disecting the 1/350 Trumpeter NIMITZ

[boomstick68]

I wish I could commission you to build my sponsons. Very impressive work on your Nimitz. Bravo!

[LE BOSCO]

this is a great lesson in model building has each of your post great mastery
cheers
nicolas

[Gabor]

Hello Laci,

Excellent work
Don't care of the weather. Just build, build......build

[Bigdaddy Mark]

Nice!
Using the railing for the steps is a great idea.
The weathering came out great.

[anyahajobuzi]

Thank you, thank you and thank you everyone!
What can I say: I picked up a lot of great advice and techniques from this forum.

Ryan! You are absolutely right about the colour of the ordenance ramps: I love'em yellow for exactly the same reason as what you said. Interestingly enough, I hate high visibility paintjobs. This is why I picked this era: the deck equipmnent and ships have a bit more colour, but the aircraft don't anymore=PERFECT!

James: The way you did the stern sponson on your Nimitz, looks exactly like mine, so no whining, keep building as awesome as you do !!!!! The only thing I have going that normal people don't, is abnormal amount of patience for stupid little things. If something is not straight, I keep cutting/bending it, until it's really close. even if I have to do it 15 times. Do you how much time I spent on bending and istalling that 50mm (!) (2 inch)long piece of railing on the CIWS sponson? 35 minutes!!!!!!! three-five.. My therapist says that's definetely NOT normal....

Le Bosco: Thanks man, it's great to have admirirers, since I am the only one in the Yukon doing plastic kits at this level, so I got no one to physically show my work to, or to learn from.... You guys definetely help a lot in pressing on....

Mark! I dunno if there is anything I could do for you, but maybe I do those sponsons for James, and you do the water for my Nimitz and then you guys work something out. I really wanted water , but too scared to learn on this boat on how to make it.... You are amazing with that stuff!


Thanks guys!

[DWD]

WHOA!!! How'd you get the actual Nimitz to sit on that paint can? JK. Excellent work my friend. That is an amazing build coming together. I really like how you weathered the hull and the panel effect it has. It is esthetically pleasing to the eyes. I'm taking notes man! Great job!

[anyahajobuzi]

Hey Gabor!

I wish I could just not care about the weather, but the mosquito-feeding season up in the North-pole is only so long, and I have to set some time away for 1:1 scale model-building: I want to finish my car this summer! (plus hiking and stuff...another 4 months and we'll back into the dark ages, shoveling snow and shooting ourselves in the head. Oh wait, I have model-building to keep me sane!
here is a picture of my 1:1 scale project

You enjoy that heat for me! even when it's 40 C degrees in the shade, I love the Hungarian summers........That's why I keep going back there or to Arizona

Cheers: Laci

[gtbred]

Monte' had one those when was a kid. No way my Coral Sea will look as good of your build Laci.

[anyahajobuzi]

WHOA!!! How'd you get the actual Nimitz to sit on that paint can? JK. Excellent work my friend. That is an amazing build coming together. I really like how you weathered the hull and the panel effect it has. It is esthetically pleasing to the eyes. I'm taking notes man! Great job!

Ha-haaaa! The real Nimitz?! Good thing you are kidding... These are my good pictures
I sure can post some pictures that show some ridiculous hick-ups that the real Nimitz for sure couldn't afford to have... Thank god for that airwing..... some of those aircrafts and tractors will be strategically placed, that's for sure

But thank you man! NOW GET CRACKING ON YOUR BIG E!!!!!! I think I speak for all of us here when I say: we want to see more of that!!!

happy modeling: Laci

[NWarty]

Awesome work Laci!

Definitely agree with you guys about yellow ordinance ramps. Although I don't think they're totally accurate on my build, the pop of color really helps the deck stand out.

[Bigdaddy Mark]

Mark! I dunno if there is anything I could do for you, but maybe I do those sponsons for James, and you do the water for my Nimitz and then you guys work something out. I really wanted water , but too scared to learn on this boat on how to make it.... You are amazing with that stuff!

If I'm the Mark you're talking about, then there is nothing I do that someone with your talent can't.
With the full hull you can use styrofoam for the ocean. Get the ship to fit, then do all the water, then put the ship back in the water.
You don't have to attach anything to the ship, so if you'd want to remove it later you could.

[anyahajobuzi]

Well, I can call another section of the Nimitz almost -pretty much- nearly complete, and I am pretty happy about how it turned out. Yes, the bow is just about done on both sides A lot things were different on the Nimitz in 1985-6, I tried my very best to capture all of those differences. The rigging of that short whip-antenna almost killed me, since I have no experience in this field, I am scared to death about doing the rigging on the island in the future......
I am working towards the stern, and I gotta make a lot of stops before I get there....All stairwells are done, which is a relief. It should be relatively smooth sailing from here, maybe with the exception of the starch-building of the curved gears for the whip antennas. 8 pairs are needed , but WEM only provides 5...

here are the shots

Happy modeling, everyone!

[sgtryan13]

Very very nice as always! I love the .50 cals on the fore CIWS sponson, did you scratch those or are they from a pe set I don't know about?

