USS West Virginia BB-48 1945 – Trumpeter 1/700

So... On a whim, figured I post one of my ships on here. This is Trumpeter's 1/700 West Virginia '45 kit, which is very similar to all the Big 5 kits that Trumpeter has put forth. It's a pretty good kit, but as with most ships, I felt the need to add some PE details, curtesy of various GMM sheets. Additionally, I added some Lycra rigging, and was my first such attempt, at the time. I finished this kit sometime early in 2018.

I chose to model the ship as it appeared in late '45, during Op Magic Carpet. At that time, the Measure 32 7D scheme had been over painted with Measure 21, essentially solid 5N Navy blue. Simply put this was my way of dealing with the fact that I was not up to the task of doing a splinter scheme with brush paints.

The paints are a mix.. If I remember correctly, the boot-topper is black spray enamel from the dollar store, and lower hull is Tamiya TS-33. All of the 5N Blue is brush painted Model Master Acrylic. Their line of acrylics was outstanding, as it self-leveled excellently, had great pigments, and was pretty close to USN blues straight from the bottle. It's a shame this line of paints has ceased. I've since bought some AK paints for WWII USN colors, but have yet to try them. The deck was painted MM wood, then sprayed over with MM Enamel 20B Deck Blue. To spray it, I used one of those old Testor's "airbrushes" that you are supposed to attach to an aerosol propellant can, only I attached it to my 33 gal air compressor. I can't help but appreciate my airbrush all-the-more, looking back...

Aside from the rigging, this was also the first kit on which I used Tamiya panel line wash. It was sealed with Humbrel Matte varnish, and pastels were used for rust, etc.

I hope you like!

13 additional images. Click to enlarge.