Elevators and Catwalks

 Instead of removing all the girders and netting from the deck edge elevators I just made 2 from .020 styrene sheet, tracing the kit elevators to get the size correct. The No.2 elevator is not accurate anyway since the rounded leading edge is missing on the kit part. I made one from a piece of 3/32 styrene tube and a piece of .100" styrene angle. Glued them in place along with No.1 elevator and filled and sanded the seams. Cemented the flight deck onto the hull assembly using super glue, lots of super glue! Without the bottom on the hull the hull is really flimsy and unstable. Used the superglue on one section at a time starting from the bow. Catwalks were made from .100" styrene angle from Evergreen. Made the antenna mounts from .060" styrene C channel and the shelves for the life rafts from .020" styrene sheet, all Evergreen. The fuel lines on the hull exterior are .020 styrene rod. I used a lot of photos available online as a guide. Testors Liquid cement was used for all this. It works really good with sheet styrene. I used the GMM photo etched set for the elevator girders and structure on the 2 and 3 elevators. The PE safety nets for the elevators proved a little more problematic. Since I modified the leading edge of No.2 elevator, the nets will not fit correctly as they are on the fret. Using photos of the ship, the nets were cut and attached the best way I could. I cemented a small strip of styrene to the bottom of the elevator leaving a small ledge extending. This provided a place to attach the nets. The nets for No3 elevator were slightly too small so I cemented them with one side slightly higher. There was also a gap between the inboard end of the nets and the flight deck. I cut a couple of pieces from an unused net to fill the gap. I think if the elevator is in the lowered position the gap would not be apparent. The PE railings were attached using white glue. I use this a lot instead of super glue because it allows me to position the railings easily and if they get gluey, water cleans them off. Super glue is very unforgiving. I replaced the molded gun tub sides with .005" styrene cut into strips. Once cut it bends pretty easy like PE. Liquid cement makes a clean joint. After the railings were on the crane was folded and installed. Using the PE instructions, the kit post was cleaned up and used with the crane. The model was now mounted onto the base which looks like water. A detail I want to include is the life rafts on the catwalks. On the ship, these were loosely installed into floater baskets outside of the railings on the catwalks. The rafts themselves resembled a large box wrapped in a black tarp. I cut .080x.080 styrene square stock into sections(eyeball measure), painted them black and superglued them to the shelves glued to the catwalks. I used 1/720 scale railings to simulate the floater baskets. The 5" guns are pretty inaccurate. The barrels were replaced with some styrene rod to look a little more correct. 1/700 scale flight deck nets were also added to the bow and stern. this scale looks more correct then the 1/540 nets on the fret from GMM.