[boomstick68]

Spectacular!!! This is going to be well worth the time you have spent. I don't care if it takes you another four years I'll be here for every update. Awesome stuff.

[gtbred]

WOW! My question is were you gonna put her? A hobbyshop were everyone can look at your fine work.

[anyahajobuzi]

Very very nice as always! I love the .50 cals on the fore CIWS sponson, did you scratch those or are they from a pe set I don't know about?

Hi Ryan! I am sure there are no PE sets for CVN-s in circulation YOU don't know about
These guns are scratch-built. Easy to make, but very boring after the 5th one. I think I need 10 altogether..
I Am not sure, more research needed, because their numbers and locations have changed from ship to ship and era to era...I think mine came out a wee-bit too tall, but not noticeable if you don't have crew-figures next to them.

Thanks again guys for the kind words!

Red: I am grateful you think that the public is interested in seeing something like this. I am planning to take her to a big international contest in Hungary as soon as she is launched, and after that into the States. Otherwise I think she is just going to take up some space in my living-room. Unless the captain of the USS Nimitz calls, and gives me a 5 day tour of the active ship, after he is going to put my model up for display onboard, for the length of a the next deployment...or something like that........

[JimVarnellABH2USN]

Laci,
Again another great detail part. Now if they are a cm or two too tall then I order you to the corner of the room and administer 20 lashes with a wet noodel.
Again great job, keep it up.

[Raverdave]

Here are some shots of the "justaboutnearlyalmost"-finished Bow...

Your use of paints and washes/weathering is fantastic!

Could you go into a little bit more detail as to how you achieved these effects on the hull?

Cheers

[anyahajobuzi]

Hi Dave, and of course, whoever might find this useful for weathering:


pic #1:Well, as you had seen on previous photos, the first thing I used is so called pre-shading. Seemingly random lines airbrushed with over-thinned black paint. I tried to make sure that center of most lines were about 8 mm away, because roughly that's how far apart the weld-joints between stories/ levels are in this scale. The vertical lines , I think, can end up anywhere you like.

pic#2-3: I used STRAIGHT pieces of cardboard strips, and all sorts of shapes, and adhesive putty (such as Blue Tack) for spacers, for applying the colour of the ship. The point here is not to end up with firm lines, so using this adhesive, keep some distance between the model and the cardboard. How much? That's up to you, as how "blurred " you want your paneling to be.
I use Humbrol colours which are oil based, and for this type of weathering, and fine spraying, this is the limit for this brand.(the main colour I used for the ship is: 128)
It worked out better to have the ship UP-SIDE-DOWN for painting, so consider this when you read "UP" or "BOTTOM", and such..... . Starting from the waterline DOWN I sprayed thinned out 128, applying more grey towards the waterline, leaving more of the black pre-shading to show thru towards the BOTTOM. Once the first 8mm were painted , I moved DOWN another 8mm, and so forth, until I reached the flight-deck. ENSURE that these lines are PARALEL to the waterline not relation to each other, because they need to be tapered. This is only an issue where the hull has curves, like the bow.
To break up the monotone gray, once in a while spray some random shades of grey in random spots and sizes. DON'T be shy! You will be covering them up later with the base colour, and you'll be able to control how much of these different greys you want to show thru.

pic #4: Adding the vertical lines. I cut out 13-14 mm wide rectangular strips out of cardboard pieces. MAKE SURE they are VERTICAL, and spray the vertical sides with the colour of the ship. Use different amounts of colour so that your lines are not all the same throughout this huge hull. Stagger them even.

Now, I don't have pictures of this step, but it is important to add shades that are lighter than the base colour. I repeated the steps described with the 8mm strips, but this time I started from the flight-deck end, and placed my strip to -what would be the bottom of the panels , if the ship was right side up- and lightly sprayed light gray on there. This way once the ship is turned back onto it's bottom, you'll end up with darker shades on top of your panels from the pre-shading that's showing thru , and lighter ones on the bottom, giving the side of the ship a more 3-dimensional, "oil-canned" effect.
I hope I haven't confused the Jesus out of anyone yet. Luckily, it is all straight forward from here. Just adding vertical lines, "runs", using different tricks, and various shades of grey, as well as some rust.

You'll need your airbrush again. And some steady hands. Place masking tape anywhere you like (or wherever photos suggest). But always place them, so that your runs will start down from one of those horizontal lines 8mm apart.( In some cases quite huge areas get discoloured on ships.) Using thinned-out paint, try to move your airbrush STRAIGHT down and gradually away from the model. If you screw up (like I did a few times) just cover it up with the base colour, and try again. This technique is good for the bigger runs.

pic # 5-9: Aaaand for the finishing touches: Use different lenghts of masking tape for this, and don't forget to stagger them, put them all over the place and wet the area towards the waterline. Since I use oil based paint, I use varsol for this. You have to work pretty fast. Keeping the area wet will buy you more time. (if you are using varsol, don't just let the edge of the effected area dry on it's own, because varsol tends to leave shiny lines where it slowly evaporated. Once you are done with an area, blow on it. That dries it too fast for it to leave marks. I know it sounds weird, but it's an easy trick to do, and works.) And on something as big as a Nimitz, you got nothing but space to practice
okay, so you got your masking tapes placed all over the place, you have the surface wet with thinner of some sort. Put blobs of let's say black on the tape. Using a flat brush, smear the paint onto the hull, going for a fading effect towards the waterline. The lenght and width of these lines should vary greatly, the idea here is to break up the big, boring grey surface.
I used one colour at a time. Once the black was done and the desired effect was achieved, I used the same technique with a different shade of grey, and finally the rust.

