The Ship Model Forum

Yup, it's me again! Yet another Nimitz class to add to my list. This one is a commission build of Lincoln as she appeared in 2001. It will be a full hull build with all my usual bells and whistles, and maybe a few surprises thrown in that I have been thinking of.

Humble beginnings are below.


***Edit, technical difficulties, pictures to follow shortly.

Ok, here are some pics,a s I said, very humble beginnings. It will be a full hull, but I decided to do teh sponsons first, vs attaching the lower hull like I usually do. I actually attahed the lower hull first, and fought with that seam, but then decided to do it this way, and luckily I buiold so many CVNs that I actually had an extra Nimitz kit that I swapped the hull out with,

My reasoning for doing the hull this way is that I think it will make it easier to align the sponsons by keeping the ship level. this also made it easy for me to draw parallel lines on the hull with my trusty lego contraption to aid me in lining up the sponsons.

The sponsons themselves were painfully slow yesterday, I planned on finishing 3 of them, and instead only got one roughed out. That is in part due to the fact that I am using much thicker styrene this time round. Usually I make sponsons out of .020 styrene shet, but for stability and sanding purposes I am trying a different approach with sheet that is about 1/16" thick. We'll see how this experiment turns out...

Ok, in spite of how humble these pictures look, I am very very happy with the sponsons. The thicker styrene makes the work go much slower, but the results are better, and it allows me to do a lot more sanding to shape. The main areas that I wanted to improve were the aft bulkhead to hull fit, and in that aspect I think I nailed it (keep in mind that the sponsons are only loosely taped to the hull, not glued yet.

I started with these 2 sponsons because they are by far the hardest, I like to knock the tougher ones out first so that the rest are sort of a break for me.

I am giving some serious consideration to trying to mold these for future resin casting once I attach them to the hull and fill any gaps. If these continue to please me, I think that may be a worthy attempt, seeing as there seems to be no end in sight of my CVN builds, it could save me a lot of time on future projects.

...And some shots of the port side sponson fit.

You definitely have these sponsons down to a science. I'm waiting for your instructional DVD titled: How to Build A Nimitz Class Carrier.

What is this? Another aircraft carrier?? How you guys can do this is amazing. I'm struggling to finish a 1/32 project I started over a year ago and when I have time to build...motivation is missing You're doing great. As I said before...you guys are amazing when it comes to model building ships.

Mike

I am looking forward to this build. I deployed as part of the Lincoln Strike Group in 2002 and she has always been a favorite of mine.

Man, oh, man. I really respect you for making those sponsons. Building flat pieces is one thing, but mating them against the shape of the hull like you do, that's a serious accomplishment!

I look forward to what you produce!

Do you plan to use RAM also?

Thanks guys!

Dave, taht is indeed the tricky part. The complex angles are tough, but getting easier the more i do them, but mating the sponsons to the curvature of the hull can be a real pain. In the past I just slapped the sponsons on there with large gaps along the curves, and then filled and sanded many many times. This time I am spending MUCH more time on the sponsons before attaching them to minimize the filling needed, and ultimately get a better fit... constant persuit of perfection. Oh, and the timeframe I am building this one will have Phalanx instead of RAMs.

So the sponsons got some mroe work, and a coat of primer, which I am very happy with. The primer shows the seams and gaps, and the fit you see below is how they are with no filler used at all yet, and very minimal sanding.

I switched from working on the base sponsons to making the phalanx bases. These came out so well that I did another first... I molded and cast them in resin for future use. I MAY do the same for the sponsons themselves, to save myself a lot of time on future CVN builds.

So it looks like I am back in the molding / casting business. I also made a new set of satcomm domes, to suppliment the ones i made int he past, this set includes a few different bases, as well as the newer shaped domes that have the cone-type base with the half dome on top that seem to be replacing a lot of the completely sphere shaped domes.

I also used my new favorite method for filling the areas of the hull that need to be filled in, and that is with fast curing liquid resin instead of fillers that shrink and need to be re-filled.

Beautiful resin casts ryan, you know your PM box will overflow now.

As always Ryan beautiful work I'll be following this build as I to am preparing to start the LINCOLN but in 700 scale.

Nice work, Sarge! Great idea with the resin filler.

So a resin question - What liquid resin are you using it seems to give you great mouldings and details

I am definately a big fan of using the resin as a filler, saves so much time and frustration.

Dave, I use several types of resin, depending on the type of parts I am casting, and how long I need it to be in a liquid state. For all the parts above, I used Alumilite fast setting liquid resin. I think it is called "low viscosity, lightweight" or something like that.

Well, after a brief hiatus to build the Indianapolis, I am back at the Lincoln.

Initial progress is going much slower than in the past, due to several factors, and a slightly different approach to building the hull and especially the sponsons than I have taken in the past. I had made some mistakes or omissions on the Bush and Reagan hulls, which I only discovered later in the builds and had to go back and make corrections or additions. While photographic progress is slowed on the Lincoln, she is benefiting greatly from lessons learned on the previous CVNs. ON the Reagan, one of my main goals was to improve my catwalks. On lincoln my goal is to improve the hull, and have a fully automated hangar deck. Ok well maybe the hangar deck thing is a stretch, but I DO have a few tricks up my sleeve for this one that are classified.

The sponsons are still getting cleaned up, and I keep hemming and hawing over weather or not I am going to attempt to resin cast them for future use. I want the sponsons perfect before I attach them to the hull, again, lessons learned on the [past carriers.

Yup, it's official, I am now 100% obsessive with the details of these things! I don't know if competing at the shows has been a good thing or a bad thing for me, but it sure as hell as slowed my build speed down to a snail's pace! Another few hours of work on the same areas, with next to zero to physically show for it. All this effort and it would almost be criminal to not try to resin cast the sponsons... Oh well, at lest Roosevelt and Vinson can use most of them if I do cast 'em.

Ryan,

Look into my eyes, your getting sleepy, you'll cast these for everyone, you'll make a bit of money doing it.
You will do this, you will do this, you will do this.

Repeat after me " I will do this, I will do this"

Now when I count to 3 you'll wake up and begin casting these.

1..............2..................3

Ryan,

Would a contour gauge (gauge not gage) help you out at all? The one pictured is 8" long and costs $11 at micromart.com. Look under Measuring (I cannot get the copy function to go to the page and the websites "search" will not find contour gage even though that is what they sell it as).

Thanks Jim and Jim!

Jim, we'll see if I cast these then it is possible I'll eventually get around to selling them, but I gotta say that the casting business toook a lot of fun away from my hobby time last go-round, so no promises.

Jim- Thanks so much for posting that! Every time I have seen it int he past, I made a mental note to get one, and then forgot about it, as I did not need it right at that time. Well the timing is perfect this time, so I'm getting it today. I'll let ya know how it works out.

Hey Ryan! CHECK THIS OUT: Did you know that the US Navy is one of those unusual navies, that has OTHER ships than Nimitz-class carriers?! weird, huh? I'll send pictures of them. They have totally different shapes and sizes and weapons than carriers. They float and they are grey and everything, but they are just different

Congratulations on your castings!!! They look great, I wish they were available when I was building that part of my Nimitz.

Nice start, I am sure the finish is going to be just as fantastic!!