USS Theodore Roosevelt CVN-71 Trumpeter 1/700

[arnobiz]

Lol John, I'm not sure if I am ready for such a big project I thought about it but I must stop buying kits "for the future", like most people here I already have 2 cubic meter of unassembled kits...

[D u n c a n]

there is something wrong with that model and you haven;t seen it yet.
You can see it from the top, yeah yeah, there is more what Trumpy have forgot.

[arnobiz]

I'm not sure if I see what you mean Duncan, it is quite unclear...

[arnobiz]

Small update today but a new technique for me!

The next step for the flight deck was to paint the arresting cables marks on the deck:
http://navysite.de/cvn/cvn71_2.jpg

As you can see, there are rusty lines under the cables. These lines are not well defined though, a bit blurred. So for this case masking tape was not enough as it would give very straight borders. Therefore I used a technique common to aircraft builders to obtained blurred borders. I cut the shape of the marks in thin cardboard and placed them where the cables are but not stuck on the deck, rather at 1-2mm from the surface.

This way the paint spray from the airbrush is "guided" and does the shape I want but with blurred borders:

It appears a bit too red at the moment but I still have to do the black weathering so it will be "smoother" eventually.

In the process I damaged the elevator contour decal, which forced me to try another new technique as I ran short of the proper lines in GMM's sheet Another reason to paint all markings!
I'm actually quite glad of this because it showed me that printing decals on white paper is not too big a problem, as long as the background is fairly uniform. I simply drawed the shape in Illustrator and applied a dark grey background to the drawing. The extra lines are for the hangar. I made a more decals, notably including parts of Rouyax' Enterprise hangar sheet , I will post more on it soon.

This way, even if I cut the decal not perfectly along the edge it is not too visible, especially after some weathering.


More on it tomorrow, and maybe the hangar will start to be advanced enough for me to show a bit of it

[arnobiz]

The entire deck has now been weathered with a blck/grey/drops of red mix, with a particular emphasis on the catapults zones:

The new decal is quite well integrated in the picture now

[Nektarios]

Looks very realistic Arnaud.

[arnobiz]

Thanks Nektarios, it's quite a long paint job but it starts to look like what I want to achieve. Still a bit of work though: Catapult rails, deck contours in white... Hopefully it will be done in the next two days or so and I will then focus on the hangar

[Nektarios]

Thanks Nektarios, it's quite a long paint job but it starts to look like what I want to achieve. Still a bit of work though: Catapult rails, deck contours in white... Hopefully it will be done in the next two days or so and I will then focus on the hangar

Will you paint the deck contour in white or use decals????

[arnobiz]

Lol of course I will paint it! I'm no maniac, I'm sure it is much simpler that way. The border is really thin so it would be quite difficult to have the decals in the good place and fixed strongly enough. Did you ever represent this border in your carrier fleet? How did you do it?

[ASFC]

Very good ! Interesting painting techniques.

[Tom-Tom]

Excellent job. I really like to see your work, since you've got very clever ideas.
Tom

[Nektarios]

Lol of course I will paint it! I'm no maniac, I'm sure it is much simpler that way. The border is really thin so it would be quite difficult to have the decals in the good place and fixed strongly enough. Did you ever represent this border in your carrier fleet? How did you do it?

I guess then i am a maniac


CVN-65

[kidcurrie42]

Hmmmn, Arno What are we gonna do with you ? Maniac = Decals,

Arno = Masking(lots of) = Totally Insane

I am really at a loss for words for your deck, it is a work of art at this moment it probably ranks number one of all flightdecks i have seen, that weathering/wear and tear for the arrestor wires is outta this world. i am awestruck by your deck, i have gained many ideas from your posts, Thank you, i think i will have to invest in a new airbrush, i had one many many years ago when i was building 1/72 a/c.

Happy modeling

John

[arnobiz]

Lol John, thanks for your kind comments. I did not mean decals=maniac actually, I meant "Nektarios would think I am a maniac if I told him I would paint the border as I already painted most markings"

Masking is not that difficult, very cheap, takes some time but not so much, and permits quite a wide range of effects. Of course (Unfortunately? ) it can not do everything and decals are sometimes very useful, in particular for the tiny power hatches and helo/weapon markings. Actually I think the thing I love most about painting is that there is about no risk at all to see your work get off because a bit of tape was applied to it

[kidcurrie42]

Lol John, thanks for your kind comments. I did not mean decals=maniac actually, I meant "Nektarios would think I am a maniac if I told him I would paint the border as I already painted most markings"

Masking is not that difficult, very cheap, takes some time but not so much, and permits quite a wide range of effects. Of course (Unfortunately? ) it can not do everything and decals are sometimes very useful, in particular for the tiny power hatches and helo/weapon markings. Actually I think the thing I love most about painting is that there is about no risk at all to see your work get off because a bit of tape was applied to it

My first ever modern carrier i built, must be something like 25 plus years ago now, was as i remember by monogram a Nimitz and also a 1/72 Tomcat was in the box, i had to mask all the markings then, easy enough but time consuming.

Maybe i will mask most or all on my 1/350 CVN-65 and use some of your methods

Happy modeling

John

[arnobiz]

Next and almost last step (Just the white border and the Jet Blast Deflectors missing now), the catapults rails and the arresting cables brakes. First some masking, of course (Hard to believe is it not? )


Then a layer of a metallic grey/black/drops of red mixture:



I really have to stick to daylight pictures, my camera sucks with a flash and without it all pictures are blurred. Sorry about that.

Two little heads up/tricks:
_The bow port side catapult rail is too long in the Trumpeter's molding.


Of course I realized that after most of the painting was done so I tried to hide it with paint but as you can see the result is not very nice... A bit of putty later it's OK, the main difficulty was to find the right colour to paint the area again without too much of a difference with the rest.

_Every time I am happy with the paint work I protect it with a few layers of Klear. When dry this stuff is completely white-spirit-proof. This enables me to work on the next step and, if missed, simply wash it with a cloth and white spirit without damaging the previous work at all. That's really nice when there is so much paint work involved!

[arnobiz]

Here is the result:


I actually think it will be simpler to paint the white border at the end, so the only remaining thing are the JBDs.

[kidcurrie42]

Looks Great Arno

[Nektarios]

Here is the result:


I actually think it will be simpler to paint the white border at the end, so the only remaining thing are the JBDs.

Looks great

[arnobiz]

Thanks guys, here is another view/better picture


I will now start the airwing and the hangar. I will do it step by step as I could not find an airwing step by step post in the forum, and I think it would be quite useful. I'm certainly miles away from Nektarios in this area but that's a start. Maybe the master will find some time soon to explain us his technique in detail