Now I would like to guess the number of people who didn't quit reading after the 3rd line...: 5?!
Happy modeling, and for those of you who gotten this far in reading: don't worry if it's your first time, because this was mine too. Seriously, I think, I just lucked out. Good luck to you too

Cheers : Laci

[anyahajobuzi]

Hi Dave, and of course, whoever might find this useful:


pic #1:Well, as you had seen on previous photos, the first thing I used is so called pre-shading. Seemingly random lines airbrushed with over-thinned black paint. I tried to make sure that center of most lines were about 8 mm away, because roughly that's how far apart the weld-joints between stories/ levels are in this scale. The vertical lines , I think, can end up anywhere you like.

pic#2-3: I used STRAIGHT pieces of cardboard strips, and all sorts of shapes, and adhesive putty (such as Blue Tack) for spacers, for applying the colour of the ship. The point here is not to end up with firm lines, so keep some distance between the model and the cardboard using the adhesive. How much? that's up to you, as how "blurred " you want your paneling to be.
I use Humbrol colours which are oil based, and for this type of weathering, and fine spraying, this is the limit for this brand.(the colour I used for the ship is: 128)
It worked out better to have the ship UP-SIDE-DOWN for painting, so consider this when you read "UP" or "BOTTOM", and such..... . Starting from the waterline DOWN I sprayed thinned out 128, applying more grey towards the waterline, leaving more of the black pre-shading to show thru towards the BOTTOM. Once the first 8mm were painted , I moved DOWN another 8mm, and so forth, until I reached the flight-deck. ENSURE that these lines are PARALEL to the waterline not relation to each other, because they need to be tapered. This is only an issue where the hull has curves, like the bow.
To break up the monotone gray, once in a while, spray some random shades of grey in random spots and sizes. DON'T be shy! You will be covering them up later with the base colour, and you'll be able to control how much of these you want to show thru.

pic #4: Adding the vertical lines. I cut out 13-14 mm wide rectangular strips out of cardboard pieces, and MAKING SURE they are VERTICAL, and spray the vertical sides with the colour of the ship. Use different amounts of colour so that your lines are not all the same throughout this huge hull. Stagger them even.

Now, I don't have pictures of this step, but it is important to add shades that are lighter than the base colour. I repeated the steps described with the 8mm strips, but this time I started from the flight-deck, and placed my strip to -what would be the bottom of the panels , if the ship was right side up, and lightly sprayed the light gray on there. This way once the ship is turned back onto it's bottom, you'll end up darker shades on top of your panels from the pre-shading that's showing thru , and lighter ones on the bottom, giving the side of the ship a more 3-dimensional, "oil-canned" effect.
I hope I haven't confused the Jesus out of anyone yet. Luckily, it is all straight forward from here. Just adding vertical lines, "runs" using different tricks, and various shades of grey as well as some rust.

You're gonna need your airbrush. And some steady hands. Place masking tape anywhere* you like (or wherever photos suggest). *=But always have place them so that your runs will start down from one of those horizontal lines 8mm apart. In some cases quite huge areas get discoloured on ships.) Using thinned-out paint, try to move your airbrush STRAIGHT down and gradually away from the model. If you screw up (like I did a few times) just cover it up with the base colour, and try again. This technique is good for the big runs.

pic # 5-10: Aaaand for the finishing touches: Use different lenghts of masking tape for this, and don't forget to stagger them, put them all over the place and wet the area towards the waterline. Since I use oil based paint, I use varsol for this. You have to work pretty fast. Keeping the area wet will buy you more time. (if you are using varsol, don't just let the edge of the effected area dry on it's own, because varsol tends to leave shiny lines where it slowly evaporated. Once you are done with an area, blow on it. That dries it too fast to leave marks. I know it sounds weird, but it's an easy trick to do, and it works. And on something as big as a Nimitz, you got nothing but space to practice
okay, so you got your masking tapes placed all over the place, you have the surface wet with thinner of some sort. Put blobs of let's say black on the tape. Using a flat brush, smear the paint onto the hull, going for a fading effect towards the waterline. The length and with of these lines shoud vary greatly, the idea here is to break up the big, boring grey surface.
I used one colour at a time. Once the black was done and the desired effect was achieved, I used the same technique with a different shade of grey, and finally the rust.

Now, I would like to guess the number of people who didn't quit reading after the 3rd line...:5?!
Happy modeling, and for those of you who gotten this far in reading: don't worry if it's your first time, because this was mine too. Seriously, I think, I just lucked out. Good luck to you too

Cheers : Laci