RC, what are you planing on using for the Spar color? I love the stripe.
I used to use Testors Deck Tan, but that’s gone now. I have of tin of White Ensign‘s Spar, which I am hoarding, it looks like an exact match to my FS deck. But, it is an enamel, which I won’t airbrush indoors, so I won’t be using it here.
I have also used MM Yellow Ochre before, which is close, but a little too dark/intense.
I recently stumbled accross a great match: Vallejo’s Medium Flesh looks like an excellent match. It is what I’ll use on this model.
Rather than mask and paint the thin blue part of the stripe, I think I’ll use a decal…
You can still get WEM Spar. I steered Fright to it for his lightship build. IMO there’s nothing else that’s quite right. It’s a pretty sophisticated color, alot of brown (red creates that).
One last catch-up post to get this thread up to date…
While waiting for the paint to dry, I did some work to improve the small boats. The kit comes with four WW-2 era boats, including three open whaleboats. I took a shot at reworking two of them into something that looks more like a USCG 26’ Motor Surfboat (MSB). Some sanding to reshape the hull and the addition of scrap bits of styrene made a big difference:
Hi;
You are on a roll with this . I have probably built about six or seven of these . Two I know were OOB . The rest well , One grey and in Navy colors and the rest as High Performance Motor yachts .
There wasn’t and still isn’t a model of any motoryacht over 100’ to build from . Many of the really Rich Guys and Governments had motoryachts that were long range seagoing ships and could travel to foreign ports .
What has been offered could not make it and further than the Bahamas . Living as I did in Miami beach as a kid for half the year I saw some Large yachts that would knock your socks off .
I have always liked those like the old Seqouia and others . I think they bespeak a time of real craftmanship . Now your tweaks , so far , are very good and interesting to see . Many would Not pick up on some of the discrepencies of this vessel and try to correct them .
For chain like you need , try your local Jewelry show the next time it is in town . You will find lots that is not in the stores ! T.B.
For Navy link chain, I found this;
From Floating Drydock
3-D printed in 3 sizes,
7.5 links per inch, 9.5 links per inch, and 11.5 links per inch, in packages of 12 inches.
The picture shows the largest size.
EJ
I have been working on the superstructure lately. I used my razor saws to cut off all the molded in railings everywhere they appeared. There has been lots of filling, sanding, priming, and painting. Lots of masking, too- every little sub-assembly has white on the vertical sections and gray on the decks.
One feature of the ship was the black stripes behind the vertical ladders. They were painted black there because it would be impossible to keep white paint looking clean from all the black toed scuffs from the crew climbing up and down those ladders all the time!
I decided I would do more harm than good if I tried to sand away the molded-on ladders to replace them with PE parts. So instead, I masked the ladders and airbrushed them black. (Actually a grey-black, as pure black is too stark in this scale.). After it dried I used the edge of my knife to scrape away the dark paint, letting the white on the raised ladder show through. I rather like the effect- it looks better in person than in this extreme close-up!
i’ll be using 1 of my Taney kits to do the 4 enclosed 5" 38 cal gun mounts version of the 1943-44 Taney.
RCBoater,
Your build is looking good, and I always enjoy hearing about new tips and tricks.
Can’t wait to see more.
PF
K
That’s a great idea- Taney was the only one to be armed that way.
I was about to post on the 5 inch turret, so I’ll do it now. I saw that Model Monkey offers a 1/300 scale turret set for the Taney kit- you get two in a package (but no barrels.) I ordered them and they came quickly. They are nicely made, and show how far off the Revell turret is. Compared to the MM 3-D printed turret, the Revell one has some issues:
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In profile, the two turrets are about the same size. But from the front, the Revell turret is noticeably wider.
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It is square when looking at it from above- it is missing the taper- the back of the turret is not as wide as the front.
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the gun is centered on the face of turret, and should be offset to the right.
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the turret has the Gun Captain’s observation hood, which most, but not all, of the class photos seem to not have.
So what am I going to do? Keep the kit turret!
Here’s why— my new, custom deck was made long before I found out about the replacement turret, so the base I made was sized for what I now realize is a too-wide turret. The correct turret won’t fit.
About all I can do now is to sand away the observation hood…or not. I found one picture of the Duane with it…
Working on the rest of the main deck and 01 deck structures…
Sometime after the Korean War, the ships all got a tripod mainmast for the air search radar, with a radar room under the mast on top of the aft end of the main deckhouse. The Revell kit doesn’t have any of this, so I’m going to try to make it…
First, I cut the various pieces of “detail” off the aft end of the 01 deck with a fine saw, then sanded it flat. Getting rid of it does get me out of having to fill a bunch of sinkmarks!
Before:
After:
The new structure. Just a simple box made from sheet styrene, with extra PE doors and bits of styrene for detailing. Should look OK once it is primed and painted.
Here’s a comparison of the Revell 5”/38 turret and the Model Monkey one.
The 01 deck balloon shelter/ stack base and the pilot house have been installed. The new radar room/ ET shop aft is being test fit. The “box“ was too tall at first, so I took about 3/32” off the height- now it matches my drawings.
I had forgotten how bad a kit from the 1950s can be. The more I work on the model, the more errors in shape and fit I find. I am unwilling to scratchbuild literally everything above the main deck in order to get it correct- so I’m going to do what I can to make it look betteR with what I have. I really need to finish it in the next 4 weeks, so I won’t get too carried away as I go forward.
Bottom line, it will look like the Duane from the 1970-1980 period, and I know my friend will like it!
You know, every time I say something like that…
I said it when I built the Renwal Lexington. You gotta know when to face reality the thought of having to finish the kit requires a point where one has to stop and build whats in the kit.
I subscriped to this build. I have this kit and really was at odds as to how to build it. This thread really helped.
Scott
I do still have a little scratchbuilding left to do. I need to replace the kit’s pole mainmast with the shorter tripod mast that was installed to support the heavier air search radar antenna and mount. I am also going to need to scrounge up some extra railings for the top of the pilot house and my new radar room aft- the GMM set doesn’t include any extras. I’m hoping some 1/350 scale railing won’t look too out of place… I ‘m thinking that it won’t stand out as it will not be next to the 1/300 pieces…
Hi Bill!
If that 1/350 railing looks too small, there is a larger variety that might look better.
I have a set of “Ship Vessels Detail upgrade 1/250 Guard rails”. It is a 2 rail set that might work for the upper decks. I tried it on the old Lindberg 1/300 Rudderow and it seemed better than using 1/350 in that the 1/350 rails made the DE look “too big”. The 1/250 railings gave a better impression of how small the DE was.
I love what you are doing with this old kit. Thanks for the tip about a 3D printed 5" mount.
Nino
Yesterday and today I worked on the display base. The base is a piece of 1/2” thick poplar, with 1/4” square bass keel blocks. I primed and painted the base, but not the blocks. Plan is to airbrush a thin coat of brown to unify the color…
Here is the model being test fitted. I’ll have to sand a little bit of a valley down the centerline to accommodate the keel…
And a close-up of the almost-finished scratchbuilt foc’sle and the original kit part for comparison… Very happy with how this turned out!
Starting on the tripod mast. I am building it in place, so I pre-painted the lower part first, to avoid what would otherwise be a difficult masking job. The main piece is the remnant of the cut-down pole mast from the kit.
