Mini Hobby 80502 1/350 Scale USS Enterprise CVN-65 Early

[Mikey25252]

The kit on my workbench

Part 1

The first USS Enterprise was a 70 ton sloop armed with 4 twelve pound cannon captured from the British in 1775 on Lake Champlain. She was burned in 1777 to prevent recapture. The second Enterprise was a originally a private 8 gun schooner built in Maryland that served on Chesapeake Bay and around Maryland during the same time. The third Enterprise was a 135 ton, 85 foot schooner armed with 6 twelve pounders. She served with the Navy from 1799 to 1823 when she ran aground and was lost. During her career she fought in the undeclared war with France from 1799 to 1801 and in the Mediterranean during the Barbary Coast Pirate Wars. She was rebuilt and up gunned to 16 twelve pounders fighting in the war of 1812 when she captured the British brig Boxer. The fourth Enterprise was a schooner of 194 tons armed with ten guns built at the New York Navy Yard. She entered service in 1831 and served in the Atlantic, Pacific and the East India Station. She was sold in 1845. The fifth Enterprise was a wooden steam powered Corvette displacing 1375 tons and was nearly 200 feet long. She was armed with 10 guns and crewed by 184 men. She operated in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and the West Indies. She would become a training ship and was sold in 1909. The sixth Enterprise was a private yacht converted to a Motor Patrol Boat for service in World War I. She was purchased in 1916 and sold in 1919.

The first six ships named Enterprise served proudly but the seventh, CV-6 made a memorable name for herself during WWII. She was built in the late 1930’s at the Newport Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company. The keel was laid in July, 1934 and she was launched on October 3, 1936. She was commissioned in 1938 and was the second ship of the Yorktown class, 1 of 3 purpose built aircraft carriers. The Navy’s first. Of the three, only Enterprise would survive WW II. At one point she was the only aircraft carrier in the Pacific. She was the first vessel to sink an enemy combat ship, the submarine I-70. She fought in every major battle in the Pacific and was the most decorated ship in US Naval History receiving 19 battle stars. She was the only ship to receive both the Presidential and Navy Unit Citations. The Japanese called her the Blue Ghost after reporting sinking her several times. Of all the ships built during the war she truly deserved to be set aside as a monument or museum. Tragically she was sold for scrap in 1958 despite the efforts to preserve her. Six portholes from the bridge of CV-6 were removed and used on the Captain’s cabin on CVAN-65. These are to be moved to CVN-80 which will next bear the name of Enterprise.

The keel of USS Enterprise CVAN-65 was also laid down at Newport Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company on February 4, 1958. She was launched on September 24, 1960 and was commissioned into the US Navy on November 25, 1961. She first put to sea as a commissioned vessel in January of 1962. In 1975 she was re-designated as a CVN and would remain so for the rest of her service. In 2012 she would complete her final deployment, decommission and be consigned for scrapping. During that 51 year period she would deploy overseas 25 times. After her first overseas deployment she returned to homeport only to put to sea again for the Cuban Missile Crisis. She made 6 combat deployments to Vietnam between 1965 and 1972. During the 1975 deployment she participated in the evacuation of Saigon. Over the course of the War on Terrorism she participated in every major action except Desert Shield/Storm because of a yard period. She served on the East coast, moved to the West coast and returned to the East. 23 Captains commanded her. Over the course of her career she was awarded 19 medals and ribbons, many awarded multiple times. She was the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier and the 8th ship of the U.S. Navy to bear the name Enterprise.

CVAN-65 was 1,123 feet long overall, 1,040 feet at the waterline. Her maximum width is 257 feet with a beam of 133 feet at the waterline. From her keel to the top of the mast she was 269 feet in her 1978 configuration. She was so tall that the UHF mast extension was designed to fold over to get under the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges. She displaced 90,000 tons fully loaded. Various armament configurations were tried over her career but because of budget limitations Enterprise was armed with only her air wing for defense as launched. She went down in history as the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier.

In February, 1958 I was not quite 3 years old. The keel laying made no impression on me. I might have heard her name on the news a time or two as I grew up. In 1969 I watched the news reports in horror while she burned. In 1972 I was in my junior year of high school, a C & D student. A level of scholarship attained more from not trying than any fault of the school, curriculum or the teachers. I had no interest in going to college and generally disliked school. I’d had a part time job since I was 13 so I had no aversion to work just the classroom. I spent most of my free time building model airplanes and day dreaming about flying. When I wasn’t doing that I was riding or working on my motorcycle. I never took the SAT or the ACT college placement tests, I barely did homework. In December of 1972 the draft lottery was held and I watched it with my best friend. This lottery was for men born in 1955 who would be of age (18) in 1973 (Me). They drew my birthday early, I believe as number 44! It turned out that this would be the last year of the draft. The1973 lottery was held but never filled. The All Volunteer Military arrived a year too late for me. My friend was destined for college. Knowing that there was no deferment in my future, I decided to make the rounds of the Armed Forces Recruiters. Better to enlist and get some choice was my thinking at the time. I went with the Navy.

The Navy recruiter in my hometown of Findlay, Ohio was a Chief Aviation Electronics Technician named Don La Favour (I hope I spelled that right Don). He was primarily in patrol aircraft. He had served as aircrew and he was matter of fact, and I felt, honest. After testing me he said that I could virtually ask for any enlisted program and get it. Apparently I had learned something after all. He offered me a six year active duty nuclear power program and then a similar advanced avionics program. I only wanted to serve the minimum and then get out. I told him that all I wanted to do was work on airplanes. He seemed to understand that. I had worn glasses since the fourth grade, so I thought that I probably wouldn’t qualify for any flight program. Working on planes was better than nothing. (I could have gone aircrew after all but when I was rated an Aviation Fire Control Technician there were no flying billets available for my rate.) Chief La Favour was able to guarantee a school seat in 1 of 4 aviation electronics ratings providing I could pass the schools, AT, Aviation Electronics Technician AQ, Aviation Fire Control Technician, AX, Aviation Antisubmarine Warfare Technician or TD, Tradevman or more correctly Training Device Man (More school yay!) So I enlisted in the Navy for a standard 4 year enlistment. (4 years active and 2 more in the reserves, the least amount I could serve for and still get my guaranteed school seat.

