Wolfman63

Painting all weekend. All the catwalks and safety nets painted. In process of painting all the flight deck details. (no decals used yet, all you see is painted) I must really compliment Tamiya. Their 6mm masking tape is awesome. It allows you to mask off even the smallest areas and gives you a clean edge when removing. Completed the starboard side, now working on the port side of the flight deck. I still have some detailing to do for the arresting cables. Now onto the pictures.

The overall color is Light Sea Gray FS36307 and the flight deck is Gunship Gray FS36118. It will be darker once I do the weathering and such closer to FS36076.

Finished all the catwalks, safety nets, and CIWS's around the ship. Starting to tape the edges and flight deck so I can paint them. Will be detailing the elevators then on to detailing the island. Still on schedule to complete this project by the end of December. Here is a walk around of the catwalks, safety nets, and CWIS.

Spent some time last night and this morning adding more catwalks. Slow but steady process getting things lined up. Looks like I should be able to start the island detailing next weekend. Still have bow and elevators to do. Here are some pictures of the starboard side.

I will be using an airbrush (just tape off the surface of the flight deck) and also hand paint. Certain areas that will be hand painted are the CIWS and the landing light array (Fresnel lights). Most other areas can be masked off and painted with an airbrush.

Back to detailing the ship. Working on the catwalks, CIWS, and safety nets. I really like the Veteran Models CIWS parts. They are very detailed and easy to assemble. The photoetch catwalks and safety nets are nice looking. Here are some pictures of the details. Still need paint and add other details to catwalks (hoses and reels, storage boxes, etc.)

Ed, thanks for the compliments. Which chapter are you in? I am actually part of the McKinstry chapter. We have our meeting tonight in Arlington Heights. I am in Schaumburg.

Last post I said I could see light at the end of the tunnel. Well tonight I wired everything up and did a light check before gluing down the flight deck. Right at 245 hours so far into this build.What you see lit up is 40 LED's and 500' of fiber optic lines. Here is the light check pictures:

It appears the host I used at the beginning of this thread has a time limit on linking pictures. I have since changed to Flickr. If you want to see all the build pictures I created an album on Flickr. The album is at https://www.flickr.com/photos/128642409@N05/albums/72157687002588814 All recent photo's go to Flickr so they won't disappear.

I spent a few hours working on some figures and decided not to add the crew. I made a few of the PE figures thicker with the gel and painted them but they still did not look good. I looked online and they do have 3-D printed ones which look great but with the number of figures I would need and the time delay it would add to my build would not work out for me.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. The E-2C's from VAW-114 are done. This completes all the aircraft for the hangar bays. Now I can start running the wires for the LED's and assembling the ship. Once I get the main sections together I can start detailing the outside of the ship. Then back to building 62 more aircraft. Anyhow, here are the pictures of the E-2C's. (It helps that I built 1/48 scale models of all the aircraft)

Thanks! I have not decided to populate it with a crew yet. I do have one flight deck personnel set and one regular sailors set. Once I finish the E-2C's I will test them and see how they look. I am hoping to finish the E-2C's tonight or tomorrow. They are mostly built just need painting and decals.

Had a nice quiet Friday off of work so I spent the day doing the A-6E's from VA-52 for hangar bay 1. The tail and lance decals came out great. All that is left to do is two E-2C's then I can start assembling and detailing the ship.

The two EA-6B's from VAQ-134 for hangar bay 1 are done. Next are the A-6E's from VA-52 then on to the E-2C's. The decals for these are from Star Fighter. I just added the "NL" and the ship/CVW decals. I really wish Trumpeter would make all their planes the same way. These had the canopy molded into the plane. Makes it difficult to decal and seal.

The two S-3A's from VS-29 for hangar bay 1 are now complete. Next up us the two EA-6B's.Then I just have the A-6E's and E-2C's to complete.

Here are the rest of the pictures of the SH-3H helicopters and the start of the S-3A showing the PE details.

Working on the two SH-3 helicopters for hangar bay 1. This one modified to have the sliding door open and rotors folded. Second one will have rotors and tail folded. Had to scratch build the struts. Will post pictures of both in hangar bay once the second is done.

The F-14's for hangar bay 3 are now complete. Here are some pictures of Bay 3 as well as close-ups of the F-14's. Starting on hangar bay 1 next.

Working on the F-14's for hangar bay # 3. I have the placement and all the planes detailed with the PE parts. Next up is to paint and decal them. Four will be VF-51 and four will be VF-111.

The A-7's are complete and staged in hangar bay 2. The hangar bay is now done. Now on to the F-14's of hangar bay 3.

I am just about done with the A-7's for the hangar deck. So in terms of time it takes about 3 hours per aircraft to build, detail, paint and decal. I sealed the decals and just need to install the canopies. Then start the F-14's. Here is a picture of the A-7's having decals put on.

Started painting the planes and decided to scratch-build a scaffold for the cockpit. This plane will have it's cockpit open and the scaffold next to it on the hangar deck.

Started building and detailing the aircraft for the hangar bay. Adding the photoetched parts on a 1:350 aircraft takes some time. Planning on 28 aircraft staged on the hangar deck. So far eight of the A-7's are built. Plan is to build all, then paint all, and finally decal all.

Here is the rest of the decals. The A-6 squadron and the various numbers and letters for the aircraft. Starting to build aircraft tomorrow.

I am making them myself. I made all the hangar bay decals as well. The aircraft came with the standard insignias and markings. I just need to make the squadron specific and numbers.