CVN-80 Enterprise Under Construction
Oy. So I started another project a little bit ago using the new Tamiya 1/350 USS Ford kit, which is lovely. Instead of the Ford, I'll be building the Enterprise, which goes to sea in a few years. On the one hand, that means I have free reign. On the bad side, this means my model will be all kinds of wrong in terms of representing the real thing when she sets off on her first voyage. But who cares!
I've never built a model of a ship before, so there are a lot of unknowns to sift through. One icky bit is that ships go through overhauls and change constantly. In this case, it won't be much of a concern. I'm not entirely clear how airwings get assigned to ships or how this is reflected on aircraft markings, even though I understand these move as composite groups between ships. And like with German WWII paint jobs, there is quite a bit discussion regarding colors on modern US Navy ships. In sum, I'm not going to lose too much sleep over these issues and just have a ball.
The kit, as I say, is lovely. Oddly, while the kit comes with the floor of the hangar deck, that is precisely all you get for the hangar. But that's okay because I love to scratchbuild. I started with that, using what scant info I could find on the USS Ford's hangar, filling in gaps with imagination. Of course, a bunch of aircraft and people and stuff will be in the hangar, so I also got a start on the airwing. The kit comes with a slew of F-18s, a handful of F-35Cs, a couple of E-2Ds, some helicopters, and a couple of MV-22s. These little planes are molded pretty well, but the canopies will need to be cast using clear resin, gear doors need to be scrathcbuilt, and so forth - all no big deal and add to the fun. Decals are iffy since they depict wings that are or will be on the Ford, not Enterprise. I guess I'll figure that out later.
Anyway, in addition to a small aircraft manufacturing site in my basement, I now also have a dry dock. The first photo shows the new kit next to the old Tamiya 1/350 CVN-65, which I started soem 25 years ago and may get to some day. The kit is a bear, while the new one is much more of a pleasure to build. I'm not entirely clear why.
