1/700th scale HMS Habakkuk WIP (aka Project Habakkuk)

[seadude]

Small update.

Re-painted the upper portion of my Habakkuk hull Haze Gray with the leftover bottles I had that I previously mentioned. All 20mm guns and galleries are finished. Aircraft are almost finished. I only have about 15-20 ready though which is good enough for now. Still have to work on the flight deck and markings yet. Add black boot stripe around hull. Thursday or Friday night will be when all the armament and other small details will get added. There's no hope to get the small cross section I built detailed before the contest. There's just no time.



A friend of mine from work just recently finished the base and a bunch of small sticks for my Habakkuk model to sit on. Here's a pic:



I've never tried this type of method with the little sticks before for displaying a model. Also in the pic, in the lower right corner of the base will be displayed a small cross section of the Habakkuk hull that I built. This small hull piece is resting on two sticks. The rest of the front portion of the base will be where I'll affix some photos and printed text.

[proditor]

That looks amazing!!!   

[Sauragnmon]

Coming along beautifully, Eric - she's doing real nicely now.

[PR19_Kit]

... and bids fair to be the BIGGEST 1/700 ship model of all time too! 

I applaud your thought processes, skills and sheer bravery in even thinking of doing it. 

[seadude]

This'll be my last update till Sunday after the Chicago model contest and then I'll hopefully be able to show pics of the (almost) finished Habakkuk.
For now, I've been burning the midnight oil trying to get a lot done. Tomorrow night is when all the small details like boats, armament, superstructure, etc. will be added. Tonight, I added the flight deck, but ran out of time to add the deck markings. I'll add those tomorrow night. I originally wanted one long sheet of Evergreen thin plastic to lay down as the flight deck, but my hobby store near me didn't carry any in 3' lengths, so I had to paint and add the flight deck in sections.



I used Dark Sea Blue which was a gloss and came close to Deck Blue 20B for my Measure 13 scheme.
There's not much I could add for the base. I just wrote up a few snippets of information and attached those with some pics to the base.

[Stargazer]

Gosh! That's no way to treat a carpet... 

[PR19_Kit]

It's a model room carpet, almost anything is allowed..........

[ChernayaAkula]

Gosh! That's no way to treat a carpet... 

That's what the carpet gets for constantly swallowing little plastic parts and not retuning them (even when threatened)! 

[seadude]

Gosh! That's no way to treat a carpet...

If you look carefully, I laid a plastic sheet on top of the carpeting. My apartment living room floor is the only space I have to lay parts down and spray paint them. I'm very careful about covering or moving out of the way the furniture, rugs, etc.

[Sauragnmon]

I thought I saw a plastic sheet on there, but I thought equally I was just seeing finer spray edges in some places, but hey, better a rug than a nice hardwood floor catching the spray.

[seadude]

I'm going to get straight to the point with this post: I did not finish the Habakkuk and it never went to the Chicago contest that I went to today. I just got home not that long ago and I'm tired, so I'll have to explain later. But suffice to say, this ship is NOT "seaworthy" so to speak. I've been making way too many mistakes the last few days and it's doing me no good. Therefore, I'm taking a break from working on the Habakkuk for a few days and getting some rest and re-thinking how I want to build and detail the ship. The only good news is that I picked up two more 1/700 kits in the vendor area for $10 each. One kit is another Essex AC kit that I needed more planes from, and another kit is a Trumpeter USS Hornet AC that has a whopping 30 aircraft in the kit.......most of which are B-25's which some modelers have been pestering me about to add to the Habakkuk.
Pics from the contest won't be uploaded to my PB account till later next week. So for now, I'm calling it a night and getting some rest. I'll explain more in detail either tomorrow or next week sometime.

P.S. - Anybody have any good suggestions for a designation for a Habakkuk ship? I was thinking maybe CVS-44? If not that, then what other letter/number designation might be good?

[sequoiaranger]

>P.S. - Anybody have any good suggestions for a designation for a Habakkuk ship? I was thinking maybe CVS-44? If not that, then what other letter/number designation might be good?<

Something this unique should have a unique designation. The large carriers of the Midway class were designated "CVB"s, the "B" being for "large" or "battle". The Habakkuk, of course, dwarfs the Midways by about a million-and-a-half tons.

How about CVX-1? For "extraordinary", mysterious, or experimental?

ICV? I like "icy" in the name, but.....

CVH (for "humongous") might be mistaken for "helo" carrier.

