Gallery USS Wasp LHD-1

[WildBill50]

OK, here I go on starting this build. I picked this up at a contest last year at a very reasonable price. I am going to get the WEM photoetch set for it...it's only four sheets of brass. I may get the other sets for the airwing and vehicles, I'm still debating on it. I bought another set of aircraft for it also. There are more CH-53's, Ch-46's H-60's, AV-8 Harrier's and V-22 Osprey's. I wish they had some UH-1N's instead of the Seahawks (H-60's). The Marines embark Huey's not Seahawks. Oh well I'll have to look for some.

 

In a couple of pictures there is a purple 12" ruler for size. The kit comes with a small sheet of photoetch, but not enough to finish the ship.

 

This look to be a fun build. I am thinking of adding lights inside to show off the hangar deck and wet deck.

 

Let the games begin!

 

[Guest PetrolGator]

Bill,

 

There are a few of these on the ModelWarships.com "In progress" area, IIRC. I'd take a look at some of them for build sequence/ideas. I -think- one guy added lights. Check FreeTimeHobbies. They carry CV lights you could use.

 

WEM model stuff is awesome... looking forward to following this.

[WildBill50]

Chris, I like WEM's stuff the best. The Burke and Perry were done with their brass. Easy to follow directions and clear drawings make a complicated addition relatively pain free.

 

I've been looking on Modelwarship.com for some tips since the model came out (I figured this boat would one day get bought). I missed out when Hobby Lobby had them for $79.00. Got mine for $65.00 and now here we are.

 

This may take me some time as it does take up some room, but I don't want it to become the ship of doom and gloom.

 

Bill

[WildBill50]

Well, after some 1 to 1 scale gardening and house painting, I finally started onthis Gator. So far, the fit of parts is really great. I almost pulled the trigger on the photoetch but not yet. I was looking at the PE set from WEM and a set from KA models. They both offer pros and cons. KA is about $30.00 to $40.00 cheaper if on sale. WEM has some things that I like that is not on the KA set, such as the UREP and the overhead crane track for the wet deck. I haven't heard good or bad about the KA set. I know what I'd get with the WEM set having used their products before.

 

Having said this, I started on some things that won't need PE to address a major part of the build yet. I started on the LCAC just to see how it goes together before paining. I also started on the island. This is going together really well. A clamp here and there to make sure parts set properly were the only thing that needed to be done. So far,so good!

 

I put the sonar bulge on to the bow of the ship and got that puttied and sanded. I put in the hangar deck and the wet deck just to see if lighting them would be worth the trouble. After dry fitting the pieces and playing around with some green grain of wheat bulbs, this is something that will be done. Pic's of the aft end of the ship show the green bulbs glowing. They look really great with the lights off. I'll need about six of them on the wet deck and probably the same amount for the hangar bay. I may try to drill out the windows on the island and even light those, we'll see how ambiscious I feel.

 

Comments welcome.

 

Bill

 

[WildBill50]

After 6 months of waiting for the White Ensign photo-etch set to arrive, it finally came yesterday. WEM has been having problems getting their orders out due to a vendor problem. Anyway, was it worth the wait? Why yes, it was. I really like there stuff along with their directions.

 

Pics to follow, as soon as I figure out my new camera.

 

This build was supposed to have been almost completed by now. Oh well. I wouldn't have been able to work on it until about now anyway like all of my other started but not finished builds due to family matters. At least I can proceed with the model now, instead of waiting for pieces parts to arrive, so I can finish a sub-assembly. Not much of an update, I know; but at least there should be some progress going forward now.

 

Bill

[Guest PetrolGator]

Hey! Looking forward to this! I was wondering if you'd ever complete her.

[WildBill50]

I already have 1 helicopter almost finished...only took 2 months. I picked up Trumpeter's UH-1N set so now I think I have everything I need.

 

I have to redo the ALCAC that is shown above as there is more photo-etch than anticipated to attach to it.

 

The WEM set has about 5x's the amount of photo etch than I have used on one build. I am really getting geeked to get this re-started. This should be fun.

 

Stay tuned.

 

Bill

[Guest PetrolGator]

Have you managed to get any more done on this?

[WildBill50]

After fits and starts and trying to figure out a game plan on what to tackle first on this beast, I think I may have a road map to completion. I have started to put together the airwing, LCAC's Landing craft and other fiddley bits. I have the hull taped and ready to be painted below the waterline. I have to get all of the parts that go inside the hangar deck and wet deck built and painted before I even try to put any thing in this hull. I'll try to get some pictures up and posted soon.

 

Family life took the summer. Our daughter has gone off to college 2000 miles away.

 

Maybe now I can slow down and get a jump on this thing.

 

BTW..I am finishing up another model before I go full tilt into the Wasp.

 

 

Sorry for the meloncholy part.

 

Bill

[WildBill50]

Another 5 months and a small update. I have some pices finally painted to the point where other things can happen. This is a model that needs 5 other things done first to get to the part where you have to go. Small headway, but headway none theless.

