lmagna

I bought a set of 8"/55 turrets for my Houston from them thus replacing my Model Monkey AM turrets a while ago, but am still waiting for delivery. I am hoping they look as good as in the pictures and your turrets look. Shipping here just about doubled the cost of the turrets. I wish they made the 5"/25 open mounts and the 1.1" guns as well. It would have possibly made the cost a little more bearable, but they don't support US ships that much yet.

Even though this is a pretty good sized model in length I think you will find that if it is to float at the proper level it will not weigh all that much. The real ship was one of the first US Navy's "Littoral" designs of shallow draft high speed vessels. The real ship only drew about five and a half feet of water. You are doing a great job. This model is easy to end up with a twisted hull as it is so long and narrow. Also it has so much balsa, (Not my favorite hull material). I also always wished that Dumas had chosen a more common scale than 5/16th. It would have made some items like guns so much easier to obtain.

Goes hand in hand with "If the Army wanted you to have a wife, she would be issued to you and painted OD." Few and far between I suspect, at least in the kinds of models we like to see and build. There may be more "younger" modelers in the RC industry especially planes and cars. But then I look a many pictures here on MSW and many of the collections people seem to have in their houses seem to be comprised of models they built when they were young. SO maybe the new generation are doing the same thing and building the collections of tomorrow that they will be able to show off.

Take a few days holiday to visit the quiet and seclusion of the Pacific Northwest woods and when I come back all of the youngsters are squabbling! Now all of you need to settle down or we will have to send you to bed without dinner. But if OC takes too long we know where he lives and matters WILL be dealt with!

Congratulations Greg for another fine addition to your fleet. The shots looking under those awnings look like it was a much cooler and inviting living space.

Not my cup of tee I'm afraid, but I will be following what you do, if for no other reason than it is unique, (to me) and therefore interesting. Lead on McDuff.

Figures,horses,farm houses, Waterloo, diorama.................. Waiting for you to start talking about something I have two words of knowledge about. I think I would have to go back to school just to follow this build.

Glad to see you were able to make it back to happy street EG. Nothing is as depressing as putting a lot of effort into a model just to see the final look elude all your efforts and expectations.

What, you have a birthday? I thought the 7-11 on your profile was where you like to hang out, (A convenience store for those outside the US)! It doesn't matter anyway unless you are older than me now! Well........................ I suppose you don't HAVE to be older than me, congratulations.

Looking nice. Of course you know that Italeri has a 1/32 104A/C! (Just in case you don't feel you have punished yourself enough already at 1/48th) https://www.scalemates.com/kits/italeri-2504-f-104-a-c-starfighter--261431

OK I thought all of the higher stanchions around the bow were going to also be for canvas.

This is beginning to look like a very busy ship Greg. I think the foredeck is possibly the most crowded deck I have ever seen on a capital warship of this era, and you are going to add awnings to that as well!

I have been mesmerized by this build from the first picture Ekis. Now that you show the scale it is even more astonishing. When yo put the camera down at street level I feel I am really there walking the streets myself. Truly astonishing. It seems the town additions are constantly evolving and your speed is astonishing. Would you take on the job of our city mayor? We have had several upgrade projects in my town for the entire year so far. Even with the lightened traffic and lack of other distractions this year, the new construction still progresses at a snails pace making the city sometimes almost impossible to navigate. We need someone like you who has a vision and knows how to get it done!

Now those are impressive Gene! And I'm not even a train kind of guy. There is no question you have some serious skills.

I know you have posted it somewhere before Greg, but could you point me in the proper direction where I could get these stanchions? It would seem that in almost all cases they are the only proper looking design for warship main deck railings.

I have seen pictures of your second car and it is MUCH prettier than this "Duck". No bias on my part though.

I think you are safe Waitoa. If what we are seeing is from an already started kit when you got it then any and all mistakes or shoddy workmanship can be blamed on the prior owner and your afterlife is not in question. But with all those monks standing around and supervising I am certain you will do an excellent job! Looking forward to following along.

You constantly amaze me with your ability to make rapid and beautiful additions to this difficult model Grant. A very enjoyable and informative build to follow.

I think you may be thinking of the American dive bomber the SBD Dauntlas.

I agree with many others that the Davis Lexington is not really a good representation of what the real Lexington looked like, and the Parker and Feldman's plans are much more likely. The Davis bears to many similarities to the British Cruiser class Brigs of the early 19th century. It also appears that Mamoli used his concept for their model by the same name. In my humble opinion if I was going to call any Mamoli kit the brig Lexington it would be the Blue Shadow kit. To me at least that kit is much closer to what I would think the Lexington or any American Brig of the time would have looked. It is also much closer to matching the looks of the ship you posted above except for the quarter galleries I don't think the Lexington would have had them. No matter what you call it and what flag it ends up flying, I really like the quality of work you have accomplished so far.

Future or Ultra gloss as a topcoat? Some kind of ultra fine polishing compound? https://www.novuspolish.com/products.html

She has been credited with the title at 522.783 MPH when she hit something probably on the course. I always wondered why they didn't fully check out the expected course for objects large enough to destroy the front wheel. Probably didn't need to be all that big at that speed, but still.................. The team considered the car was capable of 833 MPH if they lit the afterburner. Pretty good for a 1950s design rescued from a junk yard! What are you using for buffing?

Under the same circumstances why not? You get the work done in one way or another. By the looks of the table in the pictures it is not something you moved from place to place unless there was really a need. If you look at the picture I posted which is almost certainly taken at almost the same time as yours, you will see open containers in the far left of the picture on the ground. These containers look very much like the containers we sometimes received when we were operating from forward locations for hot meals. The cups on the ground are also missing in my picture. Again I could be wrong, but I do not remember seeing any field in the UK that looked THAT primitive. Yes, they were dispersed and many times used grass fields for takeoff and landing but I don't think the crews were living and operating out of tents, even though they certainly did some maintenance while outside in the parking areas. You are trying to do a UK scene and would have to take that into consideration. If you were doing a Mossie operating from a remote temporary location then possibly the scene would be the same as the pictures. I personally would probably relocate the table somewhere else and only have gear that was highly mobile and needed for flight operations in sight. Remember, it would probably be brought out to the aircraft ready to go, or if it was more involved they would tow the aircraft to the place where it could be done properly.

They probably didn't even have a hanger! A few days here and a few days there and retreat again. Remember France didn't last long after the "Phony War".

This picture says that it is "Ground crew and armourers of #85 Squadron refilling .303 ammo belts at Lille-Seclin France 1939-40. The planes are Hurricane MK 1s.