WIP CVN-65

Are going to do her in all f-18bugs or a mix of f-14toms and the rest.By the way she's looking very good,and I'm working at a full time job myself so my Nimitz has to wait until I take a breather

Lookin' good there, mate! I mean it. Did you end up using the Starfighter decal set, or is that the one from Gold Medal Models?

And on another topic, building models has probably done more to help me keep the few shreds of sanity I have left than anything else. Do NOT stop doing it!

Looking great, pro!  I like the way you did the rust-- very realistic.  Is that pastel chalk?

Keep us posted with more pics, and keep on modelin'!

nice build...who makes that kit and what scale is it??

 Oh the difference the years make! In my time on the Enterprise (1962-1964) we NEVER had rust like that. Every time we went into port, regardless of location or season, the side painters were busy scrapping, chipping and painting. We in V-1 division did the same with the flight deck surface when we were going to be in port for more than a week. Perhaps the 'modern' Navy is more accepting or have just become lazy.

thanks all for the responses,i appreciate the help with what looks good and doesn't.RAIDER i plan on using a large assortment of a/c,but mainly f-18,f-14.a-6.i just hope that trumpeter releases those new rescue hawk helos before i'm to that point.MFSOB i couldn't agree with you more if it wasn't for modeling i most likely would've lost my mind by now KP80 it's a mix of testors rust and brown (light in color) and thinned to about water,i then put that on with a fine tipped brush and then took a dry brush and tapped it to my liking,almost forgot before i did the rust i took a pencil  and rubbed some lead to darken it up alittle HIGHWAY it is from tamiya the scale is 1/350 NVMIKE my grandfather told me about the stories as you explain. every time they pulled into port they were scraping and painting.but the pics i found of the enterprise so alot of rust on her

The only thing I would add it that if you want to show the rust as indicative of a long at-sea period, then the flight deck needs to be a lot dirtier.  It gets really grungy after conducting light ops for any period of time. Might want to try some washes or overspray to mute the colors and markings on the deck.  Particularly the 'high traffic' areas around the cats.  Also might add some skid marks on the angled deck where the mains tend to hit on recovery (hopefully around the three wire!). 

Mark

Prowannabe is that the tam 1/350 build if it is i have the same. Only problem i have is that when i bought it on ebay it didn't say the instructions were in japanese and not english. So i called tam and they sent a photo copy of instructions. Did you have any build problems that you can tell me about and are you using any photo etch parts? Will start build soon right now working on messerschmitt bf109 4/7 trop. thanks for any info

thanks red but that is already on the to do list right now i'm fighting with those pesky tiny hose reels,if you didn't have to put the hose i 'd been done maybe a week ago very time consuming,but i planned on weathering the deck when i get everything from there down finished i also need to paint the rim wall around the flight deck and i think the tape might pull up some of the weathering,but thank you for comment

RedCorvette wrote:

The only thing I would add it that if you want to show the rust as indicative of a long at-sea period, then the flight deck needs to be a lot dirtier.  It gets really grungy after conducting light ops for any period of time. Might want to try some washes or overspray to mute the colors and markings on the deck.  Particularly the 'high traffic' areas around the cats.  Also might add some skid marks on the angled deck where the mains tend to hit on recovery (hopefully around the three wire!).  Mark

I agree about the deck just take look at some of the photos by www.news.navy.mil and you will see what staying in Gulf water does to a ship doing a six months duty.Thats how I wanted my Nimitz to looked. And great ship by the way your doing.

chet yes it is the tamiya 1/350 kit it is a good kit but there is alot of scratchbuilding involved to get it closer to the actual ship.i bought the white ensign ship detail kit part 1,also got some extra railings aand stair cases,gmm nuclear carrier decals,and also bought alot of trumpeter airplanes but i can't use most of them the time period isn't right.as far as build problems the only one that stands out is that when you attach the bow your supposed to use 2 screws at the top closest to the deck.on the port side it gets covered up by a sponson and thats ok but on the staubord side it doesn't get covered and you end up with a nasty looking screw head sticking out some putty and sanding will take care of this.if i had to do it again i would leave that screw out totally and just fill the hole in with putty.on another note i got this kit at ashow and received 2 whole sets of instructions if you want i can mail them to you.just email me with your address and i'll send them out to you

