USS iNDIANAPOLIS - 1944; Trumpeter; 1/350 On the bench March 2024

This is the USS Indianapolis - 1944 in dazzle paint.  The Indy is remembered as much for the Robert Shaw soliloquy about being sunk and losing crew to shark infested waters more than the battle stars won in WWII.  I want to stay removed from the infamy and build a fine ship.  As warships builds go this follows the Academy Warspite,  Trumpeters USS Texas,  USS Buckley and HMS Dreadnought.  There are other reasons for me picking the 1944 kit:  The Dazzle paint, both catapults (the starboard was removed in the 1945 refit); included PE and the SOC Seagull bi-planes, which brings us to this first post.

The Seagulls are in the kit instructions as the last construction.  However; I chose to start with them just as I did with the Walrus during the Warspite build.  This fed my DIY appetite by considering building one Seagull straight up as can be seen here and the other with wings folded back being pulled from the storage deck (more about the storage deck later).  The planes are molded clear so some paint is applied followed by decals - easier that way.  the challenge was how to make the wings in the fold back position?

I used the xacto saw blade with the wings on the sprue,

You can see how the wings are folded - hinged - but how best to do this?

First I folded back the bottom wing, but realized the difficulty of this plus  the brittle clear did not hold this shape.  Therefore; I separated the wings from the center portion that connects to the fuselage.

I put the fuselage together and attached both wing center portions.

I built the outer wing portions using a paper jig to hold the position of the wings and pontoon while glue set.  Now I had to figure how best to attach the wing sections.

I used a small piece of 26 gauge wire glued to the center wing portion and bent outward so that I could glue to the underside of the upper wing.

first one side, let dry then the other side.

With both wings attached I could add drop of glue to the point where the bottom wing hinge would be.

After attaching the center pontoon and finish painting I had to attach the tail planes.  Being cheap, I don't spend $ on fancy jigs and such, but rather make do with what I have on hand to hold things in place while delicate attachments are attempted.  The arrangement held the SOC in place so one hand could hold a tailplane to the fuselage and the other hand held the cement brush.

And there you have two Seagulls put aside until needed.  ON TO THE SHIP!