"The new phone book is here! The new phone book is here!" Oops...having a flashback there. Well (jumping up and down hollerin') The new large scale Essex is here, the new large scale Essex is here!!!!!!. She's a beauty. Won't go into detail because the kit was reviewed on the model warship web site with pics. Needless to say, This is one class act. Came with 4 ea Hellcats, Avengers, &Dauntless so when you buy yu'll probably want a 6 pack of each. Looking for a good PE set to come out. Those boat cranes need replacing and there are no gun shields for the 20mm. The write up points out about the catapult so I'm also looking for new decals for the flight deck.

Hey Blaster:
Congrats on the phone book errrrrr Essex, I am jealous now.. Still saving my pennies for that gorgeuos chunk of plastic. But alas I got the Missouri for the campaign up and ready anyway and if I had one I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off it and the Missouri would go be the wayside.
Anyway I saw there is a PE Set out there for her by Toms modelworks it was reviewed on the modelwarships site. Don't know if you saw it or not, but it has pictures of the set, list of what is on the set and even shows the instructions. Again congrats, enjoy and hope to hear you laid her keel down soon..

Warlock... finished my "Mighty Mo" a couple of weeks ago. I still love looking at it and have to resist taking it down from the shelf to look at it closer. You'll love building that kit... Me, I'm building a 1:350 Arizona for the contest. I'm just now starting to put reference material together for the Essex that and I won't build one of these ships without a detail set (glad I've had the 'Zonz set for over a year so I can use it in this build)

Blaster:
are you going to be posting pictures of her or just keep us drooling??!!

Sorry warlock, I'm just in the research phase right now, still want to get a PE set for her. I will say this, she has a FULL hanger deck which just screams for some detailing, so I'll probably have to buy more plane sets than I originally planed. Might even add one of those figure sets as well. But with all the campaigns I'm in it'll probably be near August before I start this beauty

I also purchased the Essex last Saturday at Mosquitocon. While it has a hanger bay, they molded all the doors in the closed position. I'll have to check it out and see just how hard it will be to open them up, since the doors would have to be completely removed from the inside walls.
While Tom's has a photoetch set out now, I will wait for the WEM set. I have it for the Hornet and it looks much better, with more parts, like for the the guns, etc. Also the instruction sheet gives more info on locations.

Owen

Thanks for the PE set advice MAilman. I plan to just cut out several of the roll up doors. I plan to chose several at random and cut full out and some maybe cut off halfway to simuate half open. I don't anticipate that being too mcuh of a problem just do it slow and easy and stop frequently and assess what you've done and where you're going. Don't want to over do it, The cost of those little planes could get prohibutive. My eal is what else can I put down there and that'swhy I'm just in the research phase. I've seen pictues of a bunch f guys pushing an aircraft was hoping for the little tractors but maybe that didn't come about until Korea. Be very interested in what you're doing with yours. Keep me posted

Steve

Oh just thought of another question. What color would the hanger deck be? Would the walls (bulkheads) be the same color as the deck? So used to doing outsides of ships never thought of actually depicting some of the inside.

I believe the the hanger decks inside were the same as the outside hulls. As for the flooring. I have no idea.