Calling all USS John F. Kennedy CVA-67 fans

[gtbred]

Merit making a 1/350 model of her. Saving all my pennies!

[MAJOR-B]

Reference Material for this ship is getting out of hand. I am not sure if the subject or because of the news she's being produced in 1/350. While on Amazon the other day looking for another reference I came the Detail and Scale book for this ship. Wait for it they want 950.00 USD for a copy ..... I know a lot of those books are hard to fine but does anyone have a PDF or digital copy?
Thanks

[gtbred]

Reference Material for this ship is getting out of hand. I am not sure if the subject or because of the news she's being produced in 1/350. While on Amazon the other day looking for another reference I came the Detail and Scale book for this ship. Wait for it they want 950.00 USD for a copy ..... I know a lot of those books are hard to fine but does anyone have a PDF or digital copy?
Thanks

I'll see what I can do for you this weekend. I have the the detail and scale.

[MAJOR-B]

Thank you...

[gtbred]

Major-B you have all the info tomorrow night.

[MAJOR-B]

Found this undated photo of JFK doing a Vertical Resupply... Nice view of Aft Starboard NATO Sea Sparrow

[gtbred]

Sorry Major-B some family matters have came up. You'll have them this weekend.

[MAJOR-B]

No problems, does anyone know when freetime will have the Ray bean DVD back in stock. Also Amazon has a whole of kindle books on CV. Has any one downloaded one they are less then 10.00 USD.
Thanks
Major-B

[donjoyjr]

I cam across this site a few weeks ago. Lots of cruise books from lots of ships:

http://www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/index.html

It let' you get the aircraft information straight from the source. The cruise books do not always have a lot of ship pictures in them, however.

[Mike C]

Most of the cruise books that I've seen were centered more around the crews and their activities.

If you're looking for a decent overview of the ship, Maru Naval Special #83 covers CV-66 and CV-67 with a good selection of photos for each.

[donjoyjr]

Thanks. I am doing an Italaeri America to JFK conversion. as with most people, the island is the big hang-up. I'm doing a mid-70's version, and am not finding many good pics on-line.

[wvtomcat65]

For all those interested in the Merit 1/350 JFK kit coming out at some point... I got an e-mail from Free Time Hobbies with the price & the kit can be pre-ordered... $180.00 isn't too bad of a price in my book... I'd say the other online shops will be around that price as well.... Here's the page link in the e-mail for Free Time of the JFK. If Free Time has a price & pre-order up, I'd say the others do as well. Gonna get my pre-order in ASAP... Looking forward to this kit... Hope it leads to other 1/350 Super Carriers kits...

Thomas

http://freetimehobbies.com/1-350-merit- ... model-kit/

[LonCray@aol.com]

I placed my pre-order with Freetime; I'm hoping to see a release date sometime soon - wasn't this kit originally announced in 2013?

[Thomas E. Johnson]

does anyone know what year the merit Kit will represent the ship from?

I hope that it won't have hull plating detail. I would want it to look of consistent detail with the Nimitz kit as I will display them side by side.

[wvtomcat65]

-In terms of era. This pic is now up on Free Time's CV-67 order page. I'm going to assume it is the box top art from Merit. I'd have to do more research, but it appears the art represents CV-67 from at least 2000 till her decommissioning in 2007....

Thomas

http://freetimehobbies.com/1-350-merit- ... model-kit/

[Guest]

It appears that 1/350 will be Gulf war version. I know Star fighter Decals has a set of decals for the Gulf War. Not Sure what CVW was assigned to the Kennedy during that time frame and if these decals can be modified to make the flight deck look like she should.
Last question is starting to make a list of Aircraft that will be needed to add to the Kit supplied and after market Weapons please correct if am wrong. A-7, A-6, A-6(EW). E-2, COD's, F-18A, F-14, S-3B, S-3 (EW).F-14D, SH-60... Veterans CIWS, NSSM, Chaff, ECM amd 25MM Chain Guns, Not sure about 50Cals.
Thanks

[sgtryan13]

The decal set for the gulf war from starfighter is for the USS Roosevelt in 1991. Starfighter has a good # of sets, and with some modifications, sometimes you can make them work for a different carrier, all depending on how accurate you want to be, and what the CVW was at the time/ship you are modeling.

As to what needs to be added to the kit, that is hard to say until we actually see the kit and what is supplied with it. With many of the newer ship releases, the quality of the plastic parts has improved drastically, so it is not quite as necessary to replace the kit parts with veteran resin stuff. But out of your list of veteran goodies that could be needed, I don't believe the chain gun is on there, I know it is not on any of the Nimitz class I have built. But you may want to add the veteran RHIBs, they are really nice, and way better than any of the ones I have seen in plastic.

[gtbred]

I'm going Yacht Club. No domes on the island, no ciwis, no modern stuff. Just as she was in Nam. Just a good looking clean supercarrier.

[Guest]

It appears that 1/350 will be Gulf war version. I know Star fighter Decals has a set of decals for the Gulf War. Not Sure what CVW was assigned to the Kennedy during that time frame and if these decals can be modified to make the flight deck look like she should.
Last question is starting to make a list of Aircraft that will be needed to add to the Kit supplied and after market Weapons please correct if am wrong. A-7, A-6, A-6(EW). E-2, COD's, F-18A, F-14, S-3B, S-3 (EW).F-14D, SH-60... Veterans CIWS, NSSM, Chaff, ECM amd 25MM Chain Guns, Not sure about 50Cals.
Thanks

Should be CVW-7. For the H-60s you will need 4 SH-60F and, 3 HH-60H for the Nightdippers of HS-5.

[Mark McKinnis]

I did a little research on the box top pic and it appears, if that represents the kit, that it is post 1994 major overhaul. JFK did not really change much after that cosmetically.
If that is true:

1994 - de-commissioning

The kit. Probably small modifications for this era but it would appear that out of the box would get the job done. Check pics for mainmast changes.

1979 ish - 1993

I think that by not doing the various domes along the flight deck and island gives you a decent start to a 1979-1993 JFK. There appears to be some re-work required on the port aft sponsons for that era. It appears from some of the photos I have seen that JFK got the SPS-49 Radar( that is what appears to be on the kit) on the island around 1979/80. The main mast needs some re-work for the various antenna but I think that the cross member stayed pretty consistent throughout her life. I need some help with that assessment.

The Desert Shield/Storm airwing for JFK was CVW-3 and the last A-7E cruise.

1968-1978/9

For her original look, the sponsons on the stern are not there and you have a platform on either side and small curved sponsons on each side for the Sea Sparrow launchers, very similar to Nimitz sponson on the port side. SPS-43 on the island and of course, check the main mast for all/any corrections. The CWIS platform on the island would not be there as well.


I plan to do JFK 1969 era. I have the 1/350 Nimitz Kit so I think that I can swap the radars (trade SPS-43 on Nimitz for SPS-49 on JFK) and sponsons between the kits to get the JFK Kit back to 1969 and the Nimitz Kit up to 1991.

Now we have a 1/350 Kitty Hawk, JFK and Nimtz. Now get a Forrestal and Midway and we will be cooking with gas! It would be nice for some of the after market folks to do some upgrade kits that do the various sponsons for the different era's for each kit in a ddition to the PE sets.

It is a great time to be a ship modeler!