USS Wasp LHD-1 by king derelict - FINISHED - HobbyBoss - 1/700 - PLASTIC

[king derelict]

A small weekend update. More masking of the PE to leave the catwalks the darker anti-skid and then pain the lighter railings and structure.

I'm probably going to lose some paint when I pull the masking tape off but hopefully not too much.

I put the first coat of colour onto the hull. I may add a little shading; its a bit flat. 

The side decks came out quite well. I will add a wash before putting the PE in place. A crane and RIB go into the aft side deck so the back wall won't be too visible.

The stern details now need to be worked on. Some PE to go on, probably after the flight deck is installed. It should all still be accessible

I put a coat of gloss onto the flight deck ready for the decals. Getting the lines and landing spot crows feet is going to challenge me

Thanks for looking in

Alan

 

[king derelict]

The Wasp build moves forward slowly. Partly this is me trying to work out the sequence of work. It seems harder than usual on this model especially with the island. Do I add the PE railings now and risk handling damage or add the structures above the main parts of the island then have to thread the railings through the structures? Even the decals need careful thought. I added the warning markings for the Sea sparrow and CWIS at this early stage becuase i can't see how I would put them down later when the railings and details are added.

Hopefully the clear coat on top of the decals will protect them as the build continues.

Earlier I had a bit of excitement while painting some of teh detail on the fantail. I like to base the model assemblies so I have something to hold in my stubby fingers instead of damaging or marking the parts themselves. I ran out of my usual double sided tape at the weekend and used the Amazon version for the first time. Unfortunately it does not have the grip of my usual tape and while tilting the hull to paint it the hull detached from the base and landed on the tile floor. Everything seems to still be in good order and some stronger grip tape has been ordered. In the interim I'm using the Amazon tape with duct tape on top of it sticky side uppermost. That seems to be effective.

The first of the railing have been added. My earlier comment about the part number marking on the Eduard frets turns out to be incorrect; thankfully. The flat grey paint revealed small part numbers etched into the fret.

 

The kit provides clear parts to make four SH-60s, two with folded rotors and two with the rotors extended. Five parts make up each helicopter.

 

I plan to use all four and I need to place one on the hanger deck before the lid goes on so I made all four at this stage. 

A lot to do to the island and deck next

Thanks for looking in

Alan

[king derelict]

Work on detailing the island continues - slowly. The continuing decisions of sequence of build had resulted in a couple of reworks to remove parts to allow access to fit PE railings and also to remove PE to be able to add parts without damaging the PE. The island superstructure is (to me) a complex little jigsaw of parts and the illustrations in the instructions are not the clearest. The indication of placement of parts is vague to say the least. I spent quite a bit of time trying to understand the fitting of parts D12 and C25 in the picture below

The offending parts are in the middle of the sprue below

Luckily the photos are a huge help. This is the forward end of the island

And the area of interest is the dome and mast to its right and suddenly the parts make sense. There is a strut as part of teh dome assembly that is not in the kit so a piece of thin wire will be added

I think all the PE has now been fitted to the lower parts of the structure and I have started adding the masting and platforms above.  Another round of PE railings and then up a little more.

 

 

 

This afternoons excitement - a package from Australia.

 

 

Yes - the jets have arrived

The Orange Hobby F-35s look great. I think they are well worth the money. Six aircraft are provided; three are in CTOL configuration )doors closed) and three are in STOVL configuration with Liftfan and aux engine inlet doors open, the VAVBN and nozzle doors open. The parts for the three bearing exhaust duct can be placed at three different positions for STO, VL or taxi / forward flight. Its going to be a challenge to do justice to these lovely little things

I'm sure painting the tail markings are possible (I'll send them to @Old Collingwood)

Thank you all for looking in

Alan

 

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Thanks Alan,    I think even with my  magnification   that would be a streach   - but I am  confident you will pull it off  mate.

 

OC.

[mikegr]

do you have decals for F35?

[king derelict]

Hi Mike

There are country insignia provided for several countries. I think the models can be used as A variants if the fuselage with doors closed is chosen. They are the same wingspan as the B model. The C variant has a longer wingspan. I checked the wingspan and it scales to a correct 35 ft span

So the markings cover USAF (operating A) and USMC (operating B )

Japan (operating A)

South Korea (operating A)

UK (operating  B )

Italy (operating B )

Australia (plan to buy A)

I don't know what the bottom set of markings are.

There are no squadron of service markings provided.

I'm not an expert on this but I thought both USMC and USAF use the white star provided at far right. The USAF (?) marking to the left look wrong. 

Thanks

Alan

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by king derelict
corrected typos

[Canute]

US camouflage markings are the Ghost Gray stars on the far right. The color markings are for uncamouflaged aircraft, like trainers and some transports. Although, they appear out of register. The red stripe should be centered in the white bar.

