Best posts made by DMcLaren

As mentioned previously, the US Navy only had two Portland class cruisers in the fleet. With that in mind, FOlewnik is modding several Portland sculpts into other classes of cruisers, starting with five of the New Orleans class. The main difference between the two classes, as shown in the below comparison of a New Orleans class cruiser silhouette taken from shipcamouflage.com vs a Portland sculpt, is that the 2nd smoke stack and the scout plane deck with launch catapults have swapped places. Pretty much everything from the 1st smokestack forward matches, and from the New Orleans’ recovery crane back matches (or will once the mod gets its crane).

FOlewnik’s first thought was that he needed to buy a better hobby saw, like a jeweler’s saw. But then it occurred to him that he could use the saw he has and just cut off everything starting at the back all the way up to the 1st smoke stack. In the picture below, that’s the sculpt in the upper right. That particular sculpt has a bad cut, but as you can see from the sculpt in the lower left, that gets filled with putty, and then sanded like the one in the upper left. Prior to cutting, the sculpt is cleaned of flash plastic as best as possible with an Xacto knife, the section of plastic in front of the 1st smoke stack is cleared away, and the radar hub “fin” above the bridge is cut to a nub to separate it from the rest of the tower.

The cut off rear deck gun, 2nd smoke stack housing and launch catapult base are saved and separated (inset above) to be glued back onto the piece, swapping the front two sections but leaving room for the catapults to be added later. Notice the mod below hadn’t had the front radar “fin” cut away from the rest of the tower yet.

The section of plastic on the launch catapult base that represents the recovery crane is only kept on the cut section long enough to measure the spacing of the 2nd stack before gluing. After it gets cut from the catapult base, the base is glued into place. After the glue dries, holes are drilled for the recovery crane (visible below- yes, FOlewnik got a drill small enough to go down the center of that tiny plastic pole to use it as the base of the recovery crane), the fore mast, and aft mast.

Two sizes of metal hobby rods (for lack of a better term- available at the hobby shop, little steel and brass rods) are used- a thick one that gets filed into a square for the launch catapults, and a thinner round one for the recovery crane and masts. On the fore mast, a square section of putty is used to make the radar screen, and on the aft mast, super glue gel is used to contour the top and mid section to resemble the silhouette of the New Orleans above. After adding the catapults to one piece to get an idea of how it will look (in the back below), FOlewnik decided to wait on the rest since painting around them would be difficult, if not frustrating. The five mods in various stages of completion:

To make the recovery crane’s chain, FOlewnik used synthetic brush hairs from a very large wooden handled scrub brush. They’re pretty much unbreakable, so it was a nice find. It gets super glued into place one section at a time then when dry, the excess is cut off. A drop of super glue gel at the end makes due for the recovery hook. Almost ready for primer, the one with catapults still needs some sanding.

When little pieces break or get lost, it’s nice to have the sprues from the Shapeways pieces to use and shape to one’s needs, as seen on the first mod below. The white catapult base was fashioned from sprue, and the large square glued onto the rear will be filed and shaped appropriately.

Sure enough, getting primer and paint around the catapults wasn’t easy, but FOlewnik got it done. These pieces will get the same treatment the Indy and Portland received. These five will be the New Orleans, Astoria, Minneapolis, Tuscaloosa, and San Francisco (yes, the Quincy and Vincennes are conspicuously absent but we will have the Astoria, which was sunk in the same battle).

These five are still in the process of being painted, along with the USS Cowpens (The Mighty Moo) and some more destroyers. When I went to visit FOlewnik at the end of our recent Labor Day weekend, he’d been away for a few days and just returned home. Apparently he was really nice to the spiders in his garage where his paint set up is, or they’re US Navy fans, because they tricked out some nice rigging on one of the ships, so of course I had to get a picture of it while it lasted.

Thank you, gentlemen. We- FOlewnik and I- appreciate the feedback.

