No no no... I haven't been bludging it on my week of sick leave. Just that much of the stuff does not really allow for photos to illustrate progress. Sound fair? Bad luck if it doesn't my friends as that is just the way it is..

It finely came to 'hose reel time'. As most of you know this is where you start fiddling with lots of little PE and plastic parts to come up with some items that look something like the hose reels they use on ships, either for liquids or for holding rope etc etc. Here is the prototype for my reels..



Those markings on the ruler below are 1 mm divisions. Looks OK but then I realised that it was going to be difficult to paint the hose a rubber hose colour. Therefore I painted all the hose pieces Tamiya XF-85 Rubber Black, which I didn't bother with a picture for as it is just too exciting. Then I realised that I had removed all the hose reel pieces I needed from the PE fret which was going to make it difficult to paint said pieces.

Luckily I had left enough parts for 18 reels on the fret which I cunningly painted Haze Grey, sorry gray, Gunze H306, then I attached all the pieces I had already cut off onto a piece of sticky-side-up masking tape and painted them as well. Just for fun..



See the grey, sorry gray, areas on the left of the fret, and the nice blue masking tape on the white foam at the front? Told you it was exciting.

I had also installed the prop shafts before painting the bottom of the hull Hull Red , surprisingly, Tamiya Hull Red XF-9. First two..



Then four!!



Then I decided to have even more fun and got my new paint booth, which I have had for about 18 months, out of its case and set it up next to my old one and it almost held the whole model..



This was followed by a bit of masking and some painting of aforementioned Hull Red..



I then placed the model on the shelf also used to hold the Snowberry during construction to dry overnight. Then this morning I moved the tape to mask the hull red, placed another line of masking tape on the model and shot the boot top.

But that photo will have to wait until this afternoon.

Cheers all
Warren

You're Making some great stride on this beast Warren! She is impressive! Always a tough job painting the tiny stuff. I am sure things will look superb once you get them placed!

Now who's Mr Speedy?

Cracking on great guns Warren.

Cheers

Si

Flight deck island construction continues. Lots of clamps to keep her aligned..



Next up, painting of the hull continues. Model has been masked up to paint the boot top..





And with the masking removed..



Don't worry about the over spray as the gray hasn't been applied yet. Then I masked up from the boot top down so I could airbrush on Gunze's H306 Haze Gray colour.



And that's it for now. I sprayed the Haze Gray on last night and it should be dry when I go and check it in a few minutes.

Cheers
Warren

Time for another update. I actually slept in until 7am this morning as we got home late after my birthday present..



We travelled from Mt Barker in the Adelaide Hills to Goolwa on Lake Alexandra in three period correct carriages pulled by this marvellous old steam locomotive. Had a nice dinner at a Goolwa pub then headed back to Mt Barker. Marvellous evening even if it was a little chilly due to crap weather. I have lots more pictures of the train if anyone is interested.

But enough of some ancient relic, let's get back to the build. Painting has continued. In this shot the Haze Gray (grey to me) has been applied..



And here is the virginal flight deck..



Then after applying loads of masking tape I sprayed the flight deck using good ole Tamiya XF-63 which looks about right to me..





Masking tape everywhere..



There is a lesson to be learned here as well. I bought a few rolls of cheaper yellow masking tape some time ago but it is no where near as good as the Tamiya tape and some started lifting while I was spraying. Moral of the story, use Tamiya tape! I will have a little touching up to do I am sure. Then it was time to apply some more Haze gray ..



Lots little bits and I forgot to give the PE it's second coat.. bugger..

Anyway, while waiting for the paint to dry I added the last story to the island..



And that's it for now. More shots this afternoon hopefully.

Cheers
Warren

Oh dear, Warren seeing your build has just made me realise that I may never build my Nimitz as I just don't have a bench big enough for the build and paint, could take over the breakfast bar though

Any way good progress being made and it's good to see how you're tackling the paint on a big subject like this, oh and you're right it is grey

It most definitely is grey Luciano, but not as big as the Snowberry.. it's close but the Snowberry is definitely bigger.

Luckily I have a room to myself as my hobby room and a couple of workbenches so the Nimitz isn't a problem. First up here are a couple of shots of the island before I start adding antennas etc..





Then it is on to the hose reels.. lots of them.. First we have the original naked build and one of the finished ones..



