The Ship Model Forum

Hello:

I've wanted to build the Enterprise for a long time, and finally took the plunge. I got the Merit/I Love Kit kit with the Pontos upgrade set. I started about a month ago, and have been hopping around to a few different areas...photoetch one day, airplanes the next, hull smoothing the next, etc.

The first place I started was with the air wing. I built the Yorktown (CV-10) back before there was a plastic kit of the Enterprise around. I built the ship, but ran out of steam before I did the air wing so the 'finished' model looks a bit bare. So I started there to avoid making the same mistake twice. I got a number of F4Fs, SBDs, and TBFs...not enough for the full air wing but enough to look reasonably crowded. The panel lines on the Trumpeter planes are way too deep, so I've been filling them in.

Fair warning: my build pace can only be described as glacial.

Mike

Hello:

I've also been working on smoothing out the hull. I'm nearly done with the port side. I tried a lot of different tools, like a drum sander in a drill, files, etc., Files worked ok on the convex areas near the stern. The drum sander was a bit too aggressive. I finally settled on just scraping with a scalpel blade in the xacto knife.

I take a fine point sharpie, and outside the edges of the high 'stripes' that run the length of the hull. I first scrape down the edges of the 'stripe', until the sharpie mark is starting to go away. Then I illuminate the hull from the side, and scrape down the middle of the 'stripe' until it's fairly level. I finish with files and sand paper to smooth it all out.

Mike

Hello:

The hull in my kit has a big dent near the bow, right around the waterline, on both sides. The plastic there is also really thin. I don't know if this is just my example, or a general problem. Also, the extreme bow at the waterline is kind of thick, so I want to make that more of a sharp edge.

To start filling in the dent, I drew a grid around the dent to see the scope of the problem. After filing down the side of the hull, near the bow, it's easy to see where the sharpie grid was removed (high areas) and where they remain (low areas). I fill in the dent with strip styrene and superglue, then puttied over it. I did the first round of filing/sanding today, and it feels ok. I might need another round of fill/sand to get it good enough.

Mike

Hello:

A long time ago, I built the old Revell Arizona kit. As you did, I built up the hull blisters from sheet styrene, and then filled over them with milliput. I think I also fixed the hull profile around the propellers. For the Enterprise, I filled in the dent with strips of serene and super glue, then puttied over them. A lot of filing later, things look pretty smooth and straight. I've now started on smoothing the other side of the hull.

I believe the kit depicts the Enterprise in late '42, around the time of the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands. Given the overall scale of the project, especially with the Pontos detail set, I'm happy to depict the Enterprise at that time. It wouldn't be too hard to back date the ship to the time of the Battle of Midway (mostly take away AA guns), but I like the look of the quad-40s more than the 1.1" guns. I might also have to add 50 cal machine guns here and there. Building her in a late war fit would be a ton of work (add the hull blister, modify the island, add a bunch of 40 mm), and frankly I think I'd be unlikely to finish such a project.

Cheers
Mike

Hello:

A little change in direction today. I built up 10 more SBDs mostly to visualize the flight deck layout. I want to have one of the elevators lowered, but I hadn't decided which one. The choice of which elevator is lowered impacts how I build up the hangar deck, as I'd cut out the elevator wells for the other two elevators.

After a bit of playtime, I have a concept of how I'll layout the planes on the flight deck, and I think I've decided to have the middle elevator down. Here's a picture of the flight deck layout. I don't have all of the F4Fs built up, but I laid them out in the space that they'll occupy. I have them up on the bow, but I might bring them back closer to the island.

Mike

Hello:

Recent work focused on fitting the hangar deck into the hull, and starting to block out the elevator wells. My hull was a bit too narrow for the hangar deck to fit into it...I could get it to go in with a bit of shoving, but it was a squeeze. So I added braces across the width of the hull to widen the hull a tad. It was only after the fact that I realized that the braces can't interfere with the elevator wells. Luckily for me, I managed to dodge that one.

One of the challenges is to determine far to widen the hull to fit the hangar deck part, when the hangar deck can't be there when the brace is installed. Here's how I solved that problem. I put the hangar deck part in place, and marked two spots on opposite sides of the hull approximately where the brace will go. I used a caliper to get the width of the hull at that point. The actual measurement isn't too important, just set the caliper to the width of the hull and lock the locking screw. Then take out hangar deck, and adjust the fit of the brace until pushes out the side of the hull to match the width on the caliper. Now the fit of the hangar deck all along the length of the hull is excellent.

Cheers
Mike

Hello:

Work continues on the Big E. A lot of time has gone into the Pontos PE details (more on that later), and scraping down the starboard side of the hull (about 1/3 done...port side is done). But for some reason, here are pictures of progress around the middle elevator.

I decided to have the middle elevator down, and the other two up. First, I cut out the bottom of all three elevator wells. For elevators 1 and 3, which will be up, those wells are far too shallow. For elevator #2, the recess in the hangar deck is too small. So I opened up that hole until I could (lightly) press-fit the #2 elevator into the hangar deck.

Photos show that the starboard side of the #2 shaft is fairly blank, with two short walls on either side. Around the hole in the flight deck, there are walls that are about the thickness of a deck. I used some plastic card to box in that structure.

Hello:

One last thing, while we're on the topic of the #2 elevator. The edge of the flight deck is 2 mm thick, and is much thicker than it should be around the edge of the elevator. I used a cutoff wheel in my dremel to thin the edge of the flight desk, and smoothed the ledge I made with a file. Now when I put the flight deck on top, it looks more like the right thickness.

