My first 1:350 build, Trumpeter CVN-68 USS Nimitz

[NWarty]

Lot's of progress this week.

All catwalks, LSO platform, netting glued on. Phew! Flight deck and hull are done sans hose reels on the port side, but starboard is completely finished. Lots of little things done here and there and finally nailed down bending PE with excellent results. Started work on the island and got all the wipers and railings in place. Working on gluing it down and building the radar mast today and all the arrays.

Much happier with the progress. Like I said, she's not a show contestant but I'm tickled with the progress.

[gtbred]

great job on the wearthering.

[sgtryan13]

Looking good Warty, glad you are back at it. 2 observations if I may:


1-Your fore sea sparrow missle radar (bug eye) on the island has one of the sides bent. May want to fix that before you install the mast.

2- Are the side antennaes glued in the complete down position or just there to keep them out of the way? I only ask because I have never seen tehm completely down on the real ships, they are always at a slightly less than parallel angle to the deck. Again, just what I have seen in pics, not gospel...

[boomstick68]

Well Ryan, it could be a modified fishing trawler! Seriously though, it's looking pretty darn good.

[NWarty]

Looking good Warty, glad you are back at it. 2 observations if I may:


1-Your fore sea sparrow missle radar (bug eye) on the island has one of the sides bent. May want to fix that before you install the mast.

2- Are the side antennaes glued in the complete down position or just there to keep them out of the way? I only ask because I have never seen tehm completely down on the real ships, they are always at a slightly less than parallel angle to the deck. Again, just what I have seen in pics, not gospel...

Ryan,
Funny, you mentioned that since it (the bug eye) came off the sprue in that position. I have another so it should be a quick fix but I'm not too worried about it.

The antennas are in the down position (not glued) so my clumsy hands won't accidentally break them When final assembly is happening, I'll move them to the horizontal (slightly down).

Just finished all the railings, ladders and steps on the island and the various antennas and the decks are all glued down and together Now onto gluing this puppy down and get to the Radar Mast and arrays!

Thanks guys for the comments

[JimVarnellABH2USN]

NWarty

Very nice build, weathering looks real good. keep up the good work.

[NWarty]

I can't see anymore...

PE is killing me after 100+ hours of swearing at Loren Perry and some British dude from White Ensign.

The hull, flight deck, island, radar mast, and everything pilots don't care about is done...Aft radar array...I will conquer you quickly.

Then it's on to fun stuff like the Airwing, tractors and the like. I'm going to stick my finger in my eyeball because it's more fun...

Inserted a shim above the #2 elevator since the flight deck didn't want to meet up with the hull correctly. Added some plastic rod and very happy with the results.

Ryan and anyone else,
I need to help with plane spotting. I want to have aircraft launching off Cats 1, 3 & 4 and would love to see a diagram. There's a great Tomcat video (VF-31 last cruise) that shows the starboard cat launching, with planes on the bow, with 3&4 launching next to it.

[LE BOSCO]

Hello nWarty

you've done a superb job of painting, and your weathering is just perfect ,the right balance
I like it
Nicolas

[NWarty]

Nicolas,
Thank you much for the nice compliment!

I pooched the elevator railing last night and have to fix some superglue blobs around the edge of the elevator. Shouldn't be too hard.

V/R
Blake

[NWarty]

After leaving my ship on the dining room table, my boys came home and began to work on their science fair experiment. The tri-fold they were using clipped and destroyed all of the bow PE netting and tore off the left ramp...

How many times I told them to be careful and why the heck did I leave my ship there...Shame on me for being an idiot.

I have a White Ensign PE set and will have to uitlize that to fix it.

[Bigdaddy Mark]

Ohhhhh Nooooooooo!!!

[FlowerPower]

oh----------my------------God!

[Timmy C]

Could be worse! Could've been a completed island

[JimVarnellABH2USN]

Well those things will happen, my boys when they were younger got into my stash and decided to help daddy build his models, only about 12 kits ruined, and a few completed builds somehow ended up in the bathtub.

Yes they are still alive, it was questionable for a while there.

[NWarty]

Well those things will happen, my boys when they were younger got into my stash and decided to help daddy build his models, only about 12 kits ruined, and a few completed builds somehow ended up in the bathtub.

Yes they are still alive, it was questionable for a while there.

Jim,
LOL!!! That's absolutely hilarious! My wife made them apologize and I felt bad afterwards as I know it was an accident. I think I had a migraine until 10pm last night. They like to build models too but like your two, their existance was in question for about 1/2 hour.

Timmy,
Yep, could have been worse, I know Ryan dropped part of his model when completing his Charity-build Nimitz.

But like I said, it's all-good. At least I have the extra PE set from WE. A little more complex to put on, but she'll be okay. I have to re-attach the left ramp and add a little filler and replace the netting on both of those, the tip of the bow, replace/scratchbuild/fix the port antenna and one small piece on the port side at the bow. But like everything that is this build, one step forward/two steps back.

-Blake

[boomstick68]

After leaving my ship on the dining room table, my boys came home and began to work on their science fair experiment. The tri-fold they were using clipped and destroyed all of the bow PE netting and tore off the left ramp...

How many times I told them to be careful and why the heck did I leave my ship there...Shame on me for being an idiot.

I have a White Ensign PE set and will have to uitlize that to fix it.

I have some extra pieces from GMM and WEM sets, let me know if you need anything.

[Bigdaddy Mark]

But like I said, it's all-good. At least I have the extra PE set from WE. A little more complex to put on, but she'll be okay. I have to re-attach the left ramp and add a little filler and replace the netting on both of those, the tip of the bow, replace/scratchbuild/fix the port antenna and one small piece on the port side at the bow. But like everything that is this build, one step forward/two steps back

Good golly, it reminds me of when the guy drives up in Ecto1 in Ghostbusters. That's a long list of things needed to be repaired.
Make sure you get some pictures.

[NWarty]

James,
That's awfully kind of you but I should be okay for the moment.

Mark,
Will do.

Well, some good news. After three hours or so of filling, bending and gluing, the left ramp is fixed and filled (just need to fix the paint), port antenna fixed, port/starboard outside ramp nets fixed. Just need to complete the inner ramp PE netting and she's good to go (airbrush and glued). Honestly, you can't tell she was damaged.

Started work on the aft radar mast and have the mast built, platforms/braces done and interior filled with sheet plastic. Now to work on the radar itself.

-Blake

[NWarty]

On another note:

Didn't realize that the Skywarrior was part of the CVW during this cruise and Eagle Claw. Now I get to build one

Found this photo of the 53's prior to painting them desert Camo, sans invasion stripes on the aircraft, with the big SW in the background.

Also need to order an RF-8 from Corsair Armada.

[NWarty]

Small work here and there. Most importantly, the bow PE is fixed although I didn't take a photo of the repair.

Added the tow bars to the island last night and painted the mast radar bits white; added the safety ladders too but they aren't present in the pics I took last night. Aft radar mast is in place. Little details added to the catwalks, although I need to build several more hose reels. One of the starboard antennas is inaccurate (because my beer-drinkin' self didn't catch it) and will be replaced from a spare one and PE accurate dish. Drybrushed the life raft canisters and painted the meatball.

Gotta fix the crane tonight and snip the cables to bring it to the correct stowed position. Add some stretched sprue and she should be a-okay. Then it's on to the rigging. Last but not least is to get the white lines on the outer edges of the flight deck masked and painted.