1/350 CVN-65 USS Enterprise 2001

[Strategos Augustus]

Hey thanks a bunch you guys!! Sorry it has been a while since I've updated anything. I think I have just gotten bogged down on this hangar, plus being summer here doesn't help when I like being outside, and I don't really have anything of significance finished to show.

I think I have pretty much finished the components for the ceiling now. There are still a bunch of things that i will need for inside the hangar deck before I can even think about closing it up and moving on. One area that is still kind of holding me up with the hangar are the ships personnel boats. I will probably buy a Trumpeter Nimitz kit (since I don't have one ) and utilize the 50' Utility boat (motor whale boat) and the 40' Captains gig. I will make some resin copies of these and give Enterprise her compliment of personnel boats since the ones that come with this kit aren't correct for the 2001 time frame and I have not found these ANYWHERE in the aftermarket department. I will also just scratch build the boat racks for them as well. If my research is correct, Enterprise had 4 - 50' Utility boats and 3 of the 40 footers, one being the Captains gig during this time frame.

I will also be putting a bunch of stowage material in the hangar. I am also thinking of having an F-18 in the process of engine replacement in view of one the hangar openings. I have seen some photos of that and it looks pretty cool. But, unless I start doing anything.....I won't get anywhere.....lol.

Anyway, I will try to get back on track and make some progress on this thing and post some photos when I do. Again, thank you guys for your interest and support with my build. I really appreciate it.

Doug,

What part of Idaho do you hail from?

Konstantin

[DWD]

Hey Konstantin,

I live in Nampa by the airport off of Kings Rd. I had no clue about Hobby Town in Boise closing. I saw your post on the Main forum 1/350 JFK thread which made me look up Hobby Town's facebook page and saw their post in regards. Know anywhere else around here besides Hobby Lobby that we will be able to get paints and other hobby supplies from until another Hobby Town opens, hopefully in the near future? Seems like hobby stores around here have trouble surviving. Anyway, it's nice to meet you. Didn't know there were any other members that lived in Idaho.

[Kodai]

Awesome..Incredible, fantastic, extraordinary, the best Enterprise that I have seen, congratulations for your work.... Of another world.

[William4443]

Must. See. Pics...

[DWD]

Kodai, thanks for the comments, they are much appreciated. William4443, I think I may have your fix.

I have kind of shifted gears a little bit and have left the hangar work in limbo until I can get my hands on the ships personnel boats. I'm hoping that Greg (GJHolmes77) can come through and design some for 3D printing through shapeways soon.

Since there will be some aircraft in the hangar, I decided to start working on the aircraft again. I am using the Trumpeter F-14 B/D sets and one of the areas that I wanted to improve was the engines nozzles. Since the Trumpeter F-14's come with engine nozzles representative of the F110-GE-400 which were used on all F-14D's, I needed the F-14's on my deck to have the TF-30 engine nozzles which are the early type engines represented well by the Tamiya F-14A offerings. I decided that I would utilize all the Tamiya F-14's I had on hand and do some kit bashing. The photos should explain the process I went though in order to make this conversion. More info in regards can be found here http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/mi ... eview.html

[DWD]

The second part to my update is I have added different fuel tanks to the F-14's than what is provided in the kit. I purchased these from Shapeways. They are 3D printed and are excellent. They do require a bit of clean-up but they are well worth it. They are a much better representation than the kit offering. The link will take you to them in case you are interested. https://www.shapeways.com/product/KU2GM ... d=57239894 The photos show the differences between the Trumpeter kit tanks and the ones I purchased from Shapeways.

[Kodai]

OMG!!!!!!!

[Jaguar]

Amazing work friend. You have given me and idea for my Tomcats

Congratulations.

Jorge

[William4443]

There is no detail being overlooked by you. Just incredible.

[DWD]

Well I've got another Tomcat update. I wanted to add some more detail to the F-14's and try and correct a few things to make a more accurate Tomcat. I started by adding a corrected chin pod, gun port with vents, ECM fairings, different antenna around the aircraft, different styles of weapons racks, etc... I still have a bit of work to do but just thought I'd show some of my progress on these. I will have 18 Tomcats in all once they are all completed. I couldn't even begin to tell you how much time I have sunk into each one so far, but I'm hoping the results will be worth all the effort.

[sgtryan13]

Wow dude, you are way over the top here, I thought I was bad with hacking up my birds, but you're making me feel like I did it OOB! Simply awesome.

