1/350 USS Carl Vinson Project.

Kind of a slow week as I was busy with some other things this week. I was able to get the starboard walls and doorways mounted and detailed. The aft walls are detailed but still need to be mounted. Will be starting to paint and decal the long port walls and to detail the GSE bay tonight.

The hangar bay deck is finished. All walls mounted, deck markings and painting done, weathered/stained deck, and GSE area lighting done. I even added toolboxes and benches to the back wall of the GSE area. Here are numerous pictures. Will be starting the flight deck next. (Hangar bays to be filled with aircraft and GSE equipment later)

Close up of GSE area with toolboxes and benches.

CVN-70 Project - After 5 attempts I finally figured out how to do the landing light "meatball" It's difficult to get a good picture due to the brightness but it does look cool.

Good day Wolfman, 

Happy Independence day!  I am glad I stumbled across your build as I am doing the same exact version of the Carl Vinson. My Nimitz model is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.  I will be using the hangar bay details released just last week on Shapeways.  I am Very interested in your decal set graphics.  Are you planning to do a CVW-15 airwing set?  I have searched hi and low, but no one seems to do this wing yet?  Your build is looking great!  

-Woog

Thanks! I just sent you the Hangar bay decal sheet picture.

As for air wing from 1983, Starfighter decals has VAQ-134's decals but all others are not available.

However, when I get to the aircraft I will be making my own sheets for each squadron.

I already built a plane from each squadron in 1/48 scale (see http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/165305.aspx ) so getting pictures will be easy. Just need to scale them from 1/48 to 1/350.

CVN-70 Project - I finished the runway optic lines and halfway done with the foul line. Have about 28 more lines to run. I have quite the bundle. It's going to be a while to get them lines up and laying flat.
Here is a preview of the lights (just used a table lamp to see how the pattern looks)

CVN-70 Project - All the fiber optic lines have been laid out. Starting to glue them down so I can route them. It's slow going. Have to do it in sections.

So the runway and foul line optics have been laid and glued. Looks like I can light them with just 5 LED's. Runway in white and foul line in blue. Tonight I will run the bow lights then I need to route all the fiber optic lines so they are flat and aligned evenly. Hoping to have pictures of the deck lit up with LED's by weekend.

CVN-70 Project - All the fiber optic lines have been run and the LED's have been installed as the source. The pictures are the result. Note that I have not trimmed the fibers down yet since I need to paint and weather the deck before I can trim them flush. They do look very bright in the photo's due to the way the camera sees the light. Once trimmed the brightness will not be as bright.

Coming in for a landing view:

CVN-70 Project - Spent the day setting up the hangar bay lighting. I just taped everything to see if I had the placement right. Here is a trial fit test.

CVN-70 Project - The flight deck has been painted and fiber optic lines trimmed flush. Still need to add decals and weathering.

The hanger deck pics are very impressive.  

CVN-70 Project - Starting on the island Drilling lots of holes to light up the numbers and adding LED's for the island rooms. The lighted 70 looks funky because the fibers still need trimming after I paint the walls. Over 50' of fiber optic just to light the numbers on one side of the island. Working on the other side next.

This week I started working on the island. I ran all the fiber optic lines to light up the ship numbers and the yellow flood lights that light up the flight deck. Surprisingly I was able to get the lines routed with room to spare. I also modified the level for the Mk 95 NSSM director bays and added the LED light.

The lower section of the island is now done. I trimmed the fiber optics and applied the decals.

The upper levels of the island are together. Need to start building the 19 aircraft that will be placed in the hangar bay so I can assemble and wire up the ship.

Here is the first proof sheet of the decals for the aircraft. I will be doing all 86 aircraft that was aboard when the ship pulled out of Norfolk Virginia in March of 1983. Still need to do the decals for the A-6's as well as all the numbers for all the aircraft.

Wolfman_63

Here is the first proof sheet of the decals for the aircraft. I will be doing all 86 aircraft that was aboard when the ship pulled out of Norfolk Virginia in March of 1983. Still need to do the decals for the A-6's as well as all the numbers for all the aircraft.

 

 

Sincerely, Preston

Actually when we pulled out of port they were all the hi-vis scheme. About halfway thru the cruise they started painting them lo-vis. When we pulled into San Francisco half of the planes were hi and half were lo-vis. I can email you a high resolution proof and you can print your own. Never thought of contacting a company to buy my designs.

I actually have been hoping these guys would put together a CVW-15 airwing set for a long time.  They have some good stuff.  http://www.starfighter-decals.com/1350-de.html

-Preston

I know. I bought the VAQ-134 and deck tractor decals from them for this project.

 Here is the rest of the decals. The A-6 squadron and the various numbers and letters for the aircraft. Starting to build aircraft tomorrow.

This all might very well be the coolest thing I've ever seen in modeling....I'm VERY impressed....that hangar bay lighting looks quite realistic.  

F-8fanatic

This all might very well be the coolest thing I've ever seen in modeling....I'm VERY impressed....that hangar bay lighting looks quite realistic.  

 

Thanks! Yes the hangar bay does. Not a lot of folks have seen a carrier hangar bay at night while at sea.

Started building and detailing the aircraft for the hangar bay. Adding the photoetched parts on a 1:350 aircraft takes some time. Planning on 28 aircraft staged on the hangar deck. So far eight of the A-7's are built. Plan is to build all, then paint all, and finally decal all.

man that's a project on it's own , nice work so far too .