denders

Hi Peter, thanks for the comment. I wasn't going to get carried away with all the stencils on this one. But I agree, they make it look great.

We spent last week at the NC shore. There is a nice hobby shop in Jacksonville, NC called Hobby Chest of Jacksonville. I bought this. I'll eventually be hunting information and decals for a Nimitz based aircraft. And the ladies wanted to go to Hobby Lobby. And Hobby Lobby was having 40% off boxed kits sale, so I bought this, it should be interesting.

So, I'll get back to this on now. We spent last week at the NC shore with friends.

Go to it, Carl. I’ll be watching.

Thanks, folks! Chris, that is a decal from the Z-M sheet.

Working on decals. The red fin-cap is painted.

Okay, working on the landing gear. The light gray gear on the left is the kit gear. The gear on the right is the 3D printed AM gear. The kit gear aren't really too bad. There is some nice detail and could be made to look as good as the AM gear with a little bit of work. The AM gear has some extra levers and lines. Some of which I messed up cutting off the 3D printing supports. Some sort of picture with them highlighting what to keep would of course be helpful. I have the AM mains turned the opposite of the kit mains, so you can't see that the loops for tying down the aircraft aren't there. They were until my big thumb pressed on them and broke them off while test fitting the main gear in the aircraft wheel wells. I've already shaped some brass wire to replace them. Next, the wheels. The wheels on the left (light gray) are from the AM landing gear set. The wheels and tires in the middle are the kit wheels and the nose wheels and mains tires on the right are the Z-M AM "flattened" or perhaps "pre-loaded" set. Personally, I like the Z-M parts. It's up to you whether you like the pre-loaded type or not. The kit supplied parts are plastic and the AM stuff is resin, whether 3D printed or cast. Now to do some research and decide which parts I'm going to use.

Thanks, Carl! It was MRP 180 Exhaust Soot sprayed with a Creos 771 with the needle limiter set really tight and 10 psi air.

Well, it obviously didn't take me a week to remove the masking. I kinda feel like some of the colors are a bit too dark. All the metallics are MRP. Nozzles are next and landing gear.

Thanks, Carl! All the painting for the aft engine area is done, except for the nozzles. I feel like it will take a week to get all the masking off.

My grandsons gifted me this kit last Christmas. I'm building it as a Hotrod Pickup. There are loads of hot rod parts in the kit. This is Tamiya Lacquer Mica Red paint. I'm not getting into detailing it because this will most likely end up as a long-term Christmas decoration.

Thanks, guys! Working on all the metallic colors at the aft end. Masking then more masking, then more masking.....................

So, finally got the flag decals, now I'll have to work on that on the Pharris. I'm planning on having the rearmost hangar bay doors of Nimitz open on each side. While I'm not going to light the hangar bay, I wanted to have aircraft there to see when peering through. So, I'm building aircraft now, so I have the aircraft to put in the hangar deck before I put the flight deck on. Lots more tiny pieces. I've only started on the F-14s. Then there are A-7Es, A-6Es/KA-6Ds, E-2Cs, EA-6Bs, SH-3Hs, S-3As, and EA-3Bs. Most of the F-14s with wings spread will probably not be used.

Okay, I masked it up last evening and sprayed the Medium Gunship Gray today. Still lots to do yet.

After some seam touchups, the second gray is on.