EJS

I like the old ones too. I have a late 1950's era Revell 1/530/540 scale USS ESSEX with the angled flight deck. That was exactly (kinda) the ship I served on in 1961 - 1963. The aircraft were wrong but I found some aftermarket one's for her. Aftermarket aircraft, decals, island, hangar deck and details from Starfighter, Photo etch from Gold Medal. Corrected faired in hurricane bow from Mattie. Turned a simple build into a real project. Hope mine turns out a nice as yours did. EJ

Although I still have some Model Master Acrylics in the USN colors, The True North enamels deserve a look. I have used them as well. My very Favorite though is the White Ensign Models Colourcoats line of enamels. At one point they were hard to find in the US. I bought mine from Snyder & Short. When the supply seemed limited I really stocked up on the colors for US Naval, so I'm all set for a long time. I do believe they can be found in the US again. EJ

Beautiful collection. Thanks for posting. EJ

Another trick is to warm the spray can in warm water before decanting. It helps with mixing the solids in the bottom of the can when shaking. It also helps get a better finish if spraying directly from the can. EJ

Yes, those tankers have a lot of breakable bits on them. I always wondered if the real thing broke as many parts off as I did on my model. Nice job. EJ

Very nice.

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Nice work. Is this the 1/600ish scale model? EJ

Wow! that is one sweet looking launch. Sure made a silk purse out of a sow's ear. EJ

Love the lighting. I did the hangar bay on a Hasegawa 1/700 USS ESSEX. LED's were brand new then but I used grain of rice bulbs. Did not do anything on the island.

Your rigging looks magnificent! Wonderful work. EJ

Really looking nice!

An amazing teeny air group. Will be well worth the effort.

My 1/350 Tamiya model had similar surface defects. Sand and fill and sand. I did that after the hull was assembled and a few reinforcing strips were installed athwartships to keep the hull shape. I also build wood ships. Those kits are not kits in the plastic sense, with parts to be assembled, but more of a pile of materials used to make a ship, just like a real one was built. The newer models have more laser cut parts in them making them a bit more like kits, but all parts need fitting / shaping / sanding to fit.

I did an old Hasegawa 1/700 USS ESSEX kit. No hangar bay or open doors, so had to do all that first. this was before led stuff, so it is a 3 volt grain of rice bulbs, wires hidden in the base and under the flight deck in a channel. I liked the result. EJ

WOW! Amazing work. Thanks for posting. EJ

Understood. ☺️ I'm using the Tamiya Missouri kit, Pontos PE and the wood deck, White ensign paints. I've been struggling with all the fine detail involved with using the aftermarket stuff, but seeing your work has fired up my enthusiasm for completing this kit. I'm gonna get it done! My interest in the pics is really in the way you have presented the fine details, (pe, rigging etc). Your execution is exquisite in my opinion. Sure gives me ideas and something to strive for, for sure. If I can make mine turn out half as good, I'll be satisfied, but if I can come anywhere close to yours, I'll be very happy. I agree that all these ships varied in details, even from month to month. There was a rather heated discussion at a club meeting once, regarding the placement and width of a painted "baseboard" in the hangar bay of ESSEX class carriers. Having served aboard ESSEX, I was asked my opinion. Well, even though there were "Rules" and "standards", it boiled down to one answer. It was - Whatever the Chief told you to do. Lots of things go on on these ships. Not everything is always documented to the letter in the "official" logs and records either. As the old saying goes, Rules are made to be broken. Some rules/standards/traditions, having been stretched a bit, the order and the recording of it and the result was frequently omitted from the "official /written" record or log, maybe not intentionally, but just because it wasn't thought to be important enough. The only true answer to questions regarding the appearance is photographic evidence, which is often not available. In that case, well, you just have to, as in real Navy life, improvise. EJ

Very very nice work. I'm struggling with a 1/350 Missouri, but seeing this work encourages me to continue on. I've saved all the pictures for guidance. Thanks for posting. EJ

I use two. These are the one's that work for me. 3M blue glazing putty for larger fills. This is the stuff auto body people use for fine scratches and stuff. Sticks tenaciously, dries harder and sands out very smooth. The other, my most used for general filling is Perfect Plastic putty by Deluxe Materials. I have tried all of the standard modeling puttys and this is my favorite. Some guys have said it dries out in the tube, but I've not had an issue. My tube is about 2 years old and is just like when I bought it. The tube is designed to be set on the bench with the cap down. This keeps the putty by the opening and keeps the air at the bottom end of the tube.

Now, that's tiny. Nice job. EJ

Thank you. Will be looking for those pics. EJ

Looks Great! Do you have more pictures that can be accessed somewhere? I'd love to see them. I'm doing the Gallery Models WASP LHD-1, 1/350 kit with extra PE, aircraft and vehicles, but I'm doing it as ESSEX LHD-2. Got some nice decals for it too. Need to get more data on any differences in the appearance of WASP & ESSEX. EJ Assistant Treasurer, USS ESSEX CV/CVA/CVS-9/LHD-2 Association.

Unfortunately, I lost most of my pics in any build logs I had going due to the Photobucket fiasco. I do have the photos, but they are stored in a portable hard drive. There are several thousand in there and I never saved them in folders, so they are all random, thousands of them. The time to sort them would be significant and the time to repost them to a new hosting site, then repost them to the various forums would take even longer. I'd rather be building, so, the only ones I have taken the time to update are threads that I'm actually working on at present and posted on various forums. Thanks for your interest though. I really like following your work. You get more done in a week than I do in 2 months. You give me the push I need to get back to the bench. EJ

Very nice addition to the fleet. EJ

I agree. My most satisfying builds have been subjects selected because it means something to someone else, such as a ship a veteran served on or something like that. These models are treasured by the recipiant instead of stored by the builder. A few pictures taken remind me of the story behind the build and the joy of seeing the face of the recipiant light up. That's more than enough for me. EJ