1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

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StevenVD
Posts: 608
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:32 pm

1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by StevenVD »

In november of 2022 I was told to go and look in a 2nd-hand store, where "some kind of boat with an engine" could be found. The finder couldn't say what kind of boat, so intrigued I followed the advice.

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I was a bit pessimistic, expecting a large scale RC boat and no static modelling. But this kit seemed like the real deal, only it was positively ancient and enormous. It was labeled as worth 100 euros, compared to a 425 euro bid of an identical kit on Ebay. I had little experience with modern age supercarriers in this scale, though I had built some 1/700 kits of USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt. At 1/400 it's the whole nine yards, knowing that there is a much more common Tamiya 1/350 CVN-65 kit. I found 100 euros a bit much, but the model found critical acclaim and I decided not to thwart fate and buy the kit. After 2 years and a lot of additional euros spent I can put it on the bench.

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You can use this hull as a melee weapon, the plastic is double the thickness of a comparable Trumpeter kit.

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Other parts are also quite bulky. The flight deck is divided in threee parts.

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Irregularities and sinkmarks can be found as expected. On the elevators it will be remedied using PE parts not included in this kit. Some metal was present but only as a propulsion system for a non-RC electrical motor set:

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It has four shafts with metal three-bladed props. These are the only in the kit, if I decide to make it full hull (it won't sit in water as intended). Some glue and grease tubes are thrown in too, but no battery connections.

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The decalset is thick and shiny, probably of the sticker kind. Even if I would replace the deck markings with a masking, then there were still the awkward generic airplane markings.

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But no worries, all airwing parts were removed prior to the recirculation of the kit. Only some clunky tilly cranes were left. This would require all airwing components to be sought externally. And that's a good thing, because at that time a rush for 3D-printed models occurred. Look only in the producer's area of this forum.

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With this extensive manual size the box was positively brimming. It has two PETF inlays to secure the hull. Let's see on Navsource what should be substituted for the missing airwing.

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https://www.navsource.net/archives/02/65.htm

These 1976 pictures show Enterprise still with beehive antenna, but having all the later types of airplanes lined up in the captions:
USS Enterprise (CVN-65) departs San Francisco Bay for a WestPac deployment, 30 July 1976. Aircraft on deck are part of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 14: KA-6D and A-6E Intruders of VA-196 "Main Battery;" S-3A Vikings of VS-29 "Dragon Fires;" an EA-6B Prowler of VAQ-134 "Garudas;" A-7E Corsair IIs of VA-97 "Warhawks" and VA-27 "Royal Maces;" E-2B Hawkeyes of VAW-113 "Black Eagles;" SH-3D Sea King helicopters of HS-2 "Golden Falcons;" and an RA-5C Vigilante of RVAH-1 "Smokin' Tigers" partially visible abaft the island. Big E's Carrier On-board Delivery (COD) plane, a C-1B Trader, is also parked among the Air Wing "birds."
I ordered all these types at L'Ars�nal, but the F4's:

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- RA-5C Vigilante Ailes pli�es 1/400 5qt�
- S-3 Viking - impression 3D (5 Pcs.)
- Oskosh MB5 firetruck x4
- US Navy Wheel Chock Assortment
- US Navy Weapons Trolly Set
- NC-2 Electric Power Plant x6
- Hyster 250 Large Forklift (5 Pcs.)
- NS-60 Tilly Deck Crane x1
- A-6 A Intruder Ailes repli�es
- EA-6B Prowler Ailes depli�es 1/400 5qt�
- EA-6B Prowler Ailes repli�es 1/400 5qt�
- A-7E Corsair II Ailes repli�es 1/400 5qt�
- Grumman E-2C Hawkeye Ailes pli�es 3D printed - (2 Pcs.)
- S-3 Viking ailes d�pli�es x5 - impression 3D
- F-14 A Tomcat parking ailes repli�es
- F-14 A Tomcat ailes d�pli�es
- Personnel de pont d'envol - poses sp�ciales x 37
- Personnel de pont d'envol - poses g�n�rales x80

Also I checked ModelMonkey's site that offered floats and antennas.

