Tamiya Big-E - USS Enterprise 1/350

Lots of patience required,looking good

Recalling flight deck details:

For sure !!!

Ok now mask the areas that you are not painting so that you prevent overspray from ruining your flightdeck like what happened last time. Just use paper towels taped down with tamiya tape.

A.M.Jorge

Flight deck, chapter two: masking the landing marks. Despite being one of the most rewarding task when the mask is removed, put the tape in place with some precision takes a long time.


Starting a new mask ...




Tape never seems to be sufficiently accurate. I think using decals could be a good idea.

Two hours later ...

Ooooh, wish I had seen this from the start...following along now!

GREAT looking build.

Flight deck, chapter two: masking the landing marks. Despite being one of the most rewarding task when the mask is removed, put the tape in place with some precision takes a long time.


Starting a new mask ...




Tape never seems to be sufficiently accurate. I think using decals could be a good idea.

Two hours later ...

The result is excellent congratulations! 

In summary you use:

For bottom of the ship = x-7 red

For the lateral walls = ? (xf-66 light grey)?

For the flight deck = xf-24 + xf1 (Dark Grey/Flat Black)

Thanks!

Next chapter: flight deck.

It's the foundation of my home town, holyday here. So let's do somethink funny: mask the contour of the flight deck, being careful to keep a fine line color of the hull, as the photos of my research.

Ah yes, the drama of color is history. I used the "Jorge Gray", two parts Dark Grey XF24 + one part of Flat Black XF-1. My impression was great after the paint dries, it seems that was very similar to the NATO Black.

Masking ...
 

A bit of alchemy to create a flight deck grey.




Final Result:

Today I masked and painted the catwalk. I have not found a better way to do this, but even that was fun.









Final result:

Hi Jorge!

But you use xf-66 tamiya light grey?

I am most impressed with your patience in masking and your obvious attention to detail!  You are building a most impressive model.

Bill

Dear friends,

Let us return to the assembly.

I had to solve some "technical problems" with the airbrush hose today, but there was still time to mask a little bit more of the flight deck catwalk.

And speaking of flight deck, my black NATO paint should have been confiscated for being sent by air. So soon, I will create a "Jorge Gray" to paint the flight deck. Stand by.


Before ...


Later ...

Hi guys. No news yet. On vocation with family.

See you after january 18, 2012.

Well I noticed with that molded on hose reel you could have made a scratch built reel using the molded on holder minus the molded on reel in the center and just simply substituting a smaller diameter rod as the core of the reel(the bulk is actually made up of the hose itself). Just use a razor saw to slice up the center reel then use a knife to clean it up and then sand it to smooth it out then take your plastic rod (diameter is up to you the builder) and get some tape and cut that into narrow strips the same width (The tape will stand in for flattened fire hose). Take the tape strips and wrap it around the rod till you get a good layer of tape that will at minimum be 2 layers thick  at maximum 4 layers thick. Paint the roll of tape strips white then once dry you could do a wash of black to highlight the edges of the hoses. Paint the reel holders and bulkhead desired color install the finished reel in the center of the holder to maintain a gap between the reel and the bulkhead and behold you have a realistic firehose reel.

BTW I have never done this myself but somehow the idea for this somehow popped into my head a few seconds ago.

A.M.Jorge

Dear friends, I decided to start the bridge. I intend to do the basic structure first, and only at the end paste the PEs. Actually it is very difficult to do any assembly without damaging an PE.

Starting the bridge:

You have to look at the manual of the kit and the PEs. In this piece, let's remove a fire hose reel of the bridge.

Just as a test, we will build the stairs and railings in PE. Following the instructions, it is quite easy:

And the result is good, because the fit is very precise:




After an hour ...

Dear friends, I decided to start the bridge. I intend to do the basic structure first, and only at the end paste the PEs. Actually it is very difficult to do any assembly without damaging an PE.

Starting the bridge:

You have to look at the manual of the kit and the PEs. In this piece, let's remove a fire hose reel of the bridge.

Just as a test, we will build the stairs and railings in PE. Following the instructions, it is quite easy:

And the result is good, because the fit is very precise:




After an hour ...

The last task before paint the flight deck again, I must paint the catwalk using hull color at "walls" and dark grey over the bottom. Is there an easiest way to do this  ?

Masking ...:


First step is done after more than half hour:



Results after a careful airbrush work:


And after the brush work:

Today I done two basic tasks, first I painted the PEs trees using the hull color.

Second, I retouched some "hull color" areas. This ones were "sanded" using toilet paper.

Painting the PEs:

Before:




After:



Hull color retouches: good after paint dries.

Dear friends,

Sorry about the delay, but time is still short.

Regards.

Mikeym_us

How many times did she almost melt down?

subfixer:

The Mobile Chernobyl (also known as the Enterprise) was planned to deploy just one more time prior to her decommissionig in 2013, but it looks like they may squeeze an additional one in after that. She is like the Energizer Bunny.

 

Never!   But with eight 1950s era reactors and all of the peripheral components associated with them, maintenance is difficult. That nickname is an inside joke among us who are involved with keeping her in good working order.

How many times did she almost melt down?

subfixer

The Mobile Chernobyl (also known as the Enterprise) was planned to deploy just one more time prior to her decommissionig in 2013, but it looks like they may squeeze an additional one in after that. She is like the Energizer Bunny.

The Mobile Chernobyl (also known as the Enterprise) was planned to deploy just one more time prior to her decommissionig in 2013, but it looks like they may squeeze an additional one in after that. She is like the Energizer Bunny.

your BigE is looking great. also today is BigE's 50th birthday.

Jorge,

Don't get discouraged!  We all encounter some difficulties when modeling difficult projects.  You are doing a terrific job!

Bill

Dear friends,

Today I removed the masking tapes that were there for almost one year. A lot of painting strips, but easily correctible.

A lot of job to do and time is becoming very short to modeling.

Regards.

.

Wow  Jorge,really coming together now,looking good.

Today, the paint dryed and I removed the masks. The water line was well defined and the bottom of the hull is still great looking. However, as already said, the gray part is rough. Thanks to a fellow model, used toilet paper to smooth it. And it worked fine! Just move gently, without force, to not harm the paint. Only one drawback: paper dust spread throughout the model, requiring a subsequent cleaning. Now I only need to hit a few details, but in overall it was good. I'll have to touch up a few more horizontal surfaces, dark gray.


By removing the tape, we see that the painting was good, not blurred, although some details to settle. The shading was a bit dark and had to cover more clear-ink. In a next time, it is best to use a gray instead of black.






Work of "sanding" with toilet paper.

I've started the hull painting. I found some imperfections as pics shows. However, I'm doing some mistake. The paint is still thick and not smooth.

The pics:

"BTW the center line on a aircraft carrier is white and yellow."

OK, I will do it.

Dear friends,

Today I did something never done before: remove the painting. The paint was too thick and the color was not pleasing, so I removed to redo using NATO Black. The process was easier than I imagined. The paint I used was Tamiya acrylic. Regular cleaning alcohol was enough and lots of towel paper. I believe that I have removed the equivalent of 8 ml bottle.

Starting work.

Ten minutes later ...

Twenty minutes later most of the paint has been removed, we now have to be careful with the corners.

Half an hour later, the surface is ready to receive new paint.

Seeing more closely, it seems that was applied a giant wash.

More details.

It is important to avoid the accumulation of paint to prevent future defects. In my opinion it is not necessary to be 100% clean, but surface must be leveled. Despite the care I had to fix some details.

Ready for another paint coat.

Highly flammable material. Soak in water before throwing in the trash.