Don’t try this sequence at home. It didn’t go well.
With the hull all built up, compartments installed, and quarterdeck and cable deck installed, it was time for the flight deck to go on. I saw this as a critical step towards feeling I would actually finish this project. Why, with the deck installed, all that would be left would be to add the island, and all of the various details in plastic and PE.
So, first I decided it would be easier and safer to paint the deck prior to gluing to the hull. Step 1 was to lay down a yellowy-orange center stripe. There was no way I was going to use the kit-supplied decal – for one, it was white, and two, it is really long and I knew I’d mess it up and twist it or get it out of alignment. And a misaligned center stripe would be oh-so obvious a distraction.
The picture below shows some basic masking to lay down a stripe (width not important) of the yellow-orange color. Based on photos, it looked like it was close in hue to the yellow of the roundel on a FAA Swordfish. You can see I used household masking tape here, imagining that I would peel it off within an hour or so.
I had real trouble getting the color right and it took several passes, even over a white base. Due to other commitments, I left the tape on a long time (as in weeks). When I finally did remove the masking tape, I discovered it had left a residue (big surprise) and much sanding was required.
I then applied 0.7mm Aizu masking tape over the yellow stripe in a very carefully marked-out straight line. Much burnishing was done to prevent (I hoped) bleed-through. The tape performed well for something so narrow.
Step 2 was to paint the deck using Colourcoat AP507A Dark Grey. The picture shows me midway through the painting process. Fortunately, I had loaded up on Colourcoat before White Ensign Models decided to pack it in. I was a bit too far away with the airbrush on the initial pass so some sanding was required with Micro Mesh pads to smooth out the surface.
Step 3 was to remove the Aizu tape and see if the center stripe was as hoped for or marred in some way (as expected). Here you see me peeling back the tape. So far, so good…
Terrific – it actually came out 100% good-enough!
So, now I could glue down the deck and then deal with any touch up issues like seams.
First of all, I should have glued on the deck before painting the deck but I was so concerned about getting the center line right and not accidentally overspraying the (already-painted) hull sides that I felt the deck needed to be painted off-the-hull.
As things turned out, despite multiple dry fitting passes, the deck-to-hull join left a lot to be desired. There were several reasons for this:
- I had sawed off the keel to make a waterline model. This meant that the hull sides, when glued, weren’t exactly in the 3D space as Heller had intended.
- I had mucked about changing the location of platforms and compartments to conform to the plans. This affected structural integrity and probably altered the deck-to-hull fit.
- All of that resin, styrene strengthening bars, and plating to cover the sticky resin no doubt pushed parts of the hull in or out.
All in all, the deck didn’t fit well at all. I had to glue down sections at a time using a Touch-N-Flow liquid cement applicator and lots of clamps (mostly rubber bands – see post title).
Once the deck was secure, there were all sorts of gaps and seams to fill. On some sections of deck length, the hull was somewhat lower than the flight deck (0.10 inches). I used both styrene strips and Perfect Plastic Putty. Much retouching of paint looks to be in my near future. The worst spots were at bow and aft, as shown below.
Cropredy Illustrious Project 
