Carrier Builders Yard, whats on the Slipway

[simon b]

Tom

Can't wait to see em. I know Jag has some planned for 700 scale, but august sems sooooooo far away.

[Tom-Tom]

Hi Simon,
Yes Jag has planned some. The difference is they will feature a P-16 firefighting mule, which was used on 80's and 90's carriers. August seems far for me too, and I had a lot of fun doing my vehicles. (and I wanted P-25). If I have enough people interested, I might consider making a MB-5 firetruck which was used on 60's and 70's carriers.

[Avery Boyer]

I'm building the old Italeri/Testors America kit right now and have found alot of issues. Here's a preliminary list for the island alone:

-The funnel is all wrong. It's to tall and the corners should be more rounded.
-The splinter shields are far too thick and the detail is very "soft"
-CIWS platform is more like an approximated lump than the real thing
-Phalanx itself is underscale and too squat, lacking the distinctive profile of the weapon.
-No detail underneath any of the platforms
-Regard the placement of the hatches with suspicion
-Radars suffer from the same "approximation" syndrome as the CIWS platform i.e. they look like they were carved out of butter.
-overscale ladders
-engineering of the bridge face makes filling seams difficult
-wildly oversized catwalk under the funnel

I'll continue on with more info and some comparison photos when I've done some scratch building to replace the platforms.

[simon b]

Anyone heard about the YMW CVW decal sets yet ? Last i knew they were getting quotes for another run, haven't heard anything since. Think it's been a little while

[jgrease]

So I've been working on my BHR kit, and I have most of the sub-assemblies done and painted. I am building a few aircraft for the hangar deck. The decals supplied by Dragon are WAY too big for the planes, but they are all I have to work with, so be it. Here are a couple of pics:
Overall view of the port side. I have not added guns or lifeboats yet:

Close-up of the port side elevator:

Hangar deck - I printed up the lettering for the walls in CorelDraw:

I may even try to use some of the PE figures that Dragon included. As always, please feel free to comment.

The other John

[Tom-Tom]

Hi John,

Your hangar deck looks great. It's pretty rare to see a carrier of this era here.
Good luck on your BHR.

Tom

[kidcurrie42]

Hiya JG,
Your BHR is looking great , looking forward to seeing more as you progress.

Happy modeling

John

[Nektarios]

LOOKS GOOD so far John

[jgrease]

These are the last few pics of the open hangar deck - I'll be dullcoating the hangar area prior to attaching the flight deck. I've added all of the guns for this level, and I've also weathered the hull and added a black wash to the whole thing. This was in the hope of bringing out some of the molded-in detail, as well as helping me hide flaws in my work to this point. Please let me know if you spot anything, or just share your observations:
Here's the view of the port elevator. Looking at the photo I fell I went way over with the rust coming off of the underside of the elevator. My black wash also needs some touch-up:

Overview of the hangar deck from port. I still like my stenciling on the walls. The decals Dragon gave for the planes still suck:

View of the starboard stern area. I'm happy with this area- I think the weathering here filled in for some fit and paint problems I had here:

Last thing- can anyone tell me what they did after attaching the flight deck on the port side? Towards the rear of the flight deck, there is an area just behind the 3 rear AA guns where the flight deck meets the hull above some grills. Should that area be one large flat area? is there a lip there? Anyone advise?

[kidcurrie42]

Hiya JG,
Looking closely at the instructions it should be level with the rest of the structure and therefore attach to the flightdeck when you close up the hangar deck.

Also your build is looking great

Happy nodeling

John

[simon b]

Well, tomorrow i will be FINALY laying the keel so to speak on my next project. After lots and lots of umming and arrrring i've settled on a 350 USS Nimitz 2004 ish. My question to all that have used the PE catwalks is, should i build up some of the under sides with thin plastic strip for a better look or leave as is? I've been checking alot of pics and think that a PE finish might look somewhat flat.

This may be the first of many questions as i'm struggling to work out an exact order of process for the build. When to add the PE catwalks (bearing in mind that some will need completely removing due to them being railed etc) etc etc etc

Any advice, tips welcome

[kidcurrie42]

Hiya Simon,
I am looking forward to seeing your Nimitz progress, are you giving her the 2003 or 2005 airwing ?

Happy modeling

John

[simon b]

John

The airwing will be a little mix and match. I'll be using Starfighters 2005 airwing but adding a viking sqn from either the 2000/1 Lincoln and 04/05 Truman airwing.
possible the Truman one i think. I can live with that

Also

As the Trumpy FA-18E 's are poo compared to the rest of their bugs, i might plump for both the superbug sqn's using the F variant instead of just the one each of the E's and F's.

[kidcurrie42]

Sounds like a great idea, CVW's look bare without S-3's, then again they look bare without the F-14 and A-6.

Happy modeling

John

[jgrease]

Well, I'm finished with Bonnie Dick, at least the ship. I will be putting a decent-sized airwing on the deck to fill it out. I have made a couple of observations about this kit now that I am done. First, I should have looked more closely at references - the BHR has on open bridge in the cruise book photos I found on SteelNavy, as well as Navsource. The enclosed bridge in the kit would be found later on BHR. Secondly, Dragon's instruction sheet is a disaster, as has been pointed out by others in kit reviews. I managed to mangle some of the PE railings for the port elevator trying to remove them and correct mistakes. And on that topic, the Lion Roar PE in the kit isn't half bad. My only problems were with the antennas - they were horrible to bend to shape with the tools I had on hand. I will have to invest in a PE bender. The kit decals aren't terrific - the "3" in "31" for the deck needed more trimming to look correct. The "31" for the island isn't completely right either, and the directions show the starboard side number in the wrong place - I placed it correctly according to photos. This was my first attempt to use monofilament for rigging, and it wasn't easy. I had to trim the line from the forward antenna because when I went to tighten it with a match, it shrunk too much and popped. Enough with my comments, here are the pics:
Overall port side view

Some detail shots:

As always, your observations are welcome. I'll be bringing this one to Mosquitocon this Saturday, definitely not a contest winner, but an experience.

[kidcurrie42]

Hiya JG,
She looks great, if you have not secured the island or if easily removed, maybe you can substitute it later if you build a dragon kit needing that island config, Antietam maybe?.
Still a great looking build
What is after the airwing ?

Happy modeling

John

[kidcurrie42]

Hi All,
Here are the remaining pics of USS John F Kennedy, in two posts















Happy modeling

John

[kidcurrie42]

Last lot,













John

[gtb -red]

As always.

[jgrease]

So I don't get it - how is a Nimitz converted into JFK? Someone had mentioned that either here or the Forrestal thread in the Main Fourm.