1/530 Revell Essex (CVS-9)

Box helpfully dated. 

These are the five kits I was given by a neighbor prior to 1977. 

These are the four (plus a Lindberg Boxer) that I built between 1977 and 1981. 

For the rebuild I chose the last Essex I had built, the BonHomme Richard, for the reason that at that time I'd started using a brush-on glue that left really weak joint, so the parts would be easy to disassemble. 

The first step was separating the kit parts. 

Next step was sanding off the prominent external keel, which had always made these models tilt alarmingly when placed on a flat surface. 

One of the first things I did was marked a raised level for the kit's waterline, which I think is too low. 

Next was framing for the new sheet plastic hangar deck, 

New hangar deck in place. 

This shows just how far off the hangar deck detailing was between the sponsons on the starboard side. 

Hangar deck in place with kit hangar railings sanded off, and flight deck sponsons removed. 

Calculations showed that the kit hull was accurate for the pre-widened hull, so I tacked the removed hangar deck walls in place on the kit hull, instead of inset. 

Here all of the kit hangar decks are tacked back in place in their correct positions. 

Test-fitting the flight deck and island showed a correctly aligned set of hull sections ready (or so I thought) for the hull blister. 

The kit hull is built out four scale feet on each side. 

Port side hull widening. 

In a major error I used body putty at this stage, which is harder than plastic, and did not sand well. 

After sanding and priming, the hull is ready for its first coat of red paint. 

This shows how far up the waterline was set to rise. 

And at the stern. 

Forward gun gallery scraped down and painted. At this point I was assuming they'd be used as-is. 

Primed hull below the waterline. Above, you can see what a mess the sanding has made.  

At this point things got more complicated when I ordered the Starfighter resin hangar deck. Although more accurate that the Revell parts, and providing interior detail, the pieces were warped, and designed to fit inside the kit hull when cut to a waterline model, pushing it out. 

This test-fitting showed what I was going to do, which was place it on top of the corrected hull (technically still the same position), and trim the edges later. 

Here the new hangar deck is in place and painted. The gaps at the edge show where strips of plastic would need to be added. 

Here is where I started test-fitting the flight deck constantly, trimming the kit flight deck to match the new hangar deck. 

Flight deck lightly sanded and primed. It turned out this was the only prepping it would get before the final paint colors were applied. 

At this point I started doing some serious work comparing the kit to the actual CVS-9, as shown in this 1966 booklet of general plans. 

Lots of measuring the plans using digital calipers and reducing that by .355 for the right measurement for the model (I later switched to letting Alexa give me the results). 

The significantly larger stern sponsored is framed up using photos of the Yorktown (CV-10). Also of note, I am continuing to putty and resand the hull. It would get worse. Much worse. 

This shows the complicated series of refueling platforms on the starboard side beginning to take shape. The original kit stern has been cut down and reattached. 

The next new addition - although it would be a temporary one - was a Starfighter resin island. It was drilled out to accommodate the pole mast at the top and the bracket for island work platform at the bottom. 

The design of the resin hangar meant that I could place the island on it for the next stages of the work. 

CVS-9's place in the display cabinet is just under her May 1943 incarnation in 1/700. 

The next step was installing an internal forecastle deck so I could mount the stem and starboard anchors using hawse pipes. 

The structure at the bottom of the bow is the sonar installed on Essex when it became an ASW carrier in 1962-63. The plastic will be sanded down - although far more than I initially thought would be the case. 

The pole mast gets its platforms and ladder. 

While installing the stem anchor, I noticed how overly thick the cutwater was, and sanded it down as much as I could. The bow sonar also underhangs the keel a bit, which at the time I thought was accurate. 

Again, major sanding on the forward part of the hull, where it is becoming apparent it's too thick, and the body putty was not sanding smoothly. 

Rather than reuse the kit shafts I scratchbuilt new ones that would be easier to attach the new PE screws to. 

Time to reattach the kit rudder and attach the new propellor shafts and bilge keels. 

Beauty shots with hull repainted. 

For the stern, I wanted to use the original kit part, so I cut off the original platforms for reuse. 

Is this photo shows, I trimmed the first platform and added supports, then added the enclosures shown on the 1967 plans. 

This photo shows the second platform, cut to match the plans. 

The next step was the large transverse bulkhead that enclosed the upper level, and longitudinal supports for the overhanging flight deck. 

This photo shows the difference between an unmodified original kit, and the kit with modifications. 

One of the shortcomings in most models of Essex class carriers is that the flight deck is modeled as a thin sheet with some walkways hanging off the side. In fact, the flight deck was just the top surface of a full thickness deck. So before I glued the flight deck back to the hull, I worked my way around the ship building a gallery deck that ran from the hall to the edge of the flight. This photo shows the gallery deck structures on the starboard side aft. 

I had forgotten that there was a 5" gun mount in the middle of this area, so here is where I went back and cut it out. I later increased the depth of this gun platform when I realized I had made it to shallow. 

Again, simply thickening the profile of the deck is not enough – it has to be built back to match up with the hull. 

Here are the very complex gallery deck structures on the port side forward. 

And here are the similarly complicated structures on the starboard side forward. 

