Building Italeri's USS Essex CV-9 

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This is my longest build video by far! I had an hour and a half of good footage, and after some community input I decided to leave most of it in, at the risk of making it less appealing to casual viewers. So this is going to be more of a relaxed, leisurely build where I take the time to show you some of the processes and work that goes into making a kit of this detail. So I hope you enjoy!

I also own this Trumpeter model of USS Essex CV-9, and will build Essex as how she appeared at Leyte Gulf in October 1944. This video will be a great help in preparing my model. This video will also be a great distraction from this virus. Thank you, keep healthy.

At that little scale is very difficult to do so many details and you have done it. Amazing job!!

Awesome job man, she's beautiful!

This ship was the lead ship of the Essex Class of aircraft carriers which were the backbone of the US Navy carrier forces from the mid-1940s to the early 1970s. The Essex (CV-9) itself was modernized in the 1950s and fitted with an angle deck. It was the recovery ship for the Apollo 7 mission in 1968. It was decommissioned in 1969 and spent about 6 years in mothballs before it was sold for scrap in 1975. There is a successor to this ship serving in the US Navy now. It's a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship (hull LHD-2) which is a fancy name for helicarrier/VSTOL operations warship. It's a really a modernized Essex-class ship with a landing craft hangar in the rear. It really does look like a World War II carrier! One huge difference is that the amphibious assault ship does not have catapults or arresting gear on it. It's a straight deck ship but lacks the ski jump British carriers have built into their bow. Right now, this Essex bases helicopters and F-35Bs which have been used in Afghanistan.

Thank you for sharing, excellent work! Stay safe! You are lucky to be in such a beautiful country, and you have a smart prime minister too!

Turned out awesome 👍

An outstanding build. The weathering on the deck is spot on for me. Gotta just luv those planes. Great stuff

She looks great! Nice job with the weathering!

Whoa! Outstanding! Beautiful job on the aircraft,

This is a GLORIOUS build!

Outstanding job! Thanks for sharing.

Love your videos and modeling style! Really happy for the content you put out! Stay safe!

I love this video. Always a pleasure to welcome.

Nice kit. Great job straight outta the box. I really like the way you weathered her too.

Absolutely IMPRESSIVE!!!

I am in awe.

She’s beautiful. A very good job you did.

When you was cutting that first wing I really thought you were going to say "actually no we are not doing that" lol fantastic effort!!

VERY Cool. Thanks for making this video. I intend to use it as a guide when I build mine, which I intend as a gift for a friend. So your tips and guidance is very, very, helpful. You did an amazing job. Happy Holidays!

If you’re up for another 1:350 ship, it would be interesting to see CV-1 USS Langley from Trumpeter.

Amazing, great job

Simply beautiful

Can't wait for it!

Very nice work. Great ship.

Good build. I liked the touch of the decals on the planes, great touch. Also good to see your ok health wise.

One of the things that anoys me about WoW is that WWII USN ships had dark blue decks--the color of the deep Pacific ocean (20B using the paint code of the time). The wooden decks were stained a color to match 20B whether on carriers or battleships and the like. In addition, there were easily a half-dozen camouflage schemes used in just the Pacific alone. And, WoW glosse over those schemes. This model does accurately portray the vessel as rendered in WoW, though.

Excellent Art work!!

WOW, please bring the Essex class back.

Beautiful!

Looks really good

Time to grab a cuppa, kick back and enjoy your build.

There has to be a way of adding tin can affects from the hull plating getting pushed in by the waves. Most battle ships and aircraft carriers look beat up on the hull from the ocean waves. I forget what the technical term for it was called.

Nice job.

Congrats on 50K!

Very nice 😎

Great work Sam!

Job well done mate

Omg the decals for the planes

I built the Dragon USS Princeton (Essex class) about a year ago. It's in a late '50s fit out so I didn't have to worry about any of the 20mm and only a few of the 40mm mounts but I made up for it by using the Tom's Modelworks PE set. Talk about tiny pieces...

I am in NZ too. Nice video!

Very nice !

This is a great build you should definitely do more aircraft carriers

Yeah, I usually find that with the classic case of the deck that won't squeeze into the groove, the best course of action is to snap it in as best you can, glue it, and then weigh it down without crushing or breaking anything. I've had even Tamiya kits do that, seems very common.

I like it!! Much more better then my first try :-(

Aside from that side gap, not too shabby!

I did the Yorktown (cv-10) by trumpeter and it took me forever to get used to the tiny parts on that ship

i had the same hall problem with the Trumpeter kit

Nice job I will definitely use this video as a guide for building my model ships! At 29:35 how long have you waited for decals to dry, before you applied micro sol ?

very beautiful model. i would have add a taking off plane like in the poster. maybe using a fiber optic string from the deck to the plane .

Have you planned for the USS Enterprise CV-6 revell model kit.

Wow!!

I think I would have done the flight deck in wood , I am working on an essex and did mine in MS 13 ( two tone blue ) . schmedly , as always , Head Up , Eyes Out and ( First Point Of Contact ) In The Grass .

“Cheers to 4 weeks in lock down” I remember lock down it sucked cus I was grounded for half the time lol besides that nice model where can you get one?

perfectly

Was holding my breath during decals

I was amazed by your excellence at model building and painting. That said, I'm wondering why you didn't paint the guns on the ship as leaving them grey doesn't seem right. After all, the color "gunmetal' has a name for a reason. Even black would probably have been "good enough".

Yes & VIDEO PRIM `` thx

Awesome job bro! Do you take requests? If so, can you do Captain Rex?

Omggggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Could you tell me what glue you glued on the propeller and landing gear

I primarily build battleships in 1:700 scale. My only 1:350 scale is Massachusetts. Just as all my plane models are 1:72.

Good job on the model but although you said that 2004 is old what about the old airfix models from the 60s

👍👍

Nice how they have that brand should be a line they continue it be a huge collectors item I’d get a few warplanes and tanks that I like maybe ships

The Essex class was the most successful class of capital ships in history. There was something like 25 of them and their appearance in numbers eclipsed the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Pacific. They were a war winner. They served well into the seventies and had the first angled flight decks added as refits in the fifties. Essex herself recovered the Apollo 11 moon mission. Read a little of the history of this class ship because they made a ton of it! Thankfully several still exist as museum ships and are well worth the effort of visiting. Great build of a grand old lady.

what is the tamiya prime for and don't mind me cause I am beginner to model kits like this

hello, where did you find the decals of the planes

I have a few 1/700 ship kits most of ships from Kancolle and Arpeggio of Blue Steel anime series. If I'm going to build ships, they'll be cute ships. lol

💪👏❤️

Did anyone use that code?

I just know how to build ships like that

The hellcats wings were fixed position, and it kinda triggers me as a history buff to see you do that to the wings. Anyway awesome work as usual, love your vids and hope that one day I’ll be as good as you. Btw this was not meant to be rude I was just trying to inform people

Essex Nimitz

I'm still sad that they took the Essex out of World of Warships because of the aircraft carrier rework. I'll miss her.

Using plastic tubed cotton buds for wiping off paint is like using silk for toilet paper.

flight deck not fitting to the hull........you probably shouldn't have sanded down some of the hull!!!

sad she is not in the game anymore

why you share.... wtf

I just know how to build ships like that