Julian, thanks for clearing that up for me, makes more sense than what I thought...

Anthony and Jim, thanks for the heads up. I have contacted them to order the DVD. Will make a review once I get it (I'm sure Jim will be pleased to hear that... ).

Tracy, thanks for the info. The document you linked is a very intersting historical document. Safety of "workers" was a topic even in those days. According to that document I would have to paint the walls black for 6 scale feet, so that would be about 1.9m and that would make about a 5.2mm in 1/350 scale. It's a shame DML forgot to mention this...

As for the screw protectors, I tried it with plastic card but now it seems the DML part was accurate (my fault, I assumed they would all be of the same construction). So I will have to try something new.

I finished the last two smoke stacks yesterday, no problems there, even the problem I mentioned above didn't appear. Just make sure you do some dry fitting. There was again a misnumbered part (but it's obvious so I didn't write it down) and the braces (the equivalent of parts F10 and F12 in the photo of my post of Feb. 12) were mixed up in one case. Too bad DML don't invest more in instructions...

I cleared the work space yesterday to make room for my M4A1. Pending the DVD I will work on that one and continue later this month. Sorry for the delay.

You guys have been invaluable help so far, thanks a lot!
Cheers!
Stefan

I am enjoying your work Stefan. Am looking forward to seeing her Build Up.....Cheers Mark

With regards to the hangar color, that was my decision and not Dragon's, essentially. We were given a short time to proof the instructions and I spent that time pushing for reorganization to the build order... only some of those were put in place. So you can blame me for that, but that's one reason I'll be haunting forums for a while answering questions.

The build looks good, and it is nice to see someone who aided in the development of the kit helping out (and explaining some of the issues he ran into - good to hear the other side of the story).

Perhaps an idea for a sticky or something, to assemble tweaks or 'heads' ups' for separate kits - like Tracy is doing here...

Cheers,

Harm

Ah, has it been 2 months already! Well, this is to tell you that I'm still here and have progressed a little as well (hull red and the black water line). I also got Still Motion Photographics Photo CD and will make a review of it shortly. Hopefully I will continue to build soon... So stay tuned!

Cheers!
Stefan

Well, would you look at that! More than half a year later, and I'm back on this one! Sorry, had to finish a few campaign buids and my speed is sluglike these days... Unlike Julian who has probably finished 3 or 4 ships in the same time. Nevertheless, a small update.

This is the current state of things (note, the flight deck is not attached yet):




A bit too fast for y'all? So, I worked on the hangar deck, some weathering to come next there. I also started on the first plane to go into the hangar. I chose a Dauntless fot this to save the other more period adequate planes for the flight deck. Here's the setup:




And this is why the Dauntless was probably replaced with the Avenger pretty quickly: Not enough room without folding wings!


Painting started with Navy Blue for the upper surfaces. I'll be doing the three tone camo scheme. Interesting to note that DML don't give any indication as to what camo/marking scheme on the planes to use for which period. Unfortunately the SMP-DVD and Independence Homepage aren't too helpful either...
I'm figuring three tone would be most appropriate but I'm undecided for the national insignia. Most likely the star and bar natinal insignia, but with red surround or just plain? Any help from anyone here? The Period I chose would be around the Marcus Island Raid in September 1943.

Also painted the hull, and yesterday I added the Navy Blue to the sides. The flight deck was painted (what a suprise!) in fligh deck blue, also the elevators. Decks will be painted as I go along, mostly by hand.

As you can see I'm not following instructions at all...

Here's some more info on bloopers I found with the instructions or kit:

- the decal to be attached in the hangar is actually on the other side, the instructinons are mirrored at this point. (Step 4)
- The deck elevator brackets in step 9 (I2 and I3) are marked wrong. Contrary to the instructions it's not I3 in the back and I2 in the front, but one each. You'll see what I mean, you can't do it otherwise...
- parts E5 and E6 (also step 9, where you attach the parts to the lower side of the flight deck) have to be modified to fit as follows:


Okay, that's it for now. Next installment as soon as time allows!
Cheers!
Stefan

PS: I sure hope the gallery will be back up to speed soon, it's quite annoying...

Stefan,its great to see you back to work again,moving along nicely,thanks for all the tips.

Excellent work Stefan. Glad to see you back building ships. Looking very good sir !
Cheers,
Julian

Hi Stefan.
Now I have been known to be wrong before, but after building 15 of the quad 40 mounts for the USS North Carolina the ones in the kit appear to be missing a few parts. Whether or not all ships had the same set up (except for the splinter shields) I don't know. The feature on the Showboat on this site has some good pictures of quad 40s. But I haven't got any photos of the CVL-22's quad 40 so I can't prove a thing..
Looks like you are enjoying the build so far and it appears to be going well even though the instructions aren't helping!
Keep up the great work.
@ Tracy, keep at Dragon about their instructions. They need someone to do a better proof reading on them than whoever does them now as there are always mistakes in them. Maybe get a few people to do it?
Go Stephan!!

Thanks for the comments guys! Appreciate it amd hope to keep updates at a regular interval.

Forgot to mention that this was my first live use of Lifecolor and I'm satisfied with both brush (2 coats) and airbrush (thinned with windex).

Warren, thanks for the hint. To be honest, I'm already a bit overwhelmed with what's in the box so I think I'll just stick to that...

Cheers!
S

The pieces Stefan had to modify were passage ways and clipping rooms... they were added later in the design process after we'd received the test shots so I wasn't able to test them in advance.

CVL-22 had no shields on the quad or twin 40mms in 1943 or after her refit in 1944.