@Spitfire38 - It’s not the paint, it’s the brushes. FOlewnik does the ships with water based paint and I do the aircraft in enamel, both are finished with Testor’s Dullcote. FOlewnik relies heavily on his 10/0 brush for these US aircraft carrier decks, with help from his 20/0 and 0000 with the same on the hulls for camo detail and fine lines. I’d have to say I’m right around the same when I do the aircraft, but I do a lot with my incredibly old Testor’s 0 with a wooden handle. I’ve had it for about 40 years, now that I think about it! It (the zero brush) puts down the main coat on just about everything. My Army Painter brand “Psycho” and “Insane Detail” brushes are still in great shape and get a lot of use. The 20/0 I have did the cockpits for the SNAFU/Shapeways Hurricanes & Spitfires, and the above HBG Stirlings. I dip my 20/0 in whatever stays on the underside of the paint lid when the lid is set on the table. No thinner, clean brush. FOlewnik pours his paint onto one of those round plastic artist dishes with all the little round spaces for paint, one or two drops at a time, more if he’s doing a large area. He uses water based paint so he keeps the brush wet. It’s also important to “load” your brush properly- that is, to pick up the right amount of paint for what you want to do. If you have too much, paint the wooden holder to get rid of some, lol. If you notice FOlewnik’s ship holders that he made (angled pics of Sara above), they’re covered with paint stripes from where he’s removing paint from the brush and shaping the brush head to get a good point a lot of the time. But the idea is the smaller the detail wanted, the smaller the brush needed. It also helps to have a set of waterproof .005 pens, or just a black one if you can’t find a set of colors. Pens are best used after a base of dullcote to give the pen a smoother, porous surface to draw on. I still use pens, but FOlewnik has fallen in love with free-handing with a 20/0 paint brush and hasn’t used a pen since he finished the Japanese navy.

Nice job on the bow rebuild. The sculpt’s original bow is just a little too straight up, and you’ve put a more accurate angle to it so it better resembles what it’s supposed to resemble.

Nice, clean look! This is how FOlewnik and I started. Are you sure you’re finished? lol.

From “Hellcat Aces of WW2” from Osprey publishing: “One of the most famous markings ever worn on a US combat aircraft, the ferocious cat’s mouth applied by VF-27 to it’s F6F-3’s and -5’s was conceived by Lts Carl Brown (10.5 kills front row fifth from left in the below picture) and Dick Stambrook (10 kills, standing fourth from right), and Ens Bob Burnell (four kills, to Stambrook’s right) whilst the unit was working up at NAS Kahului, Hawaii in March/April, 1944. Burnell hand-painted ‘teeth’ on all 24 F6F’s prior to embarking aboard USS Princeton on 29 May, 1944.”

If you do an internet search for Hellcats, Lt. Robert M. Burnell’s Hellcat, named ‘Paper Doll’, comes up quite often in images, such as this one:

He may not have been the squadron’s top scoring ace, but he put in the time to put the eyes & teeth on all 24 aircraft before they embarked. So of course I had to do ‘Paper Doll’ and whomever would have flown wing for Burnell. It was quite a challenge but I’m very happy with the end result.

Casablanca class light carriers USS White Plains (CVE 66) painted in Camouflage Measure 33, Design 10A and USS Wake Island (CVE 65) painted in Camouflage Measure 32, Design 4A by FOlewnik. I think Wake Island started out to be the USS Tripoli (CVE 64), as Tripoli wore MS32/4A but Wake was in the same camo as White Plains. Either way, I think he did a great job. USS White Plains first:

USS Wake Island:

USS Intrepid (CV-11) by FOlewnik. This sculpt by HBG required a lot of cleaning and trimming of flash plastic as well as a little putty to look as clean and smooth as she does. You really can’t beat the price, though, for these good looking Essex class carriers. Not getting any compensation for saying that, just expressing my opinion. The USS Intrepid is wearing Measure 3, Design 3A, per this drawing taken from https://www.wikiwand.com/en/World_War_II_US_Navy_dazzle_camouflage_measures_31,_32_and_33:_aircraft_carriers:

USS Enterprise (CV-6) in her very own camouflage, Measure 33, Design 4Ab, circa 1944, painted by FOlewnik on Ebard’s late war Yorktown class print from Shapeways. Ebard has an early war and a late war Yorktown class print set of 2 and there were 3 of the class made so FOlewnik got one set of each. Compare this print with the above Yorktown (CV-5) and Hornet (CV-8) early war prints and you’ll see more AA gun mounts on the late war print. Pattern sheet taken from wikiwand.com and photos of Enterprise circa 1944 taken from navsource.org and cropped and sized for comparison.

The latest group of US carriers parked at the Norfolk Naval Yard:

More US Navy by FOlewnik. I forgot to take pictures of the bottom of these ships (where FOlewnik writes the name of each), so the only ones I know for sure are USS Henley (DD-391), USS Lang (DD 399), USS Quincy (CA 71) and the heavily modified USS Iowa (BB-61). I’ll start with the heavily modified USS Iowa. FOlewnik added several AA gun mounts over and above the usual launch catapults, scout aircraft, and recovery cranes. If I recall correctly, the AA guns were cut from a GSC Akagi carrier, but I’ll have to have FOlewnik check in with his comments to confirm that. The camo sheet came from Navsource, but then I noticed this on it’s description: "Drawing prepared by the Bureau of Ships for Camouflage Measure 32, Design 7A intended for battleships of the Iowa class (BB-61 / 66). No ship is known to have worn this scheme. " No known ship, eh? So this is technically the first and I’ll have to have FOlewnik identify which it is.

