Korean War Micronauts

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pmskaar
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Re: Korean War Micronauts

Post by pmskaar »

Excellent work on the Valley Forge, Redleg! It looks exquisite. I know from experience that painting and placing the tiny little aircraft is not that easy. I look forward to seeing more of your ships.

Beagle
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Re: Korean War Micronauts

Post by Beagle »

Post WWII, in a basic nutshell, I’m short on time, destroyers started to go through FRAM to upgrade. Gearings and Sumners had precedence over Fletchers. The FRAMs varied from class to class and wether it was level I, II, or III. For instance, one of the FRAMs for the Gearings included new sonar, ASROC, and a helicopter. Fletchers lost 2, 3, and 4 mount, 2 mount was replaced with flexible hedgehog, configuration on the aft deckhouse could vary. I think the only Fletchers to make it to FRAM II were Jenkins, Redford and Nicholas. You can’t really go down the rabbit hole with this, but the best thing to do is check pictures for specific ships if you have specific ones in mind. navsource is a great website. If Donald Scheef sees this, he’d have way more and better info than me.
Last edited by Beagle on Mon May 16, 2022 3:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

Brigade Commander
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Re: Korean War Micronauts

Post by Brigade Commander »

I would concur with beagle. Fletchers were being mothballed and Gearings and Sumners were being upgraded. All of this before Korea even started. Those Fletchers still active were the DDERs. They had reduced armament and updated radars to operate as deep Pacific and Atlantic Ocean radar pickets as an early DEW line. The Gearings and Sumners were interim fleet escorts until the new missile-armed escorts could be designed and authorized. DANFS may give you enough info on the individual ship histories to determine what modifications they underwent since WW-II. Keep in mind, with the experiences from the combat and losses from Iwo Jima and Okinawa and the German development of guided anti-ship weapons, there was a push to upgrade as much as possible while being forced to inactivate large numbers of vessels at the end of the war. It was a bit chaotic. Torpedoes and depth charges were removed to save weight for electronic upgrades. All three classes were maxed out and borderline unstable trying to maximize their combat power and flexibility. It usually comes down to pictures of the individual ships. After the war when an escort hit a yard it seemed it was either mothballed or some sort of upgrade was done subject to how much funding was being authorized at that time.
"It is a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step into the road and, if you do not keep your feet, there is no telling where you might be swept off to."

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redleg
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Re: Korean War Micronauts

Post by redleg »

Thanks for the info you guys! I'm going to go with a pack of Sumners at first. I'm going full Beagle on my ships this time! I was just going to do the carriers, but Bill's ships have inspired me to try some destroyers too. I'm placing the order today for the Sumners, as well as the stretched Essx that will be the second Korean War carrier for my project.
Redleg's Website: micropope.webstarts.com

Beagle
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Re: Korean War Micronauts

Post by Beagle »

Lol, don’t that Red! I’m never happy with anything I do, painting miniatures is a Sisyphean task!

redleg
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Re: Korean War Micronauts

Post by redleg »

My work on the Korean War US Navy continues! I’m just doing one ship at a time since I really suck at them and I’m trying to do everything correctly. I’m actually going for quality over quantity for a change!

So here is my first attempt at a Sumner class destroyer. Just a basic gray paint job with a black wash and then some gray dry brushing. The wash looks too heavy to me so I’m thinking I need to settle down with the wash and maybe clean this up a little bit. Still debating if I should do another dry brush with a lighter shade of gray. Would that lighten it up too much?

