1/700 Tamiya USS Saratoga CV-3

[hamchuck]

Maybe you can tone it down with thinned base color sprayed? I mean really thin! Looks great to me though.

That's what I'm thinking. The number itself is still too dark and in some photos part of it is gone, worn through I guess.

 

[Rhino]

Heavier airplane traffic on the fantail, perhaps? How sure of your font are ya?

 

[moon puppy]

well that paint job would have been refreshed often so who's to say you're wrong?

 

[hamchuck]

Heavier airplane traffic on the fantail, perhaps? How sure of your font are ya?

Comparing against this shot I think it's close enough. I went digging around on different sites and drew it up in Paint, then pasted it into Publisher to do the sizing and shading.

 

[hamchuck]

well that paint job would have been refreshed often so who's to say you're wrong?

Good point! Even so, I'll blend it in a bit better. Hey, if I mess up I can make another decal!

 

[hamchuck]

The medium AA battery and a bit of the photoetch is on. I did okay-ish with the radars and ladders, but I botched the railings and catwalks. Maybe I'll try doing the railing in smaller sections instead of bending long complicated shapes in one shot. The catwalks should have been easy but I ruined them because the double-sided tape I used to secure them for painting was too strong!

 

[moon puppy]

Looking great, how bad are the cat walks? there's ways to get that stuff straight again, then you could always get more catwalks.

 

[hamchuck]

Looking great, how bad are the cat walks? there's ways to get that stuff straight again, then you could always get more catwalks.

Well, I figure they're about right if I want to model the IJN Kaga after Enterprise's dive bombers were done with her.

I might get more but it takes so long to receive stuff over here I'm about willing to simply chalk it up as a lesson learned. After all this was a lot of the point of doing Saratoga before Enterprise.

 

[moon puppy]

Yeah that's mangled. You could try to take the railing against that ruler and roll wood paint brush handle over it to straighten it out. This is the reason I end up buying 2 sometimes 3 kits to get one completed. I'd fubar something so bad.

I'd roll that sucker flat with wood first.

 

[Rhino]

Did I pass along the Old Ship Guy's railing secret to you yet?

 

[hamchuck]

Did I pass along the Old Ship Guy's railing secret to you yet?

No sir. Can you tell me or would you have to kill me after?

 

[hamchuck]

I guess I'm not too hopeless with photoetch. My first attempt is the twisted mess at the pilothouse level of the bridge, the latest is the searchlight platform at the forward end of the stack. I used a tip from YouTube of using Tamiya masking tape to hold the rail in place instead of shaky-handing it.

And I was able to do something with the catwalks. I used UV resin on the forward catwalk which is kind of shiny but it should be okay when I lay the flat coat on.

Now her air group is in the paint and decal shop. Besides the kit planes I got some beautiful (if fragile) Northview Foundry planes from Tom's Modelworks. Trouble is, I just realized today I didn't get extra decals. So, that will make for a delay.

 

[moon puppy]

We can really see the learning curve in action.

 

[Tim A.]

Consider this as well. Every time you add an accessory to a model kit, you create the opportunity for a flaw. 2 of the best ship modelers I know paint everything else first, then add the painted p/e, and carefully glue it on with teensie drops of c/a.
The deepest, darkest, ship model secret is that after it's all said and done, we touch up the glue shinies with Testors Dull-cote and brush.
I use Infini elastic rigging line. The 45 denier stuff is still the same scale diameter as your arm, but it looks convincing and is easy to install with a little practice.

Al, If you already know all these tricks, belay my last and be a happy guy!

Then there's the builders like me who prefers to get everything possible on before paint (The Texas in primer)

 

[hamchuck]

Then there's the builders like me who prefers to get everything possible on before paint (The Texas in primer)View attachment 186932

Honestly, this makes me think of one of those Pirates of the Caribbean movies when they deliberately capsized their ship .
I'm willing to give it a try on the next ship though, at least with sub-assemblies. That's a fine-looking Texas. I want to get to building the Arizona at some point.

 

[Tim A.]

Looks excellent

Honestly, this makes me think of one of those Pirates of the Caribbean movies when they deliberately capsized their ship .
I'm willing to give it a try on the next ship though, at least with sub-assemblies. That's a fine-looking Texas. I want to get to building the Arizona at some point.

Honestly, this makes me think of one of those Pirates of the Caribbean movies when they deliberately capsized their ship .
I'm willing to give it a try on the next ship though, at least with sub-assemblies. That's a fine-looking Texas. I want to get to building the Arizona at some point.

Not saying I'd do it this way with every build, but it worked on the Texas because of the Measure 21 paint scheme, plus the Texas's decks were painted. I'd like to do the 1/200 scale Arizona.

 

[Heavens Eagle]

I can honestly say that if you decide to do the Arizona, you will be disappointed if you want an accurate model. The Trumpeter Arizona kit was made to be a floating RC boat and thus there wasn't a lot of worry about accuracy.
Their Titanic kit is supposed to be fairly accurate, but I am not at all sure about any of the other 1/200 ships. I am considering getting the 1/200 scale Fletcher destroyer the USS Sullivans which should be coming available soon. Trumpeter has already released two other 1/200 Fletcher class destroyers but I have not yet read anything about how accurate they are.

 

[hamchuck]

I can honestly say that if you decide to do the Arizona, you will be disappointed if you want an accurate model. The Trumpeter Arizona kit was made to be a floating RC boat and thus there wasn't a lot of worry about accuracy.
Their Titanic kit is supposed to be fairly accurate, but I am not at all sure about any of the other 1/200 ships. I am considering getting the 1/200 scale Fletcher destroyer the USS Sullivans which should be coming available soon. Trumpeter has already released two other 1/200 Fletcher class destroyers but I have not yet read anything about how accurate they are.

I was actually thinking about Revell's old 1/426 kit. Model Monkey makes some wonderful-looking 3D-printed pieces for it and I'm not a big fan of Trumpeter.

 

[hamchuck]

Looks excellent
Not saying I'd do it this way with every build, but it worked on the Texas because of the Measure 21 paint scheme, plus the Texas's decks were painted. I'd like to do the 1/200 scale Arizona. View attachment 186948

Not only is that a beautiful job, it really illustrates the US Navy's dictum, "Guns: Put them EVERYWHERE."

 

[Tim A.]

Not only is that a beautiful job, it really illustrates the US Navy's dictum, "Guns: Put them EVERYWHERE."

Yep. No such thing as to many guns.