#1
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1/250 USS Forrestal aircraft carrier (Wilhelmshaven)
Good Evening,
I picked up this kit on ebay for a very good price a couple years ago. It's quite large and I've been putting it off. Now, I am ready to start on it. This kit has an insert from Paper Model Company which gives instructions in English, saving me some translation time. They recommend pinning the hull to a 48 inch board during construction to prevent warping. Years ago, I made an N scale model railroad based on a book that suggested using foam core (seems to be called "foam board" these days?) for the base. It worked great, and I've used the concept for other things I've made, including a display stand for a very long plastic model. So I'll be using a foam board base for the Forrestal for both construction and as a permanent display stand. It seemed anticlimactic to build a huge ship and then spend a long time doing airplanes for it, so I'm making the airplanes first. There are 8 different types, plus tractors and a crane. It appears you could buy a sheet of airplanes, once upon a time, from Paper Model Company. Since I could not find those, I have been scanning the airplane sheet and working to print the patterns in similar color and exact same size. To me, the aircraft carrier needs at least two of each airplane for overall appearance. More would be better, but the limiting factor on this is going to be endurance because these little airplanes have an amazing number of parts. I have a few of the airplanes built and will post them later. Take care, Kurt |
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#2
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1/250 USS Forrestal aircraft carrier (Wilhelmshaven)
They still are available from Wilhelmshaven from Germany and H&B Precision Card Models from USA as item 1217.
Maurice |
#3
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Very nice, I agree about having aircraft in an aircraft carrier. I have seen the planes that come with the model and those are models by themselves. Check Bruno's 1/300 models he did a lot of the Navy planes and may be simpler to construct.
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#4
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Does H & B Precision Card Models have a website? I went searching, but couldn’t find it.
Thanks, Russ
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Under construction: GPM USS California Completed: WAK USS Salt Lake City (CA-25) |
#5
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I love the tools listing. Seems kind of funny. Even lists rhe number of blades, although way short on the exacto blades:-)
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#6
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This brings back memories - I built this one in 1987 or 1988 during my lunch hours while working at Newport News Shipbuiding. It took a few months of lunch hours to get it done and it always drew a few fellow employees to check on my progress. It was followed by a model of another NNS product, the SS United States by Wilhelmshaven and that was just as challenging as the Forrestal (both were done without translations...)
The models were both designed before 3D computer modelling and were the height of the pre-computer designing art. I enjoyed them both (and the dosens of Wilhemshaven models that followed through the years.) I still have a dozen or so models in my stash but I fear my ancient body is not up to the task of cutting and gluing. Perhaps one of my grand-children will pick up the hobby. Hae fun with the aircraft - They were little gems to construct and were probably the smallest paper models I ever built.
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2.6% Neanderthal DNA YB (Currently pondering the next build) |
#7
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Good Morning!
Thanks, Maurice, I thought I had searched around though I couldn't find Welhelmshaven's site. Anyway, I searched "H&B Precision Card Models" and have ordered a set of airplanes -- just searched "1217" on their site and there they were... I think I'll just stay with these more complicated models because they do look pretty good -- but I reserve the right to leave off the tiniest parts. Agree on the tool listing... I do about one blade per airplane! OK, I randomly picked up the FJ-4 Fury and so that is the first airplane. For weighting the nose, it occurred to me that a tack would fit easily up the middle of the fuselage, so I poked a hole in the "frame" just behind the nose piece, made larger holes in the other frames, and shortened the tack so it would not extend aft of the main wheels. I did not cut the landing gear right on their lines, but left material around them so they would not collapse or fall apart. Also, it doesn't show in the photos, but I left off the main landing gear doors since they were so small. I did put on the front-most nose landing gear door because gluing it to the fuselage and the strut gives a little sideways support to the strut. More later, Kurt |
#8
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I commend you for your commitment to accuracy. Each of these aircraft is a model by itself. I found that taking pictures of the model and then expanding them helps me pinpoint the areas of concern.
Best wishes for your construction! ps: consider wire and paper for the landing gear |
#9
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Hi again,
I can imagine doing one of these on your lunch hour would takes LOTS of lunch hours! My scale is normally 1/400 for ships, so this will be the largest that I've done, by quite a bit. The next airplane was the F7 Cutlass. This one had tiny little antennas and I left them off. And this type of airplane did not need weight for the nose. The missiles were somewhat of a pain since you have to bend the fins in relation to the flat missile body, but they do look cool when finished. And I've just finished the F8 Crusader. For this airplane, I put the tack inside the first fuselage section as I was building it, capturing the head inside. I did this because that front frame, just behind the nose cone, is too small for the thickness of the tack. One problem from the fuselage being made from so many "barrels" is keeping the alignment straight. I lined up the printed marks at each end but still found there was some waviness to the airplane. (Oh well, probably need more practice). The landing gear doors on this airplane were good for bracing the main wheel struts. Each airplane has taken 2 or 3 days, so far. This is why I wanted to do them before the ship. I think if I did it the other way around, I'd run out of energy once the ship was finished and there would only be a couple airplanes. My goal is 15 airplanes (two of each except for just one helicopter). Take care, Kurt |
#10
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Hi WireandPaper! I haven't had real happy experiences trying to use wire on a Boeing 747 and also the recent X-15 I did, so am just going to cut the struts wider for this one. I'm figuring the size of the ship and all the other details everywhere (including lots of planes) will drown out my fat struts.
Thank you! Kurt |
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