Modeling during COVID

[rogruth]

Chuck,
Beautiful models AND useful commentary.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Good stuff here -- let's see more!!!

[chuck]

Here are some model ships. These are part of my desktop Navy, or will be. All are 1/700 or 1720 scale. I have some submarines in 1/144 that I need to photograph to post.



This is going to be a magnum opus when finished. It is a 1/720 scale CVN 65 Enterprise, Revell AG. It is supposedly one of the most accurate models of the vessel BUT it is a model of what she looked like during the Vietnam War. I wanted to build the model of the major refit with the removal of the billboard radar and the ECM "beehive" on the top of the island. I had found an alleged 1/800 kit of the refit and was working on kit bashing the island when I realized the ARI "toy" was completely out of scale. They had "borrowed" the island from the Revell kit and had already modified it.



Problem solved! Not exactly. I bought a resin kit to put in the hanger deck.



I started working on lighting the hangar and building and mounting the lower hull to the stand I had build up using lighting fixture parts.







Here is a shot of a test fit of the flight deck and island.



I turned my attention to the carrier air wing and really hit the wall. Aircraft in the hangar deck are stowed with folded wings. All of the planes in the kit were a) too old (Vietnam era) and b) the newer 1/700 scale kits made for more modern carriers do not have folded wings and they are "kits"



Here is a painted one sitting on a quarter for size comparison purposes



I did try cutting the wings on some of the other kits (I do have the complete complement of planes) but I lacked the really, really fine tooth saw required to make the cuts. I got the saw for some other project and now I will have to get back to the air wing and finalize securing the flight deck (probably with RE magnets) and finish the island/antenna's (and the rescue pods and the missile launchers, and .....

[rogruth]

WOW!!!!!

[chuck]

Max Kohnke has a YouTube channel, Max's Models. Another great source for inspiration, camaraderie and modeling tips. He has done a series of videos on the history/lineage of the kit manufacturers.

https://www.youtube.com/user/maxsmodels

I've been building kits since grade school. The hardest thing to learn is patience (like a lot of things). You have to take your time and let the glue, putty, paint dry or set or whatever. Rushing it just makes for a mess. I try to improve something on each build.

I think the biggest bugaboo is assuming that I know how to do something because it "worked". A fair number of times it was more like "I got away with it". Real skill can come from repetition assuming you are willing and able to make mistakes AND learn from them.

Right now I am juggling about five kits in various stages of construction. I have one that I am prepping parts, two in active construction, and two that are in finish up mode. I will organize the work so I only paint/coat on two days a week and allow the material to dry in between. I've been using various size Zip Lock bags to store parts/sub assemblies with larger bags enveloping the entire kit. These are arranged vertically in a couple of pot top holders on the work bench. I can grab the appropriate bag, work on it, and then put it away. This obviously breaks down as the models near completion. They tend not to fit back into the bag. I then start looking for horizontal spaces to "park" the kits. Finished models usually wind up packed away in med sized boxes with appropriate packing material for protection. Some are rotated out of storage for display.

[chuck]

This is my first attempt at "building" a 1/700 scale plane with the new tools. the kits are clear plastic because regular solid pigmented stuff was too easy?

Set up and tools



Nose gear "installed"



I've attached the main gear and I am waiting for it to set up before flipping model over to install the vertical stabilizers. I've dropped adding the drop tanks and I will paint the object before attempting to cut the wings with the 90 tpi saw. I plan to only partially saw through and then bend the wings. We'll see how it goes! Each of these will take about 20 minutes to an hour to complete. Half squadrons will be 6 planes each. Aircraft I will be making up are F-14, F-18, EA6B, Hawkeyes, Greyhounds, S-3 Vikings, aka about 36 to 48 planes. aka about 1 man week of work.

OK, I was overly optimistic about the time to build each one.



The first complete one is on the left. 2nd unit has the wings folded. Good news is the saw worked great at cutting partially through. Bad news is I have to find a way to "fix" the folds to keep them from flattening back out. I doubt I can cut the 1st units wings without knocking off landing gear or vertical stabilizers. I though the gear was tough until I tried putting on the stabilizers. The tab is only visible under a 5X magnifier. I am betting the people who set up the molds never tried to build any of these.

[chuck]

OK, trying something different. I've painted the fuselage with a primer coat to see if it helps identify the glue points. I didn't try this to begin with because the "glue" has issues with paint. I use methylene chloride "welder" (MicroMark Same Stuff) which can chew through thin coats of acrylic paint. The clear plastic is a nightmare to try to see where the two parts go together. It's like looking at a faceted gem stone and the targets are insanely tiny.



Will edit post later to show how well this did or did not work.

I am beginning to understand why most people prefer to do this at 1/350. Of course you need to have the space for a hull that's about 3 feet long AND you have to deal with the bigger the model, the more details you expect to see.

Round and round she goes! It seemed like a good idea at the time.

[rogruth]

That is why I did 3 rail O gauge. Not as perfection expected (?) as 2 rail O but I could see it and handle it as opposed to H0 and N.
Now I can't detail anything.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I am beginning to understand why most people prefer to do this at 1/350. Of course you need to have the space for a hull that's about 3 feet long AND you have to deal with the bigger the model, the more details you expect to see.

I am aware of a modeler with a 1/4" scale Wisconsin........that I hope to have an article from in the future.

[chuck]

I hear ya and I really sympathize. This model has been a humbling experience. It's crazy how they can make molds like these. I remember when Tamiya made a package of "modern" UNS or USAF or even Soviet aircraft in 1/700 to go with their carrier models. They weren't anywhere near as detailed as these but all you had to do was paint them! These suckers even have decals! Like I said, it seemed like a good idea at the time!

I am aware of a modeler with a 1/4" scale Wisconsin........that I hope to have an article from in the future.

He must have a boat trailer to tow it around? That's like 18 feet long? Sounds like a studio model they may have used in Tora, Tora, Tora. (actually it is 18.5' long, I forgot the Wisconsin is longer than the other three Iowa class ships because her bow was replaced after a collision with a destroyer in 1956.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I am aware of a modeler with a 1/4" scale Wisconsin........that I hope to have an article from in the future.

He must have a boat trailer to tow it around? That's like 18 feet long? Sounds like a studio model they may have used in Tora, Tora, Tora.

It's in his barn and been there for a long time; motorized.......but I'm not sure that he's every taken it anywhere. The layout should be "interesting"

[chuck]

I've built something like three "motorized' ship kits over the years. They all have one thing in common. They all sank on their maiden voyages!

[rogruth]

I've built something like three "motorized' ship kits over the years. They all have one thing in common. They all sank on their maiden voyages!

Why did they sink?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I've built something like three "motorized' ship kits over the years. They all have one thing in common. They all sank on their maiden voyages!

Why did they sink?

Torpedoes! Somebody built a sub!

[chuck]

Why did they sink?

Torpedoes! Somebody built a sub!

I wish! These were relatively low end plastic kits and were more "toys" than models and the fit/finish/seals weren't. The petroleum jelly "packing" failed within 60 seconds, aka about 6-8 feet from shore) and they went down. One took on enough water to short out the battery pack and the model cruised even father away under its own momentum settling lower and lower in the pond. I wish I had a camera! One was a LIndberg kit of the Bismark or Tirpitz, the other two were of Japanese lineage. I think one was a submarine so there is some realism to it submerging. It was supposed to use the diving planes to force it down and then a cam would reverse the planes at a set point in time. It just filled up with water and never came back up. I had not invested too much effort into finishing the kits so it wasn't a great loss.