Essex Class

Steven Van Dyck
This weekend both Essex and Hancock kits were started. You can compare these two on my garden table, Essex being a short hull version and Hancock one of the later long hull types. Therefore Hancock has the Ticonderoga Pontos set. I threw in a dozen of airplane sets and pillaged the Ion Model figures stock for about 420 seamen to take the stations. While making the requested change to the rear elevator (see shipmodels.info/mws_..pontos+essex#p919517 ) an error was discovered in PE part 605 and this can only be solved by completely scratching it. Also, I'll open up one rear elevator so I have to adapt the deck edge to that. The Hancock kit got some travel damage to the hangar deck, so that will have to be repaired too. But I think this is a good start to the project.

Steven Van Dyck
The hangar doors present a compomise that I can't accept, showing some inside detail but with all gates closed down and an exaggerated thickness. I decided to remove all of them, beginning with the Hancock sprue. You can compare with the original Essex sprue. To replace the partially closed doors, I can choose between Evergreen grated plates (subtler paneling though one-faced) or the same metal foil as used earlier.

Steven Van Dyck
The walls of the Hancock are now built. I found out that there are not enough Pontos PE doors of one design to replace all plastic ones, so Hancock and Essex will be getting a different type. A drawback to the hangar walls is the absence of locator holes. I made some pins myself. The plane cockpits were not in stock and will arrive later.

Rando
Read a lot about the Essex-class carriers, really interesting history and very interested to see how your ships turn out 🙂

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Rando. Today the second ship's hangar was closed off. In the Essex model I didn't need to remove a part of the hangar deck, so now there's a minute difference in the distance of the rear deck to the island structure. The fault should be in the Hancock bow section. I closed down some of Essex hangar doors, but I kept a peeping hole for the elevator shaft that I moved to the right like in Hancock.

Gary Victory
This is some project Steven. These are not exactly small models (i have one myself - CV-13 USS Franklin)....and so much extra detail you are adding. Watching in admiration. Great work so far.

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Gary. The first PE parts are bent for the stern and the boat cranes of Hancock, after the hangar wall seams are removed with Tamiya filler. One part of the wall is badly fitting and needs to be shortened.

Steven Van Dyck
Lots of PE particles are now assembled to giant deck support structures. I accidentally used the Essex front deck instead of the Hancock one, so I had to remove the PE plate causing half of the ribs to jump of again and restore this to the Hancock deck. Now I'm about to begin the same again for Essex, that has a slighty larger hollow under the flight deck.

Gary Victory
Nice progress Steven. Shame about the mix up but we all human, im sure at one point we have all used a wrong part or miss assembled.
Keep up the good work....and enjoy your build time.

gorby
Looks like another remarkable project in the making.

Jörg Schäfer
I'll join in then.

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks for the acclaim, now Essex is also loaded with PE parts under the front deck. I also removed the rear lift floor in the hangar deck, because it will be visible through the side doors. The deck edges are getting PE plating with the correct catwalk acces doors and fire station hatches, but I'm still thinking about methods to remove the space behind these PE parts. Drilling is not enough.

Gary Victory
Very impressive work Steven. Loving the progress.

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks Gary. The update today shows the reshaping of the Hancock bow. The angle of the kit bow is too shallow, so I cut out a wedge in the side and plied it back. The bottom part was split and clamped shut tighter, using sprue "rivets" to hold it closed. A lot of sanding followed, even after I had installed the port 40mm hubs on the hull. Another problem were the 18 doors that needed to be removed from the island structure, so I used my Proxxon for that. An extra is the comparison between 5inch/38 mounts from the kit, Flyhawk (yellow) and Pontos (Brown). Pontos is more detailed, Flyhawk has PE details and the kit is built up from different parts.

Pietro De Angelis
Impressive work, congrats!

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, Pietro. The islands now both have all watertight doors, and Hancock's island is already a bit further down the line sporting ladders, a PE walkway, the pri-fly cabin and a almost fully equipped smoke stack. For a movie about choosing the right watertight door in your model, see Youtube Video . I did find the correct type on some detail pictures in my books.

Steven Van Dyck
A 45 picture update about Hancock's island. I made changes to the building plan where I saw the reference pictures didn't follow them. Loudspeakers were added. A cutout in the bridge deck was removed. The venturis on the different levels were added, but some don't extend far enough. Some of the PE hatches on the director towers needed to be scrounged from the ABSD project remains. All kinds of radar antennas are added, some I didn't find or identify yet, like the "stovepipe" antenna encircled on one reference picture. The SC-2 radar needed to be put on the platform for the side SK radar position. I did make the rear mast for the smokestack position, but removed it again because there is no trace of it in the reference. It might still be used on Essex.

Christian Lehmann
👍

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks Christian. Again a large update with changes to the Essex island. The front structure is made identical to Hancock and some scratched galleries are added. I decided to move Essex to the march 1945 scheme. Pontos has some parts for 1944 Hornet that are useful here, like the bridge walkway. Some areas like the stern will have to be adapted too. The same radar antennas are used, but some of them on different positions. I now added more airplane PE to the inventory, some of these should be finished to be able to close down the hangars.

Steven Van Dyck
The Avengers are now getting their PE cockpits, and the interior of the hangar is painted white.

gorby
Remarkable level of detail!

David Taylor
Nice detail.

Steven Van Dyck
Thanks, the airwing continues with the Helldivers, the Hellcats and the Corsairs, that had the hardest fit, so it's a good thing I had only six of them. I still have the same amount of planes not getting a cockpit.

Steven Van Dyck
Detailing of the port air outlet, the catwalk and starboard galleries of Essex. For Hancock it's only the outlets that were repeated. At first I was cutting small mesh parts, but it's better to cut them as a whole and add a PE crosshair. In the Trumpeter planes there is a tendency in the wing base to be cast offset (see color image) resulting in a skewed wing position when the fuselage halves are assembled. I'll often have to correct the angle. All plane fuselages have been fixed now and in the Helldivers and Avengers the seams are already filled and sanded.

Steven Van Dyck
The Helldivers are first to be completed with PE parts. The Pontos airbrakes are an improvement over the kit ones, and they can both be used for stretched wings or retracted ones. I drilled open the wheel wells. In the Hellcats, the cowling is incorrectly cast with one lower opening, so I shoved a node in each one and sanded it flat. A new opening is drilled and an oil cooler vent is then cut out under that. Takes quite a while.