USS Lexington, toon style

[Scargsy]

My second build in the GB will be this toon style rendition of the USS Lexington (thankfully approved by the GB leaders)...

It's a style I'm not familiar with doing (both ships and the cartoon style) and should hopefully provide a fun little build, I'm hoping to put it on a base (I have one it should hopefully fit on) and do some water modelling, again something I'm not used to doing.

As I mentioned on the other thread, I've got 3 other GBs I'm trying to finish so the parts photos will arrive once I've got the time to start this!

[rob85]

Glad thus could join in the fun, I’ve seen egg planes get built but never a ship, should be a fun watch!

 

Rob

[Scargsy]

OK with time rapidly running out on the GB - maybe it's time I started, nothing like a deadline!

So here's what's in the box:

One giant bag of bits, spreading them out a bit...

The wooden display stand isn't included in the kit, but I'm going to try and do some water based effects on the top (no idea how) so lose the kit supplied based and lower hull.

The instructions come in a nice little colour booklet,

There are supplied stickers but unfortunately not decals, still I'll be ignoring these and painting the model instead.

So with the wind in my sails, I set off on Sunday afternoon and managed to make some progress...

The sub-assemblies are just loosely placed for now, since I've yet to work out what order to paint the parts in, e.g. I'll paint the lifeboats (not currently on) before attaching, etc. I think the lift door will be flush once I've completely attached the top so I might trim it down a little so it looks in motion.

I had a small accident cutting off one of the mast support parts I thought was flash when it wasn't and I need to tidy up the mast somehow - always a pain with something so flimsy.

As an aircraft carrier she comes with a complement of 6 tiny egg planes which I think are 2 Vought F4U Corsairs, 2 Douglas SBD Dauntless and 2 Douglas TBD Devastators.

Here's one of the planes built up...

I think I might need some filler there, also I probably should have painted the prop separately before attaching!

Still progress!

 

Edited May 18, 2020 by Scargsy

[Scargsy]

So some further progress on CV-2 "Lady Lex":

I've built up the aircraft and cleaned up the life boats and other misc. pieces ready for paint.

There's some pretty skinny legs there but I found it easiest to insert them then add a drop of extra-thin glue around the join. I couldn't get on with the folded wing option for this little chap so didn't use it (would have made painting a nightmare too).

Onto the display base, here's the start - I took the wooden base, gave it a rough sanding on top and a quick and dirty coat of black first.

Then a rough coat of silver - I've no idea if this will work, but my idea is to layer blue/greens over a reflective base coat to attempt to give an illusion of depth.

I then added some Tamiya clear blue and clear green roughly...

I wasn't too happy with the blacker bits on the edges so I used some blue-grey touch ups.

Since this will be a waterline display, I don't need the lower hull, so I sacrificed it to the gods of modelling - cut off the bits that stand proud so I can use it as a mask for the next stage (I hope this kit is 100% symmetrical down the hull centre-line or this isn't going to work!

Then it was on with the Vallejo water texture - never tried this stuff before (it might just be really expensive PVA glue), but it had a good texture and I got some good wave texture just by slapping it on with a spatula. I'd seen some tutorials of people using airbrushes to push similar water texture stuff around and gave it a small go but wasn't 100% happy.

The water texture stuff is clear when dry (apparently), I did add a few drops of grey and blue paint, then roughly mixed it before dolloping it on. I'm not sure on whether I should have gone with more colour but I erred on the side of caution, I can always give it a coat of clear blue when dry. I mixed it up in a few small batches without any formula so there might be differences in colour when set!

I left it about 30 minutes before carefully pulling off the masking tape and hull 'mask' as I wasn't sure how tough it will be when dry and didn't want tape or and upside down hull stuck in it! Hopefully this stuff is pretty stiff and won't slowly droop / even out when drying, the instructions say to leave it 24 hours, I put the kit box lid over the top to try and stop any dust settling in it during drying.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

 

Edited May 25, 2020 by Scargsy

[rob85]

Great start to this, hope you get it finished in time!

 

Rob

[Scargsy]

OK so I was frantically working away to get it finished for today's deadline but it seems it's been extended, oh well I think I'm done - baring allowing the sea 'foam' to dry, so I might post some shots then.

 

Anyhow the water stuff dried great, went clear after about 12 hours but was actually still tacky some 36 hours later as I found out after leaving my phone on it for a little while and it sticking (it says 24 to dry), still it was just tacky and no damage done!

Looked great, apart from my unsightly paintwork showing through near the edges so I put a coat of Tamiya clear blue over the top, though in hindsight it would have been better without but it's all a learning curve.

I primed everything up in Alclad black primer to start with, the parts weren't fully attached yet as I needed to paint some internal parts different colours.

I then painted the sub-assemblies in Meng colours (first time I'd used them) - the deck blue went on nicely, other than me laying it down a bit thick on part of the deck.

I hand painted the upper deck surfaces, also it looks like my kit was missing a small part (I think it's a search light that fits on the funnel). The rest was done in Meng 'Haze Gray' though it went down well it didn't seem to adhere very well, even 24 hours later (it's water based acrylic) it was still rubbing off with handling.

Masking up the deck stripes was a pain, though following the indents with a cocktail stick before the scalpel blade helped. The instructions would have the landing lines painted yellow but I felt they would look better in a blue-grey so painted with that. 

After a few days waiting for the paint to fully cure (and getting on with work), I came back to it.

Fitting the conning tower and funnel was a bit of a pain, I hadn't tried them fully before paint and the fit was very tight even after lots of scraping to try and get them to sit better - I was worried that something was going to snap when putting them in but eventually after more whittling I got them to fit.

Invariably the mast top took a knock and detached but I located it and superglued it back on!

I spent far too long obsessing about the colours for the aircraft, and put a light blue grey on the undersides but it was a bit too dark, so in the end went for a 1:1 mix of light grey primer and white (which I also used on the lifeboats). I used some AK 'real colors' blue-grey for the top sides.

The water I finished with a rough mix of snow texture and the acrylic water, it's still wet in the photos so might dry to a more clear consistency.

In the end I only put one of the Douglas SBDs on the deck, mainly because I didn't have enough tiny decals for the planes and also it looks the most cartoony, then finished off the base with the sticker from the kit.

Overall a pretty fun build doing subject matter I'm not familiar with, thanks for the group build!

[Andwil]

These kinds of models are not my thing, but I really like the sea base you have made.

 

AW