USS Nassau

USS NASSAU

The second ship in this project is the USS Nassau. This kit is also 1/720 scale but is a great deal more detailed. There are a lot more parts in the kit than the Nimitz.

The assembly for this kit is a bit more complex, due in part to the multipart hull this kit has as well as the interior hangar and boat ramps that are visible. Like the Enterprise, I decided to assemble the majority of the model before painting.

Per the instructions, the first step was to build the boat ramp and hangar. This will show in the finished model as the doors on the loading ramp and hangar will be open. 

After the interior was dry, it was glued into the hull halves, then the lower hull was glued in place. There will be some filling and sanding needed here due to the number of exposed joints. 

 Once the hull had dried, I glued the flight deck into place and started assembly on the island. 

There are a LOT more small detail parts to go on the island. This is where the build started to get challenging.

Before I continued to add small parts, I had to take care of some of the joints and mold flaws that needed work. I found a few sink marks on the lower hull that needed to be leveled out as well. 

Sorry for the lack of updates, things were a bit crazy the last week or so, but I did make some progress.....


The hull of the model had a LOT of seams and joints that needed to be filled and sanded. It wasn't something I had planned on putting quite so much work into, but the joints would have looked really bad if I didn't fill them properly. 

 The forward platforms on the Nassau had guns on them at one point, but during my client's time on the vessel they had since been removed. I also had to remove the mooring bollards from the platforms to evenly fill in the gaps around the platforms. I will scratchbuild new bollards once the model is painted.

 This looks like a lot of filler, but most of it will be sanded off. I had to cover a larger area to blend the step from the seam into the hull.

The stern had a few areas which also needed attention.

 I started sanding from the bow and worked my way back. It took a couple of days to do all the sanding, with a few more small areas of putty to even things out.

The only issue that arose from all this filling and sanding was that some of the hull detail was either covered over or sanded off. This was most obvious when looking at the vertical pipes on the hull, which are supposed to go all the way to the waterline. The sanding had removed many of them. Rather than trying to avoid them, I decided to shave them off the hull and make new ones from stretched sprue.

These actually turned out better than the originals, as they are a little thinner than the originals. The model is just about ready for paint; once the port side of the hull is finished the basecoat will be sprayed. Once I had all the sanding finished, I sprayed the entire model with a coat of Gunship Gray. After giving this a day to dry, I masked off the flight deck with Frisket and black drafting tape and airbrushed a coat of Dark Gull Gray on the hull and island. 

 After the paint dried, I removed the masks and started touching up some areas where any paint bled or where masks were too small or diffcult to apply. The island's top surfaces will be brush painted Gunship Gray later.

I decided to let the ship's paint dry for another full day before doing anything else to it. While waiting on the hull, I got started on the aircraft. The Nassau kit has a complement of four Sea Knight and two Sea Stallion helicopters with options to have rotor blades deployed or stowed. I built a couple each way. Since the interior hangars are visible on this kit, I will put a couple of the aircraft in the hangar and the rest on deck. The Nassau also carried Harriers at one time, and I believe I have a few in the correct scale that I may use if the client wants me to. 

I glued each helicopter to a small sprue for ease of handling during painting and assembly. Once complete I stuck the sprues into a block of floral foam. This makes it easy to keep them all in one place without worrying about something being moved or damaged accidentally.
After letting the Nassau dry for a day or two, I was ready to mask and paint the red below the waterline. Once again I used Model Master Insignia Red. 

The red paint bled a little bit along the waterline, but with some touch-ups and the black line still to follow it won't be visible. The waterline stripe on this vessel is actually quite thick. I still need to paint some detail work on the island, and the funnels need to be painted black at the top. I will do these steps after most of the decals and weathering are done. 
Since the majority of paint work is done, I was ready to start decaling the model. Just like before, I spread a wet coat of Micro-Set decal solution on the flight deck, and let it dry before trimming the first decals.

I started with the red and yellow 'safety line' down the center of the deck. It was a little tricky to put down, as this decal is actually in 6 pieces and there are no indicators on the deck for placement. I used white chalk to add a few small hash marks to keep the sections straight. 

I followed with the larger deck numbers and markings around the elevators. After that I applied the various decals on the sides of the hull, bow and stern. I placed the helipad numbers and decals on the island last. All decals got a coat of Micro-Sol to soften the decals and conform them to the surface. 

 

The decals are still a bit shiny, but after another coat or two of Micro-Sol and clear lacquer they will match the finish of the model nicely. 


I still have some decals to apply, but tonight I decided to paint the rest of the lines on the flight deck. The white lines were not provided as decals, so I broke out my thinnest scriptliner and got to work. I actually used a very light gray instead of white first - the lighter gray will help the white cover better on the next coat, and the contrast isn't so great that a mistake will be hard to fix.

I also repainted the centerline on the runway with a white paint stripe, but I should have looked more closely because my reference photos show it as yellow. Fortunately the lighter color will help the yellow stand out a bit better. I'll put yellow over it tomorrow once it's dry. The dashed lines on either side of the centerline will be white. Why the kit didn't provide decals for this is beyond me.....it would certainly make things move faster!

Nearly finished! The majority of the detail painting is done, and the only decals left to apply are on the aircraft. I repainted the yellow centerline as well as going over the light gray lines with a coat of white. It was painstaking but the results are worth it. All that is left to do now is the waterline, a flat clearcoat and some light weathering. I didn't cover weathering much on the Nimitz, so I will go into that in some detail another time.

It's been a long time, but the Nassau is complete! Sorry for the extended delay. 


I ran into some difficulties with the last of the detailing on this kit. The hull details made it tough to get consistent waterline markings with paint or markers and masking, to I decided to try out my decal paper and make my own. 


I shot a small section of decal paper (about 2" x 8") with black spraypaint and let it dry overnight. I then cut it into 1/16" strips to apply to the model with water and decal solution. This decal material is thicker than I'm used to so it took a lot of coaxing and even more setting solution to get it to lay down, but I finally got it to cooperate. 

Once the rest of the decals were done, I applied a very minimal grey weathering to the flight deck and a few other areas. After that, I mounted the model on its stand and prepared it for shipping to my client.