denders

Cool, John! I built the Kitty Hawk kit (I think it was the Kitty Hawk kit) right after we moved in 2019. It definitely looks different.

OKay, this part of the project is finally done. I finally got the flag rigged. And all of the aircraft for Nimitz are built. One of the 'fun' things is that the aircraft all have their wings extended, except for the F-14s, so, I had to cut off wing sections to make them folded. The next step for them is to paint them. The F-14s are half are extended, and half are swept which means that I won't use all of them in the final version. Another fun thing will be that not all aircraft in the photos in the cruise book are gray. Some are still in the light gull gray over white. Onward!

Anyone else watch the announcement on Squadron TV? It seems that Squadron has acquired Scale Colors. Jeff Herne was there for the announcement too.

Not a whole lot of progress, with Christmas, New Years, and having Grandsons for several days. I was working on those tiny clear airplanes for another project, but I needed to clean up my workspace in case one of the boys wanted to work on something. So, back to this, I decided that I need to get this finished. I made a mess of the clear blue on the windscreen. Oh well. I'm not sure where the problem is, but the clear piece of the HUD interferes with the windscreen piece. I need to get some canopy glue under some of the windscreen so I can then paint it the dark gray to hide the gap. This is the kit landing gear leg, not the oval shaped indent. There is a similar raised section on the gear door which helps greatly in properly positioning the gear door. The indent was not on the AM landing gear leg, therefore, I had to use a small chisel tool to remove the raised section on the gear door and had to eyeball the gear door position. Also, it's about time that I start painting the aircrew. First time using oils.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!!!

Still working away. The last of the decals are on. I've been fighting with panel lines. The usual panel line 'paint' has not been working to satisfaction on this one. Despite letting it dry for a couple of hours, it all wipes off when I try to clean up the excess.

Okay, this one is done.

Thanks for checking Hubert. I was on my phone and really able to go searching.

Chris, thanks, the color is Tamiya lacquer Mica Red. Fullarmor, I got those blocks from MicroMark, years ago. The piece they’re sitting on is magnetic sheet on a piece of plywood. I used a white pen to make the grid. All from about ~30+ years ago. I saw the idea in a magazine.

It's getting there.

All the decals are on the main airframe. There are decals to go on the canopies and weapons. I wasn't sure whether I was going to put the '30 years, etc.' and the big spook on it, but I did.

I haven't posted much on this, but I've been working on it.

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.