Knb.1451

I finally decided to snag myself the old AMT Airwolf kit after finding the show in Tubi. I started it and decided that the over sized window frames, huge raised latches on the upper engine doors, boiler plate rivets, and Desth Star trenches on the fuselage needed to go (I forsee quite a bit of parasitic drag) I've started the kit. It's a bit simple but it is Airwolf

Youre really going all out on this old kit, keep up the good work. I like seeing 1/600 builds, I sure wish more people would request them at a higher rate from manufacturers.

Hey Lars, I've been listening to the Master and Commander books as of late and have fallen deeply head over heels for the dear old Surprise. Practically broke my heart when Jack had to sell her out of the service. Cheers my friend and may no new thing arise!

Jeff, you are model making monster, and I am so excited to see anything you post 😎 one of these days I'll be as brave as you are to cut into a kit and have a go at it.

I really like the way the sonar dome hangs off the bottom of the bow, it somehow seems right. Your sail though is incredibly impressive and it makes me want one so I can convert my kit to that style of boat.

Thank you very much! These old boats are something else, not quite a floating palace, not quite a pure working boat. If I had the knowledge I might build a steam calliope for this kit, but we shall see.

Well I got the boilers looking satisfactory, it's a simple affair but looks the part. I also finished putting Paddle boards on the wheels and will paint them later today.

Since this version of the kit does not have a boiler, the first issue of the kit had one, it was removed from the molds when the motorized kit was released and has not made its way back into the model since. I will scratch build one and hopefully it will look the part once it is in the kit. The wheel needed some clean up, if was rather flashed over. Smokestacks, I might still attempt to make the supports in the middle from wire. Paddle wheels, the big part of the kit that makes the ship what it is. I removed the original paddles as they were overly thick and ugly, I have replaced them with 40 boards 18mm long and 5 mm wide. Cotton bales, steamer trunks, anchor stocks, and piles of wood for the boilers painted. Not to mention all the exposed decking.

Moving house often means you have to have composite fleets lol.

I finally found one at a reasonable price, started it, decided it needed some changes. So I've added decks where there went any and will probably add some kind of interior, this was after cleaning up the window openings and finding out you could in fact see inside it was all true and square.

Terry, yes Admiral makes a 1/72 Pirate, I saw one at a hobby store in San Diego when I was on detachment there and thought long and hard about buying that odd little bird.

Your work blows me away Jeff. Those single 40s looks great, sad to hear about the not so sixteenth one, I can't imagine what sort of battle damage it would take to destroy one.

Your build is amazingly clean. Of course you're building a beautiful ship, that may help some.

Howdy Jeff, yes sir, the quad gun design was for 14in guns before the escalator clause of the London Naval Treaty was enacted, after it came into effect the design was quickly and rather suspiciously easily adapted to triple 16in 45 caliber guns. I suspect more than a few Treaty designs had some sort of tom foolery going on regarding guns and Armour that was added in war time that shouldn't have fitted so well *coughCountyclasscough*.

I have often wondered that myself, but it seems that this was considered in one of the preliminary designs. It's too bad the men who did the heavy lifting to get her designed and built aren't around any more.

After a bit of deciding I removed the original Bass wood fire control tower, as it was not consistent in shape from deck to range finder on any of the four sides. This was replaced with a hollow plastic one, built up from pieces of .5mm styrene and bulked up in the corners so I could gently sand corners round. Adding the foremast to the tower and the third iteration of the support for the mast. I'm finally creeping ever closer to paint.

Good morning Jeff, now that I'm gonna be starting painting there will be more frequent updates.

It amazes me how modern Taiho looks compared with new carriers. Your work is fantastically clean! Keep it up.

After a while away, I have some updates, I soldered the catapults and cranes since they were so delicate. I started the main mast which was laminated to be 1 mm thick with a .5mm brass rod in the middle. Platform's for the mast were made from .25mm styrene stock. The first photo is a support for the foremast, I will need to widen the part just a bit to be able to drill a hole to accept the mast without breaking. As for the air search Radar. I need a second chance. The dang thing is just to tiny and easy to crush, definitely a 4 tweezers sort of job. 😅

It looks great so far, one of the better designs to come out of the new Star Wars stuff.

Thank you for the kind words, when I purchased the original kit I was fine with the detail, I just bought new turrets for it, but the longer it went on and the more reference photos I collected, I knew something had to be done to really spruce up this kit, and do the ship justice. I have a few more bits and bobs to get and then it will be into paint and powder before I realize. I wish I could find some 600 scale American water tight hatches and portholes. So it might be time to experiment with some home made photo etch. I'm glad to hear yall are doing well. My dad has some friends over in Melbourne and they are getting hit pretty hard. Thank you 😁 it has been a journey for my modeling skills.

I'm glad to be back Jeff! It's is the home stretch now. How are things down under? I heard yall are in another lock down 😕

Well, after a very long break to do some job searching and moving around and moving back, I finally have some time to do some work on North Carolina. First thing was a coat of primer since she looked less like a battleship and more like a hodgepodge of parts World of Warships style. With the addition some great 3D printed parts by Grzegorz Moczko (blacman is his store name in Shapeways.) I can resume work. I simply cannot gush enough about the quality of the prints, I'm going to need to get another set of 20mm AA ready lockers printed however.

Well, after a very long break to do some job searching and moving around and moving back, I finally have some time to do some work on North Carolina. First thing was a coat of primer since she looked less like a battleship and more like a hodgepodge of parts World of Warships style. With the addition some great 3D printed parts by Grzegorz Moczko (blacman is his store name in Shapeways.) I can resume work. I simply cannot gush enough about the quality of the prints, I'm going to need to get another set of 20mm AA ready lockers printed however.

Your work impresses me immensely, unfortunately I've had to put my projects on hold for a move to my new job.