The Flight Deck Project

Shipshapes

The Flight Deck Project

Saratoga with the new aircraft addition on its revised flight deck.

Without a doubt, detailing is what gives these models their sense of realism. Without them, they would simply be hulks of wood with a mast or two and funnels. Which wouldn't be very realistic, would they?

On second glance, the Saratoga-class carrier that I built a while back seemed... lacking. While there were details carved onto the black plastic to resemble paint markings, there weren't any aircraft or planes on the deck. Additionally, the front shape of the carrier was unrealistic; being a flat shape instead of a more tapered front.

With these changes in mind, I decided to create two squadrons of aircraft to be placed atop the Saratoga.

The first step was to make the base for the planes to be on. I decided to use some spare, thin plastic from a container lid.

I trimmed the plastic to around half an inch long and a quarter inch wide. I made three, one extra, in the event I screwed up one of the squadrons.

Now for the actual planes themselves. With the scale presenting another challenge, of course, I decided to use the tips of toothpicks for the actual plane bodies and shards of balsa wood for the wings.

Finally, after assembling the plane parts, I glued them together, dipped them in blue paint, and subsequently glued them to the plastic. The end result is below.

The Camouflage Project

Shipshapes

The Camouflage Project

Pensacola (left) with Measure 32 and Northampton (right) with Measure 12

After creating Northampton, it came to my attention that I might want to create various camouflage measures for these vessels. I considered different means of doing so; perhaps actually painting it in or coating certain sections with different colored clay. I decided on a far simpler and realistic solution; drawing camouflage measures on strips of paper than can be wrapped around the hull and interchanged.

Now, granted, this doesn't let me camouflage the superstructure like it would have been in real life, but that would just be far too complicated. But it does give some variety to the hulls of the ships that I was making.  

I started by just measuring the approximate width of Pensacola's hull as it was the tallest of the lot besides Saratoga. Repeating that four more times, I had five strips of blank white paper on which to draw the patterns. I decided on Measure 32 and Measure 12 in addition to the Measure 22 that I painted the ships in. 

I then proceeded to cut out one from each and test them on two models. I decided that Pensacola and Northampton would be the test subjects for this project. I wrapped each one around the hull and taped the extra segment to the full one.

I then slipped the measure around the hulls of the vessels until they were tight. The end result turned out quite well; I could effectively give a ship an interchangeable and temporary camouflage that I could take on and off at will. A success, so to say.