Hello:

When we last saw the hull, one side had been smoothed down and the divot at the bow had been filled with strip styrene. Now I'm happy to say that major work on the hull is done! Both sides are smoothed out, the divots at the bow are filled and have gotten at least the first round of putty.

Cheers
Mike

Hello:

All of that heavy duty plastic scraping/filing/sanding, not to mention filing down all of the the putty, left the bench a huge mess...more so than the usual mess. At some point, even I clean off the bench. Now that the worst of the hull work is done, I thought it was a good time to clean the bench and give myself more room to work.

For those of you with neat and tidy benches: There's nothing to see here...move along...

Cheers
Mike

Hello:

In between the hull work, I've been working on the brass detailing from the Pontos set. So far, I've been focusing on the 'four corners' (the walls outside of the hangar deck at the front and back ends), and the catwalks around the edge of the flight deck. The few pictures here represent several nights of work. I can get maybe one catwalk done in a night or two. Work on the Pontos set has so far been mostly trouble free...just follow the instructions carefully. I wasn't able to fold some of the tiny steps from a catwalk, so I'll probably leave them off. For the most part, I haven't added the catwalks to the 'walls' yet. At the time, I hadn't decided when it was best to add them, but I think I'll add them soon. I had thought about adding them after installing the flight deck, but then I'd need to handle the whole model to add tiny details which I don't want to do.

One thing I noticed: add this much brass to the plastic parts makes then noticeably heavier.

Cheers
Mike

Nice work on the PE. BTW - love all that nice natural light you have for your workbench!

Hello:

My bench is about 2 feet deep. It's an old (but cheap) L-shaped desk that was left behind when we bought the house. The airbrush compressor is in the right cabinet of the desk. The left cabinet has boxes of parts for the 1/200 Missouri.

The natural light in the 'toy room' is very nice to have. I've been taking all of the pictures in the day time to make use of the light, while making sure the subject isn't back lit, etc. My 'toy time' is usually late at night, after everyone else has gone to bed. House projects or yard work usually occupy any free time I have during the day, and those things really can only be done during the day. Not shown are the shelves down in the basement that hold the stash.

Cheers
Mike

outside of disorder ( ), I like your proximity with all those windows ( )

Hi there folks!

Work has continued on the Enterprise, so I thought it'd be a good time for an update. The most important thing is that I got the hangar deck glued in. I feel like this is some major milestone for this kit...sort of like gluing the fuselage halves together on a plane kit. Like a lot of things on this kit, it took some fiddling and filing to get it to fit in nicely without a lot of shoving and popping noises. In my case, I had to file around the stern area, especially between the 5" guns and the rear elevator well. But now the hangar deck is in, the edges are all puttied and sanded, and a lot of other things can move forwards from here.

The brass forecastle piece is not glued down yet, but the stern deck is done (more on that later). The white plastic strips over the elevator wells are my mock-up of the auxiliary elevators.

Cheers
Mike

Hello:

Here are pictures of the stern area. This area went together without too much drama. The bitts have a rather long 'stem' attached to them, which I mostly snipped off. I hind sight, it would have probably been better to drill out the hole in the deck for the 'stem' to go through. The 'wall' at the front end of the stern area (aft end of the hangar deck) is a lot thinner than the kit part, but apparently that's all been taken in account as things fit fine...quite snug but ok.

I have built up the diagonal braces that support the flight deck but I haven't installed them. I haven't built up the underside of the flight deck yet, so I don't have the alignment yet for those parts.

Cheers
Mike

Hello:

I've also made progress on the 5" gun platforms. I (somewhat nervously) cut off the bulwarks...the front ones were very thick but the rear ones weren't too bad. At any rate, off they went, and new brass ones were made and put in their place. Once they are glued in, I'll smooth the outside so it's all nice and flush. I may yet add some details to the outside of the bulwarks once the smoothing is done.

I also removed the molded on raised detail. I think, if left in place, the guns would sit too high (the gun bases are just sitting there..not glued down or accurately located). As it is, it looks like the top of the guns get close to the flight deck.

They have you add these little low walls in the middle of the gun platform. The ones for the front platforms were not long enough by a fair amount. Maybe it's because those parts accommodate the thick plastic which I had removed. I put in a little sheet plastic to get it to the right length.

It's taken a lot of fitting and filing to get these parts to fit well. I've had an especially hard time with the rear-starboard side. There's a little plastic part that's the forward 'wall' that goes from the 5" gun platform down to the hangar deck. I think I've broken that off twice now while trying to get things to fit. But I think I've gotten it sorted now.

Cheers
Mike

And just for fun, here's what it looks like at this point with the main parts dry fit together.

Cheers
Mike

Really nice work on those shields!

DavidP wrote:what is with the gap in the flight deck in front of the island?

That's where the wind deflector goes - that's how they designed the kit.

DavidP wrote: is this what your island will look like?

The island will look similar to this photo. But some changes were made from the time this photo was taken to the time depicted by the kit. I think the main difference is that the long platform below the bridge, and partly behind the forward boat crane, was removed. The forward boat crane was also removed. I think some small details above the bridge might also be different. The platform on the side of the funnel with 2 searchlights was changed, and a small platform was added above that for a radar. But other than all of that, it should look similar to the picture.

Cheers
Mike