The Ship Model Forum

She's lookin great James! Really starting to come together.

Thanks DWD! Postponed the weathering for now, finishing up the platforms around the catwalks seemed more urgent. STB side mostly done.

hello James

always a great pleasure to seen your new progress nice work
regards
Nicolas

The build continues guys. Promise to have an update in a day or two. Starting to feel my age with this cold weather. shop is just too cold.

It has been rather cold -20 here on Monday and Tues was -14 it's starting to get old. Kevin

That Ike is shaping up VERY nicely. Although the catwalk has a few fictional sections (all the kit parts )
but I love that stern. Both starboard and port. Very busy, very detailed. All in all: that is a nice ass!

You think it's cold where you are? It is -26 C here and -47 C 600 kms north of here..... It's warming up though.

I hope you can return to work on this thing soon!

Cheers: Laci

Your a brave man Laci that's a bit much for me do you even get a summer up there. Kevin

Some progress on the island. I removed all the detail not present on the IKE island. I used old spare decals as templates to drill the holes for the fiber optic. Originally decided I wasn't going to do this but luckily I had a spare island in the spares box. I will cut out masks for the numbers on the island to paint the shadowed numbers over the holes, decals would be just too delicate and would face certain destruction. Hope you guys enjoy this long overdue update on IKE. See anything I can do better or different, don't hesitate to chime in. Any advice using fiber optic is also welcome.

Fill the holes with canopy glue to prevent excess light bleed-through and reduce the "twinkle" effect. I learned this from watching builds of lighted Star Trek starship models.

Goodwood wrote:Fill the holes with canopy glue to prevent excess light bleed-through and reduce the "twinkle" effect. I learned this from watching builds of lighted Star Trek starship models.

Good deal. Thanks for that tip

More mods to the island. Most of the work on this project looks like reworking the island and mast. Not too thrilled about it, probably why it's taking me so long. I'm sure I'll build three or four masts before I get it right. If I even do.

Testing the clarity of Formula 560 canopy glue for the window. Works for me.

Ahhhh, working on the island!

Seeing yours in this stage makes me think of all the mistakes I made, and I would have to go back to where you are at to be able to fix them....

I should've replaced all the doors with PE ones. These molded on ones are a bit too big. I sanded all the sides flush with the roof piece on the top level where I had to use PE, so now I have mis-matched doors....
There are stairs between the level between those molded on plastic doors. There is one on the port side and there are 2 (above each other) on the starboard. I only installed one of 3 (I lacked good photos at the time) and now I am kicking myself over not having them.... Are you including these?
even these shots are not the best, but they confirm the location enough to piss me off.....

Good luck James

Laci

looking very good James!

Minor update. Moving along on the island modifications. Looks close enough.

Did you turn one of the island deck level pieces upside down to do this?

sgtryan13 wrote:Did you turn one of the island deck level pieces upside down to do this?

No, remember that buggered up kit I bought off evilbay? Well, I used the island pieces from that kit to make the mods for IKE's island.

Nice work, James.

Today was a full day driving, little bit tired and looked that there are "68" on island, haha.

My Nimitz is 100% complete except of airgroup. Don't know when I return to work - a lot of political changes in Ukraine, you know... Crimea is off...

I knew there was a good reason for this build to be taking so long. Guess I've been waiting for these:

SWEET James!! I ordered some as well and they are on the way. How is the detail and size? They look pretty good on the box, but I hadn't seen any photos of them yet. I was pretty dang happy when I saw they were being released. Your island looks like it's coming along nicely too!

Time to blow the dust off this thread. Work continues on IKE. Port side details are almost complete.