He also got me a delayed entry which let me enjoy a final summer vacation with my friends. On September 22, 1973 I arrived at Great Lakes Naval Training Center at 0200 as a Seaman Recruit and began a 22 year career with the Navy. I surely did not know that I would stay that long at the time. I got my draft call-up in October while still in boot camp. They do start out “Greetings…” I took the letter to my Company Commander and asked him what I should do. His answer was to have me drop and give him 50, He said, “The draft can’t have your a_ _ because your a_ _ belongs to the Navy!” By the end of boot camp I knew that I did not want to be a TD because they were virtually on permanent shore duty and they worked on trainers not aircraft. So of course I was designated a TD out of Boot Camp.

From December of 1973 to June of 1975 I went to various Navy Schools. For a guy that hated school it seemed endless. But it was an eye opener too seeing how math and physics all worked together to become electronics and it all slowly was made clear and even interesting to me. The Navy also provided a little better motivational tools than the public schools did, at least in my case. Pass or get stuck in some s_ _ _ job. While I was attending Avionics “A” School I happened to ask if there was a way to change rates during class. Turns out one of my classmates who was designated an AQ, wanted to be a TD because it was his father’s rate. By virtue of a pair of Special Request Chits, the Navy’s version of you can ask for anything and maybe you’ll get it forms, we were able to exchange positions.

In 1974 or 75 the Navy began airing a new batch of television recruiting commercials while I neared the end of my schooling. One of them stands out to this day, Drum roll, “Dawn, the South China Sea, flight deck of the USS Enterprise. You are there.” Some scenes of aircraft on the flight deck and it finished up with “Join the Navy it’s not just a job, it’s an adventure!” I was on my way.

In February of 1975 I reported to NAS Lemoore, California for training at VA 122 (Attack Squadron or ATKRON 122) (again more school). I arrived obligated for 6 years of active duty as a Third Class Petty officer. Something I signed up for while in Tennessee. But this time I was learning my trade and it was a hands-on type of school. I would be part of the Integrated Weapons Team (IWT) for the LTV (Ling, Tempco, Vought) A-7E Corsair II. I learned about the RADAR, Inertial Navigation System, the Tactical Computer, Weapons Delivery, Heads Up Display and a plethora of other equipment. It was actual work on the airplane. While there, two of my classmates and I were told to be prepared to travel immediately overseas. This was during the evacuation of Saigon. We remained on standby for a couple of weeks. In the end we finished our school normally. In June of 1975 I finally checked aboard VA-27. My first fleet unit, the “Royal Maces, were assigned to CVW-14 (Carrier Air Wing 14) which deployed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise! In January of 1976 the Air Wing went aboard Enterprise for the first time in the deployment cycle as she began REFTRA, (Refresher Training,) this was my first time at sea.

I spent a total of six years with VA-27, two back-to-back sea tours. I made two sets of work-ups and two full deployments to the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean, (WESTPAC/IO) aboard the “Big E” and another deployment aboard the USS Coral Sea CV-43. It turns out that I was good at electronic repair and troubleshooting. I liked what I was doing and so I had stumbled into a job that was my niche in the world, it caught my interest. I became a part of something bigger than just me, a valued member of a team. I found that working on jets on the flight deck was an adventure all right. I saw the world. I saw a bunch of water horizon to horizon too. The stars at night are something to behold at sea. I have a good collection of “Sea Stories that I love to trot out upon meeting (drinking) with other old salts. Most have some element of truth to them. Not long after I left VA-27 I was advanced to First Class Petty Officer.



Enterprise outward bound from Alameda in 1978

I wanted a model of my first ship as she looked during the 1978 deployment with a full air wing, a time rich in memories for me. This was the ship’s final deployment with the beehive island and my second. I originally set out to build the 1/400 scale Aurora/Monogram/Revell, (A/M/R) kit of the Big E. (They even sold the Aurora version in the Enterprise ship’s store.) In 1992 a friend gave me his Aurora kit which he had started on. Later I found a Monogram version with a more modern air wing and I obtained one Arii aircraft set. I started on it in 2006 this was almost 20 years after I got the Aurora kit. I got a good way into building up a hanger bay for that kit. I had several errors corrected too.

As I labored over the hanger bay I kept finding new photos of the ship almost as soon as I scratch built a part which then required a rework of what I had just done. I quit trying to proceed on memory for everything. I made a good set of drawings to pin down details after scouring the internet for photos. The drawings were based on the 1/400 scale model. First I drew the hanger bay and then the exterior and finally some of the aircraft. I still fiddle with those drawings making corrections. Despite my best efforts I was unable to get any more aircraft sets. The only available one was the Otaki/Arii aircraft set which while not great had all the right types of planes except for the EA-3B Skywarriors. Shapeways sold several aircraft in that scale, but they were expensive and not all that good for the money. I could not find more of the Arii sets or if I did the seller wanted a prohibitive amount of money. With everything I had it wasn’t even half of the full air wing.



Work in progress on the hanger on the Monogram kit. I worked in a motorcycle shop at the time the and some of the plastic came from license plate inserts that I kept when the store changed it's name.

There were very few aftermarket parts available in 1/400 scale. There wasn’t even a purpose made set of photoetch. I learned how to make my own photoetch starting with the grated elevators. But this is very messy and labor intensive. Because of that and a warped and twisted hull that wouldn’t stay straight, (despite boiling water and clamping to a flat surface). I finally relegated it to the shelf of doom. I purchased the Arii kit of the early Enterprise but while it has better detail than the Monogram version, disappointingly it isn’t as accurate dimensionally. So I decided to get a 1/350 scale model having seen the Tamiya kit built up in many online posts and magazine articles. It looked very good although most of the builder’s spoke of errors they didn’t specify exactly what. There are a bunch of aftermarket items including additional aircraft in 1/350 scale. You can even buy a 3D printed hanger bay if you can afford it.



Elevator 4 from the Monogram kit with my photoetch grate.

