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USS Lexington (CV2) 1927-1942

Stage 21: weapons

Tip from experience: Build one trial mount of each type first to gain experience and provide a reference. After this set up a production line for each type of mount. For example, prepare all of the kit parts, then all of the PE, then assemble everything. This will save 30 percent of the time it would take if each mount was built as an individual project because of the time saved in swapping tools and techniques. Plus you will greater consistency of treatment.



5-inch mounts
Kit parts: 12
Resin parts: 12
Turned brass parts: 12
PE parts: 36
Scratch parts: 24
Experimental time: 2 hours
Time per mount: approximately 30 minutes
Total time: 6 hours



The kit parts aren’t too bad, but I tried adapting L’Arsenal 5-inch 38-calibre resin/PE product.

The mount was modified by reducing the length of the loaders’ platform at the rear, cutting a central notch into it to create the gap between the left and right platforms, and reducing the height of the pedestal to almost nothing to get the height correct. I also used L’Arsenal turned brass barrel, cut at the breech end to 25-calibre length when inserted into a hole drilled in the resin breech assembly. I used the off-cut for a central pivot, inserted in a hole drilled in the base of the mounting. L’Arsenal PE railings weren’t suitable for the 25-calibre mount, so I used the parts from the GM PE set with the fuse setter removed. After doing all this it was obvious that the trunnions were set too far back for the shorter 25-calibre gun.

The final solution was to use the kit base mounting (suitably tidied up) combined with L’Arsenal resin breech and brass barrel, and the GM PE set with fuse setter left in place. An inverted U-shaped piece was cut from L’Arsenal PE set to represent one of the two prominent training/elevation instrument drive shaft assemblies running across the top of the gun barrel close to the breech. Thin slices of styrene rod were used to cover the holes on the outside faces of the trunnions.



Above: Weapons trials. Left to right - kit supplied mount, L’Arsenal mount, and final solution using a combination of modified kit and L’Arsenal components.

Note that the25-calibre mount only had three fuse-setters compared with four on the 38-calibre. In theory, the rounds in the fuse-setters should be removed unless you are modelling the ship at action stations.



Above: Ready, aim, fire...



Tip from experience: When replacing L’Arsenal resin barrel with the turned brass item, don’t drill a mounting hole in the front of the breach. Instead, lay the drill in the shell-loading tray at the rear of the breach, push it forward and then drill a hole the same diameter as the barrel right though and out of the front of the breach. It will be spot-on every time. Push the barrel into the hole from the rear and adjust its position for length. If you’ve selected the right diameter drill the barrel will be a push-fit (because of the taper) and you won’t need any glue to hold it in position or interfere with length adjustment. Gently press the completed barrel and breach assembly into the trunnions until the mounting pips engage with the holes. Adjust for elevation then drop a tiny amount of thin superglue into each trunnion.



1.1-inch mounts
Kit parts: 12
PE parts: 48
Scratch parts: 12
Experimental time: 1.5 hours
Time per mount: approximately 30 minutes
Total time: 6 hours



The kit parts are almost satisfactory, but there are other options. I tried L’Arsenal resin/PE product, but this was very disappointing. The base is alright but lacking in detail, and overall not a great improvement on the kit part. The gun barrels on the other hand are dreadful – nearly all barrel and no breach. I experimented by replacing them with the kit part and this was a lot better.

Next I tried out the White Ensign Models (WEM) complete PE set for this weapon. This is PE to die for. Assembling it taxed my skills to the limits and really did nearly kill me. I got it all together and trial-mounted it on the hull, but the flatness of the PE barrels was disconcerting. Fixing the middle pair of barrels accurately between the outer barrels was incredibly fiddly and time consuming and I didn’t care to have to do this twelve times over. I replaced the barrels with the kit part and the result was ideal – incredible detail and not too difficult to assemble.

The kit barrels include erroneous recoil-spring detail around the barrels at the breech end (reminiscent of the 40mm Bofors). But that would have been too difficult to remove, and anyway I could live with this. I used the water-cooling pipes from one of the middle pair of barrels of the WEM PE set. Mount locating spigots made from short styrene rod were glued to the undersides.





Above left: kit supplied mount. Above right: combination of WEM PE and kit barrels.



Tip from experience: Assemble all the PE first and glue the barrel assembly from the kit to the underside of the PE gun sight beam, not to the trunnions (they are wider than the barrel assembly). Don’t bend the angles for the pointer’s and trainer’s seats until after final assembly of the complete mount. The WEM PE is incredibly thin and won’t take much bending and subsequent adjustment before it falls apart.



20mm mounts
Kit parts: 28
PE parts: 112
Scratch parts: 28
Time per mount: approximately 10 minutes
Total time: 4.75 hours



Twenty eight mounts are required, although the kit specifies 27. Fortunately 30 are provided on the sprues. GMM provides an excess of parts which is also fortunate, since I lost quite a few pieces when they pinged out of the tweezers, mostly never to be found again. The pedestals are 1mm to high. That might not sound much, but it translates into about 12-inches, which is the difference between a gunner’s waist and chest height, or his shoulders and the top of his head. Given that training and elevation of the gun was controlled with a shoulder harness, this is important. This was dealt with by removing 1mm from the base, drilling a small hole, and inserting and gluing a locating spigot of thin styrene rod. Apart from this, construction was straightforward and involved fitting the GMM PE parts to the basic kit item.

Variation in location compared with the kit instructions are: two at the rear corners of the flag platform (not to be confused with the signals platform) replacing the two searchlights; two on the forward corners of the of the pilot house platform; one less required at the forward end of the lower, outboard stack gallery (replaced by a 0.5-inch mount).

Tip from experience: Don’t bend the gunner’s shoulder braces before you glue them on. Instead, leave them flat, glue them on, and bend them afterwards. Don’t bend the gun sight ring before you glue this in position - do it afterwards.



0.5-inch mounts
Kit parts: 22
PE parts: 22
Time per mount: approximately 5 minutes
Total time: 1.75 hours



Twenty two guns are required. As with the 20mm mounts, the pedestals are 1mm too high. The solution was simpler, just cutting this amount off the base, drilling out the location holes to suit the pedestal diameter, and gluing in at the correct height. The GMM PE set provides the combined gun sight and training/elevating bar.

Variation in location compared with the kit instructions are: none on the fore and aft 5-inch control tops; two at the forward end of the lower gun gallery on the outboard side of the stack.

Tip from experience: Don’t bend the gun sight up before you glue the PE on – do it afterwards.

Painting and mounting
Time: 6 hours



All 61 automatic AA weapons were pressed into pre-drilled holes in lengths of bass wood left over from the Nautilus deck. This alone took 30-minutes. After spraying up with WEM Colourcoat 5-S Sea Blue, each individual gun was removed with tweezers, inspected, and any unsatisfactory paint coverage corrected with the airbrush. I didn’t overdo this because variations in colour and depth add to the three-dimensional quality. The 5-inch mounts were airbrushed individually.