I am starting a 1/350 scale of the USS Carl Vinson as it was during the 1983 World Cruise. I will be detailing the hanger bay, all 86 aircraft, modifying the island and hull to match the timeline and ship. It will also include illuminating many areas like flight deck, Island, hanger, and catwalks. It will be using 14 LED’s and over 400 feet of fiber optics. Goal is to have it completed by December. The first challenge is to add the “as-built” sponsons. She only had the original sponsons for a short time. While there is limited photos (online and personal) for these I have been able to replicate them. I have the port forward and starboard aft sponsons mounted and am working on the port aft double-decker sponson.
Here are the aft sponsons roughed in
Front port sponson
Front starboard sponson
I was attached to VA-37 and our squadron was assigned to the ship for the 1983 World Cruise. Leaving Newport News Virginia in March of 1983 and arriving in San Fransisco Bay October of 1983. I previously built a 1/48 scale aircraft of each squadron that was aboard during the cruise. These should be able to assist me with creating the decals for the numerous 1/350 aircraft for this project.
10/12/2017 Update -
It appears the host I used at the beginning of this thread has a time limit on linking pictures. I have since changed to Flickr. If you want to see all the build pictures I created an album on Flickr. The album is at https://www.flickr.com/photos/128642409@N05/albums/72157687002588814
All recent photo’s go to Flickr so they won’t disappear.
what year are you building? because you are building platforms that where not present till late 90’s. if you need a good reference google ray bean his photo Dvd’s r fabilous. also use google or bing. as for the aircraft again it depends on what year. tomcats till 2005 also use f-18c they are the most correct in shape. Finally for hangar deck aircraft use tamiaya
I am building as she was in 1983 during her first deployment. I was aboard the her for the world cruise. The platforms are the original platforms when she was built. They were then changed a few years later (and multiple times since) As for references I have a few pictures from the internet and many personal pictures of when I sailed on her.
This week I modified and detailed the fantail. The crane was scratchbuilt. You may have noticed the holes above and below the fantail. These are going to be needed for the fiber optics (working on them now) for the landing lights. The weathering of the hull will be done after all the modifications to the hull are completed.
No problems. You do nice work keep it up. I would also add a case to your list. One vendor is grandpa cabinets he does excellent work. He built one for my USS Lincoln CVN -72 2001-2003.
here is the link to the build for additonal ideas. A friend of mine built it for me as my retirement gift from 32 years of service between the Navy and Army as gift from wife.
(Note this builder has built almost every ship in the class)
You are going Gang Busters on her aren’t you ? Looking good . Question ! When you get done , are you ever going to build a model again ? I mean , you are putting so much time and effort into this one . T.B.
Spent the morning making a decal set for the Nimitz class hangar bay signs. Have the air, power, AFFF, medical, and fire extinguisher stencils. If anyone wants a high resolution copy to make your own decals, just let me know. I can email them to you. (The Online photo is at 72 dpi and the original is at 600 dpi) Still working on hangar bay 1 detail. Should have more pictures by Sunday.
Spectactular work you’re doing here! A co-worker of mine served on the Carl Vinson from 93-95. I was wondering, other than personal pictures where do you get your documentation from?
I looked through your airplane pictures too. Again very nice work, what do you paint with? I’m amazed at how flat, or lack of gloss they have. Mine seem to come out with a bit of sheen trying different clear coats.
I just searched images on google for USS Carl Vinson. The hard part is trying to figure out which pictures are from what years. Many are of the more recent version due to popularity of the internet and that the Vinson is in the news alot as it is on deployment.
My problem is I was only looking for pictures from the 1983 to 1985 years only. There are very few of them on the internet. Many of my personal ones are of the aircraft so I have to look at the background of pictures and piece together the details and occasionally the background isn’t very sharp since the aircraft was the subject. (many photo’s I have were taken with a mid 1970’s 35mm camera and I was by no means a pro at shooting photo’s back then. LOL) I also use recent pictures and see what details are the same or very close to the same as mine and kind of guess the sections are different or missing. One example that ended up being a “guess” was the starboard wall of hangar bay #1 from the doors forward. For some reason there are only distant shots of this section from any Nimitz class carrier. The only ones I have are mostly blocked by the saucer of the E-2C’s because on the cruise this is where they parked them on the hangar bay to perform maintenance. All I can find in my pictures is the placement of the conflag station and the raised sponson and a few of the pipes.
For my aircraft I use testors Model Master Lusterless Flat spray can. Typically I paint with flat paints and use Microset to place the decals. Once the decals have set for a few minutes, I coat them with Microsol. and let then sit. Then spray a thin coat of the MM lusterless, let dry for about 30 minutes then another thin coat.