Tamiya released their kit of the USS Enterprise CVN-65 in1984. Trumpeter produced what most sources say was a copy of the Tamiya kit in the 1990’s and then in 2001, Mini Hobby got the molds and brought out two versions of the kit, number 80501, Modern and 80502, Early. I found a source in China on eBay and purchased an “Early” version and waited nearly 6 months to get it because of the COVID pandemic. The early version turned out to be the same as the modern with the exception of 2 parts to represent the early beehive island. And those are not accurate. All the sponsons for the modern version are also present on the early version kit, CIWS mounts, MK-29 missile launchers, life raft canisters, antennas and the mast are in both kits. None of which is correct for the ship before 1980. There aren’t any alternate parts trees to truly represent the early version. The one advantage of the Mini Hobby kits is that they are significantly cheaper than the Tamiya. Mine was less than $50.00 and no shipping.



The instruction booklet



The motorization addendum



The parts in the box



Motor, battery box, transmission, metal parts and stand



The decal sheets the color is a bit too blue and the deck hatch decals should be a white center surrounded by a red and yellow band. The Tamiya sheet is the same but the blue color is more correct.



Sprue A


Sprue B



Sprue C



Sprue D. Note the beehive parts, those are the only things in the kit to represent the early version of the Enterprise.



Sprue E (X 2)



Sprue P (X 8) If you compare this to the Tamiya aircraft set number 1 you will see they are the same.



The Hull in the box (note that it is fitted together)



Hull and flight deck components compared to the 1/350 scale Fletcher class destroyer

In the box you will find 6 sprues of ship parts, 8 of aircraft, 3 sections of flight deck, a 3 piece hull which is fitted and screwed together but not glued up, 2 sections of stand, a bag of motorization parts and some metal braces and screws. There is a small sheet of decals for the ship and another for the aircraft. Essentially the same stuff with minor differences compared to the Tamiya kit. There is a 20 page, 7 3/8 x 10 ¼) black and white instruction booklet and an additional addendum sheet showing assembly of the motorization components. I watched a You Tube series by Ken Chee Kum , (Modelar)and he says that these motors are often in Mini Hobby Kits. Watching his build brought out a lot of the issues I would face. He used the Eduard photo etch in his build. I find that watching others building models to be very helpful. You can pick up great techniques and have a better idea of the pitfalls. The ship parts are in medium grey plastic except the lower hull which is appropriately in red, while the aircraft are light grey and the stand is black. The sprues are all bagged but not separately, 2 or more are bagged together. And all the aircraft are in one bag. The model is boxed in a sturdy cardboard tray but this is annoyingly slid into an end opening cardboard box. As soon as I started working on the model I modified the box so it could be opened from the top.

My first impression was this is the Tamiya kit. But the detail is on the soft side. None of the sponsons have the cut outs for the elevator supports to pass through. The A/M/R version has these. The upper hull is the same as Tamiya’s in the front and back sections but then it is further divided at the waterline. The Mini Hobby box is long enough to hold the full hull so they could have made the hull without the separate bow especially since the waterline section is a single piece. The flight deck is broken into 3 sections so you can access the batteries in the hull after you motorize it. I vaguely remember the Tamiya kit could be motorized also when it was first released. The beehive island part was reported to be oval rather than round in a review I read, but measuring with a digital caliper shows the parts to be the same in X - Y dimensions. The upper beehive should have 6 rows of Alford T type receiving dipole antennas. Four rows are exposed, some 240 little T’s. Thankfully the upper 2 rows were so fragile they were encased in a protective tube. The kit does not have anything to represent these. Their flight deck breaks down the same way as the Tamiya kit’s, even the metal brackets are similar. The switch for the motor would stick up through the flight deck midsection though! I can’t find any indication of this in any Tamiya builds. The decals for the ship appear to be too light in the blue areas.

I had picked up a Tamiya instruction booklet and a decal sheet from eBay and compared the two kits based on instruction guides. The sprues are lettered the same but they are not laid out identically. The part numbers are not the same. The Tamiya kit appears to have elevator 1 molded with the flight deck and you add the support structure to the underside. The remaining 3 are assembled from 3 parts. All the Mini Hobby elevators are molded separately, but only elevator 1 has a separate underside support structure. The remaining elevators assemble from 2 parts. The aircraft sprues will allow you to build 40 aircraft total but there will be 8 A-7E and 8 F/A-18A or C aircraft. No air wing included both types it was one or the other. Like the Tamiya kit there are no E-2B/C, SH-3D/H or EA-6B’s. Tamiya does make a second aircraft set to cover these planes and also adds F-4C Phantoms. F-4’s were replaced in most air wings by the F-14A’s again one or the other type. F-14’s couldn’t fly from Midway Class or earlier carriers.

I had purchased a set of scale drawings from the Floating Dry Dock in 1/192 scale while working on the Monogram model which were reduced to 1/400 and upped later to 1/350 scale. These were useful in getting my drawings right. The owner helped me a great deal with this he is a modeler as well as an entrepreneur. The plans are from his G series which is made up from USN Booklets of General Plans. These appear to be builder’s proposal drawings not the final product. Curiously the island has Pri-Fly (Primary Flight Control) on the same level as the Navigation Bridge a mistake also present on the A/M/R model. It was always on the level above the Navigation Bridge. Also drawn is a sponson forward of elevator 1 at the hanger deck level which was present on the just launched ship but then later was removed. I could not find any information about this. I do have a photo. The drawings matched the Monogram kit almost exactly but they were off for the Tamiya Kit (and the Arii.) The waterline dimensions were almost right on the money, but the length and width of the flight deck is too big. Maximum width of the flight deck, including catwalks is 257 ft. according to Bert Kinzey’s book. In 1/350 scale that would be 8.811 Inches. Mini Hobby’s measures 9.375 (9 3/8) inches at the widest point, 273 scale feet. The length is a bit long by about .25 inch. The three starboard elevators are out of position by .25 inch too far aft each. I believe these dimensional faults are present on the Tamiya kit also. I do not have any plans to fix these problems. I wasn’t willing to cut up the Arii model to fix similar errors either. The corrections would require a massive amount of work. Tape it all up and it looks like the Enterprise.



