USS Saratoga by Unit66 - Trumpeter - 1:350 - PLASTIC

[Unit66]

Good Morning,

 

I found this great deal on this kit that came with some PE for less than MSRP so I had to get it. This will be the first build of this size that I have done, and I figured would be a good practice kit to get started with. I've always loved dazzle paint schemes as the idea of it when I first heard of it sounded like it just wouldn't work, but seeing a Challenger 2 in the Berlin Brigade scheme changed my mind. Seeing as a lumping big grey CV looks somewhat dull to me I am challenging myself to get a dazzle camouflage looking like it has seen long tour at sea before trying some other kits.

 

Sadly the kit has suffered some damage, so far only to the main hull body itself, but looks repairable. Given the price of the kit plus extra's however I'm certainly not complaining.

 

Below is the slight damage to the kit that I've seen so far.

 

 

 

 

The aim for the weekend is to get the hull fixed and attached, drill the portholes and place mounting lugs into the base.

 

Kind Regards,

Ryan

[Dave_E]

Hi Ryan, welcome aboard. Good on your purchase of the kit and the start of a build log. Go to the new member introductions area and introduce yourself there. 👍😀

Edited May 1, 2022 by Dave_E

[RGL]

Cool, a big bird farm. Welcome to the lunacy of lots of tiny planes 

[Unit66]

Progress update;

 

Brass fittings and a plinth are on order so that step will have to wait. In the mean time I had great fun trying to align the hull together. As I feared both top and bottom were quite heavily bowed so there are some larger gaps between the two pieces.

 

However I did use the opportunity to play with the Dremel  and drill out all the portholes.

 

In order to fill in the gaps I flooded the inside gaps with super glue then with a mixture of sprue-goo and Mr Hobby dissolved putty to fill in the outer gaps.

 

 

 

 

I have no idea why it came out like it was growing mould but given how bad this stuff gives my head aches it isn't surprising.

 

 

In order to sand down the heavier areas I plan on using the Dremel again with a mask on and all the windows open once the weather improves as the dissolved putty has quite a few warning labels on it. In the mean time I plan on beginning the task of building the super structure and the gun batteries as these do have some PE to start on.

 

 

Regards,

Ryan

[Unit66]

Progress update;

 

I decided to do a few of the planes after work as I was tired and figured that it would be relaxing. Sadly I built a couple of them before remembering that I have some PE parts for them. Although I think they came out fine, I'm not sure whether to save the PE or just use it on the rest.

 

 

 

Regards,

Ryan

[king derelict]

Maybe use the PE on the others and place these in amongst the pack where thir details are not so easily seen

Look nice though

Alan

[mtaylor]

I'd do what Alan suggested.  Hopefully, there's enough planes to help hide the ones without the PE.

[Prowler901]

Place the non-PE planes in the hangar deck.

 

Nice work so far!

[Unit66]

Progress update;

 

I took your advice and although it took an hour to complete just this one (with around 10mins looking for the elevator that I dropped twice) I am glad I did so. This extra detail really does a world of difference to make the aircraft look less bulky and more like an actual flying machine.

 

 

 

I am a little nervous about how to paint them in future as they feel so dainty, especially the prop and tail hook. Any advice for painting them when the time comes?

 

Regards, 

Ryan

[king derelict]

The plane with PE looks great. I usually paint the 1/700 aircraft with an airbrush, light coats and as low a pressure as I can get away with. The problem is holding them while painting. I have had good luck with double sided tape on wooden stirrers or lolly sticks

Alan

[Unit66]

Progress update:

 

Thanks Alan for the idea I'll be giving that a shot when I get to painting.

 

I have been working on some 3d models of some more planes to make the CV feel more like its' carrying a full compliment and then some. I also want to justify the resin printer and figured that this would be a perfect test for it, at the very least it will help get rid of some ugly gaps on the models and the fidelity of the printer should be roughly on par with the PE parts on the stock models.

 

I will post some renders of the models and then the printed versions to see if they will hold up when compared with the PE fitted ones.

 

Regards,

Ryan

[Landlubber Mike]

Looking great!  I love the pre-war yellow wing bi-planes.  Will be a bit tricky to paint them I'm sure.

Edited May 31, 2022 by Landlubber Mike

[popeye the sailor]

aircraft carriers are always fun to do.........depending on the kit,  you can get a little of everything     wonderful start!

[Unit66]

Progress Update:

 

I lost myself when modelling the F3F and now I feel like I've put far to much detail into it now for this scale. I may print it out slightly bigger just for a laugh. Things that I can see that need adding would be some more overt panel lining on the larger surfaces, especially the wings, and the forward landing gear as I've been lazy and just done the wheels.  

 

I have it in my had now to have the deck full of extras re-arming the planes for another sortie. Any feed back on anything else that might be worth adding into the model or extra props to place along side it would be great.

 

 

 

 

Regards,

Ryan

[RGL]

Damn if only I had such skills! 

[Prowler901]

Dang!  That's outstanding!

 

Todd

[mtaylor]

Wow... what an airplane.  Yes, probably too much detail at the scale of the ship but nothing stopping  you from doing a larger model the airplane to perhaps display along with the ship.