L'Ars�nal had developed their Tamiya kit interior hangar set. It would not look wrong on this kit, if of course it would be reprinted at 1/400. Remarkably they reacted positively on a request to produce this for me. It would cost the same as a 1/350 set and the PE would not be rescaled. This didn't put me off, as it would all be internal detailing only visible throught the hangar doors. It took a while to hear from them and it appeared that the PE parts master was lost. A new design was needed. They did send the hangar parts, I'll review them here again:

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A lot of generic bracing on the sides you don't see later, so that's only for strength.

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The detail side:

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I am sure the rescaling has worked out well, the doors are a perfect fit.

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But other parts like the extremities are a bad fit. I expected some deviations because the Tamiya kit has some hull authenticity problems. The front elevator is not tilted with the hull curve, something Otaki respected better.

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Only last month the PE set and decals followed up. The fret is extremely fragile and was partly disintegrated, as it is constituted out of small parts with little bracing. The decals, with the fire curtain artwork among them, might also not be rescaled to 1/400. I should still check.

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I still had no external PE for the carrier, at first I only found a reasonable 1/350 GMM set for the Tamiya kit.

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But even if I could cut the parts down to 1/400, then it will never fit to the beehive island, the Tamiya kit is post-reconstruction. It seemed there was no way to get 1/400 PE. Or was it?

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Another old brand, Aurora, had a comparable kit, also with some problems in accuracy. But this kit got a Revell reboxing with a premium edition, featuring loads of elsewhere unedited PE. That will work on a beehive island. The Revell customer service gave positive answer to my request for this crucial jewelry. Even if it cost double of the GMM set and only part of it would fit, it was worth the try.

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I noticed that the elevator grids were particularly fitting my kit, so that will be an upgrade worth having, other parts don't fit without reworking. The island base with the hull number differs from the plastic part. After a while it was occurring to me that my only chance for 1/400 airplane markings were found in the same Revell kit, that has a modern redesign added to the old kit. I ordered this too (and should have ordered two, but didn't). Now I can at least provide half of my airwing with state-of-the-art decals.

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But what's done is done. I also bought an Otaki airwing kit from a friend, showing what must be missing in the ship kit.

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It's nice though it can't match all the resin, I can use them in the hangar and now I got some Phantoms too.

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All parts of the box are used, though some uses are spurious like the airfield and hangar.

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I thought that the hangar would do well with some lighting, I chose warm light for it as there would have been no modern LED lighting.

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Later I'll continue with my reference and some history behind the subject.
StevenVD
Posts: 608
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:32 pm

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by StevenVD »

About those references here I make a second posting.

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The first row of books are acquired for this specific project, though Norman's US Aircraft Carriers in the lower right corner was selected because of the only ship's plan I found in it.

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The Haynes' manual is a great starting point for carrier noobs describing all elements, systems and personnel on board modern carriers. Enterprise is only sparsely mentioned, the book shows the active ships.

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For large airwing pictures, this is the book to go to. It's also my main source for some airplane types on board.

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Then there is the historical description of the ship's career. Though being the newest entry in related works, I found a full copy in a regular second-hand bookstore, about one chance in thousand I'd say. From the Cuba crisis to the Somali pirate actions every operation is described in great length. The author died before publication. It cost me a year to wrestle through, caused by larege tomes of operation reports with little photographic distraction. But the many anecdotes make it worthwhile. Just don't expect any technical schemes or anything else but some geographic plans in it.

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I already read it at the moment I was building the Essex project, but it has this useful plan in it, for want of anything more detailed like I had last time in the B�arn book. It explains why for example there were still two conventionally propelled ships between CVN65 and the CVN68 series.

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These actually don't elaborate on CVn-65, but the covers show CV-64 Constellation and CV-66 America in comparison.

