The USS Bataan was a fleet escort carrier built in WWII, and used axtensively in the Korean conflict. My build shows her as she comes home from Korea in November 1953, shipping VMF 312’s Corsairs. This build was taken directly from a photo showing the aircraft in roughly the same positions on deck.
DML’s kit is great- just simple to put together, and shows the ship on her WWII fit.
The conversion was fairly simple- add a modified addition to the starboard side of the hull, adjacent to the deck crane. Add some mods to the island(very simple catwalt additions) and the antenna array aft of the island.
The kit went together in a simple straightforward manner, and I added the above mods as needed. I scrounged the 1/700 scale aircraft box for enough Corsairs, and painted and decaled them. GMM photoetching was used. I also heavily weathered the flight deck, as I figured it would show lots of wear after a combat deployment. I started with bare wood shade, added medium blue shading by drybrushing on the sides of the deck where less heavy activity took place, then weathered the landing and catapult areas with a dark grey. Finally, I glosscoated it and decaled it, glosscoated again and dullcoated several times, then went back over the decals to weather them heavily to match the rest of the deck wear. I further weathered the deck and the ship with a dark grey wash and drybrushing to feather the colors and blend.
Photos and text © 2005 by Bob O'Connor July 01, 2005 |
