Thank you David, I'm going to try and get the seaplanes added today. I wish I had considered this beforehand but it might have been cool to have opened up the hanger door and had one of the planes peeking out. Something to keep in mind for another time perhaps.
As for the next kit to hit the bench, I'll be attempting Airfix's new tool 1/48 Hurricane. A peek into the box promises a fun build as the quality of the molding looks fantastic!
I doubt this will be my last foray into ships though.

Any advice on the colour the SOC seaplane might have been painted in at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack?

There is no painting guide for the aircraft at all in the kit but the box art depicts them in what looks like a similar blue grey scheme to match the Measure 11 ship camo.

A little splash of colour would be welcome though amongst the very drab paint scheme of the ship itself !

Today I dusted off the router (the power tool, not the network device ) I received for my Christmas a couple of years ago to make a base. It was intended for this very purpose but this is the first chance I've had to give it a whirl.

A cheap offcut of wood from the local hardware store's bargain bin provided a good material to do some tests with.

The first attempt proved to be not too shabby !



I'm going to try some sculpting of the top to create wave effects rather than use resins or other methods and also rout the hole required to place the ship in. After that I'll get creative with the paint, glossy varnish and cotton wool for wake and splashes.

Well that's the idea anyway !

Got one of the little SOC aircraft assembled the other day but forgot to add a photo. This was the fiddliest part of the build so far by miles (nautical or otherwise). The transparency makes it quite difficult to see what you're doing but should look good in the end with the glass-like canopy which is the intended idea of using clear parts like these.



Stay tuned !

Paul,

Nice work with the router. I need to buy one and put it into my tool shed inventory.

nice work on the SOC, looking forward to seeing color applied.

Dave

Cheers Dave,
The router was brought out again to hollow the area for the ship. I used the waterline hull part from the kit as a template.



I then used the dremel to gouge out random parallel lines to represent the overall swell of the sea. I'd be a bit braver with this next time as the effect has disappeared somewhat.
I next experimented with a couple of layers of toilet tissue soaked with very diluted white glue. The paper naturally creased in a certain direction so I used this to my advantage. (but forgot to take photos )

The last layer I added some blue paint to the glue mixture to get a base colour to work into.

Another layer of neat glue sealed everything up and made it quite stiff and sturdy.

Now I've applied some thin oil washes of random blue/gray/green to get darker colours.

Highlights and all the fun stuff with foam will follow but this is how she looks currently:

Paul,

Looks good. I have not utilized the tissue paper method, looking forward to seeing how it all comes together.

Dave

Hi Paul,

your New Orleans looks really good - amazing detail for the 1/700 scale! And your water approach looks pretty convincing!

Cheers,
Jan

Thanks Jan.
I've been tinkering with a few little bits over the past week, nothing to speak of really but I've matte coated the ship in preparation for permanently attaching it to the base. The colours have brightened up as I'd hoped. Another two glazes of neat white glue have brought the water up to a nice shiny surface too.
Today aside from some jobs around the house and garden I hope to start with the bow wake.

Good (and quick ) progress with the foam:
I used ripped up strands of toilet tissue and after placing them roughly I soaked them in my diluted white glue mix (probably 2 water/1 glue) and poked and prodded them with a stiff flat paintbrush till I was happy with placement. Once dry ( blasting with a cool hairdryer helped) I added some depth back in with some dark blue/greys and again coated the whole sea with neat glue for shine.

I'm pretty happy with this as a first attempt at portraying a seascape.
Not far off finishing this !

Great Build Paul,

I have this kit and was going to build it next, I'm glad I ran into this post!

Cheers!

Thanks Mike, apart from some fiddly bits it went together really smoothly and required very little in the way of clean up or filler.

Paul,

your water base looks great - and not only for a first attempt, it really gives a great impression!

Cheers,
Jan

I'm calling this model done !
It's been a fun change of pace from aircraft and I've picked up a few techniques along the way as well.
One thing I'd look at improving next time is rigging for sure and possibly adding some photo etch especially if I jump up to 1/350 for example.

So... presenting the New Orleans in her measure 11 paintwork.
Thanks for looking !

Hi Paul,

Do you use acrylic paints? If so which ones did you use for the colors? What color for the rubber life rafts on the turrets?

I usually use Tamiya or Vallejo paints.

Thanks,

Mike

Hi Mike, yes I mainly use Tamiya acrylics.
The life rafts were simply painted the same XF-18 grey/blue as the main parts of the ship but then darkened with a very thin glaze of black oil paint.
The same goes for the decks as I didn't have an appropriate colour to hand at the time
Normally I'd seal the acrylic with klear but I wanted the oils to stain the colour underneath so I applied them straight on top.

Hope that helps !

Yes, that does help thanks. I've seen 2 acrylics that say deck blue from Life Color and AK Paints. Not sure if anyone used those or not.

One last question, I wanted to put the deck in, but in the instructions you will need to have them installed to put the deck in. How did you get past it? Did you glue in your turrets or find a work around?

Thanks again, sorry for the questions, but it's my first time building a ship since I was like 11 years old (just turned 48)

Cheers

No problem Mike glad to help!




What is it you mean by "them installed"? The turrets?? I left them off until near the end and didnt use the little caps for underneath the deck. I glued the turrets down.

Thanks Paul, I had a feeling that is what you did and I'm starting to lean toward doing that since it's my first build in a while. Keep it simple.

Thanks again! Cheers!