Just bought a 1/350 enterprise off ebay new for 100.00 dollars, i think thats real cheap considering looking on net ranging from 139-169. Can't wait to start building if you have any pointers please email [email protected] thanks again

Ahoy, mate!
Tamiya's Enterprise? Fantastic kit, mate, loads of features, decent accuracy, as well...check around, mate, there are some fantastic aftermarket upgrades available that will make this build into a museum quality specimen...keep us updated of your progress, any questions, you know where to find us!
Advice, well, take yer time, and HAVE FUN!!
Keep Modeling,
~Gunny

That is a very good price. Have fun!

Gator

I worked a similar price out a few years back. Still haven't touched it yet. Thereis a real nice reference book you can get from squadron called detail and s cale. The author specificaly addrress this kit in a chapter. I think Gold Medal Models has a real good PE set for it, and of course if you really want to upgrade your aircraft, buy the Trumpeter 350 scale aircraft.....they are light years beyond the Tamiya stuff, but cost a lot more. I think on discount you may averagge out. Buy the Aircraft from Luckymodels or Easyhobby in China. If you only get 3 or 4 boxes at a time postage is real cheap. There are also a few decal sets out there for Airwings and I think some deck and island stuff. Take your time and get all your goodies together for this one dude. It may come out as good as the Nimitz with all the trimmings I mentioned.

Having built this one myself and then going back and "re-building" it afterwards when all the PE started showing up, I completely agree with Steve. This kit can really look terrific with the GMM PE.

The reference book Steve mentioned is absolutely worth every penny to help go around the model and add/improve the build. The book shows the ship as she looked in the mid-late 80's and so keep that in mind. I noticed a lot of things in the photos that the kit didn't do right, so if you don't mind doing some scratch building to make it like the photos you can really do a good job.

I also would recommend getting the Trumpeter aircraft (and probably the aftermarket decals) as well. I bought extra Tamiya aircraft to create the entire air wing and did a lot of hand painting. Had the other stuff been available at the time I absolutely would have gone that route, but now that I'm done, I won't go back.

And not to be too much of an accuracy freak, but since the way a ship looks (and the composition of the airwing!) change over time, you should consider matching the two. For the Enterprise, since the Detail and Scale book shows the way the ship looked at that time, unless you have as detailed a reference from a different time, your airwing composition should be what it was during the same period. I chose to create Carrier Air Wing 11 during a late 80's cruise, and do the aircraft in the low viz scheme. That means you'll have F-14s, A-7s, A-6s, (some KA-6Ds), EA-6Bs, HS-3s, the E-3s, and the S-3s. I don't believe that any F-4s would have still been on the ship when she looked like the photographs in the reference book, and by the time in the early 90s when the F/A-18s started replacing the A-7s I think there were several modifications to the ship not reflected in the book.

If you're interested in the complete details of Air Wing composition (Squadrons, type, side numbers and dates) I've got some pretty good references.

Tom

Blaster and thataway thanks for all your help, can you tell what colors i will need for the model. I looked at the pe parts and will give it sometime before i start putting everything together. Any other help you can give, because this will be my first model build.

You know, that's a good question. When I built mine, I just used the Tamiya colors called for in the instructions for the ship. I'm not sure if those are necessarily the best and most accurate colors to use. I know Steve built a Nimitz class not too long ago and the ship colors for the Enterprise would be the same. There may be some more accurate colors than the Tamiya called out in the kit instructions.

As far as the aircraft are concerned, if you're going with the full color scheme, you'll need standard gull gray (FS 36440) over white for the aircraft, with some areas ( the wing walk and over-sweep areas on top of the fuselage) being dark gull gray (FS 36231).

I'm going to have to check my resources to get which color was used for the "low-viz" scheme.


Tom

I use Modelmaster Enamels. For the decks (the Trumpeter kit has the hanger deck) I used Gunship Gray. For the rest of the ship, hull sides and island I used a light gray. Just try to match one close to your painting. I used the German Lichtgrau which was the same as used on the Kriegsmarine surface ships (Bismarck)But other colors will work well to. I am sure John Snyder has enamel based White Ensign paint tins that are "perfectly matched" You may have to buy a couple of each of those as this is one rellly big kit. As I know Tom will attest, this is a lengthy project. I was unemployed at the time so I had plenty of hours in the day to work on my Nimitz....it still took close to 4 months.

Steve is right. This can be a lengthy, but very rewarding project. The Detail and Scale book is really a "must have" if you want to take the time to improve the Tamiya kit.

The differences would of course never be noticed by the casual observer, so it's totally up to each individual just how much extra lengths they want to go to. But I know that once I start looking at the photos and comparing them to the kit, I can't stop myself from getting out the sheet styrene and trying to make the kit actually look like the real ship.

As far as the air wing goes, if you decide to make the ship look like what's in the detail and scale photos, it puts you in a somewhat narrow window for what wing and squadrons are, if you choose to go for historical accuracy. The book shows Enterprise the way she looked after her major overhaul which started in 1979, and before her next major re-fit which started in 1990. During that period, CVW-11 was the wing that always deployed with her, and the composition was pretty much the same. That is VF-114, VF-213 (F-14A), VA-22, VA-94 (A-7E), VA-95 (A-6E and KA-6D), VAW-117 (E-2C), VAQ-113 (EA-6B), HS-6 (SH-3H), and VS-21 (S-3A)

The only difference is that from May 1984 through Jan 1986, VS-33 was the S-3 suadrron instead of VS-21, and starting in October 1987, VAQ-135 replaced VAQ-133 as the EA-6B squadron.

As far as painting goes, it's hard to get real precise. During this period most squadrons first went to overall light gull gray (FS 36440) and gradually replaced colored markings with gray and black. Then the "official" tactical 3 color scheme came in which was a combination of FS 35237 on the tops and FS 36375 on the bottom with FS 36320 on the sides! This scheme was supposed to not have any colored markings, but reference photos seem to make it clear that not everyone followed the rules.

If you're going to use the aftermarket decals, I'd probably just paint everything with the light gull gray and used the low viz rather than the color for the markings.

And if you're planning on doing a complete air wing, I can let you know the side numbers that each squadron used for aircraft in the squadron.

Tom