Since you are putting sooo much effort into these things, I figure I can add one more step for you. Assuming you are keeping the canopies clear, you may want to hack off the front portion that is solid, and replace the whole thing with full clear canopies from the otherwise useless trumpeter B models. I just did this for the first time on the Lincoln's kitties, and it looks WAY better. Since the B models are so crappy, you can probably find plenty of modelers who are willing to sell you theirs for very little cost. I think I may even have an extra set kicking around in a spares box somewhere that you could have.

[NWarty]

Now you're just showing off Doug

Beautiful work

[marijn van gils]

Great job on those tomcats!
It might seem like a lot of work, but it will be worth it as the viewers' eyes will be drawn to them immediately.

Cheers,

Marijn

[anyahajobuzi]

Heeey Doug!!!!


It's been a while since I had time to check in on you, but now I can confirm once again: You are still crazy!

ALL your Tomcats are going to be this detailed? Or just the ones in the hangar, and you are actually shrinking real Tomcats for your flightdeck? Your work is amazing, compared to me you are a very patient guy!! Just like Ryan thought of his birds, I thought I did very well with mine... I can't even touch this level of detail. I am glad we are not competing with each other, that's for sure!!

Hats off, you deserve all the trophies and recognition you will get for this masterpiece!


Cheers: Laci

[Jaguar]

Excellent work Doug.

Jorge

[DWD]

Thanks a bunch Ryan, Blake, Marijn, Laci, and Jorge. I've said it before and I will say it again, it's an absolute honor to be in the company of some really good model builders and having you guys commenting and following my build. I am amazed at the stuff you guys are building and your modelling skills, so thank you.

Assuming you are keeping the canopies clear, you may want to hack off the front portion that is solid, and replace the whole thing with full clear canopies..

You know, I had thought about doing this and will more than likely do so on the aircraft with open canopies.....as for the closed canopy aircraft, I will probably leave them as is and paint the canopy a darker gloss smoke color. I have been trying a few things with some of the other aircraft in regards to this and like the look. I have actually seen some photographs of naval aircraft where the canopy looks completely dark when viewed from above due to all the black in the cockpit. Also, I didn't prep the cockpits at all on the aircraft that were going to have closed canopies so there would literally be nothing to show and would look odd. Thanks for the idea though, and I will really be interested in seeing how yours turn out and possibly use this on future builds.

ALL your Tomcats are going to be this detailed? Or just the ones in the hangar..

Yep, I will be detailing every Tomcat this way. I currently have a construction assembly line and will have 18 Tomcats on board. I think I also have about half or a little more that will have the open canopies and will be utilizing the WEM cockpits and seats. Actually, I don't believe I will have any in the hangar.......as they will all be on deck. Which is probably unrealistic given the fact that I have read the F-14's required somewhere between 40 to 60 man hours of maintenance work for every flight-hour logged. But I want a pretty full flight deck and I will have close to the whole Air Wing but not quite.

Hopefully I will be able to get through these relatively easy since I have figured out what all I will be detailing on each one now. I will also be scratch building all the landing gear, tail hooks, and Phoenix missile rails as well. Well, until the next update......Thanks again. Have fun modelling......

[LE BOSCO]

Doug

as usual !!a truly impressive work
sublim
Nicolas

[DWD]

Thanks Nicolas

I've been scratch building some various things in regards to deck equipment and I also scratch built a TF-30 engine on a maintenance cart for an F-14 that I will have displayed to show an engine being removed from one of them. After I spent about 5 hours building the TF-30 engine and maintenance cart, I logged onto Shapeways 3D printing website the next morning and found that Greg (who is a member here on modelwarships.com who's user name is gjholmes77) had created some 1/350 scale jet engines on maintenance carts. They are pretty dang sweet. That would have saved me some time....lol. If you are interested in adding some extra detail to your carrier builds, I highly recommend you take a look at Greg's shop on Shapeways. He is making some incredible things for ship builders in various scales. You can click on the link and it will take you to his 3D print shop on Shapeways. http://www.shapeways.com/designer/gjholmes77?li=pb

I am still plugging away at the Tomcats and one of the photos shows all the parts I have cut out to create the weapons racks and pylons for them. I've got mostly everything cut so it has turned into an assembly line now. I also made some tow bars for the aircraft and as I didn't care for the photo etch offerings, I utilized parts of them to create my own. Well anyway, check out the photos. Hope everyone is having fun modeling.

[Brian001]

You are a maniac Doug.
You can't keep one upping yourself!
But it sure is fun to watch.
Seriously though, outstanding work.

[LE BOSCO]

HI Doug

the attention to details that you brought, have put your work at a level practically supernatural
Doug who are you? where are you from ? you are at least a human form ???
seriously ....just sublim
cheers
Nicolas