Hi Tim,
I always had a soft spot for the wacky looking ships, nice to hear you are enjoying it. Taking the ship and the aircraft slowly and carefully is the way forward. Another update in the not too distant.
Cheers, Si
A little progress. a bit more done on the airwing. That area is progressing slowly, the instructions (my opinion) could be a little clearer on folding the undercarriage legs particulary on the T4M.
I have got a bit further with the etch, and fitted the forward overhead crane.
I am going to off piste with the finishing. The more that brass structure grows the less I want to spray it light grey. I am going to leave it bare brass. It might not be accurate, but to me it will look cool and different. I worked in tanker shipping offices, Owners, Shipbrokers and Oil Trading, most of them had builders models of ships they owned or chartered regularly. The basic Hull, superstructure, funnel large solid deck structures were all painted in the correct company colours. On some a lot of the fine detail stuff was left in bare brass, knew it wasnât correct for the real ship, but it looked cool.
If you donât like the plan, I wonât be offended if you say so.
Cheers, 
Si
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Si, I have often had the same thought assembling models with etched brass components - and the brass on your Langley is exceptional! It always seems such a shame to spray boring grey all over gleaming brass⌠I say go for it!
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Thanks Tim, appreciate your comment, I am going for it
Hello Si.
A very well built model.
Iâll stay on board.
I understand that you donât want to paint the vulnerable etched brass parts, they look great as is.
But that wouldnât be mine.
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Hi Jorg,
I appreciate I would most likely be in a minority for going down this route. I am very pleased that even though you wouldnât go down this route, and have said so in a very nice way, I am glad you are staying on board.
Cheers, Si
Hi Si,
fantastic work here as well! You USS Langley turns into one very interesting build. From first seeing the kit when it came out it did not really appeal to me, I have to admit - but with all the work and detail underneath the flightdeck - well, I have to revise that.
Your brass structure looks really splendid! It would probably loose a lot under a simple grey coat of paint, but in its brassy color sure will be an eye catcher - so I am with you with your decision to leave it unpainted!
Cheers
Jan
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Hi Jan,
Thank you for looking in, I didnât consider this one until Trumpy brought out the etch and the wood deck in one package. I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount of structural etch when I opended the package. Taking it one or two sections at time made it a lot less daunting, I used to work in a Tanker Shipowners office, they had quite a few builders models of their ships, some of those had a lot of unpainted brass deck details, and how good they looked, as this brass structure grew I decided not to paint it. Very much appreciate yout support.
Cheers,
Si
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Small update,
Some progress being made with the Airwing.
A bit work done on aft end of the structure. The intent will be to have some of the aircraft fitted under the flight deck. I have some extra aircraft on order, the first set the F4Bâs turned up to today, but unimpressed they were moulded in clear plastic. I dont intend to finish the main section until the selected aircraft are fitted down on the maindeck.I am expected the etched structure to be a tight fit. I will have to remove it to fit the after longitiudenal crane, when I get it back in place, it will glued down, with a fragile etched structure taking it on and off is likely to end up deforming it.
Cheers, Si
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A bit more progress, some aicraft have been stowed on the hatch covers, and the brass has gone one section further aft.
Looking at the photos of the real ship, the T4Ms had the outer wings removed when they were stowed below.
.
I have started fitting the wood to the deck, the elevator is just test fitted in place,
more soon.
Cheers, Si
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The brass structure is nearly there.
Only two sections to go in around the boats and davits aft.
The wood deck I found to be not a good fit, I is in three sections The bow section wasnât too bad, but the middle section which ran down to the aft end of the elevator position, left a gap at both ends, I have patched the gaps with scrap wood left on the backing sheet. The rear section also needed patching right aft,
With a mist coat of matt varnish, the yellow stripes down the deck and a few aircraft on deck it should look ok,
Cheers, Si
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Looking good Si.
Thats unfortunate about the gap in the deck, but seems youâve overcome it
Donât forget if any decals are to go on the deck, to apply a gloss clear coat first to provide a good surface for adhesion 
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Thanks Russ,
Little problems like that are just a bit annoying, but fixable
The Gloss coat, and Matt to seal the decals should help blend in the patches, aslo some of then I can hide under aircraft.
Cheers, Si
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A few snags getting the last bits of the structural etch under the flight deck, There are four, I would assume exhuasts or intakes into the engine / boiler room, two on each side aft of the funnels, they foulded the last two longitudenal beams on each side, small sections had to be cut away. I may not quite have fitted them right.
Finally the structural etch on the hull finished, except for a few bits at the foot of the verticals.
Next job finish those few bits off then the flight deck, then the brass on the underside of the flight deck.
More a bit sooner, I hope!
Cheers 
Si
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Great work Si 
And HNY! 
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Thanks Russ,
To be fair, the etch does fit well, and with a couple of exceptions was straight forward to handle, Apart from the minor issue around the after superstructure, solved. The side frames were very fine and incredably fragile and easy to deform. Getting bits like the elevator rails fitted was a real pain.
Got there in the end.
Happy New year to you & yours.
Cheers Si
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Some progress on the Langley of the weekend. The flight deck was given a couple of mist coats of Tamiya gloss clear out of the rattlecan, that was given a few hours to cure, playing it safe. The decals for the flight deck markings were added, and once dry given a couple of coats of flat clear.
The etched arrester wires fitted, a lot less trouble that I had thought.
The first etched frames on the underside of the flight deck.
I have a possibly daft plan for fitting the rest, there are 58 of those frames in total, only another 52 to go. Take the after pair of frame parts, clean them up, turning the ship upside down, using a slow setting glue, and the after frames to make sure it is lined up straight, at that point donât go near it until the glue has gone off.
One parked on the lowered elevator, slightly wonky undercart, heavy landing. gone down for repairs.
Cheers, Si
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Sheâs looking so good. Your PE work on her has been chefs kiss
Langley is such a fugly ship but thatâs where all of her charm comes from
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Thanks Rory,
The project I start to replace the Langley will be one with minimal etch. I still have to get some of the under deck structure on, and the supports for the safety nets on, and the nets.
I agree, there is a certain charm about odd and ugly looking ships. I think it also amkes them more interesting to build, and this case more challenging. 
Cheers, Si
Progress continues at a gentle pace on the etch. There are a largeish number triangular braces at the outer join on the verticals supports to the flight deck, all fitted.
Also the supports for the safety nets, these came from the Eduard set, the Trumpeter parts look a little flimsy.
The arms on these are seperate parts, which is going to fun to get them lined up. The first job is getting all these little bits on.
More when I have done that.
Cheers, Si
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