USS Cole - First photo upload

At this point the deck isn't a choice. Usually this'll involve masking the crap out of the ship, but that's not hard just tedious. You'll be fine and it's a really nice looking model.

Glad you've come to your senses, Carlos. Those are very pretty ships.

The flight deck nets were separate pieces.........and there wasn't enough of them, so I made do with what I was given from the box.

I noticed that the flight deck nets appear to be separate pieces (they are mostly separate in real life).  I have a 1/350 Cole I previously built and the FD nets came in three long strips.  Did the Trumpy ones come in separate pieces or were they single pieces you cut apart?  If you do the deck right with the brush, you can make it look like non-skid.  Good look, she looks great so far!

Groot

This build could easily be considered a practice run. But I can say that I've never been comfortable with airbrushing. I've always liked the feel of a brush in my hand..........that being said, brush strokes are hard to hide.

So I'm experimenting with both airbrushing and brush painting.

Subfixer may have been asking about your "how" for getting the deck and flightdeck grey painted on without disturbing the grey of the vertical surfaces.

This is a perennial ship modeler's question--whether to shoot the darker grey on first, and mask that; or to go with the lighter grey..  

Having discovered that I had stashed a Trumpy Burke back when i was flush, this will be an interesting exercise when I get a workbench going again.  One, I suspect, that will require both brush and airbrush.

Another step forward. What was once white is now grey. Not bad from 2 feet away......up close would reveal tape lines where masked, etc.

It is coming along very nicely. I see these Burke Class ships moored here locally at Alamitos bay quite frequently while they upload or download munitions. The lines of these ships are growing on me.

The kit is Trumpeter 1/350.

Which kit is this?

Subfixer

How am I going to tackle painting the decks? This is uncharted territory for me......so at this point, I plan on using a brush. I'm going to be easy on myself since I'm out of practice and never built a ship before (I built armour back in the 70's) If this turns out to be a total slop job, I'll take another crack at another model later.

FYI my son has been on the Cole for about 2 1/2 years and that's why I decided to do a ship.

Not a bad job (excellent in fact) for first build in 20 years, looking forward to more updates.

Very good job so far. How are you going to tackle painting the decks with all of the little stuff installed?

My oldest son and daughter-in-law both served on the Bainbridge. I love the Arleigh Burkes.

I have since added some grey to the ship, but it needed some sanding in spots and touch ups. All masked up right now and I'm still trying to get a handle on this airbrushing. Quite the learning process.

Another shot of the side of the ship.

Here's a shot of the chain that I custom made for the build. Very poor priming job as can be seen on the railing. I shot primer from too far away. I have since done a little sanding but still looks rough.