USS Nimitz

USS NIMITZ


I recently was awarded a commission from a gentleman to build a model of each ship he served on in the Navy. The first project is the USS Nimitz (CVN - 68). This will be a straight from the box build, but with some special paint techniques and basic detailing. This first post will cover the basic construction. 

The kit I'm building is an older Italeri model, so the detail isn't quite as crisp as the newer kits but it's still a nice one. I started out by laying out the parts to check and see if anything was missing.

This kit is 1/720 scale, so there are not a ton of parts. The main assembly is fairly straightforward. 

The first thing to do was to split the hull, which was molded with a gap at the waterline for builders who choose to model the ship at sail. to build it on the display stand as my customer wants, I have to cut the halves apart and file the edges down flush. 

Once the filing was done, I glued the hull back together. there is a little bit of a step that will need to be smoothed out later, once the major subassemblies are built an in place. I glued the flight deck down and clamped it until dry. 


The island is the next assembly, which also has some gaps/seams which will need smoothing.

The rest of the detail parts went on easily. I've found after many years of modeling small parts that it's often easier to assemble the kit before painting. There are some other antennas and rigging that need to go on, but those are fragile and will go on last.

I applied a layer of Squadron Green putty on the waterline and let it dry overnight. 

Once the filler was completely cured, I wet-sanded the filler with 150 and 400 grit sandpaper.  I'll sand it once more later just to make sure it's completely smooth. The nice thing about the seam though is that it's still visible as a perfectly straight line that I can use as a masking guide for painting later.

Once the basic construction on the ship was done, I started working on the aircraft. There really isn't any assembly for most of them, with the exception of  the E2 Hawkeyes and Sea Stallion helicopter.

I decided to build one Hawkeye with folded wings. Most of the other aircraft will be modified to have their wings folded as well. It's more accurate when the aircraft are parked, and it also adds some easy detail. 

I have already folded the wings on the A6 Intruders, and most of the Tomcats will have their wings cut into the swept position. 

After a final sanding on the hull and a few other places that needed smoothing out, I sprayed the whole model with a solid coat of Model Master Gunship Gray. This is the color called for in the instructions for the deck, but I used it as a basecoat for the whole model since it is the darkest color I'll be using. 

Once this coat was dry, I masked the entire deck with clear Frisket Film so I could paint the lighter gray walkways and the hull. 

Once the mask was in place, I sprayed the island, hull and walkways with Model Master Gull Gray. I then took the frisket mask off, but I'm keeping it for now in case I need it again. 

After letting the lighter gray dry, I masked the waterline with black crepe drafting tape to spray the red. I used a couple layers of tissue paper to wrap the rest of the model for protection from overspray. I also removed the mast and antennas to avoid breaking them accidentally. I'll glue them back on during assembly.

I decided on Model Master Insignia Red for the  lower hull. I was a little worried it might be too bright, but fortunately it darkens a bit over the gray, and looks quite close to my reference information. 

After drying, I removed the tissue and tape.....

I still need to paint the waterline in black, I think in this scale it will be about 1/16 of an inch tall. I will likely cut a stripe mask out of adhesive backed vinyl for it later. I did find one or two minor areas of overspray but they were easily touched up. During the drying stages of the hull, I started painting the aircraft. Most of them will be Gull Gray with white undersides, but I will be tinting the gray lighter on some planes for variety.

Once I'm happy with the basecoat and white, I will paint the canopies, intakes and engines. There's really not much else I can paint at this scale. My one other concession to detailing is drilling out the engines when they are visible, as seen on the F14 on the right in this image.

At this stage, there isn't much left to do on the Nimitz except for the last few detail pieces and some touch up. the first step in finishing up the hull was to mask and paint the black waterline stripe. "Paint" is a bit of a cheat as I actually used a black permanent marker as it was less likely to bleed under the vinyl masking tape. 

I'm quite happy with the result - the ink bled in only a couple of places, so touch ups will be easy. 

That pretty much does it for the Nimitz - now on to the planes! (And the last few teeny tiny parts on the ship).

Completed!

The Nimitz is finished. It took a while to get all the aircraft painted, and the decals took a while too. I'll be shipping it to the client this week. 

 The Intruders were modified with folded wings, correct for parked aircraft.

 The aircraft were painted Gull Gray with white undersides, and flat black for canopy, intake and engine detail. On a larger scale kit the aircraft are much more detailed.

 I modified all the Tomcats to have swept wings, as this is correct for a parked aircraft. It's a fairly simple process, the wings are cut off at the root and trimmed to fit at the correct angle.