Then we have a kit reel with one of the PE and plasric ones..



And I think they may be multiplying in this dish..



So I took them out.. 21 hose reels ready to go..



I have started putting them in place after I removed all the masking tape. It also took a while to work out where the ladders I needed for the catwalks were on the fret. I did break one of Warren's rules of modelling, "thou shalt not attach sticky uppy or outty things to a model until the very end" by attaching the ships crane. We will see if it survives..

More photos after I get a bit more done.

Cheers
Warren

Im watching this with alot of enthusiasm! The Carl Vinson is sitting in a box in my basement and is a "to do"

Pretty cool progress here, Warren!!

Those hose reels is something I frequently lose my enthusiasm when I am working on those, don't know why...you did a great job on them! I'd probably tried to put a couple in the dish and wait if they 'multiply'...

Cheers,
Jan

Welcome aboard Brian.

Thanks Jan.

If only it was that easy..

Cheers
Warren

Bet it feel good getting those reels done! Everything is looking great!

It did Todd.

Has anyone got any photos of the catwalk areas of the Nimitz?

Looking good Warren

May I suggest you take the apostrophe out of the blog title so that when you make a post we receive notifications?

I found this was the problem with one of my threads.

Ps you might need Todd to do this.

Thanks Russell.

Suggestion sent to Todd as requested. I will try to remember next time.

Anyway, it's time for another update. First up I decided that the decals were not up to standard for my catapault runs so I started masking..



And masking..



And after then removing all masking tape I ended up with four tracks..



Then while I let everything dry I continued with the life raft containers that surround the flight deck..



There are five different types and you use all but a few of them. After cleaning up far too many sprue attachment points I painted them white and installed them..





Then I removed the way too thick wires from the crane as it made it sit up way too high. Just something else for an aircraft to hit..



Then I thought I may as well start applying the rest of the decals for the deck which are pretty damn good actually. First I applied the Nimitz's famous number..



After that I started on the main markings and got more than half done..



Only a few to go and they are finished. That's it for now.

Cheers

Warren

watching this makes me want to tackle mine.......excellent work!

Thanks Brian!

More decalling progress. Remember these are not finished, just applied and drying. All extrainious substances will disappear after a wash..







I did make one boo-boo. I mistakenly applied decal coat solution rather than decal setting solution to one decal.. it started to dissolve the paint on the deck!! I can see touch ups on the horizon..

Cheers

Warren

Back again.

After finishing off as much of the ship itself as I could I decided to start putting the planes together. There a six A-7E Corsair IIs in the package and I started with the fuselages..





The fit of the fuselages is not too good and will require filling and sanding.. BOO! The best way to describe building and painting lots of little planes is.... tedious.. to me anyway..

Cheers
Warren

That flight deck is looking real nice Warren, good luck with those aircraft and I take it you're not fitting pe cockpits?

Oh just to spur you on, I've started a Russian 'carrier killer' Slave class missile cruiser just waiting for the pe to arrive before I can go any further.

Top of Page 5

A normal control column is about 3 feet long on a 1970's US Navy aircraft? Divide that by 350 and you get a control column is bloody small! Nope, no PE cockpits Luciano....

Warren,

Your Nimitz is looking amazing. I know what you mean about the monotony of the aircraft building. It is the one thing I am not looking forward to with the Yorktown.

Looking forward to seeing more.

Dave

Hi Dave.

Thanks for that. I am past the half way point with the aircraft. I have got most of them together as much as I can and have to wait for my Mr Surfacer 500 to get here so I can fill lots of yawning chasms in the little planes. Here are a few pics. Phantoms galore!.. well 6 of them..



Then an RA-5C, one of the most beautiful aircraft ever in my opinion..



An S-3A..



Two came with the kit, and finally..



Lots of little planes. No A-7 Corsairs in that photo. They are all in a storage box waiting painting when I have finished all these ones up to painting stage. Then it will be gloss white, and then brushing gloss gull grey (gray) as masking so small aircraft would be painful in the extreme.

That's it for now.

Cheers
Warren

The saga continues..







And that is what I have been doing this afternoon.. gluing micro-undercarriages in position. Might get around to applying the first coat of white tomorrow.. we shall see.

Cheers
Warren

Hi Warren,

Looking great with paint on, and air wing looking great fun.

Cheers

Si