Not for the last time, I decided the hull shape was wrong, so I created a set of hull sections to use as guides to see how much of the hull needed to be sanded off. 

The first section shows how far off the Revell kit, especially with the hull blister added too far forward. 

This shows the massive amount of plastic removal this entailed. 

Hull puttied over. 

With the hull slimmed down, it’s time to start on the 5” gun galleries. I traced the plans and reduced them to scale. 

Here the new platform is dry-fitted, including the slight recess at the rear.  

The kit's gun galleries are too deep vertically, so to get the elevation right the original kit's platform piece became the base for the new one, but had to be extended out and back, and the recess framed. 

This shows the new platform in place on top of the old. 

You get so used to the Revell kit that it takes a while to realize that the sponson on the actual ship looks nothing like this. The first step was to Dremel off the excess sections, including the sponson for the vacant place where a 3" twin mount has been in the 1950s - which mistakenly also enclosed part of the hangar deck walkway. By 1968 not only the mount but the sponson had been removed on Essex. 

Here the new platform with the correct shape is dry-fitted to the old. The hangar deck walkway has been extended forward after a section of the kit hull was cut back. 

The triangular white piece shows how much putty will be applied to make the sponson the smooth curve up from the hull that it should be. 

The port side aft gun gallery. 

The flight deck and hull showing the new gallery deck structures. I used these to align the flight deck with the hull, since virtually everything but the bow and stern piece of the kit was gone. 

Getting ready to attach the flight deck to the hull. 

The flight deck being glued on. The white strip forward was my first attempt to represent the "knuckle" in the new hurricane bow where the forecastle was faired into the flight deck. 

This is the initial stage of puttying the hull connection with the flight deck to create the gallery deck. It also shows the significant amount of puttying and sanding that went into the gun galleries. 

The putty needs to completely fill the space between the knuckle and the gallery deck so there is a clean transition. 

The white strip didn't work because it didn't result in a sharp enough dividing line, so I replaced it with a bit of wire, which wouldn't sand down. The result was pretty good. 

This photo shows an original Revell Essex with the modified version. 

Note the port sponson for the gun gallery smoothly faired into the hull, and the knuckle is slightly higher and sharper. 

1943 and 968 Essex models showing common features. 

The gun galleries were now ready for railings, which required checking plans and a lot of photos - here of the Yorktown when I visited it in 1993. 

Railings in place, along with more sheet plastic to bring the different structures together. The flight deck also has a coat of 21-B Norfolk deck stain now. 

Railings painted, and #2 elevator installed in the raised position. 

Here we are adding both gun platform railings and gasoline piping to the port side. .020 rod plastic - the smallest I have - seemed too small, but the digital calipers confirmed that's what the plans showed. 

The flight deck colors I used for my old angled deck Essex colors were Pactra "Rebel Gray" and "Panzer Gray." I laid down a section of the latter here, and it looked way too brown next to the blue-gray hull and flight deck colors. 

The next step was building the flight deck sponsons, which are not as simple as those in the Revell kit. The elevator tracks also required structures built out from the side of the ship. 

Again, note that a full-height gallery deck is being added between the sponsons. 

Comparing the kit flight deck sponsons with the accurized ones. 

The kit sat for 3 1/2 months without any work being done. Beginning ion mid-March I resumed work with the railing-less aft gun gallery. It got its railings, and attaching it to the kit hull required building out the hull. 

Time to start adding details to the starboard, including replacing the aft refueling platform with a new one made of thinner plastic with supporting brackets. The tractor parking platform outboard of the island had its shape corrected before getting the solid portion of its railing. 

The underside of the tractor platform has a lot of exposed structural supports, which were pretty easy to document and replicate. 

The plans showed five wiches - all different sizes and shapes - on the refueling platforms, so I added thin bases for these. 

Beginning weeks of weathering on the flight deck. The landing strip has been changed to Deck Blue. 

A big day - started adding the gallery deck. 

Working my way back towards the island. 

#3 elevator tracks and PE elevator supports test-fitted. 

At this point I decided that a 3D printed island was the way to go, so replaced the Starfighter island with a Model Monkey CVS-12. I also added a couple of brackets so I could slip the island on and off while working. 

CVS-12 was close but not exactly right - here are the details and changes made to the port side. 

And here's the starboard side. 

This shows the difference between the two aftermarket islands. 

New island in place; #3 elevator in place. 

Time to start detailing the pole mast. 

Mast and radars painted. 

Pole mast detailing complete (for the moment). 

The aircraft crane is made up of the kingpost from the kit piece plus photoetch. 

I started tracing the details I wanted on the gallery decks and reducing them on the computer. This wasn't entirely successful, since the kit's dimensions didn't always match the plans, so some things had to be placed in relation to landmarks on the kit, and not the precide measurements of the plans. 

Aircraft crane in place and I am still trying to salvage the enclosure on the back of the hangar deck o the starboard side. 

Adding circular platforms for the three 5" gun directors. 

First decals - hull number on island. 

I created a board with the ship's campaign ribbons, scanned it, reduced it on the computer and printed it on photo paper. 

Here it is in place on the side of the ship's island. 

The original kit's island - note I left the part number oval on the radar!