1/350 CVN-65 USS Enterprise 2001

[DWD]

Well, I have painted the rest of the 3D printed deck equipment that I bought from Shapeways.com. All of the items you see in these photos have been designed by Greg (gjholmes77), who is a member here on modelwarships.

I will be detailing and painting the 40' and 50' personnel and utility boats next.

For the most part, painting is fairly straight forward with 3D printed stuff. I have used enamel paints, Tamiya paints, and some other acrylic paints. I haven't had too many issues with any of them. I think with enamel paints it seems like the drying time is a lot longer and the piece remains "tacky" for some time, but not always. I have read and also witnessed that this material if not fully cured and smooth can absorb a lot of paint. This usually happens where the "rougher" areas are. I have been experimenting with sealing with future floor wax. If you notice on the personnel boats that are the bare 3D printed material, I did some prepping and added several coats of future (made them shiny) to them to see if that might help aid in a smoother finish and keep the paint on the surface rather than being absorbed. I will let you know how it turns out.

I have added some links below where you can find all of these items if you wish.

maintenance carts w/ jet engine: https://www.shapeways.com/product/4N9UK ... d=58240240
Aircraft Carrier Hangar Bay Equipment: https://www.shapeways.com/product/85X7M ... d=58433700
US Navy 40' personnel boat: https://www.shapeways.com/product/EYVKZ ... d=58065501
US Navy 50' Utility boat: https://www.shapeways.com/product/5U2YK ... d=57969011
Hangar Deck Boat Cradle: https://www.shapeways.com/product/8ME7F ... d=58087449

[Jockster]

Awesome Doug, I've been searching for this thread for ages, I didn't realise that there was a separate thread and kept searching for it in CASF or ACB net.

I'm going to town on mine to a similar extent as you are with yours but not as far as clear canopies on the aircraft. Thanks for posting the 3d printed stuff, I've been looking at the same items but very hesitant about the quality! I rather fancied the jet engines and ships boats so seeing yours has improved my confidence in parting with my hard earned!

I'm using Kinsey's book, airwing Enterprise and Rays photodisc for reference as well as trawling the net, any other good sources?

You are producing a masterpiece, very enjoyable to watch.

Kev/Jockster

[William4443]

No worries on how often you post, it's never a disappointing wait! I have taking a break myself going on 4 months now. Been a busy summer and we are house hunting so I don't want to move and have a build on the table. I'm already stressed about safe transportation for the fleet I have, and the very expensive, and very heavy display case my buddy built for me this past winter. Lots of glass on her!

[bmkerr]

Thanks Nicolas! Thanks Red. I've got more for you to download! I finally finished all of the vents that I had been working on for the port side of the ship and a few on the starboard. I also added the majority of the hull stiffeners to the port side as well. I also did a little re-work to the bow and added a few more things.

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Here is some re-work to the bow section

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Hi guys,

When did the hull started getting all the stiffeners as I'm building the enterprise around her 1988 cruise

[simon b]

Some of Ray beans pictures show the stiffeners in 1968 although I'm not sure if others were added.

[simon b]

You can see on bow section

[DWD]

Hi guys,

When did the hull started getting all the stiffeners as I'm building the enterprise around her 1988 cruise

Hey bmkerr,

To follow up and support simon b's photo of the Enterprise during her beehive days, I added the photo above from 1978 showing the port side of the ship. If you look closely where I have placed the yellow arrows, you can see the hull stiffeners are in fact there. I'm pretty sure Big E was constructed with these in place. Anyway, hope that helps. Good luck on your build, and I look forward to seeing progress photos of your build.

[anyahajobuzi]

Heey Doug!


I haven't been here for a few months ( for I transitioned back to 1/72 scale airplanes-with disastrous results..)so I definitely wanted to check if I missed something in your build. I guess because you are such a goddamn perfectionist,( and take forever to build the sparkplugs for the engines in your deck-tractors) I didn't miss too much. But the work you did: amazing! I love the way you finished your deck equipment! By the way: did you know that stealing deck tractors and shrinking them to 1/350 scale in your basement is A; illegal, B; cheating?! I don't know why you can't just build and paint stuff like the rest of us, but instead feel like you have to resort to that damn shrinking-ray, you know... I think you have real talent, you should try modelbuilding the old fashion way. It can be very rewarding. just saying.....


Great job Doug, I can't wait to see your airwing!


Cheers: Laci

[gtbred]

Yeah,Doug got a buch of fairies under his control. Threatened to feed them to his pet spider if they don't do what he tells them to do. He not fooling me!

[DWD]

Hey Laci, good to hear from you. Hope all is well and don't tell anyone about my shrinking ray.... Hey Red, I sure wish those fairies would work a bit faster sometimes, lol.

I finally finished all of the personnel boats and got them all painted. These seemed to take a while to complete. I added a bit more detail to them in the form of handrails for all vessels, life preservers, antennae, and ships wheels for the 40 footers. I also painted the Captains gig with a wooden deck which I hope is convincing enough. I may or may not add some more detail to them, but I'm not sure yet. Anyway, here are some photos for them....

[wing_nut]

Having gone back a few pages to see the progression here and seeing scratch work and detail of 350th Tomcats and engines in dollies... well... It's pretty darn impressive to say the least.

[Kodai]

Doug, Absolutely magnificent work!!!!


Congrats

[Aur]

Doug, I just finished reading through the whole thread (again) and what you do is way too much justice for an Enterprise, not to mention for a Tamiya kit! The details are unbelieveable, and it seems like you just have every skill a modeler will ever wish to have! You make an unbelievably fine part, detail the hell out of it, then paint it to perfection...


Very eagerly waiting for more updates,
Aur

[Jaguar]

This build is amazing. The details of those boats are impressing. I will take them as a model for my build

Jorge

[JimVarnellABH2USN]

Doug

A lot of words come to mind when I look at your work but everyone has already said pretty much most of them, so I guess I will just say:


DAMN!!!!!!!!

Excellent work!

[LE BOSCO]

HI Doug

you are one of model maker most talented who shares here ...always a great slap in the face at each of your progress
an example for me
cheers
Nicolas

[marijn van gils]

Those boats look fantastic! Beautiful models in their own right!

Cheers,

Marijn

[DWD]

Hey you guys! Thanks for all the comments!

Well.......it's been a while since I last posted, but I have been doing some work so I figured I'd post some progress. I am once again working on the Tomcats. I have added some partly scratch built and photo etch cockpits and ejection seats (1/350 White Ensign F14 Tomcat) and used some 3D printed materials from Shapeways to aid in constructing the Phoenix missile racks. I've got 20 Tomcats in various different stages of construction at the moment. I still have the tailhooks, canopies, and landing gear to construct for each........but until then, here are some current progress photos.

[gtbred]

This is just KRAZY!!!!

[ModelMonkey]

Awesome.