 

One of the things that I have been working on are the LCAC's. One gripe of the kit is that the skirts show them inflated. I am making one out of the box with photo-etch and such, and another one with a deflated skirt with the ramps down for loading in the wet deck. I took a "snake" of Sculpey modeling clay and wrapped it around the deck pieces of the LCAC and got it to where it looked like it was not blown up. I pushed down on the areas where the ramps would be lowered and then put the sculpture in the oven to harden. It didn't take long to cook it. Almost burnt it. I think it works for what you will see. I had to make it so it would fit in between the walls of the wet deck also.

 

 

 

 

The deck with Sculpey bladder and the kit inflated bladder

 

[WildBill50]

Here are a few more pictures of the innards of this ship. I can't wait until the inside is further along. Some of the painting of walls, floors and details are coming along. Hope they look OK.

 

Some slow work to keep up some sort of pace. Most of this needs some paint or flat coats to continue on. I still need to paint the ceiling so I can attach the monorail loading sytem in the wet/well deck. I can then get some lights in there.

 

 

The engine exhausts for the LCAC...The solid piece has been drilled and the cleaned out to give some depth:

 

A pic of the PE part vs the kit part for the engine fan of the LCAC:

 

AMTRAC with PE rails:

 

 

 

Howitzer:

 

LAV Pirahna with PE .50 cal mg, turret bustle and cable cutter:

 

Side walls of the well deck painted, decaled and washed. They still need railings applied:

 

 

The LCAC in the well deck, notice the ramps are down for loading:

 

 

 

Wet deck and vehicle deck, along with the hangar deck:

 

 

 

From this: A couple of ramps for the wet deck

 

 

 

To this

 

The hull has another color on it. It needs to be sanded and given another coat.

[VonL]

Looks like somethin' sweet cooking here! Nice work.

[Mark Deliduka]

I'm really enjoying this Thread. It is great seeing this ship come together. The extra detail really makes it pop too!

[WildBill50]

Thanks guys. More pictures soon. Hopefully will have the hull finished being painted this weekend...can't wait tto take the masking tape off and see what it looks like. I have to mount this thing on a board then so it doesn't get all whacked up. More stuff to do just so I can build it.

 

Neutral Gray, all the way!

 

Bill

[WildBill50]

Since the last chapter of of this story, I have been making little tanks and things to go on the vehicle deck and LCAC that will be parked in the wet deck. Most of those are now painted and ready to get deployed. The decks are painted and are almost ready to be assembled along with putting in lighting so all of the detail is not wasted by no light to see it with. Here are some pictures of the afformentioned areas of construction.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Bill

 

Here is the painted wet deck with my modified LCAC. Notice the ramps are down, allowing vehicle to embark. The next thing to finish up is the LCAC and then I should be able to start placing the lights on the differnt decks.

 

The wet deck and vehicle deck placed in the hull. There is plenty of room to add wiring to light up the different areas.

 

Here is the hangar deck. This still needs to have the walls put on. I am working on putting a CV-22 Osprey and a CH-53 Sea Stallion together, along with an AV-8 Harrier inside this deck. There will also be tow tractors and other ground hanling equipment. Need to figure out tie-downs for the birds.

 

There are machine guns, stowage areas, bumpers and such attached to most of these vehicles.

 

 

Some of the vehicles...missing one M-60 tank with reactive armor. WEM photo etch on the vehicles.

vehicle deck

 

Vehicle deck with PE installed on walways and ramp area.

[Mark Deliduka]

This is exciting! I can't wait to see a full deck!

[WildBill50]

It seems like months since I posted anything; oh wait, it has been.

 

I don't have the time right now to just sit and work on this thing. When I get a chance to, I feel to tired to get anything done. I have worked out my lighting issues finally and I am ready to get this closed up soon so I can get the outside going. I found some great LED lighting from Woodland Scenics in the model railroad section of the hobby shop. All plug and play stuff to hook up. I have four LED's connected to a splitter. Each light has a separate brightness knob to regulate it. This works great as these light are super bright. I just have to plug in the power source to an outlet and I'm done. I also will have some colored 1 1/2 volt bulbs in the wet deck hooked up to a couple of batteries. I put these in first but I didn't like the dimness. They should look OK for filtered light though. I started on the aircraft for the hangar deck so that can be buttoned up then. I'll need to tie them down and put in some tow tractors and other miscellenious vehicles before closing it all up. Here are some of the decks and wiring goin on them. I will cover up the wiring with plastistruct to make it look like duct work on the ceiling.

 

Thanks for looking...any comments, ideas, etc are more than welcome.

I wish I could just sit and work on this thing as it has been a fantastic experience. The kit fits perfectly so far. Everything meets where it is supposed to, no filler anywhere yet.

 

Bill

 

An M-60 with PE reactive armor and turret bustle waiting to offload from and LCAC.

 

 

 

 

Here are a couple of pictures of the hull which was give a wash of Payne's Gray oils. It is not as stark looking as the picture suggests. It really made the details on the hull stand out.

