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14 9 August, 07:14
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In view of the start of this build, I was tempted by the following motto: "From ugly duckling to swan": the kit offers a number of interesting challenges, but gives an idea of the potential both as a model and as a representation of a true aircraft beauty! I will try my best to make the swan appear....
A first challenge: roughly moulded parts, poor fit and a wing that wants too much in a positive V-position.... A second challenge will follow in the form of a Vacu canopy that has turned yellow with age; this will give me the opportunity to try out the doing in Vac-canopy myself. More of that next time...
9 August, 07:18
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Nice aircraft !
One was used in the last phase of the New Guinea gold rush in the 30's...
Good luck !
@+
9 August, 11:50
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Great, Roland!
I would like to see the steps you follow when making the Vac-canopy.
9 August, 17:52
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Thank you for your interest, I appreciate it!
Cuajete, I'd be happy to show you a few photos of the progress of the construction and application of the self-moulded Vac canopy. It seems to have produced a reasonable result so far....
10 August, 17:25
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An unusual subject Roland! No doubt you will end up with a fantastic result
10 August, 17:34
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Many thanks, Roland!
Great job with the putty party and vacuum canopy 👍
What thermoformer did you use?
10 August, 18:22
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This look like an intriguing project, but she's definitely a putty queen! I am super impressed with the vac-forming!
10 August, 19:02
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Thank you very much for the answers, mates! I'll show you a few new pictures from today: the surfaces have been reworked with 2000 grit sandpaper (even if it may not look like it, dusty as the "duckling" still is) to prepare it for a first coat of paint. This will certainly show the need for correction! 🙂
11 August, 09:28
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deține acest articol
![1:72 Light Vehicles Of Allied & Axis During WWII (Academy 13416) 13416](/products/img/0/0/5/1496005-72231-23-t180.jpg)
Light Vehicles Of Allied & Axis During WWII 1/72 Ground Vehicle Series-1
Academy 1:72
13416 2019 Cutie nouă Subiecte multiple (3)11 August, 09:27
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24 25 July, 08:02
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These pictures start a build that gives me my first experience with 'Clear Prop' - and they are good ones! The fineness of the shapes, the accuracy of fit and the meaningfulness of the construction steps seem to combine to create a pleasurable building experience!
This plane is also highly interesting: originally derived as a drone for shooting practice from a small civilian predecessor model, hundreds were pulverised in the air. Some of those that survived this use went on to have an amazing career as light sports aircraft and enjoyed great popularity in the 1940s.
25 July, 08:08
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Oh, a brand new kit?
It is hard to keep track all your parallel running builds! You speed of building all those birds is simply unbelievable and a great mystery to me!
25 July, 11:44
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I have the same impressions as Bughunter, frankly speaking 🙂 Following this build for sure.
25 July, 13:00
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Hello mates! How nice that this small but lovely project has your interest and positive feedback! Indeed, a brand new kit that immediately caught my interest when I stumbled across it - so it ended up on the workbench straight away.
To answer the question about the current density of my projects: on the one hand, I sometimes wonder myself 🙂 On the other hand, I suspect that it has something to do with running three or four, maybe even five (at the moment, for example) projects in parallel . Something is 'always' being finished or started.
26 July, 14:32
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I made the following preparations for the bright red of the final surface: first I applied yellow followed by a layer of white to the model. After drying, I sanded this base, which should make the following red "glow", with 1000, 1200 and 2000 grit sandpaper to make the colour layers more transparent again, to get a smooth surface and to find any flaws - you can see a few exposed on the fuselage and tail unit. I am surprised by the very high quality of the kit and look forward to finishing it!
2 August, 19:30
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It looks like the Culver PQ-14 is ready! This was a most enjoyable project from start to finish. I am delighted with my first "clear prop" kit and I enjoyed the unusual history of the original. I made the seat belts and the aerial wiring, everything else can be found in the beautifully finished kit.
Thank you for your interest and your helpful and motivating comments!