CVM, for "mammoth"?

Or CVBTAYH, for "Bigger Than Anything You Have"!  

[Brian da Basher]

How about CVH (carrier, Habbakuk)? There's a precedent for this as U.S. Navy rigid airships such as the Los Angeles were all known as ZRS (Zeppelin rigid, scout).

It's always a good idea to take a break when a project seems more about meeting deadlines than a hobby. Often I've regretted rushing things, but I've never felt bad about taking more time.

Brian da Basher

[seadude]

I need help and I need a lot of advice. I hate to say it, but I committed one of modeling's most awful crimes: I tried to rush finish my Habakkuk for an upcoming contest this past Nov. 14th and I made mistakes.   But the night before the contest, I said "To hell with the Habakkuk!"   and went to the contest as a spectator instead and did not enter anything. The Habakkuk sat at home.
A lot of people were telling me not to rush, including my own mother, but I didn't listen that well, and now I paid the ultimate price by having a godawful flight deck which I'm about to explain.
When I made the flight deck, I used thin Evergreen sheet which had to be laid in 6 sections since my local hobby store doesn't have Evergreen sheet in 3' lengths. I then sprayed it with Testor Dark Sea Blue which is the closest I could get to Deck Blue 20B. Since the Sea Blue was a gloss, I would then have to dull coat it, which I did. Everything (paint and dull coat) was left to dry for a very long time before I wanted to do the flight deck markings. Now here's where my major mistake comes in: I then started laying 3M "low tack/adhesion" blue painter's masking tape down to do the flight deck markings. As I was trying to position the tape so that I could get a nice straight line, I soon noticed that the tape was pulling off the dull coat layer off of the flight deck!   CRAP!







If I wouldn't have rushed things and been so stupid, then what I SHOULD have done was the following: Paint, then markings, THEN dull coat. As I was explaining my situation to other modelers at the contest (and getting harshly critisised), one person suggested taking a product called Gojo which is a pumice hand cleaner and spreading that on the deck and letting the ingredients work on "lifting/stripping" the paint/dull coat off the deck. After trying to remove as much paint/dull coat as I can, I'd then have to sand down the Evergreen decking again before trying to reapply my paint/dull coat again.
The only other option if I didn't do the above is to completely buy new Evergreen sheet and build a new flight deck. But the person I talked to seemed to think that the Gojo solution would be the easier and faster method to use.

So I have to ask: Does what I just explained for solutions work ok or does anyone have any other suggestions?

Problem #2:
I was also harshly critisised for painting my Habakkuk wood hull and the wood grain can still be seen in areas through the Haze Gray or red paints. Well, why can't I just leave my wood hull as is because according to the Habakkuk article written by William J. Wallace in that Warship magazine, he wrote the following:

The outside hull would be insulated by a complex 9in thick composite material, made of plywood and insulation boards (masonite type) in 27 layers. This tough outer shell would dovetail together and be attached to the hull by 1ft 6in dowels embedded in the ice.

Therefore, why can't my wood hull stay as is to "represent" that outer insulation layer? But I was told instead to completely strip off all the gray and red paint, sand smooth the entire wood hull AGAIN and then repaint everything.





Problem #3
Same modeling friend also did not like the way I had my display base as shown above in a different post. He suggested removing all the pics and text, and instead building/displaying a 1/700 WWII AC and put that next to the Habakkuk for scale purposes. He suggested painting it black to act as a "silhouette" so to speak. If I did that, then I probably wouldn't put much detail on the AC and would skip tiny details like the 20mm guns and other small stuff. It's only the main hull, superstructure, and perhaps a few other main pieces I'd have to build/paint.
But if I do this "silhouette", then where do I add my other pics/text, if I do? I'm not going to remove the cross section that I built. That will be staying on the base.
What does everyone think? Should I do a "silhouette" or not?

[sequoiaranger]

Follow your heart, here.

This is a WHIF, and FUN!

Da He!l wid dose guys! They don't seem on "your" side!

"They" apparently missed the obvious and simplest--re-coat the deck with some gloss coat to get the finish uniform again, and then dull-coat the whole thing!

As for the sides showing a little wood underneath, perhaps a coat of primer gray and a re-coat of the outer color would do (no need to strip anything). I don't think I have EVER not had to re-coat or re-do something on a model.

RELAX and keep at it until YOU are satisfied. %$#& everyone else!! (that may include me and I don't mind!)