Time to start The kearsarge

[Docbritofmf]

So I have been thinking alittle which is dangerous but never the less I've come to the conclusion I have to make a decision about the over all finished product of my kit..

So the base kit comes with two LCACs and two LCDs plus a small contingency of vehicles, my original thoughts were this was gonna be a stand alone piece of the ship and it's craft but I'm not sure how that would present on a stand so maybe a small display like a diarama waterline up ? But the issue comes I want this to be as compact as possible to fit on my desk at work luckily the hobby master kit comes with the water line up option or the full hull.

Anyone have any thoughts or examples to share that might be helpful

 

[urumomo]

LCD s ?
How big is your desk ?
You could do a cutaway .

 

[Docbritofmf]

lCD is Landing craft deck they also call them LCUs I assume Land craft utility

Used to move people cargo and vehicles

 

[urumomo]

So they call both the LCU and the LCM landing craft deck ?
The LCU s have the pilot house along the starboard .

 

[Docbritofmf]

So they call both the LCU and the LCM landing craft deck ?
The LCU s have the pilot house along the starboard .

I guess the people who come up with these acronyms aren't very creative but the ones I'm familiar with have a pilot house starboard with a level 2 deck crew quarters and kitchen they were surprisingly big the crew of the boat told me they are equipment to make sea crossing voyages with out the aid of a surface ship to support them but it seems like that would be a rough trip in cramped quarters.

 

[Docbritofmf]

Update time!

So yesterday I made some great PE progress then messed it up being ham fisted, fixed it and messed something else up it's been a love hate relation ship but the cat walks are on I just got to add as much of the rails as I can safely get on and try and gently clean up some that I mangled in the process.

Following the cat walk I thought it was a good time to put alittle coat of paint on the hull so I can see how things were starting to shape up so far ok need to fix and sand a few things kinda went over board on CA glue in places.
I also dry fitted the deck and the hull and the super structure ((keep in mind nothing is mounted)) and compared the PE deck with the kit deck.

There's still alot of work to go

 

[urumomo]

 

[wjbrandel]

Looks good so far

 

[KINGSLUG]

The problem is diving in something this complicated first time. I've never used this stuff either so I went with something a lot less complicated...and watched a ton of you tube vids about it. This looks like the upper end of PE in terms of skill. Good magnifying glasses a must..and maybe a bender.

 

[Docbritofmf]

The problem is diving in something this complicated first time. I've never used this stuff either so I went with something a lot less complicated...and watched a ton of you tube vids about it. This looks like the upper end of PE in terms of skill. Good magnifying glasses a must..and maybe a bender.

I have one of those head banded magnifying glass with adjustable lenses.. I got it from horror freight for about 10 bucks, it's helpful however it takes some getting used to. With that said the horror freight set is garbage and the lights do not shine in the direction of were your looking I tried to fix this but wasn't successful, Hobby lobby sells a better set with LED lights centered and better crafted lenses for 20 bucks that I'm probably gonna pick up when I have the chance.

Aside from the headset I also have two helping hands with magnifying glasses, and this tweezer thing called a third hand which is sorta like a tweezer with built in stand.

I don't have a bender but that really hasn't been much of an issue with this PE, but I do plan on picking one up in the future.

Along with this I have a bunch of different exacto knives and probe tips and 4 different types of CA glue ( thick, medium, thin and gel).

 

[Docbritofmf]

maybe some modifications?? So the Kearsarge kit has a few quirks that bother me the first is the well deck (the big garage at the back of the ship that floods so boats and hover craft can sail in and out to the cargo area) is instructed to have the doors closed but.. to really show the ships purpose having this door open with an LCAC inside or entering or exiting would really help bring the ship to life the problem is the interior of the hull is featureless and looks nothing like the true inside of a LHD.

The second is the Elevators, they are designed to be installed in the full up position level with the flight deck and the opens to the hangar deck closed but again it would be nice to show planes in the hangar deck with the door open and perhaps the elevator down or half way up. Now I can reposition the elevators but I run into the same problem with the interior if I open the doors.

Any suggestions??

 

[Docbritofmf]

Update time!
So after a struggle with the PE I took what I could and canned the rest untill I got to a place we're I felt better about the way the ship was become uhh "Ship Shape" rather then shipped out to the Bin...

The other day I finished the main pain job and started prep work for some weathering, then I put together rather pain stakeingly all the little aircraft and vehicles which I will say for the love of god was a night mare why they had to make the little pin head size wheels and winglets the size of 1/4 a match head separate parts to glue on is cruel and punishing these parts were so hard to handle even with my most fine point tools lastly I laid all the decals

 

[KINGSLUG]

Everything gets smaller..as you get older...

 

[Docbritofmf]

Update time!!! I made some super progress over the last few weeks I'm not done yet but getting close. I have to work on the fine details weathering placement and small detail set up but that kinda stuff is slow progress

 

[wjbrandel]

Looks good

 

[Docbritofmf]

I realized I forgot to mention that the only thing mounted is the small craft. The ship and aircraft are not yet finished painting

 

[martin9428]

Seems as though you got the hang of the PE. I am working with it for the first time and have to say, there certainly is a learning curve, especially for someone like me who tends to be heavy handed at everything.