The Ship Model Forum

I started to build the Trumpeter 1/700 USS Roosevelt CVN-71 about a month ago.
Here is the painting process of the deck, which I decided to paint almost completely (I will use GMM decals for the power hatches) as the Trumpeter markings are wrong/incomplete. I use a "negative" masking technique, i.e. the details colours are painted first, then masked and the final deck colour is sprayed. I am not sure if it works better than the usual technique, I guess I simply wanted to use the .4mm microtape I had
First, a layer of yellow:

The parts to remain yellow are masked with microtape (Single stripes) or normal tamiya masking tape (Big dashes of the middle white/yellow dashed line). The main yellow/white stripe is wrong in the Trumpeter decals/deck engraving: There should be 18 dashes, the 17 first starting from the stern being 1.95mm long. In the Trumpeter kit they are too long, thus there is one missing and the last one is yellow when it should be white.

A white layer is then sprayed. The previous masked areas appear, but they are still masked (The yellow is that of the tape):

Once this layer is dry the part to remain white are masked. These are the dashes of the red/white 7 yellow/white dashed lines and the two main stripes.
These main white stripes have a problem in the Trumpeter declas/engraving: The widest white part is too wide, and as a result the internal gray rectangles are too narrow. This is easily corrected when you paint them but rather difficult to improve on decals!

The next step is to spray a red layer...

_________________
Arnaud

On the workbench:
1/72 F-14A Bounty Hunters First Tomcat deployment
1/700 CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt Last Tomcat deployment
1/700 CG-62

A red layer was sprayed:

And the final masks were applied:


The deck colour is applied:

There will be more grey layers in the middle of the deck to replicate the fact that the coating is done by areas, thus giving a big patchwork of various greys. But here is a little spoiler of the result on the bow. The dashes are not perfectly regular but I'm going to live with that.

_________________
Arnaud

On the workbench:
1/72 F-14A Bounty Hunters First Tomcat deployment
1/700 CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt Last Tomcat deployment
1/700 CG-62

Nice start hoping to see more in the future.

_________________
On the workbench:

Various 1/700 aircraft.
Juan Carlos I LHD 1/700.
HMAS Canbera LHD 1/700.
FGS Type 122 class FFG 1/700.
LSD-41 class LPD 1/700.

Thanks Nektarios, I can't wait to go home ad do these final grey layers to unveil the result of my masking experiment. Thrilling... It will be either quite nice or really ugly, with leaks under the tape or, worse, paint coming with the tape when I'll remove it

_________________
Arnaud

On the workbench:
1/72 F-14A Bounty Hunters First Tomcat deployment
1/700 CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt Last Tomcat deployment
1/700 CG-62

Here is the last step before removing the masks: deck coating fading.

It is a bit too contrasted but this will vanish with the weathering (Or so I think, it's only my second ship and my first carrier )

_________________
Arnaud

On the workbench:
1/72 F-14A Bounty Hunters First Tomcat deployment
1/700 CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt Last Tomcat deployment
1/700 CG-62

Markings done! The "negative masking" method seems to work quite well


The deck coating fading is quite invisible now, I should have made it stronger...

_________________
Arnaud

On the workbench:
1/72 F-14A Bounty Hunters First Tomcat deployment
1/700 CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt Last Tomcat deployment
1/700 CG-62

A comparison with Trumpeter's marking chart:


High Resolution picture here:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3243/2842463060_5c70cf45ae_o.jpg

_________________
Arnaud

On the workbench:
1/72 F-14A Bounty Hunters First Tomcat deployment
1/700 CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt Last Tomcat deployment
1/700 CG-62

AAAH I just realized the large white stripes are wrong not only in width but also in spacing: The last little transverse white bit should be quite close to the edge, not as far from it as Trumpeter put it:

I masked the central part of the two white stripes to paint it in white, mask the correct positions of the white bits and paint it gray again.
Such a stupid laziness: Had I been more careful from the beginning it would have been done at no expense. A learning experience I guess...

_________________
Arnaud

On the workbench:
1/72 F-14A Bounty Hunters First Tomcat deployment
1/700 CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt Last Tomcat deployment
1/700 CG-62

Hey Arno, it is easy done, i have done it with decals, been on a roll, everything going well and you stand back and look and , so you aint the first and will not be the last.
She looks good, mistake or no mistake.

Happy modeling

John

_________________
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

Thanks John. I could have lived with the mistake but now that I know, and since I choose to paint the markings to avoid the kit mistakes I would feel quite stupid still having mistakes!

_________________
Arnaud

On the workbench:
1/72 F-14A Bounty Hunters First Tomcat deployment
1/700 CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt Last Tomcat deployment
1/700 CG-62

A few meters of masking tape later, the mistake is corrected. The remaining masking tape is to paint the Jet Blast Deflector in itself (The contours are already done).

