disecting the 1/350 Trumpeter NIMITZ

[gtbred]

Very nice hand work!

[ArizonaBB39]

Incredible work!! Such an inspiration.

[JimVarnellABH2USN]

Sir,
This is by far the most detailed carrier I have layed these eyes on. There are many fantastic builders here, and you sir are truely one of them. This ship and your detail work are truely inspiritial. Thank you for showing us your talents and this master piece.

[anyahajobuzi]

Ok, I was thinking that though you are going to the extreme on this thing, that you were at least keeping it mostly within the threshold of sanity (relative term coming from a fellow CVN lunatic) but then I saw that you made the enclosed stairwells under the catwalk hollow, and installed a ladder inside! That tiny little detail is what pushed this build over the line for me, honest!

Great work for sure, but I tip my hat to ya, you are more insane than I am with this thing, without a shadow of a doubt! Keep it up man, this is already a stunner, and only getting better.

Oh, and if she does divorce you, it just gives you more room for modeling and displaying models, trust me, I went through the big "D" a couple years ago, and my modeling benefited greatly!

I am absolutely honoured to be called "insane" on this forum, and the good news is that I am not even taking any pills for for it, so who knows how much more detail will come to life eventually:D

Nah, there is no divorce hanging over my head.Christ, we just got married this past summer! It's just unfortunate for her to marry me while I am working on the biggest modelbuilding project of my life. The wife's patience is truly admirable. I wish she would also be patient enough to do part of the airwing...wink-wink.....

[anyahajobuzi]

I would like to thank everyone for the kind words, they are just as inspiring to me as my projcet is said to be inspirational to others. And let it be said again: there are a lot of great modelbuilders around this forum (as well) . I am really happy to be belonging to that group.

[Redlion615]

Evening,

This looks great - the catwalks, ladderwells and details are fantastic! You're giving me a bunch of ideas for my next project - thanks!

Regards,
Dan

[anyahajobuzi]

Just a quick post about some progress over the last week. It's been slow because these hose reels take forever! I officially hate these parts the most so far.
The hoses are portrayed being reeled up carelessly on purpose. According to reference-photos, the Navy isn't very tidy when it comes to these hoses, so I followed suit.
One also should pay attention to the spacing and the width of the these reels, as they differ, sometimes quite a bit.
There are also green ones, and their size changed since the '80-s. They got smaller. The location for all of them is the same as before, so is the diameter of the grey reels. That never changed.

Well, this is it for now

Cheers:Laci

[JimVarnellABH2USN]

Your work and attention to detail is extreamly impressive. The hose reels your working on look great, the green ones you mentioned are AFFF firefighting stations, red ones would be saltwater fire fighting stations and the gray ones differ from ship to ship but mostly JP --5 fuel stations the carriers I served on they were painted purple, but later they painted them gray, guess they ran out of purple. Again your work is VERY impressive.

[DWD]

NICE WORK!!! Your build is freakin amazing! I started on ONE hose reel to see how I was going to do mine for Enterprise and thought . . . what a pain in the @##! Yours look exceptional. Keep the posts coming!

[boomstick68]

Yes yes, building the hose reels lacks excitement, however, what you have done to yours livens up the party.

[anyahajobuzi]

Well, I've managed to finish and add more detail to the ship, might even be able to ALMOST keep my promise to myself : have the starboard side finished by the end of this month. But my biggest achievement this month so far: I took some advice from other modelers on pre-shading and practiced hard-core with it, and I got a result that I won't feel ashamed about showing to everyone. I didn't go ultra-heavy on the weathering because in the mid '80-s the Nimitz was sporting a pretty new-looking and clean finish. Some small runs of rust and black are still to be brushed on though, but for the majority I call the starboard side: painted. (missing the drak grey waterline for now). I am somewhat new to some of these shading techniques and bran -new to pre-shading, so let me know where I can improve my skills in this department! Thanks again Koppalakki for your pictures!

[anyahajobuzi]

Here are some close-ups of the "thingies" I ended up scratchbuilding.
I am proudest of the little radar-dish. I believe it is called an SK-82, but maybe someone more knowledgeable about carriers (Jim?) can tell us what it really is.
The Numbers:
number 1 is the plastic piece, providied by Trumpy. it is absolutely garbage. .
number 2 is WEM's take on the subject, but they failed too, They just made it more see-thru and 2 dimensional.It's still very basic looking with the wrong dis pattern...tsk-tsk
number 3: SO, I made my own. It is not perfect that's for sure, but it is closer to reality than the other two put together. On this photo you'll also see a machine gun ,(orange circle) I will have to make another 5 of them.
I also added 2 whip antennas, making sure that the ends get narrower. I used streched sprue for this, they have a natural curve to them.
The sea sparrow sponson is also complete. So this is it in a nutshell.

Cheers: Laci

[Koppalakki]

Very good job on the preshading it looks really really great!

[Christian M.]

1/350 Nimitz class kit seems really to be actual "up to date and to build" kit looking around here in wip...

However, as Koppalakki told, your pre-shading work looks great as work in total too. Very well made!

The actual Nimitz took 7 years to build. Mine is in year 4, and only about 65% complete . Will mine have a functional nuclear reactor inside it too by the end of it? It just might, it just might..hell, it might even rust like the real thing too....

But you are ready before 2025 when Nimitz will be retiring? Only joking...

[DWD]

DUDE!!! Your Nimitz is lookin @#$%I* SWEET!!!! I really like the look of the preshading. It's all coming together. Way to set the bar. When do you get the nuclear reactors up and running?

[ArizonaBB39]

Incredible work!

[Channell]

My only suggestion/complaint:

People are gonna accuse you of photoshop fraud...Please twist up some PE or dribble some random glue drops or put some standard kit parts with visible seams or flashing on that thing so we know it's a model and not the actual Nimitz chopped into pics of you workbench.

[Bigdaddy Mark]

I have to say that your preshading made your 3` model look like a 1092` ship.
I did a little preshading on my Bataan kit, but didn't get into it like that.

Fantastic build so far.

[JimVarnellABH2USN]

Laci,,
You are correct they are SK -82D, used in short wave radio transmissions.

[ArizonaBB39]

The ship looks fantastic so far! That pre-shading is an awesome effect.