CVE-26 USS Sangamon by René Hieronymus
Brand: Scratchbuild
Scale: 1/72
Modeler: René Hieronymus

 

AircraftProfilePrints.com - Museum Quality Custom Airctaft Profile Prints

This model is awarded by Editor's Choice - Excellence Award!
Congratulations!

 

The construction

 

From the beginning I had decided to built the ship as a waterline model, because I wanted to display it in its natural element: at sea.  The model was built in two sections, forward and aft. This was very helpful when handling the model during certain building steps, and transportation was much easier this way as well. In most cases large scale models of ships in museums around the world are built in a way which I  call “idealized”: they look brand new, fresh, as if straight from the builder’s ways, or at least right from a major overhaul. But I wanted viewers to have the impression of a ship in action, alive so to speak, with all its aircraft and, most of all, all its crewmembers aboard and working, so I decided to build the model as she was configured in early 1945 and as if she was at sea and at war.

 

As soon as I received the plans for the Sangamon, I started immediately to work on the model. The first step was to enlarge the plans to the scale the model would be built to, 1/72nd, or 1/6“ equals 1‘. That way I was able to take measurements directly from the plans.  After that the frames were drawn and transferred to plywood, and were cut and sanded. The keelsons connecting the frames were made of wood, too. The bow and the stern were carved to shape from solid wood. The hull plating was made in 3 layers: first came a solid layer of cardboard 1mm thick and then 2 layers of plastic sheet 05mm thick. These were engraved to show the individual hull plates.  The openings to the hangar and fuel decks  were cut in to the appropriate shape. All the sponsons were made of solid wood and later covered with plastic sheet as well. Some of these sponsons had a fairly complicated shape and were pretty tricky to build.

 

One of the most distinctive features of the Sangamon class are the large openings on the sides to the main deck, or fuel deck as it was called by the crew. These openings are on both sides of the hull and you can see through the entire ship from one side to the other. This fuel deck housed the large fuel pumps used for underway replenishment and was also used to store a lot of consumable material used on board, such as planking for the flight deck. All this detail would be visible, so I had to scratch build all the piping and pumps and other details for the fuel deck, and paint them as well, before the hangar deck above it could be built. The next part of the model that was built, though, was the forecastle. This section is right beneath the overhanging flight deck at the bow and adding details such as the anchor winch and all the other small details would be difficult once the flight deck was in place.  The flight deck support structures were all made of plastic sheet and the anchor winch and other details scratch built from various materials. After that I decided for better alignment of these structures to construct the forward part of the flight deck. The little gallery deck underneath this part of the flight deck would turn out to be a major headache later. As soon as I finished the forecastle and the fuel deck, I started the construction on the hangar deck. The floor was plastic sheet again, as well as all the supports inside the hangar deck to which the flight deck would be later attached.  Each of the cross beams supporting the flight deck consists of about 75 pieces and I had to build 22 of them! The bulkheads inside the hangar deck were detailed with various parts and the roller shutter doors on the sides of the hangar were made. In addition I started work on the two flight deck elevators. The elevator wells were made and a hydraulic piston was installed in each of them, since at this stage I was planning to make both elevators operable. Later I decided against this and fixed the elevators in place, one up and one down. In each case I had to make all the parts myself. Unfortunately, most of them cannot be seen once the flight deck was in place.

 

My overall planning at the beginning of the construction had foreseen a working time for the model of somewhere around 4000 hrs. At this point everything was going according to this plan, no major problems had been encountered, and about 1500 hrs had been spent on the model over a two year period . Next would be the flight deck and for that I wanted to do something special.  All large scale aircraft carrier-models I had seen had a single piece of wood for the flight deck, which was carved and colored to look like the real thing.  In reality the flight decks of all WWII US. Navy aircraft carriers were planked with wood and at 10 foot intervals between these planks were tie-down tracks, a metal plate with very distinctive openings  to which aircraft were secured with tie-down chains when parked on the flight deck. I had not been able to find anything which even looked like this in spite of requests to companies all over the world. I contacted some companies about having  the parts specially made, but either they said they could not make them or they would be too expensive.  I finally decided to make the tie-down-tracks myself by using the so-called photo-etch technique. Additionally, there were some other parts which I was going to need and most of which could be done with this technique as well. So I started to draw all those parts on the computer and found a company which could do the etching process for me with the fine detail I would need. I had tried doing the etching my self, too, but working with such volatile chemicals is no fun, it smells terrible, but most of all the quality is definitely not the same as that done by an experienced manufacturer with the right equipment.