[king derelict]

The island is still growing. I like the Eduard PE so far althoiugh I have mostly only used the railings so far. It bends nicely at the correct places and it is very "dead" with little spring. It is thick enough to stay straight and give you a second chance if you bend the wrong way. I thought I would have to build this piece up in several sections but it actually bent nicely in one piece.

So more platforms, railings and radar arrays added

 

Then I got distracted and opened the bag with the F-35Bs in it and built one in take off configuration. There are fifteen parts to make up the jet and bending the exhaust nozzle is a bit of a breath holder. There is even a tiny Liftfan in the intake. I'll probably make a second STOVL configuration and see if I can do better although I only need one. The second aircraft will have all the doors closed. Just need to survive the airbrush now.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in

 

I hope everyone has a great weekend

 

Alan

[king derelict]

43 minutes ago, Canute said:

US camouflage markings are the Ghost Gray stars on the far right. The color markings are for uncamouflaged aircraft, like trainers and some transports. Although, they appear out of register. The red stripe should be centered in the white bar.

Thanks Ken

That is something new for me. I can't see trainer / transport markings applying to the F-35s. I think the Aussie markings are a bit out of register too. The Roo is a bit off centre

 

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

26 minutes ago, king derelict said:

The island is still growing. I like the Eduard PE so far althoiugh I have mostly only used the railings so far. It bends nicely at the correct places and it is very "dead" with little spring. It is thick enough to stay straight and give you a second chance if you bend the wrong way. I thought I would have to build this piece up in several sections but it actually bent nicely in one piece.

So more platforms, railings and radar arrays added

 

Then I got distracted and opened the bag with the F-35Bs in it and built one in take off configuration. There are fifteen parts to make up the jet and bending the exhaust nozzle is a bit of a breath holder. There is even a tiny Liftfan in the intake. I'll probably make a second STOVL configuration and see if I can do better although I only need one. The second aircraft will have all the doors closed. Just need to survive the airbrush now.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in

 

I hope everyone has a great weekend

 

Alan

Wow   -  that F35   just looks  incredible  at that scale.

 

OC.

[king derelict]

Thanks OC, They really nice little models. I hope I'm not going to mess them up in painting.

Alan

[Dave_E]

8 minutes ago, king derelict said:

Thanks OC, They really nice little models. I hope I'm not going to mess them up in painting.

Alan

BIG magnifier and bright light! Then comes the tiny weenie paint applying device. 😄

[king derelict]

I was worrying about blowing them down the bench with the airbrush😽😺😺

Alan

[mtaylor]

1 hour ago, king derelict said:

I was worrying about blowing them down the bench with the airbrush😽😺😺

Alan

If that happens get a pic and just tell everyone that they took off on a mission.

[Landlubber Mike]

Really nice job there Alan.  Love the F-35s!

[mikegr]

Those F35 are very well money spended.

[king derelict]

On 2/6/2022 at 12:46 AM, Landlubber Mike said:

Really nice job there Alan.  Love the F-35s!

Thanks Mike

Its slow progress. The structure of masts and arrays is the most complicated set up I have attempted. And its all got PE and fiddly details to add so a lot of puzzling through the sequence. It seems to be a pretty authentic model in this respect.

Alan

[king derelict]

On 2/6/2022 at 2:07 PM, mikegr said:

Those F35 are very well money spended.

Mike

I agree; they should really look the part

alan

[lmagna]

At least you didn't have to deal with the real price tag. I read today that they cost over $35K an hour just to fly. I have no idea if this is true or how they come up with the number but it was a little shocking. Most of the other newer "specialty" aircraft were up there as well. I think the older almost indestructible Warthog was only something like $9-$10K.

[mikegr]

11 hours ago, lmagna said:

At least you didn't have to deal with the real price tag. I read today that they cost over $35K an hour just to fly. I have no idea if this is true or how they come up with the number but it was a little shocking. Most of the other newer "specialty" aircraft were up there as well. I think the older almost indestructible Warthog was only something like $9-$10K.

Its absolute real. F22 is more expensive and B2 is 100-150k per hour.

Just before collapse of the Soviet Union, US had invested on such multibillion projects. Another one was the Seawolf class. The use of computer took the project design in a different level but then it wasn't extended until today. This  along with large production numbers for export can drop the price of the F35 below 90 million dollars. A forth generation Eurofighter cost no less than 100. Japan's planned stealth fighter, 170+ millions.

[king derelict]

Mike, your numbers tally with mine. I think we got below the $100 million a copy for the F35 a couple of years ago. Back when the programme was launched the target price was $50 M compared to an AV-8B at $35 M.

Already crashed five of them.

Alan

[king derelict]

I reached a milestone today - slowly as usual. The last PE railing, the ladders and the masting has been completed on the island. Well thats not quite true; I left off one piece of railing to give me a place to press on the island when it gets put on the deck in case it needs to be given some assistance.