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I've go a bunch of F14 reference, adding to a Legends of Warfare book mainly about the squadrons using it. The one with the color photos will be most useful, but I rather bought them for Tamiya's 1/48 F14D in my stash.

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I wonder if Hugh Lyon can be trusted on his plans, but he has the largest drawing of this ship.

Some data, like the length is 336m, the largest warship ever built, with the Nimitz class a bit shorter. Width is 78,4m, weight was 95.000 tons. It could generate 210 MW in 8 nuclear reactors and 4 steam turbines. It steamed for 33,6 knots or 62,2 km/u. Later CVN's would be provided with only two reactors. For 25 jears it would not need an overhaul on the reactors, but regular replenishment was always necessary for the airwing refueling and escort replenishment. It had a max crew of 5828, 3000 of whom were sailors and 1800 aircraft personnel. It was launched in 1960 with a special lighting system, illuminating letters while the hull would be floated.

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Skyhawks, Crusaders, Phantoms and Vigilantes would populate CVN-65 in the early days.

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A famous operation, from 1964, had a queue of reactor driven ships:

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One overheated Zuni rocket cooked off during maintenance, causing 28 dead, 343 wounded and 15 crates were written off. Evans got some horrendous stories on this.

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Repairs were done when in 1975 Saigon was evacuated, prompting some Sea Stallions on board:

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(It would be too costly to order 10 or more like that.).

In 1978 the Vigilantes were retracted from service. The crew used a car for port visits and they wanted to launch this ceremonially with the met de steam catapult. Reportedly it did not remain airborne for long.

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In a more recent episode the Enterprise took again a center role after 9/11.

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This picture shows a replenishment operation from inside the hangar door.

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As last I kept this 2021 picture with the new Gerald Ford class. It looks somehow less aerodynamic. A long deactivation process still remains, and the derelict appearance is disturbing to many.

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StevenVD
Posts: 608
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:32 pm

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by StevenVD »

Let's start this build, it took me a while to decide if it was going to be a waterline model or full hull. This decision was helped by comparing the Otaki hull to a computer image of the Tamiya model. It amazed me at first that that model had 4 rudders, because Otaki only had two. A five blade propeller compares to Otaki's metal 3-blade ones on a steel axle. This of course is designed for RC control and it means that using these components for a static model is impossible. Replacing the props is also out of the question, with the odd 1/400 scale, as it would have been for 1/350 with no aftermarket five bladed props that I could find. So waterline it is then. I can drop the bilge keel parts but I wanted to add the bow bulge to complete the outline there.

One thing was at least present that the Tamiya kit lacked and these were the bow hawse holes. These only needed to be drilled open.

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At first the only thing I remarked on the hull was some flash, which was soon removed. But then a larger problem occurred.

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Compare these stern lines seen from behind. The internal bulkhead runs level with the front flight deck, but the stern is skewed to starboard.

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It's not just an uneven cutout in the stern, the flight deck edge is also curbed on one side. It's clearly torsion produced by casting. I can undo it temporarily by hand but the force exerted can't be anchored by simple plastic connections.

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There are two ways to straighten this out. Either to pull from the bulkhead port side to the starboard stern, but there was no way to anchor a cable to the stern. So the other way was to push from starboard to port. A threaded bar with a nut could be used to develop enough force.

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I cut a piece of 25cm of this bar. If no additional parts were added, the force would be transferred on a very small surface. I decided to add two pieces of metal tube, enlarging the contact surface. This could prevent stress cracking on the stern corner.

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The tubes are fixed with pieces of sprue, so they won't slip. All bracing needs to remain under the hangar deck.

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The next day, the torsion was removed by cranking the nuts.

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Now, deck and hangar mounting should become a lot easier...
Pieter
Posts: 1604
Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2005 9:19 am

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by Pieter »

Nice and clever solution. Are you going to add a hangar deck over this?
StevenVD
Posts: 608
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:32 pm

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by StevenVD »

Thanks, Pieter. That was about halfway in the intro, I'll have to start on it soon now.

