1/350 scale CVN-90 USS United States Stealth Aircraft Carrier

[seadude]

Might also be cooking oil or old grease from the galley.

I don't think so.    That would be too much of a fire hazard near the flight deck.
Anyway, on another forum, I did get confirmation that the blue barrels do contain AFFF firefighting solution.
But then, that just begs more questions?    Why store it on the catwalks?
All the green AFFF reels as well as the regular soft hose racks are connected to pipework and outlets in the catwalks to get their AFFF solution and/or water from internal ship tanks and holding areas.
I'm speculating here, but I wonder if the blue barrels are used to help refill the P25 firefighting crash vehicles with AFFF solution?

[kerick]

I bet there is someone on this site that could drop you a few F-18s. If they area in the US postage wouldn't be much.

[seadude]

I bet there is someone on this site that could drop you a few F-18s. If they area in the US postage wouldn't be much.

Thanks, but right now, my need for more F-18E, F, and G's is on temporary hold. I haven't made up my mind yet on if I will get any more.

[seadude]

So near, yet so far.
There's still quite a bit of work to do on the carrier. But most of it has already been built, painted, and decaled, so that all I have to do is add it to the model.
But I can't add most of that stuff till I get the flight deck painted and the island superstructure installed.
And painting the flight deck is what scares me the most. Screw it up too much and it's game over. This whole project will have been for nothing.
And it's not just painting the flight deck that takes time, but decaling it too. There's a lot.........and I do mean A LOT........of decals to add to the flight deck.
So here's a complete breakdown to the best of my knowledge of everything that still needs finishing.

1. Need photoetch flight deck edge safety nets. The only way to get these is with larger frets of carrier photoetch that cost around $60-70. Not sure I'm willing to pay that much. I do have spare photoetch safety nets from other models that maybe I could substitute. But will it look right?
2. Paint flight deck tractors and forklifts.
3. Display case and base to be made.
4. Add four arresting wires on flight deck, but after the flight deck has been painted and decaled.
5. Decal all aircraft. (Will start on this soon.)
6. Fix the flight deck area where the island superstructure sits as the island does not sit "level" on the flight deck.
7. Add white flight deck edge "bumpers", but only after the flight deck has been painted.
8. Paint entire flight deck.
9. Add decals to entire ship.

Add NULKA decoy launchers to model.
Add LSO platform and safety basket to model.
Add optical landing system to model.
Add landing instrumentation tower to model behind island superstructure.
Add 55 gal. blue drum containers on catwalks.
Add Mk.36 SRBOC chaff launchers.
Add all AFFF firefighting hose reels and fire extinguishers.
Add flight deck edge ordnance jettison ramps.
Add all life racks/canisters.
Add Mk.38 25mm guns.
Add SMQ-11 radar.
Add SLQ-59 ECM systems.
Add more photoetch fire hoses and hatches.
Buy, build, and paint MQ-25 unmanned refueling aircraft.
Buy, build, and paint tilly crash retrieval crane.
Add aircraft elevators.
Add whip antennas and radomes along flight deck edge.
Add all refueling hose reels on catwalks.
Add flight deck crew? (Not sure on this.)
Add possibly 8-10 .50 cal machine guns along catwalks.
Add aircraft to flight deck.

[Old Wombat]

    

[NARSES2]

   

Precisely

Best of luck Seadude 

[kerick]

But it will be awesome when it done!
That's what I tell myself every time I start a home improvement project......

[seadude]

PART 1 MINI UPDATE.

As I may have said in past posts, I need some photoetch flight deck edge safety nets for my model carrier. On a real carrier, such nets help to prevent crew from going overboard. The first pic below shows the old Gold Medal Models photoetch fret for the TAMIYA Enterprise carrier. The area outlined in red indicates the photoetch safety nets. While I wish I could get this fret, the price of it is in the $60-70+ range. So I have to ask myself, do I really want to spend the money just for those safety nets only, and leaving everything else on the fret unused? Is it worth it? The second pic below shows yellow lines that indicate where photoetch safety nett need to go on my carrier if I decide to add them.

[seadude]

PART 2 MINI UPDATE

The first pic below is from the TAMIYA Enterprise instruction manual and is pretty self explanatory.
The second pic below is all the possible locations of items I plan to add around the circumference of the flight deck. But nothing is finalised yet.

[seadude]

PART 3 MINI UPDATE

There's going to be plenty of decals to add to this carrier. Thank goodness I've got plenty of spares in case I screw up. Well, almost as I used some decals for past ship model projects. The first three pics below are all old decal sheets from Gold Medal Models. To the best of my knowledge, I don't think anybody makes these anymore.
The fourth pic below is the instruction sheet for small decals for the 1/350 scale USS Wasp amphibious assault ship. I've got leftover decals for that ship that I will use for the white flight deck edge coamings on my carrier. See the upper right corner of the instruction sheet.
The fifth and last pic below is brand new Enterprise carrier decals that I got in the vendor area while at the IPMS/USA Nats last year. They are from Starfighter Decals website.

[Captain Canada]

Wild ! So many details. Love to see this in person when she's all done, really look into it and appreciate all the work.

 

[seadude]

As strange..........and early..........as this sounds, I'd like to ask a request from the forum membership.

This carrier represents probably the biggest model I have ever put together so far. Whenever I take a model to a contest or other exhibition, I always write up some sort of paper(s) describing construction methods, history (Fictional or real), and other bits of information and/or pictures to put next to the model for spectators and judges to read. This carrier will be no different.
The hardest contest to write a construction and historical papers for (Which is mandatory required) is a model ships and boats contest I go to every year in May. I want to take this carrier to that contest next year in 2026. Next year has special meaning as it is the 250th anniversary of America's independence and my carrier is named the USS United States.
I have the construction paper done for my carrier model, but not the historical paper.
I'm looking for any suggestions from anybody on how I might go about writing that. The historical paper must be written about the historical account of the actual real ship (Of which my carrier model isn't) or vessel type represented by the model (Which might be easier to write).

[Steel Penguin]

its a bit of a weak idea, but you could take a real history add 20 or 30 years to each date and then black line anything too readily identifiable,  and put a small paste board saying its all thats currently released and still heavily redacted, due to operational reasons