And the idea of decals this small scare me, but I’m wondering if I can find decals for the correct destroyer hull numbers.
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Redleg's Website: micropope.webstarts.com

Beagle
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Re: Korean War Micronauts

Post by Beagle »

Looking good so far Red! Welcome to the world of OCD painting! You’re going to love it. Washes should usually complement the base coat under it, so for a haze grey ship, a grey black wash would work without making it look over done. What I generally do, is once the wash is on, is if it looks too heavy in in an area, I use a dry brush to touch to the spot to wick up a little bit without smearing it until I get the effect I want. But you have to remember, as the wash dries, it will tone down a little. Then, as Bergamot said for dry brushing, use lighter shades than the base to lightly touch the high spots, a little goes a long way. As far as decals, that should be done before washing and dry brushing so you can blend them in to the surface. With ships, try to pay attention to how they look from the horizon instead of than more from above, in this scale, there is more surface that way. If the vertical surfaces are good, the horizontal surfaces usually end up right.

redleg
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Re: Korean War Micronauts

Post by redleg »

Thanks for the advice! I'm working on the other 2 destroyers now, so I will try to go lighter with the wash and get some more practice with the dry brushing!
Redleg's Website: micropope.webstarts.com

redleg
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Re: Korean War Micronauts

Post by redleg »

I feel like the second two Sumner class destroyers turned out better with the dry brushing, except now that I look at photos of them it looks like I didn’t clean up the tubes of the forward 5” guns very well. A question for the naval experts though – were the tops of the funnels painted black? For some reason I want to paint them black just up on the top, but I can’t find any references to justify that.
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I also got the keel laid for the USS Essx, which will be my second and final Korean War carrier. This is the Ticonderoga model and on this one the hull and flight deck seem to line up better. On the last one I did the two pieces did not line up well and I ended up taking my Dremel to the bottom of the flight deck. The only oddity with this hull is that it’s not quite straight at the waterline so it wobbles on a flat surface, but I’m thinking I might base these ships anyway.
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Beagle
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Re: Korean War Micronauts

Post by Beagle »

Looking good so far Red. Do you have specific ships in mind for the destroyers? As for the bottoms of the hulls not being flat, that’s pretty common with all the ships, it gets worse with the bigger the hull. My solution is to set the model on a metal rasp and give it a few light passes to even it up. Be careful not to go full beans, a little goes a long way, you just want to take enough off to flatten it enough.

redleg
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Re: Korean War Micronauts

Post by redleg »

Thanks for the advice Bill! I thought for a second about getting the dremel out, but it's probably a good thing I didn't! I just love to hear that baby purr, and then the high pitched squeal when it bites into some pewter!

I have the lists of the destroyers that were in the task force then, but I'm not really set on the models representing a specific ship, other than the carriers. I have to admit though that the destroyers are much more satisfying than I thought they would be. I think I need to get some more!
Redleg's Website: micropope.webstarts.com

Beagle
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Re: Korean War Micronauts

Post by Beagle »

Research the destroyers on the list for the time period you’re modeling just to see how the funnel caps were painted. A good resource is navsource.org.

redleg
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Re: Korean War Micronauts

Post by redleg »

Quick update to the USS Essx, of 1951. I was pretty pleased with myself up until I applied a black wash to the ship. I didn't thin the black paint out nearly enough and it was like I just splashed black paint all over the gray base color! I thought about completely stripping it and starting over, but instead I did some heavy dry brushing with the base coat, and then some light dry brushing of a lighter gray. I got the flight deck decal applied last night and now I just need to do some touch ups.

I haven't even decided which aircraft to put on the flight deck yet. I'm going to go through the cruise book tonight and look at the air wing. I want to make this one a little different from the Valley Forge, so I will probably go heavy on the Corsairs.

I'll get a better pic once I get some aircraft on the flight deck.

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redleg
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Re: Korean War Micronauts

Post by redleg »

It took me forever to get it complete, but I finally added some aircraft to the deck of the USS Essx. All Banshees because that’s what I had left over of my Korean War aircraft.
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I don’t have any more plans to do Korean War ships, but I intend to start acquiring some Korean War ground and air units soon.
Here she is with a destroyer alongside.
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Redleg's Website: micropope.webstarts.com

Beagle
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Re: Korean War Micronauts

Post by Beagle »

Great looking ships Red! Really good job with the washes in the catwalks and high lighting the gun galleries.

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