One of the many drawings I made this is the 1st deck drawing of the hanger bay

The larger flight deck should make it easier to place the whole air wing aboard. The real ship had problems with this for many years especially with the “Grumman Air Wings” of 70’s and 80’s. I intend to build the kit full hull but there is an error with the lower hull that I am thinking about correcting. The keel extends down the centerline aft and comes to a wide blunt end. This is wrong it should end in a tapered blade like shape. The Tamiya and Arii model also have the same problem. I’m not sure why this is wrong on so many kits. The A/M/R hull was more correct. With the full hull on display the error will be visible. Probably no one looking at it would know the difference but the full hull would look more graceful corrected. I do intend to add a full hanger bay. I purchased sheets large enough to cut out the whole thing from Evergreen Plastic.

 

[Bryian]

Thats a nice looking kit.

 

[Mikey25252]

Thats a nice looking kit.

It is I'm looking forward to the build but it will take a few years at my pace

 

[Buster]

I love the fact it has a one piece hull..

 

[Mikey25252]

I love the fact it has a one piece hull..

It is actually a 3 piece hull. Like the Tamiya kit it has a separate bow in the same spot which is screwed in place. But it also has a full waterline which is a single piece. You can see here where the forward hull is screwed to the aft. The twist tie covers the seam. also you can see the guide for attaching the forward missile sponson added to the ship after 1978. On the port side is the guide for the CIWS sponson also not added till after 1978. I will have to glue the bow on and remove and fill the screw holes. All the guidelines for new sponsons will have to be removed.






The just launched Enterprise on the way to the fitting out dock. Look just forward of the lowered elevator 1 there is a sponson there. When Enterprise went out for sea trials this sponson was gone.



This cropped version is a little clearer. The upper arrow points to the missing bulge under the point area of the flight deck. I posted these photos on an Enterprise Facebook page asking any plank owners if they knew what happened here. None of my books document it.

 

[MisterCA]

I grew up in San Francisco and often saw the Enterprise come and go under the Golden Gate Bridge. Very impressive! UNTIL......

In April 1983, the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) ran aground on a sandbar in San Francisco Bay while returning from deployment, remaining stuck for several hours, and coincidentally, George Takei, who played Mr. Sulu on "Star Trek", was aboard as a guest of the Navy.

Here's a more detailed account:

• The Incident: The USS Enterprise, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, ran aground on a sandbar in San Francisco Bay.
• Time and Location: The incident occurred in April 1983, while the ship was returning from a deployment.
• Coincidence: George Takei, who played Mr. Sulu, the helmsman of the fictional starship Enterprise in "Star Trek," was on board as a guest of the Navy at the time.
• Media Coverage: The event received significant media attention.
• 3,000 friends and family members were awaiting the crew's arrival on shore
• The ship was stuck for several hours
• The ship was only 1,000 yards from shore
• Two admirals were on board to mark the occasion

Notice the crew acting as a counter weight to help free the keel.
Posted as a fun fact only. Enjoy the build.

 

[Mikey25252]

I remember hearing about the story. I was on shore duty at NAS Lemoore at the time. The incident was very embarrassing for the Navy. Thankfull nothing like that ever happened to me. I can imagine the frustration of the crew and the waiting family after being separated for the length of a deployment only to have to wait some more at the end.

 

[USNChief]

I deployed on the Enterprise 1984 & 1986

 

[USNChief]

We ran aground on Bishop's Rock in November 1985 during workups. Tore a 150 foot gash in the hull. It was unpleasant.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 2

Once I had purchased the model I started buying aftermarket stuff and references over a period of several years. I waited for sales and price reductions on hobby shop websites, eBay and Amazon. I corresponded with sellers who helped me out. There are three manufacturers currently producing dedicated sets of photoetch for the Enterprise in 1/350 scale, Eduard, Gold Medal Models and White Ensign. The three sets are similar in what each furnishes but there are differences. Tom’s Modelworks makes several sets which can be used to add detail that is not included in any of the three but they do not have a single dedicated set. Do be aware that all of the three sets for Enterprise cover the model after 1980. Nobody makes a set specifically for the ship prior to that. I actually purchased a lot of photoetch but I wouldn’t go overboard like that if I had to buy photoetch now as the prices seem to have risen a great deal since I bought mine.

I brought the Gold Medal Sets first. The owner retired recently and shut his website down but he made an agreement with Squadron.com and they carry the full line https://squadron.com/ . They are the only company providing a set featuring the grated elevators. But this has the plating added in 1980 to elevator 2 to stiffen it up (GMM-350-2A). Unfortunately this is not correct for 1979 or earlier. All four elevators were fully grated from 1961 to 1979. In order to get a fully grated elevator number 2 you would need a second set (elevator 3 can be flipped over and it is a match but the tie down points won’t line up with the flight deck. You could also attempt to correct the etching. I am going to try this. It was somewhat disconcerting to walk across one of these elevators underway and see the water fly by below you. If you are building a model from around 2001 to 2012 you won’t need these as all the elevators appear to be plated over. Check your references I found pictures in the 1996 and 1998 Cruise books showing grated elevators and then in 2001 they appear to be plated over. But I never found a clear shot so that I couldn’t swear to that.



The GMM-350-2A sheet, the arrow points to the area that should be grated prior to 1979

Gold Medal also produces a dedicated set of photoetch for the ship (GMM-350-2) and another for air wing details (GMM-350-30). The ship set contains many parts to detail the island, mast, catwalks and sponsons. There are some parts, bicycles and Stoke’s litters that are not found in other sets. (Actually Eduard set 3 has one litter for the island.) Both sets are thicker than the other companies. The air wing set is nice because it provides parts for the aircraft included in the Mini Hobby/Tamiya kit and also for the second Tamiya aircraft set. The air wing set was designed to work with the Trumpeter Nimitz and Kitty Hawk class models but it is good for any late 70’s to 90’s air wing. To build a whole air wing you would need several of these and you would then have many left over parts. I was able to buy both in a combination set for a lower price. I don’t know if they are available this way now.