With regards to the instructions.. I'm hoping, but don't count on it for a bit yet. The design process is fairly dynamic, with us finding and tweaking things up to the end. We get copies of the instructions towards the end of the process, but since the plastic's not done yet we don't have parts to test and see with, so it takes a really concerted effort to sit and look at them and see potential problems. Especially earlier on, when shapes are present but they haven't assigned tree or part numbers yet.

Thin Lifecolour with Windex? I use that to clean my airbrushes.......................
Have to give it a go methinks. One lives and learns as they say
cheers,
Julian

All Dragon have to do it split the steps up much more. Revell will typically give you a hundred steps in a 1/350 ship, whereas Dragon cram more parts into 1/10th of the steps.

Good to see you back with this one Stefan. You are doing a great job so far.....Cheers Mark

Nice to see you back on this one Stefan.

Looking good. Appreciate all the tips and mods as Intend to start mine after i have finished wrestling with the Airfix Illusrious.

Thanks

Si

Guys - I'm totally overwhelmed with all the replies I get! Thank you for posting! I will try to keep my updates to a regular interval.

Cheers!
S

Howdy folks!

A little update. Slow progress due to time restraint but nevertheless...

A few more AA guns for the stern:



Bow painted and finished, fit of the walls was less than perfect but this could be due to a slight misalignment of the hull.


And here are some of the details on the side:

Added some left over GMM railings to the side as there is none provided in the kit.


Here is an example of DML's railing. As you can see it's a bit thicker than GMM but I hope the difference won't be that noticeable.


The launch:


And finally the stern waiting for its AA guns:


And of course the obligatory instruction blooper: Be sure to use H15 on the stern, not J10. H15 is much larger and frankly it looks stupid on the sides... I'm talking from expereience you know... Too late to change now...


All for now! Any comments welcome!

Cheers!
Stefan

I are watching Stefan..

Was the DVD worth it?

Good job, very well done. Your PE work is nice and clean. Far better than mine usually turns out. Keep up the great work and I'll look foward to you next post. I don't have this kit, but I do have Gambier Bay and it gives me some idea of what lies ahead of me.

Bob

Nice to see you back building the Indy Stefan. Looking good there,
cheers,
Julian

Thanks for looking in guys, appreciated. One question I forgot to ask, anyone have an idea how I should paint the launches?

Warren, the DVD is great, the only problem is that the computer is 4 floors above the cave, so I rarely go and have a look... There are a few questions however which will need answers, especially about painting... As I said before, there is no detail painting instruction in this kit...

Cheers!
Stefan

PS: Julian, I'm not back at it, but still at it... This is really the only modeling work I've done in the last month or so...

So, Gentlemen, it's been almost 2 months since my last post so it's time for an update. Real Life currently takes its toll on my modeling time but nevertheless my progress is slow but steady. Since I now also have an iPad and have loaded many of the pics from the Still Motions DVD on it, I have better access to my most valuable reference. This also answered my question above, the launches were simply painted the same color as the part of the ship behind it...

So to give you an overview of where we stand now: I've worked myself through Step 3 and 4 (which is basically one step), where I dealt with all the fittings below the flight deck, including the stacks. Some pics:



Ladder into nowhere...


Railing from GMM added at the stern:


Then I went on to Steps 5 through 8 which deal with all the catwalks including the radar. During all these steps I built whatever fittings are necessary as per step 1, mainly stacks, guns and range finders. It's strange how DML decided to include the railing in some parts but not in others, where obviously there should be some. I've added this from a leftover GMM set.

All of the ship's AAA and range finders minus 4 20mm which are still waiting for their shields:


Catwalks:



The radar was kind of a PITA to build but I finally got it nearly straight:


Many small details added to the side of the deck, including PE doors:


Currently I am dealing with the conning tower, which is step 2. The instructions are quite impractical when it comes to building subsection K5 because by itself the parts have no real attachment points other than the PE ladders. So construction of this should be done together with the main tower, makes it much easier.





My crane parts were slightly damaged but this turned out okay once I glued the parts together.


After I'm done with this I will be doing some serious painting and then it's final assembly time.

Now for the blooper reel. Some more mistakes I found in the instructions:

In step 5 you have the option to build the Indy as she was at Rabaul. For this you use part E7. When I looked at part E7 on the sprue I figured my part was broken and the left half lost. That's not the case. The left half of what supposedly is E7, is actually E11.


In step 6 you are instructed to add part F32 under the 40mm pit. This is actually F20.


In step 8 you are instructed to add part I23 under the 40mm pit. This is actually I25.


Also, the kit contains one life raft too few. There should be 25 but the kit only contains two J-Sprues with 12 rafts each...

So that's it for now. Once again, if you build this beast take your time with studying the instructions and test fitting. It's well worth it!

Cheers!
Stefan

The missing railings are an artifact of the process of the design of the kit. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but they weren't left off on purpose, i.e. it wasn't an attempt to short change the builder.

Great progress though.

One item of note, if you don't consider it too late, is that the elevator bulkheads below the black stripe should be 5-N as well. With Independence it extended back to the forward edge of the #1 stack uptake, and forward (on the aft elevator) to the rear end of the aft-most roller door.

Great stuff Stefan, looking good. Appreciate all the call outs for the issues

Also appreciate your comments too Tracy, all all good joss for when I get room on the workbench for mine.

SI

Thanks for the comments guys, appreciate it!




So, Tracy, if I understand you correctly it would mean that in the pics below the red parts are Navy Blue 5-N:




Cheers!
Stefan