7 August, 19:03
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Beautiful! Great work as always... 👍 And also: thanks for showing this - it gave me the opportunity to revisit Culver's lineage: the Culver Dart, Cadet, Model V... the role played by Al Mooney... the PQ drones... Lovely!
8 August, 15:24
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Thank you for your motivating comments and your interest in a not often seen aircraft, mates! Alex, your list was an inspiration for me to have a look - and to find some interesting aircraft and interesting references - Culver: an amazing manufacturer! thanks!
9 August, 07:09
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19 9 May 2023, 21:16
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both are interesting, this one is total crap but will try to make the best of it
28 April, 17:11
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for the crap kit it is, its going on quite okay now with some colour on it at least, hopefully the cannopy wont ruin it all due to the bad kit
20 July, 07:12
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I would have sanded those rivets off and reriveted both planes. But I can understand not doing that. Getting raised rivets to look good in silver is a real challenge.
20 July, 19:52
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![1:350 Prinz Eugen 1945 - Super Detail Set (FlyHawk Model FH350069) FH350069](/products/img/6/4/6/306646-11575-51-t180.jpg)
WWII German Heavy Cruiser
Prinz Eugen 1945 - Super Detail Set for Trumpeter FlyHawk Model 1:350
FH350069 2014 Instrumentul nou 11 August, 09:17
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51 19 June 2023, 19:38
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This weekend both Essex and Hancock kits were started. You can compare these two on my garden table, Essex being a short hull version and Hancock one of the later long hull types. Therefore Hancock has the Ticonderoga Pontos set. I threw in a dozen of airplane sets and pillaged the Ion Model figures stock for about 420 seamen to take the stations. While making the requested change to the rear elevator (see shipmodels.info/mws_..pontos+essex#p919517 ) an error was discovered in PE part 605 and this can only be solved by completely scratching it. Also, I'll open up one rear elevator so I have to adapt the deck edge to that. The Hancock kit got some travel damage to the hangar deck, so that will have to be repaired too. But I think this is a good start to the project.
19 June 2023, 19:52
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The hangar doors present a compomise that I can't accept, showing some inside detail but with all gates closed down and an exaggerated thickness. I decided to remove all of them, beginning with the Hancock sprue. You can compare with the original Essex sprue. To replace the partially closed doors, I can choose between Evergreen grated plates (subtler paneling though one-faced) or the same metal foil as used earlier.
24 June 2023, 22:56
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The walls of the Hancock are now built. I found out that there are not enough Pontos PE doors of one design to replace all plastic ones, so Hancock and Essex will be getting a different type. A drawback to the hangar walls is the absence of locator holes. I made some pins myself. The plane cockpits were not in stock and will arrive later.
31 March, 01:55
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Read a lot about the Essex-class carriers, really interesting history and very interested to see how your ships turn out 🙂
31 March, 02:02
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Thanks, Rando. Today the second ship's hangar was closed off. In the Essex model I didn't need to remove a part of the hangar deck, so now there's a minute difference in the distance of the rear deck to the island structure. The fault should be in the Hancock bow section. I closed down some of Essex hangar doors, but I kept a peeping hole for the elevator shaft that I moved to the right like in Hancock.
2 April, 00:02
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This is some project Steven. These are not exactly small models (i have one myself - CV-13 USS Franklin)....and so much extra detail you are adding. Watching in admiration. Great work so far.
2 April, 06:18
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Thanks, Gary. The first PE parts are bent for the stern and the boat cranes of Hancock, after the hangar wall seams are removed with Tamiya filler. One part of the wall is badly fitting and needs to be shortened.
5 April, 01:27
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Lots of PE particles are now assembled to giant deck support structures. I accidentally used the Essex front deck instead of the Hancock one, so I had to remove the PE plate causing half of the ribs to jump of again and restore this to the Hancock deck. Now I'm about to begin the same again for Essex, that has a slighty larger hollow under the flight deck.
8 April, 01:40
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Nice progress Steven. Shame about the mix up but we all human, im sure at one point we have all used a wrong part or miss assembled.
Keep up the good work....and enjoy your build time.