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StevenVD
Posts: 608
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:32 pm

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by StevenVD »

Some obvious details on the boxart are missing in the model.

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These ribs are on the bow, they were omitted on my American Carrier book, but can be found in good old Hugh Lyon.

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If I multiply the data by 1.5, I can correctly dimension the ribs on the model.

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Evergreen strips are then laid over the lines.

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A distance of 7mm is kept from the waterline.

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I only had one sideview, but I guess both sides are identical checking from photos.

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This ancient kit needs to be sanded on all straight surfaces, removing milling marks and sunken areas. In this instance, the deck edge got drenched in CA glue to even the surface and then a diamond file is used to flatten it.

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That means a part like this takes an hour before you can start assembling. Also the hangar doors needed to be open and these are 2mm thick.

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A circle cutter is used for the outline of the door.

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Then a cutter can trace this line to at least one mm deep.

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With a hammer the door is knocked out.

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The damage on the inside is then repaired.

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Surface treatment of the walls.

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The small details to the side were top notch in their time, but now it can be improved upon.

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The elevator supports hide some sinkmarks.

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I used some material from the past WW2 projects. These doors are from the Infini LST set.

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I didn't get any in the Revell set, there the old plastic ladders and doors are apparently not treated. Later on, some railing will be added.

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The starboard hangar wall is added as a flat part to a slightly curved wall, so some clamping is needed. The 4 inner elevator supports should be assembled only after this step.

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The port rear wall part shows the necessity of treating the surfaces, with engraved lines and sinkmarks to be removed.

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In the L'Arsénal hangar, winch platforms and piping are added.

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Apparently I shouldn't have feared for fit problems with the PE. I was told that the PE would not be rescaled to 1/400, but in these platforms the fit is perfect.

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And here the proof that the resin really is fitting to the model.

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I will have to saw these wall parts from now on, engraving them and breaking along that line is not working.

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It's a nice thing to have numbering on the resin parts, but there are multiple number errors. 7-3 features twice and on the wrong part (it shouldn't be that pipe).

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Some resin parts are thinner than the support and impossible to remove in one part, this channel is replaced by a staple.

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The 3rd wall part is finished. This PE is fitting very well, but it is fiddly...
StevenVD
Posts: 608
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:32 pm

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by StevenVD »

Because of a lot of sawing chores, it's going at a leisurely pace.

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Even taking care during sawing is not preventing stuff breaking. And some blocks aer just enormous to saw through.

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Between the two blocks the partition door will be built.

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Some parts are too crooked and need some heating on the underside of a cooking pan. Alucard's sword is among them, part of a figure project.

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The extremity of the hangar is badly dimensioned, the parts have a poor fit, some missing a millimeter or more.

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And these plates shouldn't be in resin, that's simpler in styrene.

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That will even fit better.

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The front wall is also too short.

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The last winch platform is assembled. That too will have to be heated.

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The sawing of the large parts will take at least another week, and why did these need a block on both sides?.
StevenVD
Posts: 608
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:32 pm

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by StevenVD »

A heavy toll is laden on my poor Mastertools microsaw.

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The ceiling elements are a chore to liberate from their two blocks, there is no relief and deviations of the saw lead to edge damage. At least the floor parts are really easy, why wasn't this system used for all? Another cooking spree followed.

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All floor parts were visibly warped and had to be flattened after heating.

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To avoid the floor parts coming loose I added sprue supports, calibrating the position to the deck edge. The floor parts have a consistent thickness of 4 mm.

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The 1/350 kit as it is offered by Superhobby appears to have identical dimensions for my so-said 1/400 reductions, forcing me to trim each of the slabs. It also means that probably a lot of internal detail will be overscale by 1/8. So be it.

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The hangar rear end of the last update also had to be trimmed by 2 centimeters. It didn't disintegrate in the water though.

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All five floor slabs were trimmed, but not yet glued. Some electric cabling has to come under these.

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I did not adapt the length, so the tie-downs continue to the front.

