1/350 USS Reagan CVN-76

[pingjockey]

Awesome work as usual!

[sgtryan13]

Thanks guys!

And DWD, you are very welcome, any tips on technique I can offer my fellow ship geeks I am happy to do so, but as I said, I know I got that flag technique (or a variation of it at least) off of this forum years ago, I believe from a post that Kelly Quirk did.

Red- I started this thing in October 2011, and have a Lincoln in progress as well. Are you trying to kill me???!!! I do have a distant plan for a 1/350 Ford class for the same customer as the Bush, but at the rate new kits are coming out, I would not be at all surprised if a kit of Ford is released in the next couple years, so maybe I will not have to scratchbuild another CVN afterall!

Yesterday I did a 13 hour tour at the workbench, and I am happy to report that after I add the safety nets this weekend, the ship herself will be 100% done! Little over 3 months till ValleyCon and MosquitoCon to get the airwing, deck vehicles, and rest of her crew done. I can't believe this is gonna be yet another down-to-the-wire build.

[LE BOSCO]

Ryan

good luck for your birds collection I can not wait to see it all on deck
cheers
Nicolas

[USAF Flyboy]

Looking great Ryan! Details on the island are amazing.

Let me know when that Ford kit comes out. Saw the pics from the christening and she is looking pretty good so far.

[sgtryan13]

Thanks guys, I am excited as she is in the home stretch! Couple more coats of flat and she will be ready for her sea scape. Airwing will be done bit by bit, but I am now comfortable saying she will be done in time for the shows that start up in April. And if for some reason the complete airwing is not quite done yet, I am sure the Judges won't hold it against me if her deck ONLY has 30-35 aircraft aboard instead of her 50-55 that she will sail off to war with.

And Flyboy, I will certainly be calling you as soon as a Ford is announced (assuming one does get produced of course). I recently realized that there is a company making resin f-35s that I think will look nice on her decks!

[silvershadow]

Really awesome work, well done

[sgtryan13]

Thanks Silvershadow.

Ok, here is a bit of an update:

Reagan, the ship only of course, is DONE!!!

Well, was done... In putting her work case on her last night, I popped off a small platform portruding from the catwalk, and snapped a piece of the black wire antennae on the mast. I made the working case a pretty tight fit, and bumped the ship. The repairs will be minor, taking less than 15-20 minutes, but it was still a kick in the nuts. So, that being said, Reagan will NOT be touched or moved even in the slightest until her much larger display case is built later this week.

Now I still have to do her base and seascape, I am armed with a few ideas on how I plan to do this, as it will be much different than my usual stuff, in that the "water" will be clear, you will be able to view below her waterline from the sides. This is all because I want her in a sea scape, but also want to be able to see the bulbous bow, whcih makes her so different from the rest of the Nimitz class, and took me a LOOONG time to scratch build.

The hull is weathered, below the waterline will get some weathering once she is ready for her sea scape, but not much, as I built her as she looked shortly after her commissioning, so it would not be too beat up yet.

The Belknap pole has actually turned out to be one of my favorite parts of this mega-build. Reagan sports a pretty friggin cool American flag paint job on her Belknap pole, and as soon as I saw it, I knew it was an absolute must for my flagship. I gotta pat myself on the back a little on this one, as I think it came out perfectly, and captured the flag paintjob exactly as I wanted it to.

Another area that I had made a not to improve on was the LSO platform, including the net structure, which is pretty beefy. I added a couple of "stations" with electronics boards that are on the LSO platform, not sure, but I think they may recess into the deck when not in use, but either way, I thought they look cool, and just needed to be there.

The stern area got a little more attention as well. In a lot of pictures, I have seen tarp-covered piles of gear back there, as well as a couple of very large reels for what I assume are mooring lines or maybe ship-to-shore electricity? Either way, tthey are in there.

One of my many goals with this build was to make it an overall impressive display when taken as a whole, but also to make every small part of it a model and scene in itself, so that if you were to slowly walk your eyes over every inch, you would never get bored, and always find something to say "hey that's cool" about. All the tiny artistic details are my way of trying to put my "signature" into the build to make it unique to me. When her deck crew (and aircraft obviously) are added, I think I will have accomplished my goals... hopefully.

[DWD]

Now that's a freakin sweet looking belknap pole! That is awesome. Can't wait to see the airwing aboard.

[sgtryan13]

Thanks Doug, I love that thing, it is just such a cool little attention-grabber.

The other update I have is that 10 of my 50+ planes are now decaled.

