Hey, Niels, before making any waterline cuts on your Akagi, try this for a water base for a full hull model:

1. Use foam core sheet as the base.
2. Apply lengths of balsa or basswood to the underside in a criss-cross manner to stiffen the sheet and keep it flat.
3. Apply balsa or basswood along the underside edges of the foam core sheet to serve as a foundation on which to affix a painted or stained wooden border around the base.
4. Take your Akagi hull and surround it with flat objects that are as high as the distance from the model's keel to the waterline.
5. Using strips of card stock or other stiff paper, lay them on the objects, having the edge of the paper strip touch the hull.
6. Overlay more strips in a similar manner and tape them over one another. Do this all the way around the model's hull and you will eventually produce a hole surrounded by the overlapping strips that will conform exactly to the model's waterline.
7. When you have finished surrounding the hull with the strips, pull the hull up and away and use the hole as a tracing pattern for the placement of the model on the foam core base.
8. Cut out the hole in the foam core and test fit the hull to make trims.
9. I use modeling paste from art stores to form a water base and spread it over the foam core. Keeping my fingers very wet, I dab them around the still-soft paste, making wavelets. Allow to dry and use paper glue to fill in any cracks that form as the paste sets.
10. Paint the water with tube paints or model paints as you see fit.
11. Install the completed model into the hole on the water base made earlier and glue into place. Paint wake effects and install the wooden base around the edges of the base.

Producing water dioramas with full hull models in this way keeps the model structurally sound and avoids the hassles of making lengthy cuts on a fine model and the frequent problem of having the bow and stern lifting up above the water level. It also offers the advantages of showing as much or little of the hull just below the waterline as when a ship turns or the bow rises out of the sea at high speed.

Good luck!

--Karl

Guys,

I think I'm leaning towards Enterprise using the Trumpy 1/350 Hornet, but as mentioned above I've already glued the hull bottom and top together, filled the bow with resin, and ground it down to a little more correct shape. Is it cheating to use this kit if I don't do anything else to it before January?

Thanks, really starting to look forward to it!

Michael

Do you have a carrier that hasn't been started yet that you could enter the campaign?

Never did a group build before but I think I'll give it a go. Got a vintage Revell ESSEX kit that was given to me by my son as a Christmas gift a couple years ago. After 45 years of not modeling, I've been doing research and honing my skills on various time periods and scales of ESSEX CV, CVA, CVS-9. Been saving the Revell kit (scb-125 angle deck) til I re-develop my skills cause I don't want to screw it up. That was the ship as I served on her in the sixties. I think I'm ready. Got the kit, some PE, lots of pics and hopefully enough skill to do this right.

EJ

Any chance we can start our build during the Holidays? I'm going to have a lot of free time on my hands the next week or two....

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Any chance we can start our build during the Holidays? I'm going to have a lot of free time on my hands the next week or two....

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I support the notion!
I think many of us have a few hours at hand within the next days. Can we put that to a majority vote?
I say : Yea

Happy holidays!

Guido