GMM-350-2



GMM-350-30

I then bought a White Ensign set this has the usual detail up parts similar to the others https://www.whiteensignmodels.com/ . It has several combined ladder/catwalk parts that are only available elsewhere in the Eduard 5 set. These ladders are from the catwalks to the 03 level and have the attached landing at the bottom with handrails. And it is the only set with the counter balanced rotating handles for the whip antennas.




Eduard has the most extensive set(s) https://www.eduard.com/ . They make 5 sheets which can be purchased separately or you can buy 3 in one “Big Ed” set and the final 2 in a second. The second set also includes a sheet of figures. If you buy the Big Ed sets the price is cheaper than buying the 5 sheets separately. I purchased all but Set 1 (P/N 53223). This set is primarily parts to detail all the life raft canisters on the 1981 to 2012 ship. It also includes detail parts for the ships boats in the kit. Except for the boats, the parts do not apply to the older ship.



Set 2 (P/N 53224) is dedicated to the supplied aircraft and flight deck equipment. It details the kit NS-50/60 Tilly, but doesn’t have a brass gantry for it, supplies 4NC-2 electrical power carts and details the MD-3 tractors, builds up 2 new MBD-5 fire engines and 2 NAN-3 nitrogen carts. There are tow bars and parts for the aircraft in the kit.



Set 3 (P/N 53227) concerns details for the Island and mast. Some of these won’t apply to the older ship but can be modified to fill other purposes. It has a part to add the Flight Deck Officer’s port side view window which no other set provides. It sticks out from the port side of the island at the flight deck level and affords a forward and aft view of flight deck operations. It appears to always have been there. None of the model kits feature it in the plastic parts.



Set 4 (P/N 53236) covers deck edge elevators and 3 of the 4 JBD’s, (Jet Blast Deflectors). Cat 4’s JBD is not provided. The parts for the underside of the elevators are not available in other etch sets. Parts are provided to detail the flight deck if elevators 2 and 3 are lowered.



Set 5 (P/N 53237) is for the lower hull, flight deck safety nets and sponsons. Mesh grills for all the vents and intakes on the hull sides. One thing I noticed while studying the instructions is that Set 3 has you remove a catwalk area between elevators 2 and 3 but the parts to replace them are in Set 5.



Tom’s Modelworks has some nice sets which I bought for the Tilly gantry, drop tank racks in the hanger overhead, life raft baskets for the older ship and more caged ladders https://www.tomsmodelworks.com/catalog/index.php . I also got their aircraft frets for the planes in the air wing. Each sheet will detail up six aircraft and includes some interior detail. I also purchased generic sets for watertight doors, railings, hose reels and ladders of various types.



Since all my drawings were based on the A/M/R model they could not be used to cut out a hanger deck for the Mini Hobby kit. The interior of the two hulls is not the same. I heard of a source on a modeling forum and I got in contact with Tom Pope who had made a set of drawings of the model expressly for building the hanger on the Tamiya kit. He has made a set of scale drawings that will allow you to cut a hanger deck and drop it in. He also includes drawings for the hanger bay bulkheads which will let you build a nicely detailed hanger bay. I am in the process of integrating my drawings with his. https://reviews.ipmsusa.org/review/cvn-65-uss-enterprise-hangar-deck-scale-drawings . There is a link in the article to contact Tom.

Modelar showed how much better the Trumpeter aircraft are compared to the Tamiya in his videos. I decided to get their aircraft for the flight deck at least. You can buy these in sets of 6 and they cover the air wing on Enterprise in 1978. 24 F-14A’s, 24 A-7E’s, 11 A-6E’s , 4 KA-6D’s, 4 E-2B’s, 3 RA-5C’s, 4 EA-6B’s, 10 S-3A’S, 1 US-3A and 8 SH-3D. There was a total of 93 aircraft in the air wing. To ease deck load we would leave an aircraft detachment behind at NAS Cubi Point, Republic of the Philippines for the duration of the deployment. The amount and aircraft types could vary. It was prime duty to be on the Beach Det. I got on one once for a month ashore. We slept in the barracks, had maid and laundry service and ate in the award winning galley. There was off base liberty every night unless you had a watch. In addition to the air wing we had a detachment of EA-3B’s, (2 A/C) and it was pretty common to see a C-2A Greyhound on deck. Looking over the parts in the Trumpeter kits versus the Tamiya they are superior. So I purchased enough of the Trumpeter aircraft to make up the air wing. During this time frame you would also see SH-2F’s, CH-46’s and CH-53’s. These aircraft could fly aboard from other ships. The SH-2 was the helicopter used most often on Frigates, Destroyers and Cruisers. During UNREP (Underway Replenishment) the other workhorse helicopters could be on deck.



There aren’t nearly enough tractors and other types of Ground Support Equipment in the kit to make a reasonable display. Black Dog makes 1/350 MD-3 Tractors, A/S-32 Spotting Dollies and NC-2 Aircraft Power Trucks that are very nice. https://blackdog-model.com/kategorie/afv/ . Veteran Models makes several sets which will be useful including various RADARs and bridge equipment. I never found a website for these guys but many on line hobby shops carry their products. From L’Arsenal I got chocks, towbars, bitts, fairleads and cargo https://www.larsenal.com/?PGFLngID=1 . I believe they now offer a complete hanger bay. Shapeways provided 40 foot containers to make the ECM Vans, elevator guides, conflagration stations, liberty boats, drop tanks and missiles. From Black Cat Models I got fire hoses, reels, valves and hand wheels. https://blackcatmodels.eu/en/ . There are a lot of things that I didn’t mention here but will cover as I build.



I got a couple of Starfighter decal sheets, 350-53 USS Enterprise Markings and 350-300 USN Carrier Deck Tractor Markings. I also picked up a Flyhawk D3519 USN Signal Flags, Small. From David’s Scale Models I purchased his 1/350 USS Enterprise Hanger Bay Decal Sheet.





