USS Enterprise (CV-6) by ted99 - Trumpeter - 1:200 - PLASTIC

[mikegr]

On 10/29/2023 at 5:10 PM, ted99 said:

Setting up work on the flight deck.  I stained the wood-colored deck that came with the Mk 1 detail set with "Navy Blue" Minwax semi-transparent stain.  Oil based, so no warping of the wood.  Primed the SS PE deck detail sheets with Tamiya light gray primer and then air brushed with Mission Model "US Navy Flight Deck Blue" using the Micro-Mark battery-powered air brush.  The air brush worked out OK.  I'm sure it's not as good as a real air brush, but it's ideal for my situation in a Retirement Home condo.  Especially as I can use paint colors that are not available in spray cans.

 

I'm going to start on the decking at the center island where I'm sure of the location and can use it as the register for the subsequent pieces being added.  The picture shows it dry-fitted. Lots and lots of PE pieces interior to the wood deck and it's going to be a learning process as I go forward.  air brush sitting below the flight deck.

how does this battery operated airbrush performs? And what type of paint are you using?

[ted99]

I'm not an experienced air brusher, so take my comments with a grain of salt.  Works well.  Using Mission Models acrylic straight from the jar.  Good control and pattern.  Not having an air hose a big plus.  I doubt that it would be useful for painting a 1:200 hull, but for subassemblies it is OK.  Next thing I will be using it for is the deck aircraft where I will be using Tamiya acrylic, thinned about 15% with X-20A.  Will report on that when I do it.  So far, I'm happy as I only have a very intermittent need for an air brush and very little shop space.  I painted the PE sheets flat on a board that was suspended on balcony railings outside.  Wind always a problem.  When I do the aircraft, I'm going to try it inside and see how the overspray goes, using a cardboard box on it's side as a "spray booth".

[mtaylor]

On 10/31/2023 at 8:06 AM, ted99 said:

I'm not an experienced air brusher, so take my comments with a grain of salt.  Works well.  Using Mission Models acrylic straight from the jar.  Good control and pattern.  Not having an air hose a big plus.  I doubt that it would be useful for painting a 1:200 hull, but for subassemblies it is OK.  Next thing I will be using it for is the deck aircraft where I will be using Tamiya acrylic, thinned about 15% with X-20A.  Will report on that when I do it.  So far, I'm happy as I only have a very intermittent need for an air brush and very little shop space.  I painted the PE sheets flat on a board that was suspended on balcony railings outside.  Wind always a problem.  When I do the aircraft, I'm going to try it inside and see how the overspray goes, using a cardboard box on it's side as a "spray booth".

I would suggest that maybe set your cardboard spraybooth up near a window that can be opened and use a window  or even a box fan blowing out.   

[ted99]

^^^ Great idea.  No opening windows in my Condo. lol

[ted99]

Well, this has been interesting.  Unlike my previous battleship builds, one cannot just glue down the wood deck.  All the PE deck details go inside die cutouts on the deck sheets and if the whole sheet is glued down, one cannot remove the cutouts.  The process is close to, but not quite, board by board.  My process was as follows:

1.  Pick an index part from which the chosen deck piece can be positioned.  I picked the central deck piece located at the Island, so that I can work toward each end of the deck from the center.  With that choice, the index part was obviously the large double-layer panel at the bow end.  The Trumpeter molded deck has the location of this piece molded into the deck and dry-fitting the central wood piece showed that it was a good fit, so I attached it with CA.

2.  I fitted the wood deck butted up to the PE detail and used thin PE to wick under the edge next to the PE piece to attach the end of the wood piece to the plastic deck. The PE did not wick too far under the wood to prevent removing the die cut.  After removing the die cut, I used wicked CA under the edges to attach the wood to the plastic deck in the immediate vicinity of the die cut.  I then placed the SS detail strip inside the cut out and used thin CA to attach it.  The remainder of the wood deck (to the right in the photo) remains loose.  I continued this process from left to right as I worked up the wood deck.  There are so many of these PE insets that pretty much all of the wood deck has been attached to the plastic deck through wicking.

3.  Pictures 3 and 4 show this progression.  All this deck detail looks pretty good and gives a unique aspect to a Carrier build that might otherwise be pretty blah.