 

 

 

Here is the LED on the ceiling for the wet deck, which is the floor of the hangar deck. The black wires will be covered with "U" channel to simulate ducting. The gold ovals are the monorail system for loading cargo through out the bay area. This is PE from WEM. The light fits in between this just right.

The LED lighting up the wet deck. Therre will be another one farther back to light up the vehicle deck so you can see the trucks coming down the ramp.

 

Here are the 1 1/2 bulbs in place, ready to be hooked up to a powere source.

 

 

 

CH-53, CV-22, UH-1N to be joined with an AV-8 Harrier for the hangar deck. I need to fold the props on the Osprey th correct way. If you look closely one of the prop's is folded up the right way (rt side, while the left one needs to be corrected yet). The Sea Stallion will have it rotors folded up also.

 

 

Here is the hangar deck...no birds yet.

[Highlander]

Any more progress? I'd like to see the finished version .... the work so far is fascinating.

[ewahl]

Hi, David,

 

Last night (April 1st) Bill brought the finished aircraft for the hangar deck to our chapter meeting. He's at work on this again. Looking at his vehicles above, you can expect to see some of the same quality on his aircraft. I'm hoping he will include some photos here soon.

 

Ed

[WildBill50]

Time is a wasting. Some pics soon of some things starting to stir for this thing. I think I have a plan for this going forward now. After not building anything at all last year, this is what I really want to get finished up this year.

 

Stay tuned for some updates.

 

Bill

[WildBill50]

I finally got around to downloading some pictures. Here are some of the aircraft, one of each type represented for the kit. I will have one of each in the hangar deck. These were all an experiment in building them. I tried different colors for the "glass" on them to see what looked the best. Choosing the colors for the airframes was also a challenge as the decals matched the colors that were advised. So here they are with some changes on some of them to make them look the part of folded up and stored below deck.

 

CH-53E: I cut the tail off and folded it for stowage. The rotors were also bent to better simulate the areas where they are stowed. I am not a masochist so I will not be adding the rotor holders to the aircraft.

 

V-22 Osprey: Folded the rotors and engines along with turning the wing to facilitate deck space storage. I painted the backs of of the the engines red along with the front intakes to simulate FOD covers.

 

 

CH-46: I bent the rotors down to match photos.

 

 

AV-8: I left the canopy clear to see how that looked. I will be adding pylons to the wings on some of them. 6 Harriers will be on board as that is the normal complement.

 

 

UH-1N:

 

 

 

 

 

AH-1 Cobra: Added rocket pods.

 

 

That's it for now. I am now onto getting the beast onto its base along with the lighting wired up for good.

 

Then the building of the outside can commence.

 

Questions, comments, funny stories all welcome.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Bill

[WildBill50]

Here are some shots of the hangar deck and base that this ship will be anchored to. I need to mount hte planes yet but this is how I am going to show this deck space. All it needs are some tow tractors , fork lifts, etc. Tie downs to complete the scene.

 

The base is walnut that was custom made for this thing. There is a spot underneath for the wiring and battery and the switches to adjust the lighting. I want to thank my fellow club member Ed for making this for me.

 

All comments welcome and thanks for looking.

 

 

Looking through from the hangar elevator.

 

 

The other side.

 

 

 

Here is how the hangar deck will be displayed.

 

 

 

The base.

 

 

 

Cutout for wiring.

 

 

Some of the mechanicals.

 

 

 

The base needed a few alterations to get it set up properly for what I needed. These are now completed and I can continue with the build.

 

 

[ewahl]

Hi, Bill,

 

Way to go! Every step, big or small, takes you one step closer to the finish line. With the hull now on the base, the potential for handling mishaps is diminished and you can concentrate on attaching the remaining internal and external pieces more easily. Looking forward to seeing it again soon at the meeting.

 

Ed

[WildBill50]

After 5 months, it's back to the boat. The push is on to get it finished. No more excuses.

 

Here are some updates.

 

A bunch of PE to add...can't wait.

 

The air Wing is attached in the hangar and it just needs the yellow and white gear to be added.

Most of the stern is finished up. I added the CIWS, Rolling Frame missiles and Sea Sparrows to the back plus the decks and chocks and such.

 

 

I used some "U" channel to cover the wires for the

LED's. It looks like duct work. Pretty happy how it looks.

 

Windows done with a micron pen. It took about one minute to do these.

 

 

All comments welcome.

 

Thanks for for looking.

 

Bill.

[WildBill50]

This is the USS Wasp redux.  Since I started this back in the day, way back in 2013 Photobucket hijacked the pictures of the start of this build.

I will attempt to put back some of the original pictures during the finish of this build.

Anyway here are some picture of the island that I finally got around to completing.  This model has been an on and off (mostly off) affair for about the last two years.  I have been working on this almost exclusively since Christmas and it is finally showing some kind of an ending point.  I set myself a goal of having it done by March.  That still seems doable.  The two pictures of the mast is before and after using the White Ensign PE on it.

I will post some pictures of the hull soon. 

Bill