Micro Mark has a Strip LED set for lighting models. It includes a power supply and I will use that to run both the lights and the motor if I can make it work right. https://micromark.com/ . Their LEDs come in the cool white that you normally see along with many other colors. They have a warmer white light that looks more like incandescent light. The hanger bay in my time had this type of light bulbs. At sea out past Hawaii it was more common to have red lights at night but to view the hanger I won’t use the red lights. I have some pico sized individual LED’s for the bridge and the fantail.



With the demise of Testors Model Master Enamel paints (14.7ml or ½ ounce size) I searched all over for a replacement supplier. (You can still get the small ¼ ounce jars but they don’t match all the military colors.) I do not care for acrylics for base coats. I have tried a few and have had some poor results. Probably my own fault but I have not had these problems with enamels. I do use them for washes and other effects. Humbrol and Revell come to mind but neither of these is widely available in my area of the United States and the prices are ridiculous at $10.00 or more per 14 ml tinlet! While watching the Midwest Model Channel on You Tube I first heard of True North Brand of Enamel Model Paints. https://www.truenorthpaints.com/ They have a pretty extensive line of colors and best of all they seem to be compatible with the Testors paints. At $5.95 per jar they would be right in line with what Testors would cost now. Their jars hold a bit more, 16 ml or .54 oz. I purchased several specific colors for the ship as well as others to use as mixers for shading. As I get more into the build I will report on how well they work.



References are always a good thing to have to hand if you are going to build a realistic model. My two primary sources are:

Detail and Scale Volume 39 The USS Enterprise Worlds First Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carrier CVAN-65 to CVN-65 by Bert Kinzy. I literally wore this book out with the binding finally failing. I had to save it by scanning each page and creating a PDF file. If you are building the 1981 to 1986 Enterprise this is a great book to have. It can be useful to my era also.



USS Enterprise CVA(N)-65/CVN-65 The World’s First Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carrier by Dave McKay This book has a detailed history going through each deployment and each yard period. It goes into specifics of equipment installations. It is a comprehensive history of the ship. But not a great source of photos.



I also got the following PDF/ e-Books

A Glenn Hoover Model Build Instruction Series; Detailed instructions on how to build kit 78007 CVN-65 USS Enterprise model 1/350 scale from Tamiya. The instructions also include the Eduard PE sets 53223, 53224, 53227, 53236, and 53237 for CVN-65 USS Enterprise. His books go step by step integrating the kit and Eduard instructions for you. He also includes constructing the hanger deck.

Model Builder International February 2015 Special Edition This is a special edition of the magazine focusing on Lou Carabott’s build of Tamiya’s 1:350 scale U.S.S. Enterprise CVN65. Lots of pictures including in process build photos.

Warship Profile 14 USS Enterprise CVAN-65 by Commander W. H. Cracknell U.S.N. a pictorial history up to 1969. This book does not have a great deal of information or great photos.

This is a Kindle book:

USS Enterprise (CVN-65) by Mark Evans, An engrossing day to day history of operations but not a great photographic source. I am currently reading the book and am up to events of 1968.

From Floating Drydock I also got a photodisk which has an abundance of photos that you won’t find elsewhere. https://floatingdrydock.com/index.htm .



I used these websites:

https://www.navysite.de/cvn/cvn65.html great source the cruisebooks (yearbook) for each deployment and a large photo archive

https://www.navsource.org/archives/02/65.htm an online photo index

https://www.seaforces.org/usnships/cvn/CVN-65-USS-Enterprise.htm more online photos

https://www.imagicdigital.com/enterprise/index.html a virtual tour of the ship.

https://hyperscale.com/2019/galleries/enterprise350jg_1.htm a nicely done model by Jorge Evandro

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/ships/cv/cvn-65/350/cvn65.html Detailed description of his build by Kelly Quirk

https://hyperscale.com/2008/features/ussenterpriselc_1.htm Lou Carabott’s model less detail than the magazine article above

https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/threads/tamiya-cvn65-enterprise-1-350.3143/ This is Norgales build from the SOS forum another good one.

https://www.carrierbuilders.net/gallery/20051020_CVN-65/20051020_CVN-65.htm Robert McGhee’s build. I especially enjoyed the tips section at the end.

http://www.gonavy.jp/CVW-NKf.html A history of CVW-14. You can use the links to check out other CAG histories

https://seaforces.org/usnair/VRC/Fleet-Logistics-Support-Squadron-50.htm Nice photos another source you can use for other units and ships

https://www.seaforces.org/usnair/VQ/Fleet-Air-Reconnaissance-Squadron-1.htm VQ-1 Photos

There are many more but these were my primaries

I also found sites for each type of aircraft and their respective squadrons just by using a search engine.

If you want to use 3-D printed parts for your model check out 3-D Wild, https://3d-wild.com/ and Model Monkey https://www.model-monkey.com/ Some of the items they have are pretty expensive. But the detail is incredible based on the photos. Black Cat Models has a lot of WW-II parts but many are still correct or can be adapted. I got a lot of my 3-D parts from Shapeways but the site went down in 2024. It is still there but I don’t think they work as a conduit to various designers like they used to. One of my favorite suppliers was Baconfist Models https://www.facebook.com/baconfist77/ he is still on Facebook. He is dedicated to providing parts for USN ships.


Items from shapeways and L'Arsenal


In part 3 I will begin construction.

 

[SigEp Ziggy]

I am looking forward to your build

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 3
I decided to start by seeing if I could make the motorization system work. I know it isn’t a toy but from the earliest models that I made as a kid I have been fascinated by “working” features. I remember fondly, the great Monogram, Revell and Lindberg kits with opening canopies, removable hatches, folding wings, retractable landing gear and movable control surfaces. One of the last models I was working on before I went into the Navy was the Lindberg Blue Devil Fletcher Class Destroyer. You could build it with moving gun mounts, RADAR and props. So I just wanted to see if I could do something like that with the motor here.