I feel better
Now I will order the GMM decals from Pacific Front along with Skywave's modern ships accessories and the GMM PE
The decals for the hangar are almost ready to be printed. I am adapting the work of rouyax who did a terrific job for his 1/350 Enterprise (http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=34259&p=234199&hilit=CVN+65+Hangar+Deck+Custom+Decals#p234199. More on this tomorrow...

_________________
Arnaud

On the workbench:
1/72 F-14A Bounty Hunters First Tomcat deployment
1/700 CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt Last Tomcat deployment
1/700 CG-62

Its starting to look really good.

_________________
On the workbench:

Various 1/700 aircraft.
Juan Carlos I LHD 1/700.
HMAS Canbera LHD 1/700.
FGS Type 122 class FFG 1/700.
LSD-41 class LPD 1/700.

Thanks Nektarios. I will spray a layer of Future tomorrow, I've never done it before but apparently it's fantastic for both the decals and the colours.
The tricky part I can't decide myself to start is the airwing...

_________________
Arnaud

On the workbench:
1/72 F-14A Bounty Hunters First Tomcat deployment
1/700 CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt Last Tomcat deployment
1/700 CG-62

Hi Arno, Deck is looking great, Brush or spray future is awesome, i look forward to your thoughts on it afterwards. Keep up the great work.
Just make sure that your deck is completely free of dust.

Happy modeling

John

_________________
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

Wow. Amazing paint job! I'm definitely going to be following your work on this model.

_________________
Heiko S. | MY SHIPYARD | Under construction: JDS Takanami (Takanami Class Destroyer)

Wow Arno this 'negative masking' has really paid off for you! I haven't posted much but I am following what promises to be a great build.

_________________

Ships on the Slipway
HMS Victorious R38
USS Pinckney DDG-91
SAS Drakensberg A-301
On the drawing board
HMS Dumbarton Castle P265
HMS Albion L14
VT Sergey Osipov

Thanks ASFC and orb
I'm afraid I'm better at painting than at building so wait and see...
My compressor has a minor problem and I am moving next week so I'll post new progress as soon as possible!

Arnaud

_________________
Arnaud

On the workbench:
1/72 F-14A Bounty Hunters First Tomcat deployment
1/700 CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt Last Tomcat deployment
1/700 CG-62

Great looking paint job on the flight deck. Looking forward to more in progress pictures.

_________________
Gordon


"Then there was one patched-up carrier...."
Vice Admiral Thomas A. Kinkaid

Thanks guys for your kind comments. I am sorry I did not post anything in the past few weeks I was busy with an other project that was completed (Or started, depending how you see it!) on October 27th:

His name is François; he is my first son but my second kid

I would like to say a HUGE thank you to Nektarios for his help and his very kind enquiries as he realized I almost disapeared from the forum. I have now ten extra deck tractors thanks to his generosity and his moral support was quite something too.

CVN-71 did a bit of progress, mainly on the supplies side:
PitRoad/Skywave US Carrier Based Aircraft set (Go to Misc.Tools/Aircraft and Dockyard Equipment and Accessories/Pit-Road S-12 Modern Carrier based Aircraft F-14, F-18, A-4, A-7, etc.) and Trumpeter aircraft sets to complete the airwing, so that it has now:
16x F/A 18
16x F-14 D
4x EA6-B
8x S3-B
2x C2
4x E-C2
6x HH-60

GMM Nimitz photoetch
GMM supercarriers decals
Eduard Aircraft Carrier Figures Pre-painted #17504
Starfighter Decals CVW-8 2001. This set is very good but I find it has two big shortcomings: The decals are all printed on the same support, which means all of them have to be cut as close to the pattern as possible, and the instructions are really poor (Just one profile is clearly not enough, there should be at least a top view too). Also the colours are not always very bright, some blue patterns appear black. But other than that it is very accurate and definitely saves a lot of time!

I also ordered a set of TomTom's fantastic deck tractors to add even more diversity on the deck.

Since I last posted I also modified Rouyax' CVN-65 decals to adapt them to CVN-71. I would like to thank him for giving me his work, it really saved me a lot of effort. I will post a picture of the sheet as soon as possible. As it was mainly for the hangar, which is painted in white, printing on clear decal was not a problem.

_________________
Arnaud

On the workbench:
1/72 F-14A Bounty Hunters First Tomcat deployment
1/700 CVN-71 Theodore Roosevelt Last Tomcat deployment
1/700 CG-62

Arno, Many Congratulations on the Birth of your Son and Welcome back, hope to see you resume work on your fine build between changing and feeding the little man.

Happy modeling

John

_________________
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum