The Ship Model Forum

I would like her to be used as a target( I KNOWN SHE HAS NUKES ON BOARD). But to strip her down to nothing. Sad very sad!

It really is quite sad. I was on my way to Norfolk on Memorial Day, and as you may know, as you transverse the bridge across Hampton Roads, you can look to your right and see the big carriers in port at NNS. On that day, the Bush, Lincoln (being fueled) were side by side, and off to hire right was the Big E. She was easy to spot, with her square island, but there was no doubt as her masts had been cut down.

My brother proudly served as a Nuc on her from 78-83, he loved that ship. In fact, he entire reason I am here on this forum, and back into ship modeling is because of him. He passed from cancer just over four months ago at 57. My mission here is to complete his Tamiya 1/350 CVN-65. So today is a bit of an extra sad day.

I am glad I got a chance to see her at least once, but once she is at the shipyard, is it still possible for civillians to see her?

If it's any solace, at least she will be broken up at an American yard and not hauled up on an Indian beach.....

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Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

I hear you. I think this one is "slightly" easier to take because the act of safeing the reactors neccessitate cutting the ship apart, but scraping CV-6 has to rank as the most criminal act in Naval history. I do not understand how we saved four Essex carriers, but scrapped the most decorated vessel in history. Just stupid.

Although, I did see someone make a few points that make me feel a bit better about that. One person equated the scrapping to "beating our swords into plows". Although, that doesn't jibe with the Essex carriers being saved. The other guy said it was a better fate for a warship to be sunk as a target or scrapped than to have a bunch of spoiled brats spilling cokes on her flightdeck and putting gum on her bulkheads.

Personally, I like to think that in some alternate universe, CV-6 is sitting in Washington National Harbor one of the greatest symbols of American history...

Kids spilling cokes on a WELL-CARED-FOR ship I'm actually OK with, because there's a chance those kids will grow up to be respectful - don't forget that the "Greatest Generation" was once criticized in the same way by their elders.

It's the ships that are left in danger (Olympia, Yorktown) that worry me.

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Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

The Essex Class Carriers were able to serve into the late 60's/ early 70's which gave people some time to figure out that we needed to preserve our heritage. The baby boomers were taking their families to museum's and their was a tourist industry movement of sorts.

There is also specualtion that having "Bull Halsey" trying to save her sparked old rivalries and opened old wounds amongst the Admirals that might have made some send CV-6 to the scrap yards to spite him.

It is a shame though, imagine traveling to D.C. to see CV-6 there as a WWII Museum! Snapping a shot from the top of the hill at Arlington accross the graves with her in the background on the river. A fitting tribute to those that served.

I have another question regarding the 1968 config....
I can't seem to get a good close up reference to make out exactly what is there, but it looks like there is a gun(s) or AA canon(s) on the small platform on the starboard side that sits right at the corner between the forward launch deck section and on where it then widens out to the elevator/superstructure section.
(see photo, I'm talking about the platform on the edge with the railing around it.)
Can anyone tell me what goes there? Again, back in '68 ?
If gun(s), how many & what kind?

Thanks,

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John
Currently on the bench:
- Revell 1/720 USS Enterprise CVAN-65 ca.1968
http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=146736

Here's a fairly sharp photo: http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/0265ana.jpg

Looks like saluting guns.

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De quoi s'agit-il?

Aaahhh. Perfect. Yep, did a google search on "saluting guns, enterprise" and look what I found.
So I think I'll use some left-over guns from my Hornet CV-6 PE and trim them to look right. Should be fine at 1/720.
Thank you so much! Knew I'd find the answer here!

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John
Currently on the bench:
- Revell 1/720 USS Enterprise CVAN-65 ca.1968
http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=146736

ooops, I mean my CV-8 PE (CV-6 is the other Enterprise )

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John
Currently on the bench:
- Revell 1/720 USS Enterprise CVAN-65 ca.1968
http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=146736

Anyone have the latest word on the status of the Cyber-Hobby 1/700 Enterprise?

Another question on the 1968 ship......What Is This??
First 6 shots are stills of film of the 68 ship
Last 2 shots are of the model in Smithsonian, circa 1975. Doesn't look the same.
What is that structure?
Anyone have decent, clear, references from that timeframe?
Thanks in advance!

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John
Currently on the bench:
- Revell 1/720 USS Enterprise CVAN-65 ca.1968
http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=146736

It is a platform for the Basic Point Defense Missile System (BPDMS) director. It was manually trained and elevated to send a signal to the Sea Sparrow missile system. Here is a close up picture of the director on another ship. http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-103_BPDMS_pic.jpg

I have a close up pic of the area on Enterprise I can send you.