The Kit has an electric motor, battery box hardware, metal shafts and a one to four transmission. This is pretty ingenious as it turns the port and starboard shafts in opposite directions realistically. I wasn’t impressed with the rudimentary fast slow switch though. The switch fell apart after moving it from fast to slow just a few times. (It turns out that this part was broken in my kit. I discovered this when Modelar sent me his parts as you will read later). I certainly wasn’t going to stick the switch up through the slot in the flight deck anyway so I didn’t bother to repair it. My original goal was to connect the motor with the same power supply as the lights but to test the system I used the battery box molded in the lower hull which will accept 4 “D” Cell batteries to power the motor. I assembled the kit parts installing the motor, transmission and wiring. 4 Batteries is just way too many. The motor screams at warp 10 in fast and not much slower in slow position.



This is how Mini Hobby would have you connect everything up. The 4 "D" cell batteries would fit just ahead of the motor. Note the four large pins at the stern these are the rudder locaters.



The fast slow switch is at the top connected by the white, yellow and blue wires. Note the plastic tubing connectors on each shaft.

I tried just using just one battery and that reduced the power to a more reasonable amount so only about 1.5 volts are necessary. It is still a bit too fast but I found a fan control module on Amazon that was a good candidate for a speed control. One battery won’t power the motor through the fan control unit though. The 12 volt power supply for the LED lights does allow me to adjust the revolutions but it won’t go slow enough to look real. With 2 D cell batteries in series I get the right amount of current and voltage through the fan control unit to power the motor at a slow enough speed. That will be my final configuration, a separate battery box for the motor and the power supply for the lights. Unfortunately my transmission locked up repeatedly during the inadvertent high speed battery test. I traced this to the sloppy amount of play on each gear shaft. I corrected the play issue by making shims to restrict the amount each gear could move forward and aft in the transmission box.



The gears in the transmission can move forward and aft in the battery box. The middle gears all have one shim on each shaft. Eventually I will use two shims on all the larger gears one on each side. The grey gear at the bottom is my problem small gear. There is another grey gear at the top but it is the same size as the black gears. The gears are all coated with silicone grease.



The fan control module.

The system provided uses soft clear tubing to couple shafts together. These will eventually wear down and slip on the shafts or break if there is a bend at the joint. Once the model is assembled I won’t be able to make repairs. Radio control models use small metal couplers and universal joints to do this job so I purchased some. I got several of each type for less than $10.00 on Amazon. Originally I was going to use a straight coupler to connect the motor and transmission but I discovered that there was a difference in height between the motor output and the transmission input shafts. With a straight coupler it caused the transmission to bind. To correct this I made shims to raise the transmission which I glued to the lower hull. There is still some difference but not enough to effect coupling them together with a universal joint. I did have to shorten the motor shaft and press the transmission input shaft more aft to allow the universal to fit. I also had to modify the motor base. To couple the transmission to the propeller shafts required modifying the base of the transmission on the output side to allow universals to be installed.



Originally I thought to use a straight coupler to replace the tubing but ended up using 5 of the universal joints below.





The modification to the motor base plate.



I had to cut away sections of the transmission base to allow the universal joints to be connected.

The hull and bearing hangers were supposed to be designed to be used with the metal prop shafts. The holes exiting the hull and through the bearings are too large and this allows the metal shafts to flop around unrealistically. Oddly the metal shafts don’t fit the props unless they are drilled out. Using 2 mm ID brass tubing I made “bearings” which could be inserted at each point and glued in place. The supplied metal shafts are 2mm. Since the bearing hangers needed to be in place to get the correct angle for the shaft through the hull I used Blue Tack to hold them in position so I could glue the through hull bearings. The hull bearings fit fine but there is a trough for each shaft that I had to enlarge to keep the shafts from dragging. This smooths out the shaft play.



Here you can see the amount of play around the bearing and shaft.

A second transmission problem surfaced, the number 2 shaft turned intermittently. The gear for this shaft is smaller than the other output gears! I played around moving that gear to other locations but it just moved the problem. The gear is not only smaller in diameter but the teeth appear stripped. This could have happened during the lock ups I experienced testing with the 4 “D” cells but the size issue came in the kit. The gear is a different color than all the others but one. I plugged the holes for that shaft and re-drilled the transmission in a slightly higher location ensuring the gears all meshed. This allows all four shafts to turn. I tried to find some way to contact Mini Hobby to see if I could get a replacement transmission but there is nothing in the instruction manual and for once the internet didn’t yield up a factory website. I did find an RC conversion kit by Tamiya for their Enterprise on e-bay for $99.00 plus shipping. That wasn’t going to fix my problem though. They don’t use a transmission but have 4 motors ganged in a row one for each shaft.

I got ahold of my friend Modelar and asked if he still had the transmission from his build. I offered to buy it but he is a generous man and just sent it to me. I had gotten mine to run as smoothly as it ever will but the unit from Modelar works so much better than the one I started out with. I can easily turn it by hand even with all the shafts connected. All his gears are the same material and color. I had to make the same mods to his transmission so I could use the couplers and prevent gear play with shims. I found two additional errors with my kit. One is problematic and the other an issue with a poorly written instruction manual.



This is Modelar's transmission. You can't imagine the difference in the two units.

The problematic:
The outboard shafts are shorter than the inboard. The outboard shafts have two bearings supporting them while the inboard shafts at .5 inch longer only have one. This looked wrong so I went to my reference photos and sure enough there should also be a second bearing on the inboard shafts also. The kit simply does not provide them and there are none in the Tamiya kit either so we know where the inaccuracy came from! To correct this oversight you will have to fabricate a pair of these.



This is a photo of Enterprise in Drydock. The second set of bearings are clear on the near inboard shaft. This is one of the few photos showing the forward set of rudders. Notice the keel shape at the end.

The instruction issue:
I noticed that the forward set of rudders have no locating holes. The Tamiya kit has you drill the holes for these from the inside. It is in their instructions in step 12. Mini Hobby forgot that little bit of information but the locators inside the hull are there. (Turns out it was a good idea to obtain that set of Tamiya instructions) The locating holes for all four rudders on the Mini Hobby kit are tubes which pass through the aft upper hull part to aid in locating the bottom and top correctly. I can’t tell if the Tamiya kit has long tubes from the instruction drawings.

