1/350 USS Reagan CVN-76

[ArizonaBB39]

Ryan, excellent work, keep it up

[sgtryan13]

Thanks fellas!

And James, I can assure you, there was ZERO beer left for the crew to consume. I am a harsh and greedy captain!

[Hallis]

the Superstructure looks EXCELLENT!

[youngtiger1]

Man, all your guys are building one great ship after another. Sgtryan, your USS Reagan is looking very nice. Your attention to detail is awesome. I'll be following along to pick up as many cool tips as I can.

Mike

[anyahajobuzi]

Ryan! This one EXCELLENT island!!
Straight and square is the key, and you freakin' nailed it!!! The rigging is mind-blowing!

keep it up!!!!!!!

Laci

[JimVarnellABH2USN]

Lack said it all.....

[LE BOSCO]

Hello Ryan

I missed the latest advances in your mast it is simply magnificent congrats for your dexterity
cheers
Nicolas

[renato lamberti]

hi Ryan, your work on Island is excellent. I saw also the wonderful job you did with flags .... can you explain how to use the ones supplied in the kit and how to make the flags at home?
Renato

[renato lamberti]

.. Let me explain ..... How do you reproduce the folds of the flag due to the wind? ... If you use flags (decals) supplied in the kit, put on a piece of plastic?...

[Peter H]

Hi Ryan

Amazing work on the Island, Mast and Rigging, am going to check in more frequently to see your updates.

All the best

Peter H
Sydney, AU

[gtbred]

Now if I could my Okinawa island to look that good.

[sgtryan13]

Thanks very much for all the kind words guys, really. The encouragement goes a long way to helping push through a build of this size and complexity.

.. Let me explain ..... How do you reproduce the folds of the flag due to the wind? ... If you use flags (decals) supplied in the kit, put on a piece of plastic?...

Renato, it is a pretty simple process, which I owe in large part to this site. I think I picked it up from something Kelly Quirk posted a long time ago, but I am not certain.

Anyways, what I do, weather I use my own home made flags, or a kit's decals, is the same:

1-Take a Hershey Kiss wrapper, the thin foil, (or someting similar, but these are the best I have found) and flatten it out as smooth as possible.
2-Next, coat the wrapper with a gloss coat on both sides and let dry.
3-Cut out your flag decal right to the very edge of the color, and also cut the flag at the fly (meaning that if it is a decal meant to be folded in half, cut it to make 2 separate sides of the flag).
4-Cut a section of the foil out that is slightly smaller than your flag size (size of the completed folded flag, NOT the double length that the decal comes in.)
5- Attach one side of the flag decal to the foil you cut out using your preferred decal method. Let dry slightly.
6- Attach the other side of the flag decal and let dry thouroughly
7- When the now double-sided flag is dry, bend, curl, crease, or wrinkle your dry flag into whatever shape you prefer.
8-Flat coat the completed flag. I find that if you flat coat it before you shape it, that the decal may become too brittle and may crack or flake a bit depending on how much you shape and bend it.
9-Attach to rigging

That's about it!

[anyahajobuzi]

Excelllent trick!!

Thanks Ryan!

[renato lamberti]

wow Ryan...thanks a lot, it's all clear now...

[sgtryan13]

Happy to help fellas!

Well it has been a long time since Reagan got an update, but here we go...

The ship is pretty much done, with the exception of some antennae around the flight deck and her hull weathering and deck crew.

So it is on to the topside airwing. One of my goals for this build was to improve on my aircraft. The ones I have done in the past have more than met my expectations, but I am trying to improve on these none the less just to make sure my skills continue to improve by challenging myself.

Started with the F-18 C models- 26 of them in total on this deck. WHAT was I thinking?! All have gotten detailed interiors, and a couple with pilots inside. Many have had flaps removed for repositioning and/ or replacement. right now they sit wearing their 3rd coat of primer now that every single little seam has been rendered invisible. I would say each bird has about 2- 3 hours of work into it. And to think I only have another 30-35 birds left that have not even been started yet.

[MartinJQuinn]

Nice work, Ryan. I think that's the hardest part of bird farms - building the damn birds!

[sgtryan13]

Thanks Martin, and you could not be mroe right. This bird building just gets plane boring!

Well it seems I have an infestation of bugs... All of the F-18C models are painted and ready for gloss and decals. Even though all the planes in real life are painted the same color, if you look at an overhead shot of the flight deck, you will see some drastic variations of the same grey they are painted with. This is likely due to a combo of weathering and birds being painted with different batches of the supposed same color.

For my deck, I went with a total of 5 different shades of grey for my Hornets, some shades are very subtle in their difference and will probably blend together after weathering, but a couple of the shades are vastly different with lighter tones and some blue hues in them. When mixed up in a jumble on the flight deck, the visual result should be very cool, and add a lot mroe visual interest than 50+ birds all painted the same color.

the tiny beat-up desk under these birds is actually the first model "workbench" I ever had! Boy have I upgraded a few times since then!

[DWD]

SWEET!! Nice work. Thanks for the "how to" on the flags. I like the variation of color on the hornets. I will be very interested in seeing how those birds turn out. Now you just have to add about 1000 decals to those 50 + aircraft!!! Stick with it! I bet they turn out great!!! The result is always well worth the time. Great job, Ryan.

[Angeliccypher]

She is looking good. In the middle of a similar project on a massive amount of "birds" myself, I completely understand your pain here. You are pushing through it better than I am.

[gtbred]

Looking good Ryan. Were is 1/350 Ford?