8 April, 10:01
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Thanks for the acclaim, now Essex is also loaded with PE parts under the front deck. I also removed the rear lift floor in the hangar deck, because it will be visible through the side doors. The deck edges are getting PE plating with the correct catwalk acces doors and fire station hatches, but I'm still thinking about methods to remove the space behind these PE parts. Drilling is not enough.
12 April, 12:38
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Thanks Gary. The update today shows the reshaping of the Hancock bow. The angle of the kit bow is too shallow, so I cut out a wedge in the side and plied it back. The bottom part was split and clamped shut tighter, using sprue "rivets" to hold it closed. A lot of sanding followed, even after I had installed the port 40mm hubs on the hull. Another problem were the 18 doors that needed to be removed from the island structure, so I used my Proxxon for that. An extra is the comparison between 5inch/38 mounts from the kit, Flyhawk (yellow) and Pontos (Brown). Pontos is more detailed, Flyhawk has PE details and the kit is built up from different parts.
20 April, 10:19
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Thanks, Pietro. The islands now both have all watertight doors, and Hancock's island is already a bit further down the line sporting ladders, a PE walkway, the pri-fly cabin and a almost fully equipped smoke stack. For a movie about choosing the right watertight door in your model, see Youtube Video . I did find the correct type on some detail pictures in my books.
![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/DmaTJTPfXA4/maxresdefault.jpg)
23 April, 13:24
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A 45 picture update about Hancock's island. I made changes to the building plan where I saw the reference pictures didn't follow them. Loudspeakers were added. A cutout in the bridge deck was removed. The venturis on the different levels were added, but some don't extend far enough. Some of the PE hatches on the director towers needed to be scrounged from the ABSD project remains. All kinds of radar antennas are added, some I didn't find or identify yet, like the "stovepipe" antenna encircled on one reference picture. The SC-2 radar needed to be put on the platform for the side SK radar position. I did make the rear mast for the smokestack position, but removed it again because there is no trace of it in the reference. It might still be used on Essex.
26 April, 00:35
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Thanks Christian. Again a large update with changes to the Essex island. The front structure is made identical to Hancock and some scratched galleries are added. I decided to move Essex to the march 1945 scheme. Pontos has some parts for 1944 Hornet that are useful here, like the bridge walkway. Some areas like the stern will have to be adapted too. The same radar antennas are used, but some of them on different positions. I now added more airplane PE to the inventory, some of these should be finished to be able to close down the hangars.
2 May, 13:12
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The Avengers are now getting their PE cockpits, and the interior of the hangar is painted white.
6 May, 00:59
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Thanks, the airwing continues with the Helldivers, the Hellcats and the Corsairs, that had the hardest fit, so it's a good thing I had only six of them. I still have the same amount of planes not getting a cockpit.
8 May, 00:25
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Detailing of the port air outlet, the catwalk and starboard galleries of Essex. For Hancock it's only the outlets that were repeated. At first I was cutting small mesh parts, but it's better to cut them as a whole and add a PE crosshair. In the Trumpeter planes there is a tendency in the wing base to be cast offset (see color image) resulting in a skewed wing position when the fuselage halves are assembled. I'll often have to correct the angle. All plane fuselages have been fixed now and in the Helldivers and Avengers the seams are already filled and sanded.
11 May, 00:36
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The Helldivers are first to be completed with PE parts. The Pontos airbrakes are an improvement over the kit ones, and they can both be used for stretched wings or retracted ones. I drilled open the wheel wells. In the Hellcats, the cowling is incorrectly cast with one lower opening, so I shoved a node in each one and sanded it flat. A new opening is drilled and an oil cooler vent is then cut out under that. Takes quite a while.
14 May, 15:06
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The Hellcats are now all having a revised cowling and they also have a brass tube for the new prop position. The wheel wells are all drilled out and I made 10 scratch pairs because I only have 32 Pontos pairs for 42 Hellcats. For the Corsairs the wheel wells are rectangular which is a real pain to scrape out. The Avengers are still to be detailed, beginning with the tail wheels.
