My Tamiya 1:350 USS Enterprise

Queen Mary 2 is the 1/350 Revell kit.   My fiancee actually built it!  She has become quite the builder since meeting me.  

To anyone building one of these, I have an album with 90 or so pictures of the Enterprise I scoured various sites for over the past few months loaded up for reference.  Feel free to bookmark and use at will.

s109.photobucket.com/.../CVN%2065

I update it whenever I find some good new reference material to so keep checking in.

Mr. M

My Big E cost me £40 on ebay in the uk, but I must be heading towards £200 in total with the add ons and the trumpeter airwing. Yours is looking rather tasty MrMaker, but I like the Queen Mary too, what kit is that? And my cats have done their bit for the cause too, I have found bits of my Varyag in wierd locations throughout my house. I think 'they' have a sense of humour!!

I meant nice!

Thank you for the comparison pic, Mr Maker, much appreciated!  Truly shows how "big" the mighty E really is.  very cool ships, you have an ice collection

You don't even want know how much the hit was here in Canada.  Between the kit, PE, alternate aircraft, and Decals, I was in well over $300 before a blade even touched a sprue.  Add paints and supplies etc. and its proving to be one of the most costly kits I have ever tackled.  Well worth it though!

Mr. M

That looks like a heck of a kit. I saw the same kit in a shop at the Shore Mall here in South NJ...going for $180.00! Way to steep for me...this place is a memorabilia store but he has a decent sized model section...all overpriced except for the Encore USS Olympia for $50.00...another great looking kit. What`s a good price for the Tamiya Big E ?

How's on one another with a Queen Mary 2 for good measure sound!  Ignore the crooked elevator.  Its being held on by nothing more than friction right now.

Mr. M

That is great, I wasted the $$ for a photo etch bender - good for you to do it old school!  sounds like it will be awesome when finished - so just curious, how does it look size wise next to the titanic?  Be interested to see a picture of the two giants next to one another

Not a lot of weathering actually.  I'm building her as if she was fresh from refit and heading out on deployment.

I will probably do some buffing with the metallic weathers that I have to give it the 'steel' look, and maybe a little rust down by the waterline, but that's probably it.  Having said that, I may get it done and think "this thing needs to look used" and give the deck all sorts of hell.  Time will tell.

I should add that all I'm using to bend the PE is some blades, tweezers, and a mousepad (to get the tight bends in the railings and such).  No need for an expensive PE bending rig. 

Mr. M.

Fan-freakin-tastic build, looking forward to seeing some of the airing painted and placed - how heavy and what type of weathering are you going to do?

As Promised:

I'm still straightening out some railings from the cat-attack, and there's one antennae  that I have to put back on, but I'm almost "caught up to where I left off" last time.

This image you can see some of the scratch built platforms for the radar domes since this is a "present day" build.

More to come tomorrow as I have the day off work and am building allf-freakin-day.

Well I have some new pictures coming.  

My Big E and my Cat got into a scrap.  The cat destroyed my mast assembly, a radar dish, and wiped out a lot of PE from the island.

Not to be deterred, I grabbed another kit, ordered new PE, and have been working hard this past week to catch back up to where I left off.  

Pics forthcoming shortly.

I lucked upon mine on e-bay so I got one sooner than I thought I would, I always wanted to build one as a kid but it was way too expensive for either me or my parents. Once I had it, I couldn't keep my hands off. It has put a hold on my Slava Varyag at the mo.

wow! seems everybody is in the BigE mood.

I don't know if this is too late for you, but I have recently bought a disc from White Ensign Models about the Big E. It's by a chap called Ray D. Bean, It covers the Enterprise and airwings from 1961-2011 and has over 750 pics just for the modelmaker. I think it would be around the $20 mark coz it cost me £14 and is well worth the money. I'm glad I bought this before I fully start my build.

Regards,

Jockster.

Your Titanic looks very nice MrMaker, is that the Perry next to it? Another nice looking build!

No thread on the Titanic.  I finished her about a year or so ago before moving onto the Perry, and then the Enterprise.  Here are a few pics from my old place.  I'll take some better ones when I have a few mins to pull her off of the shelf and dust her off.

Thanks, same as me then, I'm collecting bits for my Titanic so I shall look for yours in the meantime, is it posted here as a build? if so, what is the thread title? Ta muchly, Jock.

I just use CA Glue (Superglue).  I use varying thicknesses of glue depending on the situation, but most of the time its the quick cure medium viscosity type.  I apply it with a pin most of the time unless its the Instant Cure low viscosity, that requires some finesse or you'll get it everywhere.

While building the Titanic, I managed to unknowingly wick some of the low viscosity CA onto the palm of my hand, and promptly glued it to my desk.  Good times getting un-stuck without losing a few layers of skin.

Nice neat etchwork, what do you use for bonding the brass to the styrene?

One more for good measure.  I'm taking some serious pictures starting tomorrow.  I'm unpacked and my small but functional work area is ready.

I'm thinking about 30 on deck for the Underway display, and a hand full for the air ops display.  I also built a hangar deck that I haven't posted pics of yet.  

That is looking very smart. How many planes will be on deck when she is finished?

Errol

Now I have both of you to follow!

Nice build MrMaker, I look forward to watching her progress. A.M.Jorge is doing a nice job too, now I

Wow, nice paiting job!

Nice build. Please keep us updated.