1/350 USS Reagan CVN-76

[sgtryan13]

Thanks very much guys!

And Timmy, it will have the hatches/ stairs, etc leading into the hull. From all of my reference pics, the hatch seems to be either a standard sized water-tight hatch, or possibly a slightly larger hatch, but either way, there will be a hatch.

The PE boat dock you see in the pictures is is just the outer piece from the WEM set which is awesome, it actually includes the 2 different levels of the inner dock, as well as the hatch platform and the stairs leading up to that hatch platform. I plan to heavily alter the PE boat dock with sturene rod, to give it the beefy rounded appearence that it has, so the dock you see in the pictures is going to be basically used as a frame for scratch building the structure.

[Timmy C]

Ah ha! Right on.

[boomstick68]

No fear approach on that transom. And, it paid off.

[sgtryan13]

James, the more I cut into these ships the eazsier it seems to get to take a big risk. I used to be petrified at the thought of cutting into a plastic kit only a few short years ago. Now, I attack these things with my dremel and a sort of reckless abandon with the idea that if I screw it up I'll just find a way to fix it or put it back the way it was.


The stern area got a lot of attention, as this was one of the areas that I got gigged on with the Bush at nats. I think that this area has been successfully addressed.

I added some piping, and doo-dads to the walls, some was to hide impossible-to-sand seams, and others are just to dress it up a little bit.

[sgtryan13]

Also this weekend the hangar got a lot of attention. I finished the farthest aft sections, and got started on the decaling of the hangar aircraft. A few small details got added, including some yellow barrels that I caught in some photos, I think they are just trash cans, but I like the tinly touches of added color they provide.

I am also planning to add some palletized cargo to the aft hangar bay, as many of the photos i see of this area have a bug pile of stuff stored here.

I really dig the hangar door mural and the "76" banner decals in here!

[ArizonaBB39]

excellent work!

[boomstick68]

When this beast is finished, the Bush will be a distant memory. The hangar bays are off the chart.

[LE BOSCO]

Hello sgtryan
as a hangar full "egg" and a very convincing realism
Cheers
Nicolas

[sgtryan13]

Thanks for the kind words guys!

In my quest to change things up a little and improve on every build I am digging farther and farther into the modeling nether-world to come up with ideas. On this build I am looking for things I can do to the airwing, going to see if it is worth the effort to detail the hangar roof, and try some new ideas for catwalk details.

The airwig is getting the first go at the new ideas. The Prowlers, which Reagan carried initially, have a two-tone scheme that I am replicating. On the real thing the colors seem to be a little less contrast, but I wanted them noticable, so I went with the scheme you see below.

Also, I came across a post on steelnavy that shows a hornet from VFC-12 (the aggressor squadron) landing aboard reagan at the time that CVW-11 was doing carrier quals aboard her. Since I am modeling Reagan with CVW-11 aboard, it was a no-brainer to add a cool looking aggressor hornet aboard. Now I can't find a picture of a desert schemed aggressor aboard, but I don't think that is too far of a stretch to assume that it is at least possible that one landed aboard since VFC-12 has both schemes at the same timeframe. I think these 2 birds are going to look really cool on my deck!

[Cliffy B]

Got ya covered Ryan, check your PMs.

VFC-12 has the best paint jobs!

[sgtryan13]

I made some decent progress this weekend, not as much as I had hoped thanks to an overtime shift on sunday, but decent still.

Since I completed the bulbous bow, there has been something minor about it bothering me when I looked at it from certain angles. When viewing it from the starbord side aft, there seemed to be a "bump" that was out of place on the bottom. With all the troubles that bow gave me, I was very reluctant to touch it again, but this weekend I decided to man up and fix it, as it would bother me forever, and if I can see it, chances are a judge at a competition would see it too.

So I removed the ship from it's work base, and turned it upside down and placed a straight-edge along the keel, and sure enough there was a tiny bump, less than 1mm, but it stuck out to me none the less. I sanded it away and now I am happy with the bow section.