There is going to be one visiting bird on deck: I had a spare CAG bird for the Silver Eagles squadron that comes with the Starfighter Truman decals, and this thing was just too badass to not use, so I decided that it's pilot had to re-cert for carrier ops or something and is aboard my Reagan.

Obviously no detail parts have been added to any of my aircraft yet.

[anyahajobuzi]

Hi Ryan!

That Belknap-pole is very awesome indeed!!!!! And you didn't decal it, but painted it?! Extra awesome!!
That stern has some very beautiful clean, square detail on it as well!!! Love it!
I would be happy with that LSO station as well.

Where are the shots of the "meatball"?!


Cheers: Laci

[kidcurrie42]

Awesome work Ryan, when you started that bulbous bow seems so long ago now.

Happy Modeling

John

[kylewoody]

Killer, love the pole and the Hornets are shaping up very nicely.

Kyle

[Goodwood]

Echoing everything else said thus far.

I personally can't wait to see your clear-view seascape, as that's something I've certainly not seen before. A ship like that, with the effort you've put into her, she deserves to be in her element when on display.

[sgtryan13]

Thanks a lot guys, really. Compliments from my peers are the best kind!

Just one point of clarification though, I did NOT paint the belknap pole. The flag motif is a decal I made on my home computer, along wtih about a million other decals for this and the Lincoln.

[anyahajobuzi]

Sorry, my bad for thinking it was painted. The stars were a little blurry ( which in this scale is more than acceptable), I thought they were blotted on, or something... Still kick-ass pole!

Laci


Ps: Fresnel-stuff?!

[Jaguar]

Beautiful planes and beautiful masts.
Congratulations.

Jorge

[sgtryan13]

Thanks for the kudos my friends!

Here are the unfinished shots of my fresnel lens landing array lights and the story behind them:

First, as I said, these are the unfinished shots, when the array was nearly done, but I had only done the white backing to give the colored bulbs brighter color. Admittedly the white backing was done sloppily for these pictures, but as I said this was just a backing. After my mishap with the working case, as I said earlier, I am not touching that thing until the roomy display case is complete, so I was not taking it off to photograph the finished landing array.

Anyways, here is the story that goes along with this array, and why Laci is pestering me for it!

As I have said a few times through out this build log, I set out with a few specific goals of areas to improve on: Catwalk details, rigging, LSO area, aircraft, and the Landing Array to name a few of many. So far I have accomplished all my goals to my liking, and the landing array was the last one I had not gotten to yet.

I recalled that a while back Laci had posted pictures of his scratch built landing array, and i remembered being very impressed with it. Well, when I got around to doing my array, I made a decision that no matter what, I would not go back and look at his array until after I built mine. Having built so many CVNs I have to come up with ways to keep myself interested and challenged. I thought it would be fun to compare how 2 modelers went about scratch building the same complex part without consulting eachother's work. I also felt that I would be cheating if I looked at how he did his array before I built mine, or maybe I would be cheating myself out of figuring out the best way to make this array. Maybe I am just a lunatic who has sniffed too much glue and was putting too much thought into it, who the hell knows, but I just figured it is too easy to copy someone else's work after they did all the hard stuff of making it from scratch. This carrier has turned into pretty much a total scratch build anyways, so why punk out at the last second and take the easy way out, right?!

So here is my scratchbuilt landing array. Once I finished it, I e mailed Laci and tipped my hat to him (explaining the above story), I like his better, he friggin rocked that thing, even though he lucked out, and the center "meatball" is much simpler on the earlier CVNs (don't think I was not tempted to go with the older style as I was planning mine!). that is not to say I am unhappy with mine, on the contrary I am VERY happy with it, and this was my first attempt at it, which surprised the hell out of me! In retrospect, it would have made much more sense if I built the array and base at the same time, but I attached the base to the catwalks long ago, and it was fixed firm, so there was no removing it. The array has since been completed with the correct colored clear bulbs on all the lights, but you get the point from the pictures.

Wow, long ass story for one tiny little part! I'll shut up now.

[Goodwood]

Maybe I am just a lunatic who has sniffed too much glue

You said it, not me!

In all seriousness, that is a really nice bit of scratch-building. And your story is almost as interesting as how the concept for the meatball was first developed...

[boomstick68]

The fresnel lights turned out good. I think I may attempt this on IKE. I wonder if it's even possible to run fiber optic to these. I am sure that is something that needs to be addressed in the early stages to accomodate the routing of the fiber optic cables. I'd like to see someone give it a try, beyond my capabilities.

[MartinJQuinn]

Wow, great detail work, Sarge. You are right, those are the things that make a model "pop".