-- Originally Posted 7/29/07 --

Despite my troubles with the heat here, still a month-and-a-half is a long time, and I was able to get in significant progress on my Boxer. Not least because it also dovetails with Matty's Models new product development. For example the correction of the aft, lower hull:


Click on Image to EnlargeThe Lindberg OOB mold's twin skegs and rudders are completely wrong for this area - plus a large ugly seam line; all were removed and replaced (left and center) with the single skeg and four shaft fairings and struts, the latter adapted from the Revell 1/426 Arizona, and aligned using brass rod (or my drill bit of the same diameter; center-right). For some reason (I don't think or plan well in the heat) I neglected to add the rudder before painting (right).

Nor before taking a mold of the entire area:

Click on Image to EnlargeThis is the first Matt Stein Models' development master for a hull correction for this area. And it will include a rudder - Oiy Vey!

I like to leave delicate details like propellers for very late in the build, to protect them - and even so I usually bust one or two - so on to the last remaining items necessary before closing up the flight deck:


Click on Image to EnlargeRe-doing the detail (see, Rick? ) inside the aft-most (#3) elevator, which of course is going to be shown open. In all of Navsource - out of every picture of every Essex-class carrier they have - there is only one showing the interior of this elevator well. (And for enough money, I'll tell you which one it is! )

Note the starboard-side interior (right) is now a bulkhead - an entire wall - with a primary lift pillar running up the center. There were only two (as opposed to my earlier, ridiculous four) primary lift pillars: this one to starboard and another, opposite it to port; among several lighter pillars which I also depicted (left). I made these pillars pretty nicely (if not strictly accurate) using "Aztec-stair" boarding ladders - FINALLY, a good use for all those old, lousy Aztec stairs!

Some gloss white over the new work and the open elevator looks infinitely better than before:


Click on Image to EnlargeActually, all the hangar walls and "roof" - the underside of the flight deck (center) - got a coat of gloss white, and the hangar deck got a coat of gloss gull grey.

With flight deck dry-fitted (right), you can see the open elevator lets a lot of light into the aft part of the hangar; making for some good visibility (with hangar doors open) into that area, from all angles. Visibility to see, of course, aircraft.

And this build will have a LOT of aircraft - not so many in the hangar, but about 50 all together - more than twice as many as in most kits OOB:


Click on Image to EnlargeAlthough needing only 5-10 for the hangar deck, I've been working on the whole group, which makes for scenes like North Island NAS field, when all lined up on the bench. You may recognize the few already decaled and completed as the demo units built earlier for the Matt Stein Models' website and other advertising pics - again, almost everything in the Boxer build is doing double-duty for Matty's Models (and vice-versa).

The center picture shows the entire set, grouped by type, and these five varieties of aircraft are shown at bottom (from left-to-right): K/AJ-2 Savage tankers, S2F Tracker ASW bombers, AD-1 Skyraider attack planes, AD-5W Skyraider AEW planes and HSS-N ASW helicopters. Note, with wings folded how much more compact all these are; many, many more will fit on the flight deck than simply the Trackers (right), whose wings have yet to be folded.

So that's where Boxer, and Matty's Models' products derived from her, are currently at. Work on her (even with last month's work setback) is accelerating, with just one or two more key items needed to complete her entirely. Any of you out there who need 1/550 scale quad-40mms, Mk37 directors and/or Mk56 directors, stay tuned - because Boxer needs 'em, and that means Matty's Models is going to produce them!

Cheers,

-Matty