I’ve been a fan of this site and its helped with many tips and tricks in building models. I’ve mostly built 1/350 scale naval all warships. I did the USS Saratoga couple of years back and keep it rather simple, this time I wanted to step it up a notch. Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated.
I also found this link which had some good variations of the subject.
http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=7216
The Subject Matter provided by my LHS.
Stepping up a notch I purchased a PE set from Gold Medal which looks very nice. However, the 20mm pieces are way to small for me. The rest of it looks doable but we will see.
Working on the Lady Lex 1942. In gluing the two hull halves together, I found it better to cut the original cross braces and glue replacements afterwards. The two hulls seem to connect easier.
Finished off the hull painting and started working on the lower hull.
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All my previous Aircraft Carriers, I either paint the Flight Deck in Wood or Grey with a brush. This time I want to take a stab at Deck Blue. From what I’ve seen it’s a Blue Deck Stain, and she looks more like a giant Blueberry. I’m just going ‘stain’ the deck and leave everything grey. So I’ve mixed up two types of Blue Deck paint. 1B approximately 30/30/30 is Revell Dark Grey and Dark Blue and Light Blue. 2B is Testors with 50/50 Dark Grey and Dark Blue with a little white added in.
Any thoughts on which color is the closer match? Although the computer/monitor may play tricks so…
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Nice choice of model for your build. As to the 20mm, The PE was small for me too, so I purchased 3D printed 20mm from the internet. Best thing I ever did. Highly detailed. As to your deck and paint, have you considered a wooden deck? There are wood decks available specific to your model, pre-colored in deck blue, and even include PE arresting gear. I used a plain wooden deck for my Missouri, mixed up some deck blue and brush painted a small area at a time, and immediately wiped it with a wet paper towel to give it a weathered look. Doing it again, I would buy some deck blue from AK, as I had to mix several batches to complete my model. Referencing your sample paint mixes, I like the one on the far left. Good luck with your build. Can’t wait to see it!
are you going to do the 6 docking keels on the bottom of the model?
CV-2 USS Lexington Booklet of General Plans (1941) USA - CV-2 USS Lexington Booklet of General Plans (1941) (version 1) : Navy Yard, Puget Sound, Washington : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
As a reference for her colors, you might be interested in her page at the US Navy’s photo history website, NavSource:
For her short combat career, the Lex wore the camo/color scheme called Measure 1, with a false bow wave (that was called Measure 5). There is a great aerial shot of her underway in October 1941, and you can see how badly weathered the paint was. You can also see the difference between the paint used on her hull’s vertical surfaces, and the Deck Blue stain. I don’t worry much about exact matches, myself, but I try to achieve the look. And I use photos like this and others as a guide.
Hopefully this helps! You could bookmark NavSource, too, great resource!
Best regards,
Brad
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General Plans
This was really cool. Still looking through it. Thank you, navsource is very handy as well.
Update on my build to follow.
Got the Flight Deck painted, i went with the color on the left. Mounted the 20mm, and 5".
Started working on the Arresting wires, used EZline Thick, i think to scale that would be 1 foot in diameter,
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I think the deck blue is spot on!
Your "Lady Lex"s progress is looking great! That PE is so tiny but looks fantastic.
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Looking really good. Nice work on your PE.
Looks great,I did this kit when it first came out,I believe it might have been the 2nd 1/350 carrier that came out after Hornet.Of course I built it out of box,your extras really make a diffrence.
jrford, what caliber guns are those 5" guns, 25 or 38 as looks like 38 because of barrel length?
They do look like the 38’s, navsource,org suggests 25’s she did lose her 8" for 1.1"s. For the Kit looks like they went with the 38’s as the Saratoga was upgraded and had 38s, I believe.
Attached the Elevators
Finished attaching the Flight Deck. I stretched some sprue’s to fill in the very slight gaps.
And mounted the Conning towers and stacks.
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Saratoga got her 5"38cal gun mounts while being repaired from a torpedo hit in Jan. 1942. Lexington never got 5"38cal gun mounts as she still had the 5"25cal gun mounts when she was sunk at the Battle of Coral Sea.
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