Ahoy, mates!

New MSW Crew-mate Chris Smithers (smithec) shares a fantastic, SBS full build story of his 1/350 scale, USS Lexington (CV2), in his first MSW Submission!

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If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!
~Gunny

A thoroughly written, good read, full of ideas and tips for building the kit.

Thanks, for all the new ideas you have given me.

Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! It's a shame that so much additional work has to be done on kits to make them right, and certainly not all modelers are prepared to add quite as much detail, but this is a magnificently researched and executed (not to mention documented!!!) project. BRAVO ZULU!

I admire those who can built a kit by using plans and photographs and figuring out what has to be done. From experience I know how much harder this is than simply opening the box, removing the pieces and putting them together!!

Now if only someone would do a similar review of their build of Saratoga during the period of say 1938-1939..............

gorgeous build , GREAT build log, excellent all around... great read, even if you will never build that kit, full of neat tricks and ideas.

I also like listing the apx prices of various AMs, gives you an idea of how much to spend for what amount of "bang" for your build.

Thanks for posting!

Top notch step by step build. Sure gave me all sorts of information for my build of the Saratoga.

Thank you for you time and for sharing your beautiful Lexi with us.

Very nice work! Bravo Zulu.

Kenny

I can only echo the positive comments and compliments, outstanding work and workmanship all around. When I get around to building my 1/700 copy of the ship, I will surely be consulting all the excellent information.

Thanks for taking the time to provide us with such a great article.

Well, I must say that this is one of the best described and noted project I have seen online!
It was a pleasure - and also a little bit scary - to see the that you, Chris, have take your free time by the minute! This is something I will never do, or tell to other guys, just because they will call me... a very slow worker!
Very well documented, much better researched and I will have this Feature for reference (as others will have too) when building my own 1/700 version of the Lady Lex.

Chris, you have said that you had build a few 1/700 ships - and now I am curious! Could you share them with us?
You also have said that this was your first 1/350 ship and probably the last, but if it serve as an incentive, from here, please continue! You are amongst the persons that make this ship modeling hobby worthwhile to see and enjoy.

I would only like to point out something that eventually can be repaired, but I guess that it would be the result of a tedious task fatigue: Give some Future (Klear in UK) coat to the decals on the Devastator wings (folded) - you can notice the silvering on it.

Also, you state the total time spent but don't state the project duration (curious, too).

Congratulations Chris


Rui

Absolutely, mind numbingly, amazing. You have truly done the Lady Lex justice and she looks incredible.

Greetings from stormy Southampton UK

A well written and beautifully described build article!

I must confess--I dare not ever count the hours I expend on an individual model-- I would begin to question my sanity!

Well done Sir!

Jim Baumann
( veteran of many a complex and infuriating modelship build!)

Excellent article.
Enjoyed reading it.

Jim

Thanks for your comments. So you are planning a Saratoga build, eh. What scale, what period? I look forward to seeing it.

I did a 1937 period Saratoga from the Fujimi 1:700 Lexington (what another rotten kit). You can see it at: http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/cv/cv-02/700-cs/cs-index.html together with my first attempt at a Lexington 1941-style. I learnt a lot from that, but on reflection a lot is also wrong. But I can't be bothered to go back and sort it having done the Big One!

You'll find a few Saratogas at Modelwarships.com to inspure (or depress) you!

Thanks Harry.

I'd love to add a 1:350 tug and ammunition lighter alongside. Any chance mate?

I think you might find sometghing on Modelwarships.com or Steelnavy.com. Not to the same level of detail, but something anyway.

Hi Joseph,

Yeah, it was a lot of research. I was DETERMINED to make it abolutely as accurate as possible. What I don't understand is how Trumpeter got so much of it grotesquely wrong. Anyway, thanks for your comments. I sure hope you find my feature useful - from what I've seen the 1:700 from Trumpeter is just a scaled down version of the 1:350 kit, including everything that's wrong with the big one!

Hi Rui

Well, well, well. I used to be a graphic designer myself as well. And a copywriter. Hence what I hope is a deal of professionalism in my SBS guide.

The whole project spanned two years. I didn't dare start another model in all that time, knowing it would simply delay completion and possibly I would lose my motivation. Sometimes it was very hard to keep going - the progress when doing the armament and the air group seemed so slow. I really had to force myself to keep going.

Thanks for the advice on using Clearcoat on the decals. Actually, that is what I did use, in order to soften the decals so they would lay close on the curved fuselage sides, to get them to stick, and to try and dull them down. All the planes were matt varnished as well, but that still didn't kill the decal edge reflection.

You can see some of my 1:700 stuff at: http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/cv/cv-02/700-cs/cs-index.html. If you select my name from the top of the menu on the left you can see all my galleries.

By the way, the 1:700 Trumpeter Lexington looks like just a scaled-down version of the 1:350 version, including everything that is wrong and inaccurate. So please, please, do use all the research I did to get it right. I look forward to seeing the result!

Regards, Chris

Jim

Your comments an honour indeed. I have followed your work over the years at Modelwarships.com and you really are the best. Counting the hours is actually a way of giving myelf a sanity check! Which is why to some extent the whole project took me two years from start to finish.

Regards, Chris

Thanks for taking time to answer to my questions!
I have the 1/700 Trumpeter model, for Coral Sea fit, so I guess you have done all the research for me - but still, I have to get the work myself!
Not for now, but for a "near" future (I am currently working on three projects, one a full scratch all in 1/700).

Thanks for the link, and since my memory is better for graphics, than for names, I can say that I had already seen your Sara / Lex duo in MW.

Please keep up - keep your ship models afloat!


Rui

Are you sure that thing is a model. It looks so real. In some of those photos it looks too real. Nice job. Amazinglly nice job. Great tribute to those who sailed, fought and died on board the original Lady Lex carrier. Nice work.

Hi Chris,

Sorry no plans on any new 1/350 items.

You could use my YC-728 or 829 for an open ammunition lighter. I have some photos of their use as such.

Hello Chris:
I just finished reading your build log. Outstanding work and very well written. I have this kit, not sure I want to tackle all the inaccuracies vice just building an OOB kit, but, your work is inspirational and you presented a lot of neat ideas to enhance the kit. I will be referencing your build log when I tackle mine. Thanks for posting and sharing.

Mark, I doubt Chris will respond as this is a 7 year old tread and Chris last signed in 7 years ago.

Thanks for the heads up. Still a great build log.

wow, awesome model building.
well worth resurrecting the thread and feature.