18 May, 00:52
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That are quite a lot of planes you're doing.Defintely will complete the build
18 May, 11:59
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I think so, Lode. Don't you fancy a carrier build yourself? You probably have a Yorktown 1/200. Today the painting of the airplanes was started. The wings are painted white but this I might have to redo in grey, they're too coarse. The planes are in grey now. I cut out the propellers and I needed extas for the Hellcats, so I changed the 6 optional 4-bladed Corsair props into 8 3-bladed ones.
21 May, 01:35
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ton of little airplanes will certainly make a great flight deck, picture 359 seems an MC Escher design 😉
21 May, 06:23
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Currently these planes are enveloped with gum to spray the camo on them. This is extremely tedious because the gum is not always adhering well and it must be sculpted exactly the same on each plane. I now painted the hangar floor in Lifecolor Deck Blue 20b (don't mind the overspray) and I also built the side elevators. This is a very nice fit from Pontos, but the netting supports are erroneously numbered 36 and this part is not abounding, nor does it fit the purpose. In stead of it should be used part 10, that was left in just the right numbers. The repair of the 5 inch/38 resin housings was first done with putty but then I wanted the outline to be improved and I made impressions with a knife flat and a drop of CA. Then break off the knife and a straight edge will result.
24 May, 15:21
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The 5 inch guns are now all detailed according to reference pictures of the ships. Essex was different than Hancock, it had no blastbags nor ladders. But in the end I noticed I used the wrong type of ladder, so maybe those will be removed. For the single guns one double gun barrel was wrongly shipped, so I lengthened that one with a 1mm Albion tube. Also some small parts are not provided in the needed quantity, or the option of placing PE steps was not shown in the manual.
27 May, 12:48
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The long range antenna pylons of Essex are according to the Pontos manual, but they copied this for Ticonderoga and that's incorrect. The 3d pylon should be left out for long hulls and so I can drop a 10th pylon for Hancock. One of the ladders for that can be used to complete the double 5 inch housings. Because of much unclarity in the manual I made many wrong folds on the catwalks and had to reassemble lots of parts with stress cracks. Also the deck edge elevator has a chain lift system that is now constructed out of a very fiddly frame that also breaks easily. But the end result is sturdy enough.
31 May, 00:43
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All planes are now in sea blue and ready for the last camo paint. The prop tips are painted in yellow. Some wings were stripped, others were overpainted in light grey.
5 June, 10:50
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Midnight Blue is almost completely added on all planes, only the Avengers still need the tail completed. Some of the wings had orange peel and were redone.
7 June, 01:02
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Thanks Gary! It went on with the elevator shafts, the Avenger tail colors, the propellers that were masked with a metal roundel (after 2 hours I now have painted about half of them black - on two sides!) and then finally the cockpit set arrived and I soon had some new Helldiver and Hellcat cockpits. I wanted the Dragon Avengers to have a PE cockpit too, but this was a very tight fit even afer milling as far as I could in the fuselage interior.
11 June, 23:59
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Thanks, David. Now it's decal time. 196 roundels on the wings, as many on the tails and again for the callsigns on the tailplanes. Essex has a horizontal white line that was trimmed with scissors and Hancock has a horseshoe. Still some more are coming, but for the numbers some research will be necessary. All decals were treated with Daco Sol. Plane interiors ar painted Vallejo Interior Green. Hellcat propellers are also painted.
14 June, 00:28
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Thanks for the comments! Today most of the canopies are cut up, ground thinner and applied to the fuselages. I'm left with the Hellcat open canopies, these just don't look the part and I will probably have to remove part of the tail to fit these.
1 July, 22:58
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I found a hack for making the perfect 1/350 Hellcat open canopy. Use 1/700 two-bar railing cut to four stanchions and bend this over the middle. By now I have placed all clearparts on the airwing. I now started t add the number decals on the Helldivers. You shouldn't follow the Pontos Hancock tailfin indications, these appear wrong as the number is always below the omega sign.