I also got the starboard ship's crane done, made from scratch and modified parts from the kit crane and one of the kit's tilley cranes.

In my past builds of this kit, sometimes the fit of the deck pieces leaves a signifignat gap to fill, so this time I clamped the hell out of them while the glue set, and I have been left with a much more managable seam.

[sgtryan13]

The real progress however, is that the hangar is DONE!

In my efforts to improve on every build, I tried to give the hangar even more details, and the roof was the recipient of many of those attempts. I actually trided to install the spinkler pipes that come down from the cieling, but I did not like how they looked, as they were either too big and looked goofy, or the ones that were more to scale just looked like the cieling was spiny or hairy! so in the end, I removed the sprinklers completely.

I did go ahead with the pallets and cargo in the aft hangar bay just to be different than the Bush, and I like the active scene it allowed for. I also went a little farther with the middle bay's maintenacnce scene on a hornet or two, and I am really happy with the lively-ness it adds.

[sgtryan13]

A few more hangar shots, and then... let there be light! I used the same LED strips that I used on teh Bush, from superbright LED's and I love these things! I took more care in sealing up the hangar bay, as with the bush, there was some minor light leakage into areas that should not have been lit, and it was someting that was noticed by the judges at Nats. I am pretty confident that I have sealed off the light, so that it will not creep into any unwanted areas.

[Neptune]

Haven't said much, but staying quiet would be an offence to this build! (not that what I brabble is of any real value)
This is one hell of a great build(er)! Love your eye for detail. Great skill and you must have a huge amount of patience! Extremely good execution, hope to see it finished to the very same level of detail in the near future

[DWD]

Hey Ryan, did you end up using any side lighting or just the one flat LED strip lighting for the hangar deck down the middle on this one?

[sgtryan13]

Thanks very much Neptune! I can promise the rest of the ship will recieve the same level of details you see so far, but I can't promise that will be "soon".

DWD-I found the side lighting to be mostly unnecessary with these things. I installed side lighting in the Bush, but after a lot of observing it with the side lighting on and off, I ended up not using the side lights, and they are in there, wired but not on, in case the overhead lights ever die out for some reason.

There are a couple very slight shadow areas, but slight is the operative word, and in my opinion, it looks realistic. I did consider rigging the side lights (which I did run wires for) in red to simulate night ops, but opted not to for sake of not wanting to turn this thing into having a toy-like feel for it.

I guess the lighting is really subjective to the individual viewer, but for my preferences, this does the trick nicely, it is plenty bright, while not being overwhelingly bright.

[DWD]

Sweet. I like how the stowage looks in the hangar deck with the forklifts. One other question I was going to ask earlier. The lights that you purchased, did you have to buy any resistors or is the power being supplied the correct type? I was looking into the same company for the lighting and wanted to make sure the LED strips wouldn't burn out with a 12 Volt power supply. Have you had any trouble with them at all?

[LE BOSCO]

HI sgtryan


a hangar more and more convincing of realism
congrats for the new advances
best regards
nicolas

[sgtryan13]

Merci Nicolas!

DWD- I am using the light strips as-is from the company. I purchased the battery pack that is sold by superbright LED's to power this specific set of lights. I think it is a 12V battery pack, but I am not sure. Either way, no resistors or anything are needed when using that battery pack. The company also sells a conversion plug to easily switch from battery power to wall electrical power, which I assume has a resistor built into it.

[DWD]

Merci Nicolas!

DWD- I am using the light strips as-is from the company. I purchased the battery pack that is sold by superbright LED's to power this specific set of lights. I think it is a 12V battery pack, but I am not sure. Either way, no resistors or anything are needed when using that battery pack. The company also sells a conversion plug to easily switch from battery power to wall electrical power, which I assume has a resistor built into it.

Thanks for the information. It is greatly appreciated.