king derelict

you have to take care of bad backs. I broke four bones in mine and after 40 years I still get the occasional reminder that it was a silly idea to stand on a loose rock over a twenty foor drop Alan

Hi Jack I hope you enjoy the build Alan

No rush Lou Still getting the preliminaries done. Alan

Great to have you Edward The beer truck should be delivering shortly Alan

Welcome Ken

great to have you Egilman I'm looking forward to the benefit of your expertise Alan

Thanks OC; I'll be looking over your shoulder Alan

Good idea Mark. I used some duct tape because the parts needed a bit of persuasion to get them aligned and it worked a treat. Many Thanks alan

Very nice OC; I think I have the easier path😄 Alan

Thanks Mark; thats a good idea alan

The finished engine is superb. It would be a sin to hide it in the aircraft. The subtle colour variations on the casings makes it look very real. Exactly how they look when they come off the test stand Alan

As a relief from intense PE activity on USS Wasp I am going to divert from time to time to work on the Flyhawk M1A2 This is a 1/72 kit so will not be as detailed or have the presence of the 1/35 scale beast that @Old Collingwood is progressing with. This should be a fun counterpoint and I hope to learn some of his painting skills as I go along. Inside the box is pretty crowded in typical Flyhawk manner For a 1/73 kit there are a lot of parts including clear parts for the armoured glass There is a decal sheet and a small mostly non-threatening PE. This includes a mask for the road wheels I was a bit disappointed in the choice of colour schemes provided in the instruction booklet; just the Fort Bragg colour scheme. Out of curiosity I flipped the box over and found four desert schemes on the underside. Great. The hull sides fit over the road wheel axles and are a tight fit. The sides are thin plastic and easy to warp. The hull is kept square by three braces that fit across the top of the hull. I am not sure whether I got a bad kit of it suffered damage in transit. The box was pretty beaten up on arrival. The side walls are warped at the front and needed to be glued in two stages to bring them into line. The rear bulkhead outer sections are warped rearwards but a bit of judicial force looks like it will straighten them out On the positive side the usual crisp Flyhawk detail is present and even the secondary armament have hollow muzzles The same was true for the skirts but again gluing them up in sections looks like it will align them. The plastic is too thin for rubber bands or clamps There is also a small area of distortion on the lower part of the turret. I think it will fill without problem. So, the main sub-assemblies are made and details will be added next. There are some very fragile elements for the turret. Thanks for looking in Alan

Thank you very much OC. The catwalks are really making the model in my view but they are a huge exercise in breath control, accurate folding, and careful placement. Its pushing my boundaries and if I try to do too much its almost stressful. After the catwalks there are all the nets to fit too. Oh My Alan

I tidied up and finished the last PE details on the starboard side. It seemed like a good time to fit the elevators. They are going to get delicate with the PE nets fitted so I thought it was time to install them now. I set on at deck level and the other at the hanger deck level I moved onto the port side and made up and fitted the bow section; folded up the next two sections and left the glue to set on the additional railings sections. I left the hull on its side to allow the railings to set up without drooping and came back to find the hull had fallen off the base. The pesky Amazon double sided tape failed again. Luckily it fell the right way, two inches onto teh work surface instead of three feet to the tile floor. I had a heart in mouth few minutes looking it over but so far I see no damage. Curiously I had been thinking about fitting the island I am so glad i didn't; I don't think the radar arrays would have survived. I had bought some heavy duty double sided tape and have great hopes for it - although its going to be handled with care. Thanks for looking in Alan

Thank you Mike. The Hobby Boss PE provides the catwalks but no railings for them. I don't think it would look good so i'm very glad that I got the Eduard set. Even if it is a bit trying to fit it does look nice and it mirrors the real thing pretty closely. So far I have only found them to be wrong with the number of ordinance chutes but the ship has been around since 1986 and I'm attempting to show it in 2013 so things may well have changed. Alan

Thank you OC. I'm jumping in with both feet. The catwalks are starting to get to me Alan

I'm not familiar with the J79 but the look matches perfectly the engines I do know. The exhaust nozzle is especially good. that is an excellent job. Alan

The engine is coming together beautifully. Shining up the pipes and a bit on the unison rings is a good plan. It's going to look very real Alan

Absolutely beautiful Yves. Its especially impressive to think it all started as a couple of spools of filament. I just finished rereading Three Corvettes. Montserrat states that teh aft deck was the only place on the corvette where the whole crew could gather so I think you nailed it perfectly Great work Alan

A serious day of folding and building the starboard catwalks. Its slow work waiting for the lower catwalks to set in place before adding the upper ones. However the starboard side is complete apart from a couple of bracing pieces that go under the forward platforms It looks like the back of the upper catwalk has lifted since it was placed. A job for tomorrow Thanks for looking in and thanks for the kind feedback. This is turning out to be the biggest project I have attempted Have a great weekend everyone Alan

This is going to be a great build OC. I'm very tempted to follow along with its smaller brother; the 1/72 Flyhawk kit It would be a relief from the intense catwalk activity on Wasp Alan

I woke up this morning and realised that the aft catwalk is still wrong. The catwalks generally extend out from the edge of the flight deck and its usually not possible to fall off the edge of the flight deck and get your feet wet without at least bouncing off the catwalk. I dismantled the efforts of yesterday. I was lucky the thicker PE came off without any damage or distortion. I don't think I would have got away with this with Flyhawk PE. The use of Gators Grip glue helped too; it seems to separate fairly easily and clean up well. The upper catwalks were reinstalled in the correct position and it now looks right. A bit more touching up needed but I'm glad I did the rework This is the next section of upper catwalk ready to install. Fiddly to fold the braces but its thick enough to hold shape well This mounts on the outer edge of the lower catwalk level with the top of the railings The upper catwalk is installed on the lower section and the lower catwalk is installed at the bows along with a couple of ladders and short platforms on the hull Thanks for looking in Alan

Thank you kindly OC. The research is saving me from some stupid mistakes - and I see a lot of small details to add or change. I still think Hobby Boss did a decent job of the kit. Alan

Patrick The winter white wash looks superb Alan

I finished the PE on the fantail. It went quite well the PE is very nice to work with. My Gators Grip is almost out so I had bought a bottle of the Mig Ultra Glue to see how it behaves. It seems very similar to the Gators Grip which is good to know. I then moved onto the catwalks and spent the rest of the day trying to put together the aft starboard section behind the elevator. There are two main pieces plus three pieces of railing. The PE instructions really don't provide a good visualisation of how the pieces go together and then install on the hull. Especially the relationship between PE piece #2 and piece #37 Luckily I was able to find the detail in one of the photos I may be a bit challenged but that was not how i interpreted the instructions. I was able to dismantle my effort and remake the catwalk. The photo also shows that the ordinance dump chute seen in the above photo (the right hand one) doesn't exist in the real ship in 2013 so I'll have to clip that off and check if all the others are really there. I also did a fit check with the elevators in the raised position and found they didn't quite fit in the space in the deck. I was able to remove a small amount of material from the sides of the elevator and the rails on the hull and get a good fit. A lucky catch before the hull gets all delicate. The PE catwalk build up is going to take a while to work round the hull and as usual the photos show up some faults to correct Thanks for looking in Alan