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My CVN-65 USS Enterprise


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Well, if I am modding I better start some photos of my builds too. This is the first one. The 1/350 scale Tamiya USS Enterprise CVW-8 2001 airwing.

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As you can guess these planes were not built in a week, but rather 2 months.

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Each stinking plane took me on average an hour to build and paint and then around 30 minutes for the mind numbing TINY TINY decals.

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The STARFIGHTER decals were GREAT!!!!! I just need more practice on the new camera.

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The planes themselves are mainly replacements for the blobby Tamiya ones. Trumpeters 6 in a box kit planes seem much better out of the box. I did use the Tamiya Sea King as it was really nice. But as the US has long since retired the Sea King I figured a hand painted CH-124 from a Canadian Halifax class ship could pay a visit.

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I of course, had to use a couple phantoms. CVW-8 never had VF-41 and 84 phantoms but what the heck. Figure I'll keep them below deck or maybe in the shuttlecraft bay when I do my NCC-1701 Enterprise later.

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Hopefully I can get the ship really moving this weekend. Anyone else have some progress to show?

Edited by phantom
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Nice work, phantom :monkeydance:

And I'd be most interested to hear about Darren's lens and lighting set up for pictures like that :)

Phantom, stunning work!

Darren, I'd like to learn more about your photographing technique too :monkeydance:

Giles

Edited by giles
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Thanks guys, Darren, you sneaking in my basement again? Those are beauties and I notice they are from the same 2001 cruise.

Apologies, my friend! I was feeling awnry and wanted to get a quick chuckle. :lol: The work so far on your Big E is fabulous. I can't wait to see the completed results. I'll start a thread with my projects. Feel free to sneak in anytime you want!

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Apologies, my friend! I was feeling awnry and wanted to get a quick chuckle. :) The work so far on your Big E is fabulous. I can't wait to see the completed results. I'll start a thread with my projects. Feel free to sneak in anytime you want!

Darren,

I want one of your 7.29 magnification bino too :lol:

Giles

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Basics of the hull are done. I put a REALY basic hanger deck in. Your not going to see much once the kit is finished so I do not see the point of spending 3 months making it.

A couple pieces of cardboard and grey paint, its a flight deck.

Put some of the not so great planes inside. Good to go.

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Just finished glueing the deck in place. No photo with all the tape holding it in place.

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THe hanger deck I admit looks like crap at this point. I have now fit the flight deck to the hull and believe me, you can not see the mismatched paint, tape or half the aircraft I stuck below deck. The effect of basic non time or money consuming assembly seems to have worked in my favor so far.

In fact I think the hanger deck now is looking pretty good. Photos to follow when I have something worth taking new photos of.

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For future reference, if you or anyone else tackles something like that, the aft end of the hangar bay is a veritable mountain of crates and all manner of other stuff. So, if you run short of airplanes but still need something to take up space/block light/whathaveyou, don't be bashful about piling up a whole lot of miscellaneous stuff, because that's what the real ships do...

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I am surprised how pronounced the weathering is in the photos. Its much more subtle in the low light of the man cave.

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Debating if I am going to tone it done a bit.

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Got a lot done today.

Edited by phantom
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Phantom, I am intrigued by some of the kitties you have there. In particular the VF-41 birds that are in the hanger bay. Are those combo retro schemes or are they the real deal? I am talking about the two that look like the 1970's scheme but are in the three tone modern day scheme. Thanks. Nice work by the way.

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Those are decals that came with the Trumpeter F-14 kit. I have them below deck as they are substandard compared to the other ones. THe correct scheme for those decals would be gull grey over white circa 1976.

I also have a couple VF-2 in there as well, but once the hull was in place you can not see them apart from the noses.

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I am surprised how pronounced the weathering is in the photos. Its much more subtle in the low light of the man cave.

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Debating if I am going to tone it done a bit.

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Got a lot done today.

Looking good Shawn. My kit arrives tommorow!!!

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Started the island last night, wow.......That sucker is going to be getting some MAJOR putty to close them gaps.

Yeah I remember an FSM article a loooooooong time ago where they showed the HUGE gaps in the island. You might even try to put some styrene L brackets in there if it's not too late. Maybe that will give you an easier time of it!

Okay Phantom, now you have given us all an idea for a WI scheme for VF-41. Right On!!!!!!!!!

Its cool you did so many jets so you can move them around a bit. Great idea. I think that with as long as the Big E has been around its nice to have that option. If you leave the FD unglued I suppose you could mix and match what goes inside or on top. Good thinking.

Edited by jimz66
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I could not leave the flight deck unglued. The gaps in the deck, even glued, were rather huge and took a bit of putty as well. Frtunately the nice flat surface was easy to clean up after the putty was applied.

The choice of which planes went above deck and below ended up rather easy. Starfighter decals gave me enough decals to do 18 of the 24 Tomcats I had. The 6 below deck were the first ones I built and less then wonderful. So they got the fictious VF-41 and VF-2 decals.

As for the hornets I think something like 21 of 24 got decals. The ones below decks were easy choices as I had got a set of B hornets instead of As. Those 6 and a couple whose wings did not get cut cleanly went below deck. You can notice one even has VFA-192 markings that came with the Trumpeter planes.

The Hoovers, came with markings for 7 and I only had 6. So I used one Tamiya that went below deck and one other whose decals I screwed up on.

The Hawkeys, I had 4 decals for the 6 I had. Two went below deck so there is a couple planes too many there. I was surprised how well the Hawkeys turned out. Must be the gloss gray.

THe Provider, is really a Tamiya E-2C. It was so blobby in appearence that it was in fact what got me to find the Trumpeter replacemnets in the first place. BUT!!! That blobbiness looked pretty close to a Provider when put next to the Trumpeter Hawkeye. Starfighter provided the decals for that one.

The Sea Hawks had to be Trumpeter as the Tamiya kit did not come with any helicopters. Fortunately some time ago Tony H found me the #2 Tamiya aircraft set which came with very nice Sea kings and Phantoms. I built a couple of each for practice. Found the Sea King was actually pretty goos and remade it Canadian.

The Prowlers.....well by this time I was sick of these tiny planes and only built the 4 that I have decals for.

At the end of the day I think I have 10 extra aircraft on board which are mainly hiding below deck to give the appearence of a full hanger.

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Provider? I think you mean Greyhound? I never heard it called the Provider? The Provider is the C-123.... Did I miss something here? Hmm.

Shawn was probably thinking of the Squadron that flies Greyhounds, The Providers ... :cheers:

Gregg

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Getting along. Lots of paint fixing coming up.

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Tamiya is lacking in the superstructure. Lots of putty and lots of doors in the wrong place. Lots of other doors not there at all.

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I'm not doing all that well with the railings.

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