by Carl Musselman
1/700 USS Boxer LPH-4 (Dragon)
Although this kit lacks anatomical accuracy (which I did not attempt to correct on this build) and has some poor part alignment problems as well as some confusing images in the instructions I feel that this one turned out pretty well. I'm relying on the decent finish to distract the viewer away from any noticeable inaccuracies and I feel that the water turned out really well.
I think that the Starfighter decals make a huge contribution to the overall finish of my model. The kit comes with decals which portray a 1959 or "as built" or "as re designated" time period. Starfighter has two sets of decals for this model; 1960-1965 and 1966-1970. I have used the 1960-1965 set, here.
The kit comes with PE frets, but I didn't use any of it. I used Gold Medal Models radars and Essex class PE set for the railings. I scratch built the SPN-6 radar array from Gold Medal Models PE mesh.
I used Model Master Acrylic Neutral Gray for the hull and bulkheads and Navy Blue 5-N for the deck with a weathering of black pastel chalk and Warpigs olive drab pigment. The black wash over most of the model is by The Detailer along with some rust weathering using Warpigs pigments. I used Polly Scale Grimy Black for the mast and stack funnel. The eight H-34 Sea Horses, which come with the kit, were painted with Model Master Acrylic Green Drab and their decals are from Gold Medal Models except for the nose art which come with the Starfighter set. I found the white unit markings and aircraft I.D. numbers in the Starfighter decals to be too, too, small for my skills to cut out from the decal sheet without ruining them so, I omitted them from the helos.