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Because of that and the Otaki correct hull design countrary to Tamiya's, part 4 of 5 already needed a tapering.

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Still some sidewall parts need to be assembled.

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The 4th floor part with slots for the gates.

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The 5th part had to be diminished by 1/2. By now, about ten hours of sawing under water must have passed.

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And what to say about this conundrum, with the details to be assembled already present on the part?

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StevenVD
Posts: 608
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:32 pm

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by StevenVD »

Most of the sawing is done now. The front floor plate was cut too short, so I added most of it back to be able to add the front gallery in the hangar without obstructing the door. The "tubes" L'Arsénal has provided, are impossible to remove from the film. It's better to use wire.

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The tendency to splinter during sawing is visible again, a lot of filling will be needed during assembly of these walls. It's possible the underside still has to be trimmed to get the flight deck to fit seamlessly. The floor height is fixed to the elevator doorways. I still don't know if the ceiling can be fit between, and the lights can be passed through that.

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Another sawing spree later:

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A dry-fit of all the oversize parts shows where I have to remove wall sections. I'll try to conserve the details.

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The front hangar part with the gallery is clipped at the starboard side, where the Tamiya design would remain rectangular.

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The area around the sliding curtain wall will suffer some shortening. The curtain needs to fit in the floor rail, so that's a fixed point.

The deck will necessarily be fixed to the hull with no possible loosening for inspection. The airwing therefore needs to follow up with the hangar. I thought this should not take more than an hour but peculiarities in the types are stretching the procedure.

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In the E3A's the front landing gear tends to break at the wheel, if the support on it is not cut first.

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These landing gear doors on the Intruders seem to have an external part, that's only another print support and needs removal.

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Then the armament sets are emptied, These are adapted to the type so I keep them together.

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L'Arsénal has advanced greatly since their printing overhaul, here the ASW mine tubes are featured.

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But an Intruder was missing a rear wheel, in stead armed with a flat view of such a wheel. I'l scratch one.

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Remark the tiny details on the landing gear with doors, it's unsurpassed. But it doesn't preclude sanding away the print tracks.

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The Corsair II's have even more weapons featured. Now 5 packs of planes are cleared, not even half of the total in stock. It's a good thing the color array will be simple on this modern airwing.
StevenVD
Posts: 608
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:32 pm

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by StevenVD »

Some of the printing supports are merged with the models. This can cause problems if fragile parts are affected. Some landing carriages were broken off.

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I'll show the underside of the models in this update because this was hitherto invisible. On the Hawkeyes there are small antennas you shouldn't confuse with print supports.

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There is an ordinary wing pair and one with flaps down, but these are very fragile and broke at removal. After the work on the printed pair I investigated the oldschool cast resin Hawkeyes. These are a disappointment, not only in lack of detail but these alost seem different airplanes. The fuselage is 1/4 thinner and the engine nacelles have half the mass. The tail is enveloped in the casting block, so it breaks upon removal. The only useful component might be the PE set with some propellers, that might amend a missing prop in the printed Hawkeye set.

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Even the old Otaki Hawkeye that was 30 years older than the L'Arsénal cast resin ones, is arguably better, with proportions approaching the new printed one.

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Apart from the ECM A7's I also bought the ordinary ones.

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This Vigilante shows the need for sanding even with al the detail.

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The F14 print support system is markedly different, with fine needles surrounding the wings and tail. But as easy as these can be cut, there are some stubborn columns that can cause some trouble.

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The 4 Sea Kings are the most precarious in removing, most of them got broken wheels and rotorblades. But this was repaired instantly.

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Then the deck vehicles are a walk in the park. The tilly crane got some really microscopic appendages, that are supported by the finest of resin threads.

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Without the Otakis, I now have 62 crates in this box. If I work on some of the Otaki models, they might be useful, and there are the few F4's I can muster.

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If I compare the Sea Sparrows, Sidewinders and droptanks from the single weapon set that came with the hangar, to the ones in the airplane sets, these are visibly overscale. It tends to go to 1/350.