 

This deck detail is SS PE and is more difficult to work with than Brass.  First, it's very hard to cut from the sheets due to the hardness of the SS.  Same for filing down the remaining attachment nubs on the sides of these very thin pieces.  Second, it doesn't take acrylic paint very well.  I etched the SS sheets in vinegar prior to priming with Tamiya light gray primer, allowed the primer to harden off for a week, and then used the color coat.  Despite that, using a mandrel to press the narrow pieces down flat into the die cuts of the wood still caused scratching with the SS surface showing through.  Oh well, it looks like "pre-weathering" of those pieces showing wear from flight operations.

 

I'm proceeding to the left toward the bow with the next piece of decking.

[ted99]

Future builder alert!  I was wrong to use the center island decking and the large PE piece at the bow end as the "index" for starting the deck installation.  When I completed the center part, my next action was to do the next piece of decking toward the bow, which included the forward elevator.  There is absolutely no ambiguity about placement of the wood decking around the elevator.  It goes where it goes, and I started the gluing of the area around the elevator first, working from left to right.  When I got to the join between the previously-applied decking at the island, the decking which included the elevator was one-board too long and had to be trimmed off.  The first picture shows the trimmed board.  This means that the molded-in placement of that large piece of PE I initially used for my index did not match the MK1 wood decking.

Doing this part of the decking was similar to the first, otherwise.  When I completed the decking around the elevator, the last piece at the bow was next.  Dry fitting that piece showed that I would have to add a board to get the forward end of the wood decking to align with the forward-most edge of the Flight Deck.  I could have done this with one of the pieces of wood that were removed from the die cuts, but instead cut off a piece of the SS PE and glued it to the large forward piece of PE.  The second picture shows the beginning of the attachment of this forward-most piece of decking.  The only variant in assembly from the previous two pieces is the order of gluing.  I have started the two PE pieces for the catapults at this time and will wick CA under them as I glue down the piece of decking between the two catapults.  I'll do the two pieces of decking to the outside of the catapults last.  These sections are easy to get out of alignment and really need to have the catapult pieces in place for a snug glue up.

I expect that when I finish up at the bow, the next piece of decking I attach going aft from the center island piece will need to have a board added.  Since that piece includes the mid-ships elevator, there is no doubt about it's location. We'll see.

[ted99]

OK.  Forward part of the decking complete.  I added the metal pieces around the sides of the wood decking, also.  I'm not going to put in all of those hatches in the small square cutouts until the end.  Same techniques as before.

[Roger Pellett]

Although US Navy aircraft carriers are prominent features of WW II operational histories and battle accounts very little seems to have been written about the nuts and bolts of their construction.  (I don’t have Norman Friedman’s book so maybe I’m overlooking something.). This build really highlights the complexity of these vessels.  Well done!

 

Roger 

[ted99]

^^ Yes, I initially thought that it would be a ho hum build but there is a huge amount of detail associated with the flight deck that goes completely unreported.  Unreported because, as has been observed, there are few carrier builds on offer.  I started with the Amati Bismarck because I was attracted by the complexity of the build.  Then got the "Battleship bug" to build the significant WW II battleships so Yamato and Missouri kits were added.  Reading the history of those ships made clear that the two most significant types of vessels in WW II were the Submarine and Carrier, with Battleships very much relegated to secondary roles.  So, I did the only two sub kits extant in 1:200 and they really were ho hum builds.  After CV-6, I'll be taking the 1:200 Trumpeter Missouri out of the closet to build.  I got the Trumpeter1:350 USS Texas kit from eBay, along with the Pontos detail set, and I might build it before Missouri.  Last of the Drednoughts, with some local interest for Houston.

[ddp]

just to let you know on Trumpeter 1:350 USS Texas kit that the top of the torpedo bulges are too wide.

[ted99]

^^^Is there a way to correct this?  Haven't looked at the kit, except to verify that the wood deck fit.

[ddp]

by cutting along the top of the bulges where it joins the hull then pushing the bulges tops thru that hull slice to narrow the top(ledge) of the bulges. there is video(s) on the net about that. depending on the thickness of the plastic that forms the bulges & how much the tops(ledge) has to be narrowed to the proper width, i would shave/scrape/sand the sides of the bulges near the top of them to the proper width. but that is me as that is what i do.