3 July, 20:01
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Thanks, Gorby. All crates now are sealed with Pledge and the props are installed. For the Helldivers I needed to scratch prop spinners out of clipped spheric node ends.
6 July, 00:49
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Tamiya grey panelliner wash is used on the top side of the airwing. I will be using a different shade for the bottom.
10 July, 00:36
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A brown wash was done on the grey undersides of the planes. The also got rigged, each of them with a scrap PE antenna mast. The Avengers got guns in the turret and now I will paint all the canopies on the outside.
12 July, 00:41
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All surfaces got a matt cote with Vallejo Polyurethane varnish, for the other side I avoided the gum because it removed some of the decals. Then all the wings could be fixed with a little drop of CA glue. There are no fitting locks for the stowed position of the wings, so all of them had to be manipulated in exactly the same position.
15 July, 00:38
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And more still to come. The update shows the closing down of the hull bottom with a waterline plate, that needs to be filled in with a lot of CA to get a smooth fit at the bow. The anchor deck is painted and the anchor chains are added (1 set was sufficient for both). The rear elevator shaft of Essex got a trompe-l'oeuil bottom part because the extreme right side is visible from the outside through the hangar hatches. The bow portholes are deformed because of the modling and are all replaced with Pontos portholes, of wich you get enough to complete the hull.
18 July, 00:22
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The decks are closed down after sanding the bottom. Some of the Pontos PE is interfering with itself, so that's clipped. I have some overview pictures for you, with the island and main guns in dry-fit. Now the catwalks can be added.
20 July, 00:25
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Remarkable work!
I still can't get over that you are building two 1/350 carriers at the same time. Madness I tell you. 😉
20 July, 04:50
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There is reason in it. For example the catwalk supports you see in this update, in stead of stopping at assembling 75 for one ship, you can do another batch for the second one, in stead of finding yourself a few years later in front of that task with the memory of those first 75 ones and having to do that all over again. I even found errors in one Pontos instruction that could be corrected with the other one.
Further in this update: fixing a sag in the deck caused by tensions in the connectors, just saw through the connectors after the deck is fixed to the hull. Also the ladder booms and a lot of Pontos steps that are either not present where expected to not fall off the ship, or that are mentioned in the manual but not used on the pictures. I also fixed the antennas to the catwalks.
25 July, 23:45
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There is enough material to build 25 quadruple 40mm Bofors, so I made them. Nevertheless you only need about 8 per ship. Now I'll start on the 130 single Oerlikon 20mm guns. Here the margin is much less, but the fit of the stands is bad so they have to be clipped a bit.
30 July, 20:54
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It seems that in 1944 Essex' gunshields were modified, so I had to remove a part from them. For the Hancock model this is not necessary. Every step in the 20mm guns is repeated 125 times, so that takes a toll.
1 August, 23:45
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Every time I see this I'm blown away by the effort you are devoting to it. You certainly have a lot more patience than I have.
2 August, 06:32
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With these little guns it's tested daily, Gorby. But now they are all done and painting can almost begin. The Hancock 20mm guns were finished when the handwheels were added, but the Essex guns are like on the reference pic and needed an Evergreen Mk.14 visor and a piece of scratch PE for the air feed pump.
4 August, 20:40
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In this update I scratched the fuel lines on the hulls, covered the deck ends with sheet metal, made the directors, added all Carley floats and placed the HF-antennas and some missing stuff on the islands.
7 August, 09:58
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The floater net baskets are made while the Deck Blue parts are masked on both ships. I tried out the excellent Eduard searchlight sets and used this on both, they outshine the Veryfire ones I used on Hancock first. Now back to the tedious masking of Hancock.
11 August, 00:57
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I never thought I would say this......they're "bulkheads", not "walls". Forgive a former carrier mariner, but some of the lingo they jammed into my brain stuck. I also can't stand movies with officers wearing their lids indoors. : ) Your PE work is inspiring!
11 August, 02:00
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Impressive amount of photoetches and details, my head is spinning, admiration and respect!
11 August, 09:17
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