U.S.S. Saratoga CV-3

For a change of pace, thought I'd try an aircraft carrier      

U.S.S. Saratoga CV-3 in 1/700 scale, kit



and a picture of her at sea in color ( the only one I could find )



and a link for some history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Saratoga_(CV-3)

The kit has very little flash or mold lines so very little clean up has to be done    
This my first ever aircraft carrier so if you have any tips on some thing it will more that welcome    

Going to get my sea legs again, U.S. Navy from 1963 to 1967.

Fantastic John! I am really looking forward to seeing what you do with this kit. I have the same one in my stash and was thinking of doing it in a dazzle camo scheme. If you need some info on the camo schemes Sara wore then you will find the info on the Snyder and Short website. If you have any questions then ask me as I have a lot of reference material.

Thanks Chris, Snyder and Short is a cool web site, been their a few times checking on things.

Fired up the old Badger airbrush this morning and got some painting done

Flight deck in tan



The hull, fantail, island and smoke stack in medium gray ( model masters FS95237 ) which came out with a blue tint which is the way Sara was painted, just don't remember the years right now









Had to see what she looked like so did a mock up





and one for the size of the beast



Going to do some more tonight like the guns and some detail painting so will update when I have more done.   

Chris, here is what I have for the dazzle camo on Sara





Don't know if I'll do her this way but I might   

 

John, the flight deck is blue not brown. The deck stain would eventually wear away and the brown would show through.

The deck stain was blue after 1941
Here is a link for that info

http://www.shipcamouflage.com/specialtopics/BlueFlightDecks.html

so I'll just say it was before they got it stained blue   

The kit is of Sara after her January 1942 refit where the 8" turrets were replaced with the 5" ones. Good work so far!

Good start John.

Good luck with the dazzle camo...... look to be real tricky.

coyote wrote:The kit is of Sara after her January 1942 refit where the 8" turrets were replaced with the 5" ones. Good work so far!

OK, I'll just change the deck to blue with gray markings. Didn't know what year the kit was modeled after , Thanks Chris   

Chris, Question; What would I have to change on Sara to back date the kit to around 1938/1940 ??

If you could give a picture or two for ref. it would be great, I haven't a clue as to what the guns looked like back then. Thanks   

That would need a bit of work as the pre-war armament is different. I also think that many of the small AA weapons would need to be removed, etc. Here is a photo of my model of the sistership USS Lexington, also a Fujimi kit. The Lexington kit shows the ship before the war, Sara was practically the same. The two gun turrets before and after the bridge/funnel are completely different from the ones in your kit. I built this a long time ago before I had access to weathering oils etc.



I have photos of models of Sara done by experts, but they are of the later war period. Let me know if you are interested and I will send them.

I have that U S S Lexington kit also but I thing I'll just paint the flight deck blue and keep it as is    Thanks Chris

Went to the L H S today and got some blue for the flight, got it as close as I could but think it's a little darker than it should be.





Got most of the guns mounted on the hull











and the ones that go here are tiny and I lost 3 already trying to put them on



That's all I got for right how, will up date when I get some more done and thanks for the comments guys   

Great looking ship.
Impressive model !!!
It may be prototypical, but I don't care for the razzle dazzle camo theme !
  

To me it looks like great progress. I never knew they had that many guns on them.

It's looking good John.

Unlike Clay, I like the dazzle camo but I'd sure hate to have to paint it!!

Until the last few yrs I didn't know WWI and WWII ships were "camo-d!! Due to small scale I feel a good pattern highlights a small scale ship. WWI ships were especially strange (as were many planes) in patterns. Good luck!

coyote wrote:

I have photos of models of Sara done by experts, but they are of the later war period. Let me know if you are interested and I will send them.

If you don't mind sending them I'm interested in seeing them, may be they will help with the painting    Thanks Chris

Well I looking at some ref. pict. of Sara and it looked like the flight deck had a shine to it ssssoooo I got lazy and got my model masters gloss coat spray can and gave it a coat of gloss, wwwweeeellllllll that didn't work at all, the model masters paint ( not acrylic ) under it wrinkled sssooo It's in the purple pond and will try it again and make it a little lighter also   

I did get the rest of the guns on and found out the kit comes 3 short, plus the 2 that went flying when I was putting them on, just can't win for losing   

Hang in there John. Yes I did that spray can thing to a kit painted in acrylic years ago. It melted it. I am away from home at the moment, I will send some pics to you when I return.

Sorry to hear that John but it's a mistake all of us have made at some time or other.

I did it just recently but for the life of me, I cannot remember on what!!! LOL

Lookin' good! I've never built a ship before but I can admire great work when I see it. Keep up the great work.

I found a Squadron at  sea reference book for USS Saratoga CV-3 so they don't have it anymore but I DO



and it gives every thing you would need to build a accurate model of Sara. Looking through the book and looking at the model I've come to think it is of the 1943 version by the way the guns are and the location of them. Color scheme was overhaul sea blue with the flight deck in deck blue so that is what I'm gonna do    

Flight deck in deck blue



it looks gray in the pic. but it is a blue

Armament in 1943 was;
16  5-inche/38 caliber
36  40mm in 9 quad mounts
52  20mm

Well that's all for right now and hoping to get some more done on Sara by this weekend, thanks for all the comments, they are always welcome   

Looks like a good project to me.