Calling all USS Lexington CV-2 fans

[Tracy White]

Model Masters used the S&S paint chips to create their paint, so they SHOULD be dead on!

[Roberto]

According to S&S, whom are citing Navy letters, Lexington ought to have been wearing a MS12 scheme about that time, obviously with the addition of the MS5 fake bow wave.
This seem to match the graded scheme in the picture although the colors are somewhat different from those you cited and still does not explain the (very visible) line above the first deck on the island (Skipper interpretation?).
Masts ARE in a lighter shade of color as well in the picture to confirm the intent of the letter, while as far as the fighting tops are concerned, I believe they are getting the sunlight reflected in a different way and may be the same color as the upper part of the funnel (which is lighter , halloooo Robertooo!!), neveeer miiind.

One thing for sure, I was going to make a 1936 Lexington, but then I also got the pre-war CV-3 so now I believe my CV-2 shall be as in this Oct.14 1941 shot, still with the 8" but blue (ish).

[Elvis965]

So you're going to go with the blue, Roberto?

I think I'm going with the 5-0 on the stack (above the base), everything above the flag plot, and the gub tubs on the turrets. Flag plot & everything under 5-D, along with the turrets. 5-L on the mast & CXAM radar...

As much as I love the look of the mahogany deck & yellow stripes, I'm starting to wish I had painted it 250N with light gray stripes....

I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped this weekend. Christmas keeps getting in the way! But I did get the flight deck attached, the port bow repaired (Thanks for the tips in the build review Tracy. I did a modified version of your fix.), and got the seam around the deck puttied.

Here's a current pic:



Ignore the band of light red just below the flight deck...a little anti fouling red overspray!

Bob

[Roberto]

Looking good there Bob, it seems as if you went the same way I did and we both jumped the gun.
I also removed the molded on splinter shields from the 5" side sponsons because they were not there in 1936, and we may have to re make them.
It looks good though, mine is not nearly as advanced because I am redoing (or doing) the side plating that is very evident but totally absent on the model.
Roberto.

[Elvis965]

Actually the splinter shields are still there, Roberto. Just not very noticeable in a bad picture!

If you haven't attached the flight deck extensions to the bow, do yourself a favor and do it AFTER you attach the flight deck, or tape the foward part of the flight deck to the hull, flip it over, and fit the extensions on. If you don't, it could end up like this:



Tracy has a good fix for it here that came in handy for me:

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... n_Pt3.html

Bob

[Tracy White]

I edited Bob's post as his link was a little off... the "full" (incomplete) article is here:

So you Want to Build a Lexington?

[Richard Durham]

In preparation for building Trumpeter�s 1/700 Battle of Coral Sea USS LEXINGTON I understand vertical surfaces in 5N and 250N for the flight Deck. But, did LEX have light blue grey flight deck lines or not? I can�t see them in any of the Coral Sea LEX pictures that I have seen, but none of the pictures are really good. Some LEX model builders have the lines and some don�t. Looking for ground truth or something fairly close. Rich

[Ron Smith]

In preparation for building Trumpeter�s 1/700 Battle of Coral Sea USS LEXINGTON I understand vertical surfaces in 5N and 250N for the flight Deck. But, did LEX have light blue grey flight deck lines or not? I can�t see them in any of the Coral Sea LEX pictures that I have seen, but none of the pictures are really good. Some LEX model builders have the lines and some don�t. Looking for ground truth or something fairly close. Rich

She's got the lines, that much is clear from photos. 251N deck marking paint was a very bright color, it looks like they restained her deck and stained right over the lines; stain being translucent it will not completely hide the lines. Other carriers look to have done the same thing at times, it might be a deliberate effort to tone down the stripes so they don't stick out like sore thumbs yet remain visible enough for pilots on deck or approach to see. Hopefully we'll find an answer while looking for something else......that's how we found 251N after all.

For a model, go ahead and paint the lines (Thayer blue is close enough) then make a glaze of 250N with clear gloss as a base and mist it over the lines.

[Tracy White]

She did have lines; you can see them in NARA photo 80-G-16807 although I don't know what their pattern was.

[Felix C]

What colors can be appropriate if building the Lexington out of the box? I notice a number of measures are listed over at the ship camouflage database.

1/350 kit

[Elvis965]

Hi Felix,

You didn't really say which Lex you are building out of the box.

If you're building Trumpeter's 1/350 or 1/700 Lex, then you'd want to paint her Sea Blue 5-S, Measure 11.

HTH

Bob

[Elvis965]

Heyyyyyyy.................

I just noticed something....on shipcamouflage.com, Measure 12 has been added to the Lex paint schemes (Tracy)....

In the pic of Lex with the bow wave (I won't post it again), Tracy pointed out the demarcation between the bottom of the stack & the base....I'm pretty sure the lighter paint on the stack & above the flag plot would be 5-0.....do you think the dark paint on the island & 8" guns is 5-S?

I ask because my island & stack aren't painted yet.....I was planning on going with 5-D, but 5-S shows up pretty dark in B&W photos, so it could easily be 5-S....

That would be a pretty interesting paint job.....

Bob

[Kym Knight]

Here's a couple of pics of my 1:350 Saratoga at about 85% completed (not counting the airwing). The third photo is the diorama it's going in with Arizona and West Virginia at Pearl Harbor.

[stu_fishing]

wow..kym you`re a model building machine!
can`t wait to see more of it!!!!

[Francisco P. de Nanclares]

A machine-gun builder!

By the way, I have noticed you cut the base to fit the models in. Can you explain how on earth you get those very good results?. I am still unable to get there without much pain and suffering

Cheers.
Pachi.

[Quincy]

Kym:

Your Sara is looking outstanding
Can't wait to see her and your dio finished.


Bob Pink.

[Kym Knight]

Thanks fellas! It helps when you have 5 days a week to work on them but subject burnout happens a lot. That's why I usually have half a dozen projects going at the same time.

Pachi,
The Sara is waterlined, so that's easy. The BWN West Virginia was going to be also but the bottom half was just so nicely done I couldn't bare to toss it. It's slot was easy, I just traced the shape from the top half before glueing them together. Now the Arizona was a different kettle of fish being full hulled. There is no easy way of doing it because of it's complex curves and shape, so I just angled the pencil inwards to get a shape smaller than the intended finished hole. After jigsawing what I had drawn, it's just a matter of trimming it back slowly with the jigsaw until the hull fits snugly.

[Reid]

This dio is go to be AWSOME. I can't wiat. Great JOB!!!

[David Yarnell]

Kym,

How do you display all of these large dioramas?
I had to abandon 1/35 armor and 1/48 aircraft
due to having no place to display them.

You must be blessed with lots of space!

Can't wait to see the finished diorama!

David

[MartinJQuinn]

I like...very nice indeed!