Am hoping to start one of the modern carriers I have in the stash, but need a How To for modelling a modern carrier flight deck, i.e. painting and weathering. I have no clue as I am an armour modeller mostly. Any and all help is appreciated. Cheers.

Just to give you a good idea of what the deck would be like MOST of the time, have a look at this picture.
http://www.defense.gov/photos/newsphoto.aspx?newsphotoid=5467
Don't forget, the crews on aircraft carriers have many hours when they have no aircraft to launch, recover, provision or fix, and the best way to keep idle minds busy is to have them scrub and chip and paint various items..

remember the days of cleaning and scrubbing well, and tanks get much dirtier. What I really need is some one to give me a how to paint and weather the deck, got plenty of photos and have been on many flight decks, but need to know how to represent it in 1/700 or 1/800. Cheers.

modern carrier decks are dark gray gunship gray seems to be the best to me. for weathering I dry brush black streaks where landings take place. As you are no doubt aware they maintain these ships fastidiously so not much rust or FOD would be around long enough to matter

I am in your boat Damon as I have a 1/350 Trumpeter USS Nimitz to build someday. All I need is a PE set...

I would imagine that - old or new wessel - the deck would be mostly discolored with blackish, smoke, gray nuances ?

Even with a scrubbing down, oilspils, tiremarks, blastmarks on deflectors, brake dust and general traffic would leave darker shades on the deck - it might even be worth working with different lacquers - like dull, semigloss etc. ?

Cheers/Jan

That is a wonderful kit. I spent 3 enjoyable months on mine

Ah Warren, my 1/350 Nimitz keeps looking at me begging to be built. I have both the WEM etch sets plus some air wing sets as I plan to do her in her 1977 - 78 cruise. I'd recommend these sets.

Ok, so I am assuming that it is the same basic process then?
Paint, seal with future, decals, future, oil washes, pin washes, flat coat, drybrushing and detail? That sound about right?

That's about it.

Here are the best reference photos on the net for weathering the whole ship.

http://www.navy.mil/view_gallery.asp?category_id=10