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So I will have to use these in the hangar only, separated from the other weapons.
StevenVD
Posts: 608
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:32 pm

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by StevenVD »

Some more comparisons between L'Arsénal and Otaki 1/400 plane sets.

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Intruder and Prowler kits are quite exchangeable. Some panelline differences occur but there is no lack of them in Otaki. The landing gear of these is rather built as a toy and will be replaced.

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Regarding an obvious length difference, it amazed me that both brands' Hawkeyes have an equal and correct span of 62 millimeters.

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L'Arsénal has an almost 5 centimeter fuselage, factoring to 400 leads to 20 meters. It should be 17,5, like in Otaki.

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Both planes superimposed.

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Comparing to the Wikipedia factsheet, the L'Arsénal kit is a perfect match, while the Otaki one falls short if the wings are matched. But these will have to be sawn either way, because the Otaki one will descend in to the hangar, being less detailed.

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The Corsair II's need no improvement over the same remark of the unfolded wings.

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Then the Sea Kings remain to be compared. The Otaki ones are also short and miss the engine inlet cover shield. Also the sponson struts are left out.

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It's the front view that shows the real flaw of the Otaki Sea Kings. It is missing 2 millimeters of width in comparison to what I assume is the correct L'Arsénal fuselage width. I do want these in the hangar though, so a little trick is used.

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The helicopter is sawn in two equal halves unto the tailbase. There I had drilled a vertical hole to splice the tail section.

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Plastic styrene parts are used to add to the thickness and length of the fuselage.

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This leaves the engine fairing too large, so it is removed by sawing.

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Here also a 0.5mm Evergreen plate is glued in between. All this glue is CA so it can safely be sanded down.

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A new cowling is milled and two additional plates add to the rear width. I am now working on the second Otaki kit to copy this result. I can use the optional L'Arsénal propeller and tailplane parts to replace the crude Otaki details.

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This is the processed hangar ordnance, probably at 1/350 so it will stay inside.
StevenVD
Posts: 608
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:32 pm

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by StevenVD »

I couldn't wait with the Enterprise's most eyecatching feature, the island structure. It will also receive most of the detail parts.

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I used the unscaled plans in the books to create a sketch in 1/400 of the side and front views. The American carriers book was enlarged with a factor of 3.4 times, the color plan 1.5.

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This was necessary to trim down Revell's PE base for the island structure. I have no indications that it would not be square in section.

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The SPS-33 antennas are seriously deformed in the casting process.

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These were removed with my new Proxxon cutter.

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They were replaced by styrene blocks I had cut from a sheet.

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The fold-out shape of the brass base was disassembled and the parts were trimmed to form a square. I used the top of the oversize plastic part to guide the PE.

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This shows the resulting structure.

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Some internal walls are put up to block any light shining through the doors.

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I noticed later that Revell had some PE parts engraved with fine textures for the antennas.

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These did still fit over the blocks I added.

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I jumped to the beehive topping over the bridge and the pri-fly.

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Because the strip is bent to a cone and not a bell shape, quite some plastic needs to be milled away.

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The fit is not as well as the drum-shape below, but this will be hidden.

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A dry-fit shows the setup.
marijn van gils
Posts: 2686
Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 10:24 am
Location: Belgium

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by marijn van gils »

Goe bezig Steven! :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1: :wave_1:

Looking forward to all the tiny bits you will be attaching to that island!
StevenVD
Posts: 608
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:32 pm

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by StevenVD »

No problem, Marijn, you will see that in this Christmas update. The Otaki Hawkeye is being matched to the one from L'Arsénal. The radar dish will be mounted on strips of metal.

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Pri-fly is primered on the inside with grey.

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If I would use this sinkhole-riddled bridge element, the pri-fly assembly would be found here. But I won't.

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Because most of it is consisting of the windshield and this is completely replaced by PE.

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Therefore, the island levels are copied to styrene plate.