 

Making your own photo-etched-parts, or PE-parts for short, is something of an effort. This technique enables one to make ultra-fine detailed parts which can raise the detail level on any model significantly but, on the other hand, it requires quite some effort and for small numbers of parts is very expensive, so I cannot recommend doing such parts  yourself unless you need them, as I did, in large numbers.  In this case it may be a practical way to do them, and you might even find a market for them, as I did. For the deck planking itself I chose small wooden strips, because nothing simulates wood like wood! Of course this meant that I would have to glue thousands of them to complete the entire Flight deck.

 

While waiting for the PE parts, I started on the “catwalks”. These are located around the flight deck and are among the most prominent parts of the entire ship. All the gun tubs, ladders and other details had to be added one after another. None of the supports for the gallery deck have  the same shape, so this work was very time consuming and the catwalks took several months to complete. I was able to use some parts which were commercially available, such as the stanchions for the railings which came from a German company, and that made the construction much easier. On early build photos it can be seen that they are made of brass, so they are very robust, which made the handling of the model at this time much safer. The portholes came from the same manufacturer and were added during this phase as well. With the catwalks in place the model was beginning to look much more like a carrier and it was about time to start the most time consuming task on the whole model, the flight deck.

 

As soon as the hangar deck was finished and painted, I started with the construction of the flight deck, and completed it except for the wooden planking and tie-down tracks. Meanwhile my efforts in making my own PE-parts were successful and as soon as I had the first batch of those parts in my hands, I knew that the Flight deck would become a real eye catcher.

 

About this time I received more photos from the Sangamon and to my horror I noticed that the gallery beneath the Flight deck and above the Forecastle deck was wrong.  This part of the ship was already finished and it took me quite a while to figure out, what to do. In my case the gallery was much smaller as I had interpreted it from some photos of its early configuration. But it seems that during one of the last two major overhauls this gallery was modified. So I had no  choice but to rebuild this part as well. The problem was that this part was already permanently fixed to the rest of the model. In the end the reconstruction of this part was an effort which was more work than building the entire part completely new, but finally I was able to say that my model was looking exactly the right.

 

The next step was the flight deck planking and tie-down tracks. For this I had planned as already mentioned, to use small wooden strips which I received from an Italian manufacturer. These stripes were 3mm wide, 0,5mm thick and only had to be cut to the desired length of 70mm. This meant that I had to cut several thousand of them and this work progressed very slowly. Every 45 mm one of my PE tie down tracks was inserted.  As soon as I had finished the first few centimetres the look of this section was simply breathtaking,  exactly what I was looking for! At the location where the Island would be, the first of the 4 barriers was added as well and this enhanced the overall look as well. The longer I did this work the faster it went, but in the end I spent almost 4 month with the planking of the flight deck. Total working hours at this time had already passed 2.000 hrs!

The island was a model in itself and could easily stand alone in a diorama. Fortunately I had several pictures of the island so the construction of went pretty quickly and without any major problems. The basic structure was once again made of plastic sheet.  All tiny detail parts had to be made and installed in their appropriate places on each deck of the island . One problem came up when I started the construction of the radar antennae.  According to the plans which I had, Sangamon should have carried SK, SG, and YE radars, but even in photos of rather poor quality, it was clear that Sangamon did not carry SK, but the much smaller SC-2 and in a different position than in the plans as well. According to some books, no Sangamon-class carrier had the SK Radar installed at any time and there were no really good photos available where I could see which antennae were installed in early 1945.  Once again, though, I only had to contact Don Schroeder about this problem and he got in contact with former radar operators on Sangamon who identified for me which radars were installed in 1945.  There was still the problem that on one photo it seemed that there was another antenna, which I could not identify. Finally with the help from an old friend, carrier expert Stefan Terzibaschitsch, we were able to identify this mystery radar as an SP, with a so called 6 ft. cut antenna. Where the normal round dish is cut off on the top and bottom forming a rectangle with curved sides. The SP was a fighter director radar, which was needed by the Sangamon, because during her last major overhaul in Bremerton she was designated a night-fighter escort carrier, the first CVE used in this role.