What time period are you building her as?

i'm going for late 90's to maybe 2000,2001.at this point that's as close as i can quess

looking really good pro.

i was gonna start this ship myself for a GB i am in but i am moving soon and didnt want anything bad to happen to her in the move.

quick question. i dry fit the hull and flight deck together. i noticed a gap between the bow section and the middle section of the flight deck. did you just putty it up or did you do some extra work to bring it together?

thanks

kenny

that i kind of messed up i put the peices together in different days and got a nasty gap on both seems,yeah i just puttied it, sanded,repeated,and yet repeated again.one note put tape down along the gaps before you putty that way you don't lose any of the deck detail 

thanks pro

NvMike wrote:

Oh the difference the years make! In my time on the Enterprise (1962-1964) we NEVER had rust like that. Every time we went into port, regardless of location or season, the side painters were busy scrapping, chipping and painting. We in V-1 division did the same with the flight deck surface when we were going to be in port for more than a week. Perhaps the 'modern' Navy is more accepting or have just become lazy.

You are right on the money on that one, Mike. The "Prize" was and is a showboat and almost always looks good, even today. I served on the Ranger and we hated the Big E with a passion. She always got the good liberty ports and special stuff. We had to suck it up and spend more time out at sea taking the Enterprise's slack while she was showing the flag in the all the sweet ports. I can hardly wait for that "Mobile Chernobyl" to be decommissioned.

subfixer wrote:

NvMike wrote:  Oh the difference the years make! In my time on the Enterprise (1962-1964) we NEVER had rust like that. Every time we went into port, regardless of location or season, the side painters were busy scrapping, chipping and painting. We in V-1 division did the same with the flight deck surface when we were going to be in port for more than a week. Perhaps the 'modern' Navy is more accepting or have just become lazy. You are right on the money on that one, Mike. The "Prize" was and is a showboat and almost always looks good, even today. I served on the Ranger and we hated the Big E with a passion. She always got the good liberty ports and special stuff. We had to suck it up and spend more time out at sea taking the Enterprise's slack while she was showing the flag in the all the sweet ports. I can hardly wait for that "Mobile Chernobyl" to be decommissioned.

Yeah Mike I was on board the Okinawa when I was on float in the core.When were station at Subic Bay one day, there was a Typoon warning so all the battlion had to pack up and leave the base.As we were leaving somebody yell look at that the "PRIZE"WAS PULLING IN.

WHAT$%##% so all of us sqiuds,jarheads,zero's,peeon's gave the "PRIZE" one finger slaute.She maybe be the showboat,but that day she was the garbageboat!!!

Didn't read all of the above due to lack of time. I will never get tired of seeing the Big E. She is a wonderful ship. She has served us very well and when the time comes that she is put to rest I will as others dearly miss her. Saw her in Drydock after the first Gulf War in VA. She is huge. Wish I had a chance to walk her massive decks. Your model looks great. Can't wait to see her when she is finished. Keep up the great work.

I like the results very much. The ship is looking great. Keep up the good work.

Sietse

Hey Prowannab,I will be posting Nimitz tonight finish. How's the BIG E coming along.

thanks everyone for your words even if you don't like the big e but i still like to hear people's opions and i'm sorry for not being in touch for along time now my boss has had it out for me lately and served a suspension and been fighting with the union on trying to get them to do somethinbg to help me out but that went, well thats all i'll say about that, but i do have some progress and the tower is about 90% done "raider" i can't wait to see your nimitz

pro by any chance do y ou work for verizon sounds exactly like what is going on there i work for them and i am a shop steward all i have been doing is fighting suspensiions and firings lately

Sorry to hear about your job man seems like the top wants to bust all the unions(665 is mine).Any how here's the photos ,had a powerfailure for 2 hrs. in the valley only got the first seven the rest I'll put up tomorrow.  http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p226/raider-hall/?action=view&current=100_0340.jpg

raider that looks pretty darn good to me.i really like the ship.i think that is a great looking vessel.kenny no i don't work for verizon but i did just fire them this last weekend.

cwa 1106 here

i thinkeveryone wants to fire verizon lol