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The windshields are carefully attached to that and this also corrects the number of window frames.

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One of the styrene plates was mounted upside down, so I removed the rear and reversed that. I added a gallery using some wire drilled into the island part that is worth using.

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Even that gallery was present in the Pe parts, but it was too thin and the posts were on the wrong positions.

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The windshields are tested. The lower one fits directly on the kit part so the fit is important.

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It went well so after internal priming of the bridge I glued these parts.

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The forst external details will be these aerials. They are connected through some turned brass spacer elements.

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I was too hasty adding the antenna tops, later on some additional crossed dipoles had to be added.

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Then two dish antennas were added, one showing extreme detail and the other quite plain.

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I now compared the Phasor 90 antenna cones. I ordered resin ones at Modelmonkey, not having checked the Revell turned parts that even contained turned brass cones.

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Because Revell had included the connection plates of the cones into the railings, I used the brass parts. I replaced the corner struts for the outermost positions with some plastic plate, correcting the position on the centerline of the corner.

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Almost ready for the beehive parts, these will number over 200.

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StevenVD
Posts: 608
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:32 pm

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by StevenVD »

The Andrew Alford AA-8200 antennae on the "beehive" are a slow and steady build. These dipoles were for electronic warfare. Originally there were six rows with the two upper ones in a radome. Revell omits the smallest row below the radomes.

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(photo reddit: WarshipPorn/comments/owjh4y/close_up_of_ecm_antennas_on_uss_enterprise_angled
"Close up of ECM antennas on USS Enterprise. Angled so that they sense both horizontal and vertically polarized signals, there are multiple rings of different sizes to cover multiple freq bands.")

The kit parts are still used for the lower row, though they need some remodelling because they are cast on a rounded stem.

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Because the holes in the brass were plugged with CA, that's the glue I'll use at this stage.

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The next two rows will be Revells PE parts. The dipoles are folded in half for thickness, but the first row should have been a triple fold to get a relative increase.

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This is a real chore to glue, because of the unexpected trouble caused by the fold gap filling itself with CA glue. This makes the entire part sticky and unwilling to leave the pincer. There is no locator pin to assist the positioning other than the shallow hole in the brass.

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It is evolving in a real mind endurance test when the upper row is started. The only way to remove the dipoles from the pincer is to push it off with a fingertip, but this often dislocates some of the former assemblies. These only stay there after dousing them with CA. After three days, remarks were coming how this part could still be on the table. Not for the faint of hearted.

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There is little time to correct the angle and rotation of each dipole, so a slight disarray remains.

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Now the mast will be built.
StevenVD
Posts: 608
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:32 pm

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by StevenVD »

I didn't like the kit solution for the top of the dome, the diameter is just too small and I wanted the two antenna disks in stead. This meant that I now had to cut along the extremely fragile antenna rows through a thick plastic layer. The micro saw wasn't up to the job, so I used the Dremel cutting tool. That seems madness but it's quite precise and it cost me only little damage to the earlier work. There are now some notches in the brass antennas, but these aren't even bent.

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The mast is assembled, some of the small antennas have got lost. Maybe they return later.

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The mast is then planted on top of my new dome design.

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With the ship's horns, the last of the turned brass is installed.

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And now, the ship's deck will be tackled.
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Joelle
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Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by Joelle »

I am impressed by this achievement in brass.
Great respect for this performance. 👍
Greetings from Germany, Joelle.

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StevenVD
Posts: 608
Joined: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:32 pm

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by StevenVD »

Thanks for responding, Joelle. Some more PE is waiting with the elevator upgrade.
SG1
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Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by SG1 »

Incredible work. Bravissimo! :cool_2:
marijn van gils
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Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 10:24 am
Location: Belgium

Re: 1/400 Otaki CVN-65 Enterprise

Post by marijn van gils »

Great job on the island Steven! :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1:
That's all the tiny stuff on the beehive I was looking forward to, and it doesn't disappoint!

Maybe the work-in-progress will be on display at the show in Puurs?
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