OT: 1/700 water line ship models

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

I've never seen any of these kits up close, but the reviews I've read have left me disappointed. One review said the Fujimi kits are essentially upscaled 1/700 scale kits with roughly the same level of detail. I think the Akagi is a little better, but the Japanese have largely fallen behind the Chinese in kit detail.

I bought the Hasegawa 1:350 Akagi kit when it was first released and paid $220 U.S. for it. I also bought extra aircraft kits and all the photo-etched sets offered for the kit at the time. All told I'm in for a fairly hefty amount of money. I have not built the kit yet, but my overall impression is that it is a nice kit, moldings look sharp and the level of detail is nice OOB.

I do think all these newer Japanese 1:350 naval kits coming out from Fujimi, Hasegawa and others are overpriced though. I read the reviews on the Japanese CV's as well and got the impression they are nice, but for the price should be much more accurate. I wouldn't repeat what I spent on the Akagi on another kit, but I will say that it is my favourite Japanese ship so I was willing to pay what I did for her at the time.

Shop around John. Set a budget and see if you can stay within it. The kits coming out now are great, but they also come with a hefty price tag as well. Feel free to PM anytime and I can let you know where I order from that seems rather resonable. I've checked out squadron, but the shipping costs to Canada mean I essentially don't save any money on the kits and I can get them cheaper elsewhere. Happy hunting, I hope you find something you and your family will enjoy building.

[wdolson]

Squadron and Dragon USA are good for free shipping in the US if you order enough ($150 for Squadron and $99 for Dragon). International shipping probably tarnishes the deals somewhat.

Bill

[warspite1]

Has anyone got any tips for making and applying the photo-etched pieces please?

I bought a 1:350 scale HMS Warspite last year. Having painted the hull and put together, progress stalled for one main reason. I have to make a decision on whether to attempt the photo-etched parts or not. I really want to try these but am worried this is beyond my capability and will end up ruining the model - so would it be better to have a more basic, but presentable model, or one using the photo-etched parts but is a mess....?

What tools do you use for these? The parts seem so fiddly and need to be bent in all directions - how on earth do you keep in place! Any tips would be appreciated!!

[nashvillen]

I use some curved forceps that curve down 45 degrees then straighten out. This allows me to use them as a brake to bend the parts. Using two and you have two parts to a brake to do so, only much smaller. Prime the parts with a metal primer, very light coat! Clear paint from part where glue is applied. I use Gorilla Super Glue, mostly because the cap has a no clog configuration. I take the cardboard backing the metal parts come with as a palette to place a dab of the glue on then use a dental pick to pick up a small amount of glue to apply where needed. When there is a build up on the pick, an old #11 blade works great to scrape the cured glue off leaving the shiny metal tip to keep going.

I am getting the CVL-22 on sale from Dragon for my birthday, my wife just doesn't know it yet. I will give it to her when it comes in and they can wrap it up and give it to me in the middle of May. I won't be ready to work on it until late summer anyways. Couldn't beat the price!

[John 3rd]

Thanks for 1/350 advice guys. Will take my time finding a kit.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: nashvillen

I use some curved forceps that curve down 45 degrees then straighten out. This allows me to use them as a brake to bend the parts. Using two and you have two parts to a brake to do so, only much smaller. Prime the parts with a metal primer, very light coat! Clear paint from part where glue is applied. I use Gorilla Super Glue, mostly because the cap has a no clog configuration. I take the cardboard backing the metal parts come with as a palette to place a dab of the glue on then use a dental pick to pick up a small amount of glue to apply where needed. When there is a build up on the pick, an old #11 blade works great to scrape the cured glue off leaving the shiny metal tip to keep going.

I am getting the CVL-22 on sale from Dragon for my birthday, my wife just doesn't know it yet. I will give it to her when it comes in and they can wrap it up and give it to me in the middle of May. I won't be ready to work on it until late summer anyways. Couldn't beat the price!

warspite1

Thanks for responding. Sadly your answer confirmed what I think I already knew [:(].

As much as I would love to use photo-etched parts, I will only make a total horlicks of the model if I try. I am therefore going to concede defeat on this one and try and do the best I can with the standard model. At least I have been able to use the decking (which looks really good) so its not all bad [:)]

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

Thanks for 1/350 advice guys. Will take my time finding a kit.

