Tamiya Big-E - USS Enterprise 1/350

Dear friends, I'm continuing to the bow assembly. The pieces come with safety nets, so I must remove them (the nets) in order to glue the PE later. The top piece of the parts fit very well with the low. Note that each part is different, designed to be attached to each specific track of each catapult. As I sanded a lot this part of the bow, the fit between the pieces and the deck was very poor, with a failure quite reasonable. This is an area that will be show, so the finishing has to be good. Another problem is that the flight deck is mostly in high relief. I'm thinking of scratching the raised deck lines and so I will could sand to get a better finish. 

I also do some more simple joints of hull. There's no secret, fill the gap with super glue and sand.

Assembled and without the safety nets

Glued on the flight deck, watch the size of the gaps

Super glue  to fill the gaps between ship's hull and small platforms






Two more







Sanding and filling again







Sanding the other two 







Filling the big one






Sanding the two that were filled again

looking good,it seems all your hard work is starting to come together now.

I continued to fill the gaps of the joints of some parts, now, mainly, the front ends of catapults. We are nearing the end of this novel. But already I foresee that  these catapults will give me some work to leave this with good aspect. Also spent much of my time doing the support of another flight deck elevator. It takes time, but even that is not so tiring, gets to be fun.

Once filled, sanded joining the larger platform.

More super glue to fill the joint of the front ends of catapults.

Oh yeah, have not given up the last recessed door.

We will finish a new elevator base, first we drill 

From the rear.

Half an hour later ...

An hour later ...  only two more ...

Dear friends,

After two weeks, we're here again.

Today I completed pieces that have been delayed by my distraction. I painted a piece that was forgotten in the tree; I painted that piece that I had assembled in the wrong way, that become very good by the way; I took the piece that closes the rear deck off and repainted it, a good job of a good dual-action airbrush; and finally I conclued that the door of the hangar will have to be redone, because my part was very ugly.


Painting parts





The part of the hangar door that I created is very ugly (below left)




The rear part of the platform that I took off just before repainting with the airbrush to paste again





In the picture may not give notice, but was much better than before




More glue to fill the joint





Starting from scratch





The last chance to get well





A bit of putty and will be good

Continuing our assembly, without any big news, I need to use a little more putty in the receased elevator door piece and, while the putty cures, I used my time to prepare one more elevaotr base. It is the third of four. It takes a reasonable time, about 2.5 hours per piece. But it will be very good.

A bit of putty to be very smooth, then we will complete.




Meanwhile, let us take over and do an elevator.




Even after almost an hour, the progress seems small.




Once cured and sanded our door will be good

Anybody tried to convert one of these suckers to R/C? To me a hull that size just screams "PUT A MOTOR IN ME"

Can't help it I'm an R/C nut.

You read my mind!!!  I think ballasting that beast will be a challenge to keep her balanced port to starboard unless a kind of weighted keel that may be removable might be fitted but that is child's play compared to getting her to look authentic below the waterline and be under power at the same time.  It would definitely be worth a try!

Hi guys. Yes, I saw some Big E conersion projects. You can find a lot of them at Google.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=593475

Dear friends, I finally managed to finish the elevator's door that comes pre-shaped in hull. The hard part was cutting the 3mm thickness of the hull. The knife could not cut less than 1 mm distance between one and another because the thickness. Conclusion, I began to cut laterally with a 0.5 mm drill, which has broken. I put a thicker drill, 1mm, and finished the job. Then it was sanded with patience and care, and soon the hole was open.

I finished making the "box" recessed door. It was good, but I had to dismount and adjust to the hole.

The most important is that the final result was good.


Drawing the box pieces of the door




Already cutted




The "box " assembled




The marathon begins drilling the 3mm hull




After about 15 minutes, just finished to drill the holes




The rear view



The knife did not work with this 3mm thickness, so I use the 0.5 mm drilling laterelly until it has broken. Put a 1mm new one and finished the job




Finally I did the main hole






Once sanded, fitted and glued, the door was good looking

A.M.Jorge

 

I am interested in whether you are planning to drill out the portholes that the little disks (the represent the armored porthole covers) seem to be covering. These covers are/were rarely ever closed except in very heavy seas (and even then, closing them is rare). There are small viewing slits cut into them to enable to used for such when closed and are probably not worth trying to duplicate at this scale, and pull handles to facilitate lifting them up to close them. This portion of the ship is known as SECONN, or Secondary Conning Station. It is a fully equipped navigation bridge as on the island structure above the flight deck. This station is manned during General Quarters and has a full navigation team. The ship's Executive Officer, XO, has this space as his battle station. During normal working hours, it is used by the Navigation Department's Quartermasters to correct charts and to goof off in. It is pretty much isolated and a quiet place to go.

Here is a preety good shot of Enterprise's bow portholes as they are normally configured:

Thank you.

Today, just another elevator support.

Forty minutes later ...

Now, one more only.

Hi folks.

Wow !!!

A "must see" decal artwork:

http://public.fotki.com/Obironkenobi/uss-enterprise-cvn65/viewcomments.html

I'm betting that you won't be using all of those aircraft decals as you seem to be a sane person.

Stardate 18052011.

The USS Enterprise project continues ...

Today I finished the last support of the deck elevators. I believe that repetitive work is behind us and we will make progress and see assembly to evolve.

The last of four ...



An hour and a half later ...



Finally we have the four supports



The four lifts in PE with their bases



It'll be good!

After finishing the supports of the elevators, it's time to work on some details of the deck and hull in the bow. I decided to fold and glue the staircase in PE. Never needed to bend PE before. Already noticied that they crumple easily. But you can bring to the position. I used the basis of styrene and details of stairs in PE. It was good. I took a deal to give those two joints of "teeth" in front.

