Calling all Nimitz-class CVN fans

[sgtryan13]

Having built a good # of ships out of the 1/350 Nimitz kit (6 and counting), I would advise against your plan for the hangar. I did exactly what you are contemplating with my first build of this kit, but as soon as I was done with the ship, I immediately regretted it. Weather you can see it or not, you will know you cheaped out in there, and it will bug you, especially as your skills improve down the road. I would suggest giving it a decent attempt at detail, or simply closing the hangar doors completely. When you look over your finished model, eventually you will look in the hangar, and think to yourself that it just does not look right compared to the detail level on the rest of the ship. Once you have some decent pictures of the hangar bay, scratch building it is actually not that hard, and is a lot of fun.

As to your specific flag question, the hangars are work spaces, where all the maintenance takes place. With the exception of a port visit, or a "Tiger Cruise" function, I think you would be hard-pressed to see any large flags/banners hanging from the girders of a CVN underway.

[gjholmes77]

This is the closest precedent that I could find. I think it would look great.

[Thomas E. Johnson]

Thanks again guys! I just came across another build in the picture post section that is awesome and will give me all the info I need to scratch out a decent detailed bulkhead(s) for this area!

[Thomas E. Johnson]

The side pocket bays that run along both sides of the hull flight deck level and higher, on the kit have no access doors to them. should there be any, or does the entire bulkhead retract up like a garage door to access these bays?

[Thomas E. Johnson]

Having built a good # of ships out of the 1/350 Nimitz kit (6 and counting), I would advise against your plan for the hangar. I did exactly what you are contemplating with my first build of this kit, but as soon as I was done with the ship, I immediately regretted it. Weather you can see it or not, you will know you cheaped out in there, and it will bug you, especially as your skills improve down the road. I would suggest giving it a decent attempt at detail, or simply closing the hangar doors completely. When you look over your finished model, eventually you will look in the hangar, and think to yourself that it just does not look right compared to the detail level on the rest of the ship. Once you have some decent pictures of the hangar bay, scratch building it is actually not that hard, and is a lot of fun.

As to your specific flag question, the hangars are work spaces, where all the maintenance takes place. With the exception of a port visit, or a "Tiger Cruise" function, I think you would be hard-pressed to see any large flags/banners hanging from the girders of a CVN underway.

I took your advice and scratch built the portions of the bay that would be visible usows some pictures of another fellows build that showed me everything that I needed.

[Thomas E. Johnson]

Is there a list anywhere that will give me the number of each type of aircraft that was assigned to each squadron of carrier Air Wing 8 in late 1980? I would like to get the number of aircraft on my model correct, since I will have a few types of planes down in the hangar deck.

[Timmy C]

This page will get you started by telling you which aircraft type was on board during a particular deployment for CVW-8.

[Mark McKinnis]

Is there a list anywhere that will give me the number of each type of aircraft that was assigned to each squadron of carrier Air Wing 8 in late 1980? I would like to get the number of aircraft on my model correct, since I will have a few types of planes down in the hangar deck.

This is a link to the Go Navy website. This was an exercise Nimitz/CVW-8 did in late 1980.

http://www.gonavy.jp/CVW8-AJ1980.html

You could add an EA-3B and a C-2 to the mix and be accurate.

Here is the main page to that website. Where you see a blue tab with BU.NO. you get to the page I linked above. Great place for info on Air Wings!!

http://www.gonavy.jp/CVf.html

Good Luck!

Mark

[RandyM]

Slightly off-topic, but I try to keep an eye - via Google Earth - on USS Enterprise's progress into oblivion. Which ship is to the north of Enterprise?

https://www.google.com/maps/search/newp ... a=!3m1!1e3

[Timmy C]

The ship next to her is CVN 78 Gerald Ford.

[RandyM]

Ahh... that makes sense. Smallish island well aft. I assumed it was another decommissioned ship, not a new one. But I see it now.

[BB62vet]

Re: Google Newport News -

OK, so go up (north) a bit, no further , further....ok, now - the carrier in drydock - is that GEORGE WASHINGTON undergoing her refuel?

Hank

[Timmy C]

No, Washington has been deployed to Japan for the last few years, and she's only due to return for her RCOH later this year. The Ford only hit the water in 2013, so I'm betting it's the Lincoln.

[BB62vet]

LINCOLN could be the one - I had thought she had already been rehabbed - how time flies!

[James M]

CVN 71 Roosevelt, CVN 75 Truman and LHD 7 Iwo Jima are across the bay at Norfolk.
LHD 3 Kearsarge and LHD 1 Wasp are in the BAE shipyard.


If that helps determine the timeframe.

[chuck]

CVN 71 Roosevelt, CVN 75 Truman and LHD 7 Iwo Jima are across the bay at Norfolk.
LHD 3 Kearsarge and LHD 1 Wasp are in the BAE shipyard.


If that helps determine the timeframe.

Google satellite pictures are mosaics stitched together from photos taken at different times. You can tell the lighting, perspective, and transient features like waves and clouds on different parts of the picture are different. So it would be impossible to pin point the whole picture to specific point in time. The best you can do is estimate when each part of the picture was taken.

[Thomas E. Johnson]

next stupid question. the naval aircraft of this era circa late 1980 should have the color scheme of the upper surfaces in dark gull grey, with the under surfaces in light gull grey. before I start painting any aircraft, could those in the know please confirm whether or not I am correct, or if I'm missing information.

[Thomas E. Johnson]

Is there a list anywhere that will give me the number of each type of aircraft that was assigned to each squadron of carrier Air Wing 8 in late 1980? I would like to get the number of aircraft on my model correct, since I will have a few types of planes down in the hangar deck.

This is a link to the Go Navy website. This was an exercise Nimitz/CVW-8 did in late 1980.

http://www.gonavy.jp/CVW8-AJ1980.html

You could add an EA-3B and a C-2 to the mix and be accurate.

Here is the main page to that website. Where you see a blue tab with BU.NO. you get to the page I linked above. Great place for info on Air Wings!!

http://www.gonavy.jp/CVf.html

Good Luck!

Mark

thanks for that information and links. I can see I am going to have to purchase a lot of extra aircraft sets from trumpeter in order to do this build properly.

[sgtryan13]

For your era (final countdown/ iran hostage crisis) you will have a mix of schemes, as that was the time that the Navy was transitioning from high-viz to low viz. If you look closely at some of the deck scenes from final countdown, you will notice that the Black Aces tomcats are already transitioned to the low-viz scheme, wile most of the other aircraft on deck still have the high viz scheme, with white on the lower portion of the fuselage.

[Thomas E. Johnson]

For your era (final countdown/ iran hostage crisis) you will have a mix of schemes, as that was the time that the Navy was transitioning from high-viz to low viz. If you look closely at some of the deck scenes from final countdown, you will notice that the Black Aces tomcats are already transitioned to the low-viz scheme, wile most of the other aircraft on deck still have the high viz scheme, with white on the lower portion of the fuselage.

the low visibility paint scheme would be with the dark gull grey upper side and the light gull grey undersides correct? from modern footage that I have seen and have been told by current serving carrier sailors that today all of the aircraft are painted dark gull gray overall.