Hi,
A few months ago I picked up an inexpensive Lindberg USS Shangri-La model to use as a basis for a What-If that I ad been thinking of. I've finally ha a chance to make a little head way on the model so I thought I'd post some in-process images.
In general the design is meant to represent a semi-modern (1980s to today) medium sized carrier, kind f along the lines of my thoughts on what a newbuild replacement for the old angled deck ESSEX class conversion ships may have looked, if such a design were ever undertaken.
As a start to the design I made some rough estimates of how the flight deck might be layed out and how big an airwing it might be able to support.
The donor model that I was using was box-scale and was about 1ft long, which I think equates to abou 1/888 or so. Looking at data on modern carriers and my rough flight deck sketch it looked like an overall length of about 900 ft would be suitable, so I decided to make my model 1/900 scale (which would allow me to buy some suitable airplane models off Shapeways).
Unfortunately I don't have much in the way of pictures early on the build, but my 1st step was to clip off all te sponsons, appendages and hull fittings from the base hull. Next I filled in all hull openings, especially in way of the hangar deck, lifts and gun decks. I also did a little sculpting to the bow, to try and flatted the flareabove the waterline a bit, and also filled in the aft end a little to make a transom stern.
I then built up new sponsons to support the angled flight deck. On the starboard side I used some Evergreen plastic sheet and rectangular rod to build up the shape. For the port side though, I decided to try and 3D print the sponson. Unfortunately when I was manipulating the 3D CAD file before printing I inadvertantly "flipped" the shape so that I could print it upside down, rater than "rotating" the shape. As such, I ended up printing the piece backwards, with the broader section being aft instead of forward. Fortunately it was fairly easy to cut and re-glue the printed plastic.
Below are some images of where I currently am in the build. The 1st image shows the upside down hull alongside a CAD printout of the flight deck. Here you can see the starboard "built up" sponson in gray, and the port side 3D printed one in white. And you can also see a bit of a stern overhang, built out of Evergreen sheet, being held partially in place with blue tape, as the glue dries.
Although the CAD image may be a liitle faint, you can kind of see how the flight deck is intended to be layed out, with a bow catapult and a waist catapult, with an E-2 type aircraft shown ready for launch, a port side deck edge lift aft, and a small aircraft park forward the island. I think that the flight deck angle is 6.5 degrees (but I need to double check), and the island is currently modeled after the one on the Early Nimitz class ships. I will probably need to modify this, before I get to working on the flight deck, since this will probably be a conventional steam powered vessel, and will require exhaust uptakes.
Te other two images below just show the hull right side up from two different angles with the CAD drawing ontop the deck, to give an idea of what the final design will hopefully look like. I will try and take some more pictures as I mak further progress. Right now though I just need to finish cleaning up the port sponson, do a little extra work on the stern overhang, maybe touch up a few spots on the hull, and then reprime the hull and paint it. After that I am thinking of adding some Evergreen angle bar around the deck edge to represent catwalks, and then I can start on the flight deck and island.
Regards
Pat