 

The open bridge received all the needed details: steering wheel, engine annunciator, capstan, small windows at the front, captain’s chair, and so on. The same was done for the primary flight control on the same deck level but on the port side. One deck below, the admiral had his own little bridge. The lookout level received several large “big eye” binoculars and some signal lights as well. The next level up is for the much bigger search lights and the first of the  radars, the SP. The little mast was made of plastic sheet parts and some PE parts as well for the floor. The yardarm and some other small details were made from wood, mostly because it is simply stronger and later the small rigging lines can be stretched more easily. Several details were added and finally the whole island was painted and slightly weathered. For paints I used White Ensign Models  paints, which were available in the right colors.  In 1945 Sangamon was wearing Measure 21, which consisted of 2 similar dark blue-gray colors, Navy Blue 5N on vertical surfaces and decks in Deck Blue 20B.  Last, the rigging was done by using a slightly stretchable thread.  After that the whole Island was stored inside a wooden box until it would be attached to the rest of the ship.

 

Next I turned my attention to the the final detailing of the catwalks. Myriads of tiny parts had to be made and put in their proper place along the catwalks on both sides of the ship. Ladders, fire extinguishers, fire axes, fire hoses, tow bars and several other parts were added. This took several weeks to accomplish. Finally I started work on the armament.  For most of the guns I used R-H Fittings which were purchased from several sources. These tiny models are not bad at all, but neither are they of high quality, so I decided to give them some more details. For the 20mm Oerlikons I designed PE replacement for the gun shield, the gun sight, added additional shoulder rests and straps, as well as a few other details. The 40mm Bofors received new gun sights as well as new railings. Some cooling hoses for the gun barrels and a few other details enhanced the guns even more. The 5 inch guns were mostly scratch built using different materials and various parts from other models. Other details for the catwalks were the floater nets and baskets. The baskets were made of self designed PE parts again. The floaters themselves were made by using small pearls from a kids toy. (My daughter Nathalie gave them to me unselfishly) These pearls were put on a thin thread and painted. As soon as all the guns were put in their places around the flight deck, I could start the next phase of the model.

 

This time I turned my attention to the aircraft and the rest of the flight deck equipment. Building the aircraft was no real problem for me since I’ve specialized on aircraft models for many, many years and the original idea for this carrier model came from the fact that I always wanted an aircraft carrier in the same scale as my aircraft models. In March 1945 the aircraft contingent of the Sangamon consisted mainly of F6F Hellcats and a few TBF/TBM Avengers. For the Hellcat I used the Italeri kit, which is pretty well detailed and has only relatively minor faults. One of these is that somehow Italeri made a mistake with the engine: the cylinder banks face the wrong way so the push rods are on the back side, but this can be pretty easily corrected. The cockpit interior received some self made detail-parts, like harnesses, for a better look, because in most cases the canopy would be open and one can easily look inside.  I used the Night Fighter F6F-5N version as well as the normal F6F-5. Since Italeri did not add a drop tank for their night fighter kit I had to make them, too. Some of the F6F-5 were the “E” version which used a different radar pod on a pylon underneath the starboard wing.  I had to make the pods and the pylons in the number needed. Altogether, not a big problem, I just had to build these aircraft in a much larger quantity than I was normally used to.

 

The folded wings on most of the aircrafts were quite a different story. Because there is no wing fold feature in the kit, nor is it available in the aftermarket, I had do to what became my motto during this whole project “Do it yourself”! I used the normal wings from one of the kits and built the inner structure as well as the folding mechanism itself. After that a friend of mine, Othmar Hellinger, made molds of them and cast them for me. Painting the aircraft was only a little challenge, because this is something I’m used to. But I wanted to give most of the aircraft a somewhat used look, quite like the rest of the ship. To achieve this, I primed the entire aircraft with Alclad Duralumin and then used the  so called “Salt Technique”.  Sounds funny but the result are pretty impressive and here is how it works: the aircraft is primed with the Duralumin color; after that paint is dry, small drops of water are put on areas of wear on the aircraft using a small brush;  then tiny amounts of ordinary salt is added to the water drops; once the water has evaporated leaving the salt crystals on the model,  the final color, Glossy Sea Blue is sprayed on.  After letting it dry for several hours, a whole day is better, the dried salt  is removed with the fingertips or a hard small brush. The result is that the Duralumin shows through and the look is exactly what it would be in reality. After that the decals, some of them self made, were added and some stretched sprue for the antennae and finally some light weathering. The same methods were used for the five Avengers, this time Academy kits, since the preferred Hasegawa kits were no longer available. The flight deck equipment like the bomb carts, tractors, Jeeps and the crash crane, or cherry picker were once again scratch built, except the Jeeps, for which I used the Airfix kit, which was slightly improved and modified. Next came the figures or should I say my nightmare?