HTH, Charles

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Charles Landrum
USNA 1983
Norfolk, Virginia

Hi, I noticed that someone on this site said the 1800 modern CVN-65 island is the right size for the revell 1/720 CVN-65. Is that accurate? if so I want to do it, also, is the old style Island on the kit too small? Im fine with using either, I just want to use which one is more accurate to scale...

Also, I am doing a quickbuild of the 1/720 Revell, just because I have time now since I just got out of the air force, and kind of for practice until the new 1/700 enterprise comes out. Just got my Starfighter decals in the mail today, and they are some of the nicest decals I have ever laid hands on.....

I'm not sure on the scale issue, I can try to check this weekend as I have both kits. That said, if you want to use a modern Big-E island on the Revell kit you'll have to do a ton of work to the hull to add all the extra details and changes as the Revell kit is supposed to represent the as launched configuration. There are a lot of minor details to add.

I'd say you're better off waiting until the Dragon/Cyber-Hobby kit gets released, but who knows when/if that will ever see the light of day.

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"There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today"

Ok......so instead of waiting for the 1/700 Enterprise, and instead of waiting for my Mom to mail me my Tamiya 1/350 Enterprise that I left at her house when I joined the service 15 years ago (who knows if all the parts are there?) I am either going to get the Tamiya CVN-65 or the ARII CVN-65 in 1/400. I have read in a few places that the ARII is a better kit, but nothing I have read has said what makes it better, or if there are any aftermarket accessories. I would probably get both ARII kits, as they can both be bought for the price of one Tamiya kit. I cant find any in box reviews of the ARII kit, or any pictures of the kit pre-build. Im a little torn on this, because I know whats in the Tamiya kit, even if it is 4000 miles away and untouched (i hope) in 15 years. Anybody know anything about this ARII kit?

Two advantages from the ARII 1/400 kit:

1. You can build the pre- and post-modification ENTERPRISE, that is, one with the original "Beehive" superstructure depicting the planar radar arrays, and one with the heavily-updated island superstructure that removed both the "Beehive" and the planar arrays from the island. Arii provides after-market aircraft sets of the same quality as the original kit - not quite as good as the Tamiya representations (if you can get them for a reasonable price, the Revell reissued 1/400 Enterprise aircraft are outstanding, on a par with the Tamiya 1/350 aircraft).

2. Detail on both ARII kits at least matches, and IMHO opinion exceeds, that of the Tamiya kit (molding of details in the island and deck, particularly the numerous electronics gear including countermeasure antenna on the older Big E, large sprues of hundreds of parts, etc.) and the details, from what I've been able to eyeball from period photographs, seem accurate. I need to check my "Detail and Scale" issue on Enterprise, as I think they had some nice words to say on the Arii kit also.

There is a Czech modeling website that features an incredibly detailed retrofit of the Tamiya Enterprise to her pre-modification configuration. Unbelievable details throughout, including the aircraft, deck gear, etc. I'm opting for the less-challenging 1/400 scale kits so I can build a side-by-side display of the older and newer Enterprises. Hope this helps.

Joe (shipwright)

P.S. Does anyone provide an after-market kit to retrofit the Tamiya CVN-65 to her pre-modification configuration?

Thanks, I was kind of leaning that way myself of doing both together.

Been a few months since I've been here, but the results on the boat are worth the time I've been spending on it.

I'm currently super-detailing the hangar bay, and I need to know if anyone has some suggestions on different methods of representing the fiberglass lagging that is installed on the top eleven feet of the bulkheads? The best I can come up with is making decals which would include all of the markings related to power, safety, and fire fighting stations. I have to learn to make decals anyway to match the aircraft we went to sea with on the 82-83 cruise. Any other suggestions though?

I have a viable plan for constructing the drop tank racks, but I was curious to see if anyone knows of a source of PE for the hoards of those wonderful little details. I'm planning on resin casting the drop tanks as I will need so many of them between the racks and the aircraft. The hydrostatic life rafts surrounding the catwalks will be resin cast as well.

Lastly, I need a European substitute for Future. I'll be in Finland for another year before we return to the states, and need to tint some windows and canopies. I will also be in Munich, Germany next week, Mexico in November as well as China. I need just a few ounces of that liquid gold, and the few hobby shops here just shake their heads and have no idea what I'm talking about.

When I get a chance I will post some pictures. It's been years since I did any model work, but my patience is so much better that I am pushing well beyond what I thought I would be capable of. Another big thing is that I have been building fixtures to solve problems. I have a simple fixture that I need to share with everyone here that helped me install the almost 600, 1.200" long .016' x .027" strips that represent the beams on the overhead of the hangar bay. Another one is a chopper that has a micrometer slide table on it that is repeatable to .001" and very true.

Regards to all...
Subhunter1

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"It's hard to make things idiot proof because idiots are so damned ingenious!"