BB-35 USS Texas Booklet of General Plans (1944) https://archive.org/details/bb35bogp1944v4/mode/2up

[ted99]

Next section aft of the island in place.  Used the aft elevator as the "anchor" placement for the decking.  As expected, I had to add a single board to make up for the board I had to take out of the first section forward of the island, because the place I had indexed to for the center section of decking was "one board" too far aft.  This says to me that if I had started with either the midships elevator piece, or the aft elevator piece as the first piece of decking installed, all the subsequent deck pieces would have gone into place exactly as designed.  I'm modeling with the midships elevator in the lowered position.  Hence, the missing mid elevator platform.

Construction techniques as before.  So far, the PE pieces around the perimeter of the decking have gone into place as designed.

[ted99]

All of the decking now in place.  The rectangular "windows" in the deck hold what appear to be hatches (unsure of this) which will be added next.  Then I will try to figure out (from the VERY scanty detail provided by MK I) the anchors for the arresting wires.  There is also a longer rectangular window in the decking adjacent to the mid elevator for which I cannot discover what goes there from the MK I "instructions" (and Trumpeter does not have it at all).  It's looking like this kit cannot be completed without a lot of extra reference material--which I am loathe to acquire for a one-off purpose.  From what I can see, so far, on the MidWest Models U-tube video of their CV-6 build; the Pontos detail set is vastly superior with vastly superior building instructions.  Appears to be well worth the extra cost.  I almost feel like waiting for that build to catch up with where I am so that I can see what some of these things actually are.

 

In looking forward, I think I will need to attach the deck to the hull very shortly.  It appears that the best way will be to place the deck upside down on a flat surface and put the hull in place (also upside down) and glue with medium CA.  This means that I must have the deck surface all at the same level, so some details (like the arresting wires and catch nets) will be attached after getting the deck in place and putting the island in place.  This model is so long that it's really cumbersome working on details near the forward or aft ends.

 

About to leave for a 3-wk river boat "Christmas Markets" trip, so will be taking a break.  I wish the MidWest Model CV-6 build had spent a little less time on painting and weathering so that it was closer to my progress.  I really need to crib from it, despite the fact that he is using the Pontos detail set.

[ddp]

that "window" between the middle elevator & the deck edge is the "torpedo" elevator to bring the torpedoes from the torpedo workshop on the main deck upto the flight deck. is in the plans i uploaded on page 2 & the link on the same page. 

[ted99]

^^^  Thanks.  Reading your plans is the first thing I'm going to do when I get back.. I figured most, if not all, of my questions will be revealed there.  

[ddp]

good idea.

[Roger Pellett]

Have you read Shattered Sword?  If not it might be an interesting book to take on your trip.    It would be of interest as the authors describe in considerable detail how American and Japanese operated and how these operational details affected the outcome at Midway.  You might find some gems that help you to better understand constructional details not explained by the instructions.

 

Roger

[Canute]

I'll second Roger's recommendation. The authors did a lot of new work to write the book on the Battle of Midway.

[ted99]

Back and mostly in the correct time zone.  Time has come to put on the flight deck "6" numerals.  Need to do this before adding all the arrestor wire details.  Unfortunately, the Trumpeter decals are white, while all the pictures show black in wartime.  No obvious sources of the correct size decals could be found, so it was stencil time.  First applied one of the white decals to a piece of colored cardstock (to minimize water absorption and warping of the cardstock).  Then cut out the white number and taped to the flight deck and did a flat black spray holding the can parallel to the flight deck to minimize fuzzy edges.  If I had had any, a piece of paper with pressure contact adhesive would have been better.  Results show that there is still a little fuzziness at the edges.  The second number was better than the first by using multiple misting with dry time between, as compared to a single pass of the rattle can.

 

Another suspension--travel to oldest son's for Holidays in CA.

 

Thanks for the reading recommendations.

[Roger Pellett]

An innovative solution, nicely executed!

[ted99]

I have suffered from my usual doldrums that appear when a project nears completion. 

 

The time has come to attach the flight deck and the hull, as I will need to invert the hull over the deck as part of the fitting and any additional details on the deck will prevent this.  So far, the attachment has had it's share of difficulties.  The  molded-in reliefs in the interior hanger deck walls do not match up with the protrusions on the bottom of the flight deck.  Lots of trial fitting, marking the interferences, and removing or cutting out the offending areas.  Trial fit, find a new interference, remove and cut, retry.  I've got them all now, so the gluing of the deck to the hull is starting.  This also, will be an iterative process because of the need to weight each area of the deck as glue (E6000) sets, and this has to be a small section at a time.

