1/350 USS Lincoln, CVN-72

[krgf15]

That detail is crazy scary!!!

Hey anyahajobuzi!! you are probably the closest person to meon the site. North Pole Alaska is only about 12 hrs from there

[sgtryan13]

Hey Ryan! CHECK THIS OUT: Did you know that the US Navy is one of those unusual navies, that has OTHER ships than Nimitz-class carriers?! weird, huh? I'll send pictures of them. They have totally different shapes and sizes and weapons than carriers. They float and they are grey and everything, but they are just different

LIES!!! I suppose you are going to tell me that bigfoot is real, and so are unicorns and women who are not crazy in some way!

[kidcurrie42]

All the above are true except the Women part

Looking Good Ryan, I just ordered a Contour gauge, I too have wanted one for ages, should have many uses

Happy Modeling

John

[sgtryan13]

Well it is finally picture time!

While still not all that impressive to look at, a TON of work went into Lincoln this weekend. The snail's pace is just me stiving to make this hull perfect right out of the gate to save time later.

Sponsons are all attached to the hull, and I am very happy with them so far. the stern port sponson came out very good, so I am happy with that one. In all the pictures, there is little or no filler used on the hull to sponson mating surfaces yet. I can say with certainty, these are the best sponsons I have done on a carrier yet.

once they are smooth and mated to my liking, I have a plan all set out if I decide to pull the trigger and cast them for use on my Roosevelt. I don't plan to try to cast the smaller ones, so if I do it will only the the two bow ones and the port stern

Lower hull was added, luckily I have more CVn kits than I know what to do with, cause the one in this kit was awful. Way too long compared to the upper hull, like over 1/8" too long. I had a spare that was much better, though it still required a good amount of sanding to mate it up.

I tried a new technique for one of the aft phalanx sponsons, attempted to freehand sculpt the underside out of clay. It was not too bad at first, but crumbled when it dried. So next, I modified my sculpting technique with styrene ribs, and one of my fillers in place of the clay, and that came out much better though the picture of it sucks.

enough blabbering, here is where she is now.

[sgtryan13]

And the bow sponsons...

Oh and a shot of Lincoln amongst her sisters in various stages of work or very near completion. She is in good company, and will soon occupy the working case where Reagan is residing for just a short while longer.

[kidcurrie42]

I will agree, these do seem to be your best sponsons to date Ryan, Great work

Happy Modeling

John

[MAJOR-B]

looking good.. you are such a stud with CVN's

[gtbred]

does this mean your gonna do a 1/350 FORD?

[Dave from Downunder]

Nice shot of your cabinet - shows how big that bulbous bow on the Reagan is compared to the older Nimitz

Again you set teh bar - I need to get back to mine - still need to build teh LHD before I get to teh Stennis

[sgtryan13]

Many thanks my friends!

Red, there may just be a Ford in my future in fact. My customer from the Bush was very interested in having me build the Ford once she is commissioned, though at the rate new kits are coming out lately, we may see a kit of her sooner rather than later. Either way, bring it on!

Dave, that difference in profile is the main reason I wanted to do a full hull on Reagan, just because it is such a massive change from the rest of the class.

Well, hull clean up and prep has gone to a level that is yet unmatched in my modeling. I want this one perfect before she even gets a speck of paint. The only reason for this is just to challenge myself, and improve on all my past builds. Really, it is the only way I can get enjoyment out of building this kit again and again and again.

That being said, I shot a coat of primer after filling any small gaps on the sponsons, and sat back and realized that these sponsons are probably as close to perfect as I could ever hope to get them. That fact, combined with the fact that I am now waiting over a week for one tiny friggin part for my broken airbrush to get shipped to me led to what you see below-

Yup, I did it. Went ahead and molded the sponsons for resin casting. It was tricky and messy to say the least, and looks like butt at the moment. But... I checked them this morning, and the molds look good, so what took me weeks to get done on this carrier, will take just a couple of hours on Roosevelt and Vinson when it is their turn in the slipway, and whatever other carriers get commissioned out of my shop when I get around to them.

[gtbred]

nice work man.

[NukeMM]

Clever casting method, Ryan! I don't think that I would have thought about molding the sponsons in place, like that. I, myself, would have figured that it was just too, late and moved on. Very smart and brave.

I got sick of recreating the same modified or scratch built parts on my AVPs, just like your forethought on these sponsons. I took a year off from building models and created the custom parts for resin casting copies of them. It will definitely save time, effort, and aggravation in the long run.

[sgtryan13]

Thanks guys.

Carl, actually, molding them in place was the only way I could think to do it and have it worth my time. Molding them off the hull would have been much easier, but I could not think of how to accurately mold the curvature of the hull area, so all my molding ideas would have left me with large gaps on the hull-sponson fit anyways. I have a couple of ideas for what I think will be pretty unique ways of using these when the time comes, but for now I am just happy that I was able to mold these and stick em in a drawer for future use.

[boomstick68]

Very cool idea.

[gtbred]

Very cool idea.

like he said!

[anyahajobuzi]

Off the record: well, I dunno.... Those LEGO pieces are way out of scale and the whole area looks like the Smurfs took a big crap all over it...

for the record: GENIUS!!!! I know nothing about casting resin, but this looks very inspiring.

Vhoaa. You are really going to build them all (Nimitz-class)!!! Nice shot of your nice collection! My fleet has no completed ships....

How much of the airwing are going to put on each of these?


Laci

[sgtryan13]

Thanks Laci.

I would have to check my "plans" for Lincoln, but if I recall, she will be sporting about 40 aircraft between hangar and flight deck. Reagan is going to have around 60 on her flight deck + the 15 or so already in her hangar. Yeah, all the stops were pulled out on Reagan, but that is likely the last time I will ever do an airwing that big.

The molds of the sponsons just made a lot of sense. I spend so long making them all from scratch, and with 2 more CVNs in my future guaranteed plus any other commissions for them that come along I think they will get a fair amount of use.

Lincoln is finally ready for paint, so the next time you see her, she will be sporting her true colors. I have nit-picked the hell out of this thing, and I am finally happy with how everything fits.

The RHIB deck was scratch built, and pertty straight forward, I am leaving the cieling of that deck out for the time being, since I have a couple ideas that I want to try whcih I think will be really cool and unique IF I can pull them off, so we'll see.

[PetrolGator]

Ha. Doing up forty aircraft even sounds insane. I'm going batty with the ~20 I'm going to make for the Zeppy. You carrier modelers are a special sort of insane.

[Goodwood]

What is more insane? Working up forty aircraft models or rigging the heck out of, say, an 18th Century first-rate or a WWI dreadnought? Aircraft I can do, having come from an aviation modeling background. Rigging I cannot.

[NWarty]

60 aircraft for the topside on the Reagan and 15 below??? Good God man

Beautiful work thus far Ryan