on a suggestion by Chris Toops, whose awesome model you must see if you haven�t already (http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html).

I also put piping on the funnel and went ahead and installed the plastic kit parts of the Mk 37 5� gun director radars.

Tomorrow it�s the starboard side and more painting.

[Rdutnell]

Update 50
I continued putting piping on today, this time doing the starboard side. It went fairly smoothly, although I definitely did some ad-libbing, because the Yorktown, whose plans I was following had the side mounted quad 40�s, which had to have altered the plumbing. I used superglue, like I had been doing, but it seems to be crystallizing on me. Does anyone know what causes this? Is it because the glue is old? It is an almost empty tube. It�s not a big deal, because obviously I have to re-paint, I�m just curious.

I should mention that one of the �pipes� I put on the port side was actually a boom, so I took it off, and am now trying to figure out how I am going to make the 3 booms I see on the plans.

Hasta Manana!