This HBG sculpt Baltimore class cruiser is the USS Quincy (CA 71). Originally laid down as the St. Paul, she was re-named Quincy on Oct. 16, 1942 in honor of the original cruiser USS Quincy (CA 39) which was sunk by Japanese gunfire during the Battle of Savo Island on Aug. 9, 1942. This sculpt was “cleaner” than the others in that, like a “proof” coin, much more detail was visible in this piece than the others. FOlewnik told me that prior to painting this particular piece, he never noticed there were so many life boats molded into the sculpt.

This one I’m not sure about- a Baltimore class cruiser never wore Measure 33, Design 22D, originally designed for destroyers. But Measure 33, Design 22D WAS modified for use on Atlanta-class antiaircraft cruisers, and was used on the Atlanta class USS San Juan (CL 54, excellent large picture here: http://www.navsource.org/archives/04/054/0405409.jpg) and the Oakland class USS Flint (CL 97).

Here’s the three of them together:

The Benham class USS Lang (DD 399) and the Bagley class USS Henley (DD-391). Very similar layout to each, as seen in the overhead view. The Henley was sunk by Japanese Submarine RO-108 off Finschafen, New Guinea, on Oct. 3, 1943. An account can be read on the Naval History page here: https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/h/henley-ii.html. The Lang had a very active and successful war, being awarded 11 battle stars for World War II service. FOlewnik chose to paint her in Measure 21, Design 1D.

FOlewnik’s USS Franklin (CV-13), from the HBG Essex class carrier sculpt. This sculpt, like the USS Quincy above, was “cleaner” than the other Essex carriers we’d bought in that, like a “proof” coin, much more detail was visible in this piece than the others. So to show the extra details, FOlewnik chose to go with the late war Measure 21 camo (i.e. “haze grey”), as the Franklin was in January '45, after repairs from a kamikaze attack suffered the previous October. It may be hard to tell from the pictures, but several different shades of grey were used to add depth and highlights to the fine details in the sculpt. Of all the Essex class carriers he’s done so far, I think this is FOlewnik’s best. He even did the hull numbers by hand.

We started with the Japanese navy pieces for this post. Perhaps you may wish to start from page 1 and see them. We have not yet gotten to Germany or Italy yet, with the small exception of a few Luftwaffe pieces shown earlier.

More ships of the US Navy by FOlewnik. Starting with the light cruiser USS Omaha (CL-4), the USS Farragut (DD-348) looking sea-worn, and the heavy cruiser USS Saint Paul (CA 73). Omaha and St Paul are HBG sculpts and the Farragut is GHQ.

Three more US DD’s but I lost my notes and don’t recall which ships these are. Their camouflage patterns are meant to go with those of other pieces to form task forces of similar camouflage measures. All GHQ pewter pieces here:

The most recent finishes together:

Four more HBG sculpt Essex class carriers are in progress. Although these sculpts have a lot of detail, their decks are usually not 100% flat and must be leveled before magnets are added and the piece is painted. Here we see two in progress with the putty applied and mostly sanded level. In the second picture, you can see the amount of detail that goes into the carrier deck at the start. These lines are all hand painted (of course!) and the rest of the deck is painted over it so that these lines fade into the background.

A look at the storage drawer filling up with carriers, battleships, cruisers, and Naval Air (light cruisers and DD’s were elsewhere):

Nice! I like how you kept some of the original piece color in the mix on the French Navy. Lookin’ good all around!

I-94 Enterprises also has some good decals, but you won’t be able to use the entire sheet. Check’em out and you’ll see what I mean. The smallest decals on the country sheet are the ones you’ll use:
https://i-94enterprises.com/products/decals-setting-solution/decal-scans/
The white letters are perfect for A&A aircraft, and the black, yellow, and red can be used as well. You can see the white letters and other decals used as hull numbers and squadron codes in my post: https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/29796/custom-carriers-from-oob-s-and-painted-pieces/
There are also some useful links throughout the thread.

BTW, we’d like to thank all the previous painted-pieces posters for giving us inspiration to paint our sets!  And thank you thetruegriffon, for liking my planes!  Here’s just a few of the carrier based Vals (the cockpit lines aren’t added yet).

Aircraft, fighters at least, are 1/500 scale.  You’ll find 600 is just a tiny bit too small.  I actually compared the measurement of a game piece A&A Spitfire to the real thing and the math was something like 1/505, so within the margin.

DD’s are 1/2400, and I believe CV’s and BB’s are 1/4800.