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EJ's 1960's fleet oiler build AO41

MM2CVS9

Active member
This is the Lindberg repop by Round 2 2016. It is a Kennebec class oiler, but I'm building it as the USS Mattaponi, a Mattaponi class. The AO 41 class was 20 feet longer to accommodate a larger, "stock" size boiler instead of the custom design in the Kennebec class. Much of everything else was the same.

The kit is really rough and the box art shows a lot of differences that actual photos of her. I'll not change the length, but have ordered decals from Floating Drydock and PE from Gold Medal. There are only 37 parts in the box and 4 are not used. I thought it would be a quick build, but maybe not

I want to do this nicely as it is for a lifelong friend I went to school and joined the Navy with. He served aboard the Mattaponi 1960 - 63.

The kit -

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EJ
 
The start;
Ordered decal sheets and PE set. Made temporary building base.

Installed the reinforcing and mounting nuts for the pedestals, prepped the deck edges and top edges of hull for assembly.

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Main deck fitted and glued up, poor fit.

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Sitting temporarily on the permanent base to see what it looks like. Started removing all the railings.

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Railings and azteck ladders gone. First sanding done. Putty applied. This is the first time I've used "Perfect Plastic" Putty.

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EJ
 
It takes courage and determination to attack on of these classic :drinks Gray Ladies! Not every one of us has your intestinal fortitude! Looking forward to more Photos!! :salute :ro:
 
Got a bit more done. The hull & main deck rails and Aztec ladders removed, some filling done and sanded. Ready for a prime coat. 1000 scale feet of rails removed from the superstructure parts and sanded ready for primer.

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Recd some decals from floating dry-dock (Starfighter decals) that will work for what I want. The middle one is the kit decals with no #1. Also some 1/500 brass PE for rails, ladders and doors. The box art shows 3 bar rails everywhere, but pictures show 2 bar. I found out from my buddy that served on Mattaponi, they were not rails, but were cabling, strung through pipe stantions, as they all had to be removable. He went aboard right after re-commissioning in 1961. Shortly after that, in the yards, they removed the after section of catwalk and replaced it with a full open deck to be used to transport ammunition. The fret has about 10 full strips of 2 bar :woohoo:

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Sounds like a good combination eh? - fuel oil, av gas, jp5 and explosives. :hmmm
 
Looking good EJ your buddy is a lucky feller to having a friend like you ... :woohoo: good luck with the gold metal railings ... :popcorn
 
Got sidetracked doing a 1:1 upstairs bathroom gut out and remodel.

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Finally finished sanding and got a coat of Tamiya light grey primer on her.

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Noticed that the bow hawse holes were different, so I drilled them out to match.

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I'd like to add the rounded lip around the hawse holes as seen on the #41 in this picture. anyone have any ideas?


EJ
 
If this was 1/72 scale , I would say, take some round .010 piece of stock but that might be too big for this scale

You might want to stretch some sprue to the required thickness and glue it in place.

Cheers, Christian B)
 
Well, after spending a couple hours playing with stretching spru, I gave up. The kit doesn't have many parts so there isn't much spru. I usually throw that stuff away so I don't have any from other kits either. Anyway, after 2 or so hours, all I wound up with were some blobs of plastic and was unable to form the stuff into either circles or elongated circles without melting it into unusable stuff. It was sure interesting to try though. One second it's there and stretching, the next second it's a lump on the bench. Maybe I just don't have the patience. Need a personal "show-n-do" from Phantom II. I'm gonna ask at the next model club meeting and see if anyone can do that for me.

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Soooo, I dug out the box of wire. I used 3 gauges, fine, extra fine and super fine, some copper and some was soft brass wire. Bent the stuff up and stuck it on with thick super glue. After a bit, I formed a fillet around the edges with medium super glue as a filler. I think with a bit of sanding and some primer it will look ok.

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Next, the ladders and a nautical mile or so of PE railing. A lot of the "railing" on the main deck and catwalks was actually wire rope strung through pipe stations, as it had to be removed often when refueling. I'll use 2 bar railing and bend it down a bit to simulate wire rope.
 
. Need a personal "show-n-do" from Phantom II. I'm gonna ask at the next model club meeting and see if anyone can do that for me.

That's what I had a while back. And he nailed it. Trick is heating up a large section of the sprue instead of just one small part. Hope that makes sense.

Looks great EJ :popcorn
 
Sorry ,looks like you were close but not quite warm enough.

When it's warm enough you get little to no resistance to the stretching .

Your piece must have been too short. I always do it by hand.

The wire and glue look good though . :good:

Cheers, Christian B)
 
Yup, I had it either to hot or not hot enough.

After some sanding and primer -



Then cut out 22 watertite doors, some open, some closed and got them glued on.

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Cut out and folded 12 inclined ladders and folded them up. Need 4 custom length ones yet for the catwalk and gun tubs. I'll intall them tomorrow. My eyeballs are beginning to rebell.


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EJ
 
Well, got all the doors and incline ladders done on the main deck level. lightly sanded and wiped the hull, then sprayed a black swath where the boot - top will be. My friend said it was quite wide, maybe 10 feet, as the depth changed dramatically when fully loaded or near empty. Got one photo of her showing the boot top for reference.

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Will mask the boot top and spray the anti-fouling red next. Then mask that too and spray the grey hull along with some of the superstructure parts.

Was gonna post a pic, but Photobucket must be down again. Can't log on, plus, all my pics are gone on my posts for this site. Doggone frustrating technology anyway. I sometimes wonder if it's worth all the effort. Oh well.
 
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