Look at the ladder in PE there

The little piece in place with the base of the original piece

From another angle

The original part

The original piece with the base cutted

The stairs in PE, very small

One more ladder on site

Supporters of the antennas

The staircase in the middle of the brackets

Two more joints to make

Done, but some detail is gone

Just to let you know that the "teeth" in the bow are bridle arrestors. Some older aircraft used to require a wire bridle in their launch configuration. The arrestor caught the bridle as it slung the aircraft off of the flight deck. I believe that only one (I may be wrong on that point as I can't remember for sure from the last time I saw her before her present deployment) is retained on the bow presently and is said to be kept to ensure that the Big E remains the longest ship in the US Navy. I think the USS George Washington still has one, too, making her the longest Nimitz class CVN.

Good explanation. Thanks a lot.

Let's see the pics: 


It's time of more critical of the assembly of this model, which is the assembly of the flight deck.  

  The first step is to assemble the metalic structure that will support the deck




Next, mount the arrest cables with nylon line



Pass line through the hole and stretches

 The wire should be stretched to simulate the arrest cable



I dripping a drop of cyanoacrylate (Superglue) at the knot and at the ends

The last step is to cut the line



Make each wire independently, do not try to do both with the same line because it will loose



Final result in part from the stern



 Same thing for the other part: tie, stretch, paste and cut




The centerpiece



Test fitting with the cables already assembled
Note that besides the normal joint space, the pieces are uneven



"Time of the jaguar drink water", getting all the fittings, as with the glue and secure with tape



Fixation with the tapes is very important



Now the most important part, the middle piece with the two  


More fixing





The the stern joint, with a small gap that could not take



And  the bow's joining at the time of bonding was almost 1mm uneven and gave me a lot of work to leave a small gap 

"Time of the jaguar drink water"  This is a very intriguing phrase, what does it mean? A pause between major events?

subfixer

Just to let you know that the "teeth" in the bow are bridle arrestors. Some older aircraft used to require a wire bridle in their launch configuration. The arrestor caught the bridle as it slung the aircraft off of the flight deck. I believe that only one (I may be wrong on that point as I can't remember for sure from the last time I saw her before her present deployment) is retained on the bow presently and is said to be kept to ensure that the Big E remains the longest ship in the US Navy. I think the USS George Washington still has one, too, making her the longest Nimitz class CVN.

I believe your thinking of either the Nimitz or the Eisenhower as both were built in the late 70's and still embarked the F-4 which used the Bridle.

Wow! I am watching your build with a lot of interest.  I have one of these kits waiting in the wings and I am getting anxious to start it.  Terrific job!

Bill

subfixer

"Time of the jaguar drink water"  This is a very intriguing phrase, what does it mean? A pause between major events?

It´s an indian expression.

In brazilian ancient times, after 1500's, year of Brazil's "discovery" by portuguese admiral Pedro Álvares Cabral, when the "white people" (portuguese) came to Brazil, the indians watched a lot of them be killed by the onça (Panthera onca - in english I think the better translation is jaguar) because they (the portugueses) came to river margins to pick up water at the same time that the jaguar does. So the jaguar got a free meal.

In other way, the indians knew the jaguar habits and keeped away from the river margins at certain hours of the day.

Here, we use this expression as the "decisive moment", when the things really happen or the eve of the most import events.

That's it. 

Following the assembly, it's time for the elevators. The first one I will make will be the cutted one from de deck.

We will need the cutted piece, the support and the PE part.

We will need the side of this cutted elevator

Now we have all that we need

First, I glued the side part to use it as a guide

The support goes to the right place. A test fit is needed because of the marks between the PE part and the support.

Other pics

In place at the ship

Mikeym_us

subfixer:

Just to let you know that the "teeth" in the bow are bridle arrestors. Some older aircraft used to require a wire bridle in their launch configuration. The arrestor caught the bridle as it slung the aircraft off of the flight deck. I believe that only one (I may be wrong on that point as I can't remember for sure from the last time I saw her before her present deployment) is retained on the bow presently and is said to be kept to ensure that the Big E remains the longest ship in the US Navy. I think the USS George Washington still has one, too, making her the longest Nimitz class CVN.

 

I believe your thinking of either the Nimitz or the Eisenhower as both were built in the late 70's and still embarked the F-4 which used the Bridle.

 Numnutz:

Ike:

Vince:

Teddy R:

Abe:

G-Dub:

And the rest, no arrestors.

Okay . . . as a career submariner who has never been on the flight deck of a carrier, I hate to show my ignorance!  But, are the surfaces of the elevators really grated like that?

Bill

warshipguy

Okay . . . as a career submariner who has never been on the flight deck of a carrier, I hate to show my ignorance!  But, are the surfaces of the elevators really grated like that?

Bill

Nope! There is a metal skin (not sure if it is steel or aluminum, probably steel) over the entire surface. I was wondering about why this photoetch is trying to replicate. I thought that was to be a thin plastic overlay and that the photoetch was supposed to rplicate the undersurface. I don't recall even being able to see through the tie-down padeyes for that matter.

From what I have read in the past, Enterprise actually had the grated elevators up until the early 2000's refit.  I beleive that the elevators were designed that way so as to absorb the blast from a nuclear detonation.  feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Well, I have walked the flightdecks of quite a few US carriers over the years, including the Enterprise's and do not recall ever seeing any of the elevators in that configuration, at least in the last 39 years. But early in her career, she did have that type of elevator, it is true. When the change was made had to have been longer than 12 years ago. But if this is the version Mr. Jorge is building, I do not recall.

[edit: After some research, I have determined that the elevators were changed in 1996.]

Here is a picture clearly showing this type of elevator:

CVN-65 grated elevator:

CVN-75  "solid" elevator:

You are right, even being grated you must can't see under.

I will need to redo the elevators.