 

The good thing about this surgery is that it's all in areas that cannot be seen once the deck is attached.  The kit has molded plastic girders beneath each elevator and ALL of them had to be removed to allow the deck to sit flush on the hanger deck walls.  Unseen details, which were out of scale, in any event.  I was afraid that I had erred in my assembly of the side walls, but the flight deck angles and reliefs line up perfectly with the angles in the walls, so it's a design error from Trumpeter at the mold stage.

 

 

[ted99]

Picture of the start of hull/deck join

[ted99]

Hull deck join is completed, but not without a lot of difficulty.

 

NOTE to future builders:  The molded-in protrusions on the bottom of the flight deck do NOT line up with the relief points in the hull hanger deck sides.  My recommendation is to dry fit the assembled flight deck to the assembled hull with hanger deck sides in place BEFORE doing any detail work on the hull or flight deck. 

 

1.  A LOT of the protrusions on the bottom of the flight deck and on the hanger deck sides will need to be trimmed to get a good join between the two.  The good thing is that none of this trimming will be visible.  It appears that there were mold changes as time went on and the two were not reconciled.  If you do as I did and put on most of the detail before the hull and flight deck are joined, it will be a very delicate process to do all the trimming needed.  You only need to dry fit the two until all of the interferences are found and then you can proceed to the details.  Now that the two are joined, it appears that the details could be added after the join.  It's just cumbersome to be moving the whole thing around on the bench.  But, now that I've gotten to this stage, I think that if I were doing it again, I would complete the hull/deck join before doing the external details.  Inside the hanger deck does need to be done first (lol).

 

2.  There are two long platforms at the bow for AA guns and the plans have those platforms glued to the sides of the hanger deck.  On my build, I could not get them to line up properly with the flight deck with them attached to the hanger deck sides, so I removed them and glued them to the flight deck, proper.  I recommend that these parts not be glued to the hull until the dry fitting is done and you verify the fit of these AA gun platforms.

 

3.  The flight deck will NOT fit properly if the kit-included plastic webbing is glued to the bottom of the elevators.  These parts are way out of scale and are not visible, in any event, so I recommend that they not be glued on.  The Pontos detail kit may have these in brass and may fit better, but they were not part of the MK1 detail set.

 

It's time to place the Island and the other detail parts that I have held off until the join.

[ddp]

did you read the plans like you said you would once you got back from your trip?

[ted99]

Yes, but without a specific question to look for the answer, it's not as productive.  What am I missing?

[ted99]

The never-ending deck detail.  Arresting wires.  Guessed at them as no detail from MK1 and no on-line photos or drawings I could find.  Probably in some book.

[ddp]

did you look at sheet 6 flight deck of the plans i linked before as your wires are in the wrong places? do you see what looks like little dashes parallel  to the centerline as there is supposed to be wire risers that the arresting cable lay on so that the cables are just above the flight deck to help the plane's hook catch the cable to stop the plane when landing.

Edited March 7 by ddp

[ted99]

Well that was dumb.  I was mounting the island and saw that I had put the wires on the foredeck, rather than aft.  Gotta remove them and do it over.  I've looked at the plans, but my eyes have not been able to make out the actual wire locations.  Makes sense that there would be a riser in the middle to elevate the wires, but I haven't found what that would look like.  The location of the wires, now that I see that they go at "the other end" from where I was fitting them, works a lot better as they are the correct length, now.  But, it looks like one of the provided wires goes over the top of the aft elevator.  I suppose there could have been one there that got broken down when the elevator was in use.  I've inferred the locations of the wires from the location of the round fittings that look like they would have been part of the shock absorbing mechanism and "ears" on the deck surround plates.  Never been on a carrier, so I have no experience of the mechanisms--just what I think would have been required while thinking as an engineer.

[ddp]

i use windows photo viewer to view plans/photos with no problem so what are you using? there would be 3 risers for each arresting gear cable with 1 in the middle & 1 near each end of the cable. the riser would look like a somewhat flatten upside down "U".

Edited March 9 by ddp