 

Everyone who knows me knows  that I really do like to build models, but figures … well that’s another story. To be honest, I do not like to build or paint them very much, but from the very beginning it was clear to me that without a lot, and I mean really a lot of them, the ship would look well, ….dead. So I simply had no other choice but to do them. Until this project I had only used figures for my models in small numbers and I was used to the normally available ones, but this time I needed more, many more! My first calculation turned up a mind boggling number of almost 400 figures for the entire model. In the end I did even a few more of them! I used every suitable figure from every manufacturer I could find: Preiser, Hecker & Goros, Heller, Revell and virtually hundreds of other figures found their way to my hobby desk. Fortunately I had started to collect them wherever possible many months before I started on them. Even with all these different figures, though, there were a limited number of poses and I wanted my figures in different poses, so I had no other choice than to modify them as well.

 

Anyone who is not involved with model building would have gotten some strange impressions about my personality if he had entered my hobby room during this period. There I was, sitting at my desk, cutting heads, arms and legs off  hundreds of figures, Dante´s Inferno come to life! Believe it or not, all of them survived, or at least most of them, and they found a new place on my model. Painting all those figures is one hell of a lot of work! In most cases up to 12 different colours on a single figure, so maybe one will understand why this is not my favourite task. It took me several months to finish them all. Altogether I made no less than 423 figures and I’m not sure if I will make any figures in the next few years!

 

Finally the entire ship was mounted on its water surface. This “water” was done in my usual way with a few modifications. I use ordinary toilet paper and wall paper glue. These things are not only pretty cheap but very easy to work with and the result looks pretty good. I simply add layer after layer of the paper soaking each of them with lots of glue. For creating waves, I simply pile up some more paper in the desired shape with an old brush or sometimes I use my fingers for this as well. Pretty messy, but that way I got some better “feeling” for the shape. After everything is the way I like it, I simply let it dry for several days, if not a week or two. After that I use different colours, mostly oil paints in different shades of blue, black and green and some white for the waves and wake. After this is dry, I added several layers (about 7 or 8) of Future Floor Wax to give the whole surface that “wet” look. When this dried, too, I added some transparent silicon to the tip of the waves. The entire model was fixed to that base with that silicon as well.

 

Altogether it took me 4,340 hrs over a period of 5 years and 6 month to build this model.  Knowing what I know now, would I do it again?  Definitely!  And I would highly recommend such an experience to any ship model builder. Sure this way it will take somewhat longer to finish a single model but your skills will improve significantly and the result is something you can really be proud of, because you can really say I’m a “model builder”, not just a kit builder.

 

If someone has any questions to ask, feel free to contact me

 

Keep on modelling

René Hieronymus

www.usns.biz

 

      
      
      
      
Click on the images to enlarge!



The finished model

Here are some pictures of the finished models. Within these days I will have finished my work on the book about this project as well. The title for  this Hardcover book will be: \\\"An Oilcan that sprouted wings\\\" It will be covering the entire operational history of the ship and its crew. Of course there will several pictures of the ship most of them unpublished until now. In another chapter the construction of the model will be shown. All together the book will have about 80 pages with more then 90 pictures in full color.. Additional there will be 3 line drawings of the Sangamon. The price for the book without shipping will 49,-- €. If someone is interested in this book, you will be able to order it on my own website within the next few days: www.usns.biz

If there are any questions concerning my project, please feel free to get in contact with me.

Keep on modeling

René Hieronymus

www.usns.biz

      
      
      
      
Click on the images to enlarge!



 


Bookmark and Share

  Photos and text © 2009 by René Hieronymus

February 10, 2009

www.carrierbuilders.net