[Unit66]

Progress Update:

 

Work and Covid have had me being a bit slack with updates on the build and even just going back to it. However I am now committed to getting the building completed by the end of July, bar the pedestals for the hull as my order is somewhere in its' journey. But the planes, life boats and the armaments will be painted up.

 

I have not been completely idle since my last update; all of the complement of aircraft are built up and a couple of the lifeboats as well.

 

 

 

 

I'm still annoyed at the airframes that are missing the PE parts, but following the advice given, I'll hide them in the deck lifts so that they are hidden slightly.

 

 

 

 

 

The stowage box on the last life boat drove me spare as the top is supposed to be bevelled but for the life of me it refused to stay stuck in position. Fortunately with it being so small this will only annoy me and should disappear amongst all the other clutter of the final ship.

 

The next piece that I'll be working on tomorrow will be the funnel and conning tower.

 

Regards, 

Ryan

[Unit66]

Progress Update:

 

Despite saying that I'd move onto the superstructure I only got halfway before getting distracted. I've tried to clean up the funnel and bridge to then add on the PE doors and portholes, I'm still trying to work out a reliable way of getting the portholes aligned consistently, though not really noticeable unless looking closely I know and that bothers me, although nowhere near as much as PE railings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wiring/piping I was debating to do with some thin copper wire as you can see I struggled getting this part to adhere to the surface whilst pushing it into the right shape. I'm not abandoning that the idea of using extra wires to act like lighting just yet, so I'm looking for some more detailed pictures of her to see if they can be used somewhere.

 

I did also build and begin putting on the PE on the 203mm turrets, although I've stopped with only turret A completed owing to the accursed railings that had to be added, and until I can settle on a suitable solution I intend to avoid any of the railings for the moment.

 

 

 

 

I will carry on with the bridge tomorrow and get the roofing added to that part.

 

Regards,

Ryan

[Unit66]

Progress Update:

 

A bit of a short one as England is having a heat wave and building whilst overheating is not something to be enjoyed. I have moved onto the funnel spouts as well as the bridge. Both of these PE parts required parts of the original model to be removed to facilitate them which always feels uncanny. The grills on top of the spouts were a pain to bevel but I did find some success with the handle of a chisel.

 

 

 

The PE bridge was very fiddly to try to get aligned correctly, for now it will work.

 

 

 

Regards,

Ryan

 

 

[S-boat 55]

Looking good, 

[king derelict]

Very nice PE work sir

Alan

[Unit66]

Progress Update:

 

I have continued with the conning tower adding in the support beams and some of the hanging decks. I didn't realise at the time that I got one of the railings back to front so there's some minor overhang, I'm going to try to link the stairs into it to hide it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been spending some time looking at how different modelers address bending and placing railings to try to get better. So far it has definitely made it a little easier, right up until the piece gets fat fingered and bent.

 

Regards,

Ryan

 

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Hey Ryan, really nice job!  Is the PE from Eduard?  Looks great!

I just came across a great deal on a Trumpeter Enterprise with full Pontos set that I couldn’t resist - your build makes me want to start it when I finish my destroyer.

[Unit66]

35 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Hey Ryan, really nice job!  Is the PE from Eduard?  Looks great!

I just came across a great deal on a Trumpeter Enterprise with full Pontos set that I couldn’t resist - your build makes me want to start it when I finish my destroyer.

 

Good Evening Mike,

 

It is Eduard yes, not a massive fan how they split their PE into different parts as it sometimes gets confusing. I'd love to see that Enterprise, I like the more modern air wing, especially the helldivers. I was tempted to print off some of the more modern aircraft seeing as Saratoga did get some towards the end of the war.

 

I've seen your destroyer and really love how you've done the armour sheeting on the hull. Think I might try something similar on the carrier with some melted sprue sanded down.

 

Regards,

Ryan

[Unit66]

Progress Update:

 

It's been a busy week so the updates have been a bit sparse; my attention is split between this and the next build that I've been planning on doing, which I am aiming to begin building probably next month once this one is complete. Today's session was spent adding the stairs on the conning tower and gluing down the structure on top with the support beams.







I may regret the lower stairway as I have yet to add the PE braces to the underside of the platform above it, we will find out tomorrow.

 

Kind regards,
Ryan

[Unit66]

Progress Update:

 

Another short one. These full PE parts are very fiddly and without a suitable brace point means that aligning the parts becomes very difficult and the solution was to add super glue and accept that we can fill in any gaps later.

The railings for this part I cut them into pieces for the bends to try to better align them, an idea I got from a video.

Plan for tomorrow is to finish the armament so that the priming can begin on the smaller parts.

 

Kind Regards,

Ryan   

[Landlubber Mike]

Beautiful PE work!

 

[Unit66]

Progress Update:

 

Turret C now joins turret A in completion. Looking back on it I wish I'd got the brass barrels as the kit ones feel like they're bent, also that I didn't fat finger one of the periscopes on the turret as it is now drooping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Might add in some crew around the turret in question to make it look like it is undergoing maintenance. I was also trying out a new setting on the camera to try to make the images look a bit clearer, especially on the smaller parts although they were compressed when moving them onto the computer so may forgo this in future and stick with the phone.

 

Kind Regards,

Ryan

[RGL]

This is what I was talking about, covers a heap of radius and cheap