USS Langley by RGL - FINISHED - Trumpeter - 1/350 - PLASTIC

[RGL]

I’ve been waiting a few years for this to come out, and Trumpeter has an upgrade set as well as Eduard has some nets. 
 

strangely the Full deck (Av1)  upgrade set has a wooden deck and Av3 does not. 
 

Lots of PE to bend but should not be too hard (he says now). Also a few other goodies like a few Catalinas and other bits still in the mail. 
 

I want to have her as she would have been in Darwin harbour in 1942 just before her demise. If you’ve been to Darwin, it’s Oz’s last frontier so in 1942 it would have been challenging. 

[RGL]

Now a photo dump

[RGL]

and some more

[Tony Hunt]

The perfect subject for a PE upgrade-fest! 😀

[RGL]

Welcome to join in old boy….

[Tony Hunt]

Hey, I'm not that old.  😀

 

I love some of those pictures, especially the one with the flock of Catalinas sitting on the water in the foreground. The stern view in the drydock is great for detail, too.  I seem to recall reading an article on a scratchbuild of this ship (in its CV-1 version, with the wooden flight deck) in Ships in Scale a few years ago?

[RGL]

I have a wooden deck for her, I’m looking forward to this. Lots of weathering applicable too. 

[Canute]

Greg, the twin engine amphibians have twin tails. Any idea what those are? My flying boat recognition is sadly lacking. Oh and I'll be following this build. I have a soft spot in my heart for the star-crossed ships of ABDA.

[Old Collingwood]

This will be an interesting build mate  - got my chair.

 

OC.

[AnobiumPunctatum]

I like this old carriers. Count me in.

[lmagna]

I'm with Ken

 

The ships of ABDAFLOAT and their misuse by the controlling powers was truly a shame of the time, even though there was probably little else that could have possibly been done in the opening days of WWII. The loss of the Langley was possibly the pinnacle of mismanagement and blundering about the ocean almost aimlessly until she was located and sunk by the enemy for what was already a lost cause.

 

Looking forward to see what you do with her.

Edited July 19, 2021 by lmagna

[RGL]

Heaps of research out these, this link is the original plans as a collier. https://maritime.org/doc/plans/ac3.pdf
 

when you zoom in there are hull features such as pipes running along the hulls which I assume are fuel lines . I’ll need to add those and scuppers too. 

[mikegr]

On 7/19/2021 at 8:29 AM, Tony Hunt said:

The perfect subject for a PE upgrade-fest! 😀

Indeed PE parts are a must on this kit, will take it to another level of detail

 

[Canute]

The PE will make this really pop. It's light-years better than the kit plastic.

[RGL]

14 hours ago, mikegr said:

Indeed PE parts are a must on this kit, will take it to another level of detail

 

So I sense another build of Langley here? Do tell! 

[RGL]

And we have a start. Little bits of wood on the interior for the stands. Goes together very well. 

[Tony Hunt]

On 7/19/2021 at 10:41 PM, Canute said:

Greg, the twin engine amphibians have twin tails. Any idea what those are? My flying boat recognition is sadly lacking. Oh and I'll be following this build. I have a soft spot in my heart for the star-crossed ships of ABDA.

 

This question has been bugging me, I thought I knew most of the WW2 flying boats but this one I didn't recognise. Sikorsky?  Dornier?  Neither fits.

 

 

After some intensive searching, I find it's a Consolidated P2Y Ranger.  This is the service history from Wikipedia:

 

The Navy ordered 23 P2Y-1s on 7 July 1931. They were serving by mid-1933 with VP-10F and VP-5F squadrons which made a number of classic long-range formation flights.  At least 21 P2Y-1s were modified to P2Y-2s in 1936 and flown by VP-5F and VP-10F until 1938, when they were transferred to VP-14 and VP-15.

The first P2Y-3s reached VP-7F in 1935, and this version was flown by VP-4F at Pearl Harbor and in 1939 was in operation with VP-19, VP-20, and VP-21. By the end of 1941, all the P2Y-2s and P2Y-3s had been withdrawn from operational use and were at Naval Air Station Pensacola.

 

So not really a WW2 flying boat. Phew!

 

Edited July 22, 2021 by Tony Hunt

[RGL]

Hahaha, excellent research! I think all the photos with them are pre war. I might have purchased some Catalinas for her. You’ll find out… 

[ccoyle]

I think one can easily see the family resemblance between the P2Y and the Catalina.

[Tony Hunt]

10 hours ago, ccoyle said:

I think one can easily see the family resemblance between the P2Y and the Catalina.

 

Yes, the Ranger is a steampunk Catalina!

Edited July 22, 2021 by Tony Hunt

[BANYAN]

So you thought you would sneak another past me .... ha! caught you out.  What an interesting build Greg, this will a nice one to follow along with.

 

BTW what brand/type is that 'visor' in the second last photo of post #16 above 

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited July 23, 2021 by BANYAN

[RGL]

By 1941 there were fuel lines running down both sides of the hull (not mentioned in the kit at all). They stand out like the proverbials when you look at the photos. 
and @BANYAN I just found them on the ebays 

[Old Collingwood]

I use a pair similar to those Greg  - with a box of different strength lenses?

 

OC.

[king derelict]

I use the same ones. I like them a lot

Alan

[RGL]

2 years ago I didn’t need them! 

[Old Collingwood]

7 minutes ago, RGL said:

2 years ago I didn’t need them! 

I know the feeling Greg  same  with me  - If I don't wear my glasses  I loose the admiral.

 

OC.

[Canute]

Gentlemen, that's due to TMB - too many birthdays. My eyesight was very sharp up until age 42-43, then slid down hill slowly. Glasses helped me keep up. Last year, at age 72, the growing cataracts got bad enough to require surgery. Now, my distance vision needs no assistance; however, I do need readers/optivisor for closeup work. I think that's fairly typical. I attempted some 1/700 PE, but it's been a while. I think I'll work in bigger scales, mostly for the manual dexterity rather than the visual issues.

[Landlubber Mike]

I'm in for this one Greg.  I have some of the similar Japanese subjects in 1/700 scale on the shelf, but always liked the Langley - especially this one as compared to the CV-1 with the full deck.

 

What do you think of the kit?  It doesn't look like it builds into too large of a model at this scale?

[Beef Wellington]

I'm sure another masterpiece in the making.  I suspect that this would be a very disappointing kit without the PE given the extensive lattice structures.

[Roger Pellett]

A fascinating project.  It would be interesting to build a second model representing the Collier Jupiter using the same kit supplied hull.  I seem to remember that the plans were published in the Journal many years ago.

 

Roger