In 1/350 scale the US Essex class carriers are pretty good bang for the buck. They cost less than 1/2 what the Japanese carriers cost. Though Trumpeter is famous for inaccuracies, so it's probably best to consult some references to make sure the guns are all in the right places. You can probably get one fairly cheap on Ebay if you're patient.

Another good deal, especially if you shop for a sale are the Dragon DD kits in 1/350. They only cover German and US DDs, but every one I've seen are amazing kits. Some even come with 1/350 scale figures.

Japanese subjects are about the only area that is still safe for the Japanese kit makers. It's politically difficult to make kits of Japanese subjects in China. The kits sold internally even censor kill flags on American plane kits. I bought a 1/32 Trumpeter Wildcat from a Chinese seller and the kill flags on both the box and the decal sheet were blacked out with a marker. The decals aren't a huge loss since I have spares, but I thought it quite weird.

I think as a result of the political correctness in China the Japanese kit makers see their exports of Japanese subjects as a profit center and their prices are usually pretty high.

Bill

[Mundy]

For photoetch, I rarely use CA glue anymore. I've switched over to Gator Glue.

Gator Masks

A photoetch tool to help with the folding part has worked wonders for me.

Hold & Fold

It's an arcrylic non-toxic glue which works well without gluing your fingers together. It pretty much vanishes when it dries.

I just pulled the trigger on the Trumpeter 1/350 USS Franklin. That and pretty much aftermarket guns for the entire armament. Of the kits, the short hull Essex is probably the better one out of the box. The long hull has some fit issues in replacing the bow parts, plus in shortening the deck, one of the cats has been clipped. I ordered the adhesive masks from Gator for this one. Kenny had told me that Franklin wore a different measure on each side. Looking it up, it was Ms. 32 3a on the port and 6a starboard.

Tico Review

Essex Review

One downside is that all the roller doors on the hanger deck are molded closed, so some cutting would be needed there. During daylight, they were almost always open. Overall, Trumpeter got this one pretty much right, for the short hull, anyway. Their messed up bow of the Yorktown class is infamous, as well as the messed up stern of their Indianapolis. (all rounded instead of the sharp cutoff)

I'm starting to accumulate more than I can build right now. I also ordered a 1/350 USS Bainbridge DD-1. It looked like an easy no-fuss resin kit.

Gambier Bay is on my short list to get. Revell's 1/72 Flower class corvette is soooo tempting, too. I know it would eat an entire shelf in my curio cabinet.

Flower Corvette

Ed

[SqzMyLemon]

ORIGINAL: Mundy

Revell's 1/72 Flower class corvette is soooo tempting, too. I know it would eat an entire shelf in my curio cabinet.

Ed

I have the 1:72 Revell Flower just previous to the new release of the kit. It's going to build into a beauty when finished especially with all the after market stuff I bought for her. [8D]

[wdolson]

The Revell 1/144 Fletcher is very nice too. The way railings are done out of the box is kind of screwy (the kit has plastic posts and your supposed to glue line for the horizontal rails), so some aftermarket rails is probably a good idea, but I don't think the kit needs anything else. I've seen them advertised on sale in a couple of places lately. They may have recently been discontinued and the larger retailers are clearing their shelves.

I've seen the Flower Class corvette on sale at Squadron in the last few months.

Bill

[Mundy]

ORIGINAL: SqzMyLemon
I have the 1:72 Revell Flower just previous to the new release of the kit. It's going to build into a beauty when finished especially with all the after market stuff I bought for her. [8D]

I see the premium version is out, with all the brass barrels, a wood deck, and all the photoetch. It should look nice. I've seen aftermarket figures out for it, too.

All my kittens would probably fit in it, too.

I'd just need paint for the Western Approaches scheme.

Ed-

[nashvillen]

My Birthday present arrived this morning and my wife said I could open it early!
The Fletcher in the foreground is for scale.

[wdolson]

Nice. Though I guess it's an early version of the Independence. It comes with 6 SBDs which I don't think they ever carried into combat. I know the SBD was tested on the Independence class but found to be a poor fit for the ship and they were deleted from the air group.

You can also get aftermarket aircraft though.

Bill

[nashvillen]

Yes, I noticed that, will be looking for aftermarket TBFs and F6Fs to fill out my compliment. For the price, I am really OK with it. Need to look up the data in the game to see what modifications I need to make it right. That is part of the fun!