I put a coat on clear on the port and starboard sides. I think its going to be easier to add decals while it is off the hull.

 

 

 

I am really glad I put the warning decals around teh Sea Sparrow and CWIS at the start of the island build up. They are pretty much buried now

The SH-60s got a coat of dark Ghost Grey. I used Humbrol Maskol to mask the canopy areas. It seems to get awful reviews but we shall see how it works out

I started adding the decals to the flight deck. As always sequence needs thinking through. I think the landing spots crows feet need to go on before the tram line but I'm thinking the foul line needs to go down at the start so I will add that next and go back for the rest of the landing spots. The decals silvered probably because of the tie down dimples so i have ladled solution on and it seems to have taken care of it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Alan

[Old Collingwood]

Looking really smart  Alan.

 

OC.

[ccoyle]

On 2/4/2022 at 8:08 PM, king derelict said:

I don't know what the bottom set of markings are.

 

Those are Spanish roundels. Late last year there were a lot of reports coming out about Spain wanting to purchase 50 F-35s; there were also an equal number of reports that Spain were not interested in buying them. I don't know if they made any final decision.

[king derelict]

Thanks Chris; I should have thought of Spain. They have AV-8Bs and an assault carrier and I believe are still actively interested in the F-35B. 

Alan

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks great Alan, coming along nicely!

 

[king derelict]

1 hour ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Looks great Alan, coming along nicely!

 

Thanks You Mike; This is a slow build; having so much reference material seems to mean I spend half of the time looking at photos and comparing the real ship with the kit. 

Alan

[king derelict]

I worked through the decals on the flight deck. All the landing spots crows feet are complete along with the foul line and the elevator markings. I need to let this all dry thoroughly before adding the tram line which will run down the gaps in the crows feet. The tie down points have been great reference markers for setting the decals and I think they are reasonably accurate.

I did find one issue which gave me some thought.

For the F-35 test flying a yellow cross bar was added to the tram line about 230 feet from the bow as a reference point. This is not standard and so not included in the kit.

I was wondering if I dare mask the line and paint it - and then would the masking rip up the tram line decal. I was looking though the decals provided for the air wing and USMC vehicles and found there are yellow strips provided for the LCACs which I won't be using so I might be in luck. The AV-8B markings look better than the Orange Hobby ones and the MARINES markings are provided as well

I moved onto adding the decals to the island. It was definitely easier while the island is off the boat. There are a couple of discrepancies with the kit positioning of the smaller decals but mostly they are correct. The AFFF station markers line up with the photos.

 

 

Back to the hull and the aircraft again. Once the broken SH-60 is glued down on the hanger deck I can put the roof on and start the delicate business of adding the PE catwalks.

Thanks for looking in

Alan

[Landlubber Mike]

39 minutes ago, king derelict said:

Thanks You Mike; This is a slow build; having so much reference material seems to mean I spend half of the time looking at photos and comparing the real ship with the kit. 

Alan

I feel like that too sometimes with some of my models.  Drives me crazy when you can’t find that one picture!

[king derelict]

I've been moving slowly forward with Wasp but seem to have been working with a series of small items that have hardly been worth showing. 

The biggest area of progress has been with adding all the deck decals which seem to have ended up in the right places. A matt coat has been added to protect them in the subsequent handling. I had planned to mask the deck to add the exhaust staining in the active part of the deck but I was worried that even with the matt coat the masks might damage the decals. I practiced with some marked card and then free hand air brushed the sooting. It looks similar to the real thing with heavier areas at spots seven and nine (the usual VL spots) and forward where the STOs are launched.

I think the deck generally still looks a bit too uniform and I am wondering whether to try some washes or filters. Any thoughts would be welcome.

On completion of the flight deck an SH-60 was consigned to the hanger deck near the elevator doors and the flight deck added. With a strong light it is just possible to see the helo but it will probably be even darker when the upper gate to teh wet well is added.

A second F-35 was built this time with doors closed. The PE is then just the gear and doors and the exhaust nozzle which I formed using the tip of a cocktail stick

Both have been primered now

The SH-60s have been made up and had a base coat of paint

And a V-22 in primer for the DVs

The crane, fire truck, tugs and fork trucks are in progress

I found I didn't have any Tamiya yellow, only Vallejo and it was not at all nice to use.

So I am back to working the details on the hull. I added the RIB and crane to teh side deck before putting on the railings. The railing are recessed into the structure of the hull rather than on the edge of the side deck and there is insufficient room to install the RIB if this is how the railings are being mounted. I filed off the inboard side of the RIB to get the clearance

Adding the railing in the recessed position was not fun; I probably should have put them on the side deck assemblies before they went into the hull but I thought the PE would probably get knocked about

Lots more railings and assorted PE to go on teh deck now

 

Thanks for looking in

 

Alan