[Mundy]

You can set her up as she was during her shakedown cruise, where she did carry the SBDs. (navsource.org has some shots of this) She also had 5"/38 guns on the bow and stern at that time, instead of the 40mm guns.

I was going to go with the trial version. The 5" guns are beautiful, and the Ocean Gray scheme would have been a nice change from the usual Navy Blue. The set of aircraft insignia on the decals has, I think the three different markings. Once I saw the red surround on the aircraft insignia, I fell for that one. I think mine will be around the time of the Truk raids.

A late war Independence is harder, since the added a second cat on the deck, where this one only has the one.

The Princeton kit represents one of the more "typical" Independence CVLs, with regards to the gun arrangement in the galleries.

Lots of the guys at the modelwarships.com forum will get ahold of actual plans to their ships and pour over every little change made to a ship at a given time and place. I'm not quite that hardcore. Maybe once I'm comfortable with the result I put out, I can start to get picky...

Lots of stuff on CVL-22 ships here:

Independence Thread

Ed-

[nashvillen]

Ed,

Thanks for the information. Myself, I am a 40mm Bofors fan. So, I am going with a later configuration, just not sure which one yet. Still planning. While I love the SBD, I can sue those on some other model in the future. I also have a nice flat spot on top of my desktop computer that sits on my desk at work instead of under it as it really is a small server and puts out a lot of heat when we are doing extensive geoprocessing work. So, on top of that is an A6M5, a sports bobblehead (Eddie George), some Avengers (Marvel type, not TBF), and some Klingon battle cruisers. A nice assortment of things I like.

I will explore the link more at home where I don't have a proxy killing most of the external pictures...

No, I need to find my airbrush... Unfortunately, the guy myself and another guy went in on a CO2 tank many years ago for airbrushing, has passed away and he had the tank at the time. Not going to bother the family about it. Time to find another propellant source. That CO2 worked great! No water spots and nice even coverage.

Mike

[Mundy]

I gave my deck a coat of brown from a spray can. I'm going to try and layer the deck blue gradually on top go get the "worn through" look. We'll see how that works.

Regarding the stacks (all 4 of them). I would probably stray from the instructions a bit. I would attach them to the hull after the two main halves are together and add the structural stuff afterwards. I built them up completely first, and then had problems getting the stacks aligned after that.

Ed

[nashvillen]

RE the stacks, yeah, looks like a great plan upon studying the instructions.

I like your idea of making the deck a light wood color, then dry brushing the deck blue on to reflect the wear of the stain over time. Another idea would be to make some of the crew members look like they are staining the deck and make part of it worm and the rest fresh... But, then you couldn't have any aircraft on the deck... Scratch that.

[nashvillen]

BTW, found a nice Measure 32/8A diagram at http://www.jpsmodell.de/dc/schemes/usna ... re32_e.htm

All kinds of diagrams and information there. Better than most, just not as high resolution as I would like.

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: nashvillen

Ed,

Thanks for the information. Myself, I am a 40mm Bofors fan. So, I am going with a later configuration, just not sure which one yet. Still planning. While I love the SBD, I can sue those on some other model in the future. I also have a nice flat spot on top of my desktop computer that sits on my desk at work instead of under it as it really is a small server and puts out a lot of heat when we are doing extensive geoprocessing work. So, on top of that is an A6M5, a sports bobblehead (Eddie George), some Avengers (Marvel type, not TBF), and some Klingon battle cruisers. A nice assortment of things I like.

I will explore the link more at home where I don't have a proxy killing most of the external pictures...

No, I need to find my airbrush... Unfortunately, the guy myself and another guy went in on a CO2 tank many years ago for airbrushing, has passed away and he had the tank at the time. Not going to bother the family about it. Time to find another propellant source. That CO2 worked great! No water spots and nice even coverage.

Mike

I use an air compressor with a water trap. That keeps the air dry and you have unlimited air for the cost of electricity. My compressor is very noisy though. I'm thinking of getting a good compressor intended for air brushing. With the explosion of spray tans and other body art uses for air brushes, the market for relatively quiet air brushes has expanded and there is now a good selection. When I got my air brush I think there was only one quiet compressor on the market and it cost a fortune.

I would go with the wartime configuration too. The shack down configuration was very temporary. Trumpeter makes some good 1/350 aircraft kits. I've scored some sets fairly cheap at Squadron when they went on sale. You just have to keep your eyes out and the sets you want will eventually come up.

Bill