The prop shafts in the Tamiya kit are different. Theirs are all plastic shafts that have the fairings attached which are then glued into recesses in the hull. The Mini Hobby kit has the fairings molded onto the hull. The shafts are straight metal rods. This was probably a good decision on their part since there seem to be plenty of fit issues in their molds. There are no plastic parts for the shafts. All of the bearings and their struts have a nasty step along the seam line. Be prepared for some major sanding on very delicate parts. I managed to break some struts off while sanding. I believed it was because I was too ham fisted. After sanding the seam lines on the struts I became concerned that they had become too flimsy to hold up under operation. I found a photoetch fret in my spare parts bin that was the right width. I cut sections of the fret to stiffen the struts. The metal reinforcements are all glued to the inside faces of the struts.

I drilled out the holes for the rudders. These provide landmarks to place the second bearings on the inboard shafts. Using pieces of Evergreen tubing cut to the same length as the kit supplied bearings I made two new ones. I cut off lengths of brass tube to fit and drilled out the tubing and glued the brass in place. I slid these on the prop shafts and used bits of Blue Tack to hold them in the correct positions. Now the model could be used as a jig to fabricate the struts. I cut sections of Evergreen strip for struts and glued them to the bearings. Once they had dried I sanded them to match the kit parts. I drilled locating holes in the hull and then put the locating pins on each strut to keep everything lined up. (One of these new bearings fell onto the garage floor and disappeared. The garage floor is similar to the carpet monster. I had to make another and I still haven’t found the missing one).



This is an in process photo while I make the new bearings.



The new bearings in white.

I attached each bearing to the hull with Micro Mask solution which provides a good temporary bond. These were then reinforced with masking tape and allowed to dry. I glued each pair of props to the shafts. The props are molded differently for the port and starboard to represent the different rotations for each side so don’t mix them up. That is pretty nice attention to detail. As I cleaned up the parts I found it very easy to damage the blades. They are also fragile like the bearing struts. One blade was almost ready to break just from cutting from the sprue. I was using an almost new pair of Tamiya nippers. I fixed the props to the shafts with superglue after repairing about 3 blades. Now I could slip each shaft into place and attach it to the universal joints. When the input shaft is turned by hand everything rolls over nice and smooth.

I haven’t thought out how the ship will be mounted to its display base yet although I have a nice piece of clear pine for it. So at this point I am not ready to drill any holes in the bottom. I didn’t want a long wire to get in the way while I’m building so I removed the wiring from the motor and attached two short leads one red and one black maintaining the polarity from the kit wiring. To make connections easier I used motorcycle wiring connectors which I installed myself. I have the tools and connectors from the time I worked as a motorcycle mechanic. I attached leads for the fan control module and put the correct connectors on each of them. Since I had determined that I needed a separate power source using two “D” cell batteries I looked for a battery box. I found a set of 4 single boxes on Amazon which can be ganged in series or parallel. Using 2 in series I was able to make up a permanent battery pack.



Modular battery boxes.



The battery boxes ganged in series with the speed control connected

With everything hooked up I can adjust the motor speed to a reasonable level. I’ll have the power supply, battery box and other components under the display base. With my test complete I will remove all the motor components and bag them into labeled zip bags for port and starboard shafts. They will be installed permanently later after the major hull work is done and I can rig a temporary base. My next chapter will be dealing with the huge sprue attachment on the bottom center of the hull, the keel modification I want to make and fitting the upper and lower hull together.



The giant sprue connection



I removed the fences around the prop shafts and ground them out to stop the shafts from dragging. I placed a .060 plastic keel in the centerline of the cavity and filled it with Bondo auto body filler in preparation for keel modification.



Final installation

Below is a short video of the system working and I apologize in advance for the quality and audio I am not a videographer.

 

[Mikey25252]

Mini Hobby 80502 1/350 Scale USS Enterprise CVN-65 Early

Part 4 Screws, Bearings and the first Hull Mods

It seems that I have been using the wrong term. They are screws not props. I have always called them props possibly because I was an unrepentant Airedale and not a Snipe. Aircraft have props after all. Also in my defense after the Navy I worked in the Motorsports Industry, Motorcycles, ATV’s, Personal Watercraft, Fishing and Ski Boats. While I was working in the shop props were props or sometimes impellers, not screws. I have a friend who pointed out this flaw in my terminology and for his sake and in an effort to be nautically and semantically correct I have vowed to change.

At any rate having gotten the screws to turn at a realistic speed I needed to make each screw butt up to its output bearing tightly. Most had a fair gap to correct. I used some of the leftover shims that I had made for the transmission and trapped the shim between the screw and the bearing so I got a tight joint. I carefully glued the shim to the bearing making sure not to glue the shim to the screw also. I used small amounts of Tamiya Extra Thin liquid cement and let each bearing dry. This melted the shim to the bearing. In some cases there were tiny gaps between the shim and the bearing which were filled with sprue goo



All the propulsion parts temporarily installed.

Next I needed to finish cleaning them up. So each bearing and its struts were sanded with progressively finer grades of sandpaper from 320 to 1500 grit. The blades on each screw were fairly well molded with the cutting edge being thinnish. But using the same grades of sandpaper on each blade I removed the small amount of flash and sprue attachments while thinning each blade even more. Having found the blades to be easily broken I found a piece of cork and drilled a hole to accept the shaft. I could push the shaft through the cork and support the screw while I sanded. The cork was reamed out on one side so I could support the back side of the screw blades and thin from both sides.





The cork jig to support the screw blades.

When I was satisfied I removed the screws, shafts and bearings from the hull. I removed the transmission and motor also. These items were bagged up and tagged and stowed till the ship was mounted to a base. To keep each set identified and safe I pressed the shaft through a piece of foam then I slid the bearings on and pushed a second piece of foam trapping them. Both port sets were stored together and then both starboard sets. All items were placed in the box for safekeeping.



Storing the small parts.

The first hull area I wanted to address was the bow. The upper hull bow is a separate part similar to the Tamiya model. It is pressed into place in the box and the screws and nuts are installed but it is not cemented. I disassembled this and sanded the mounting flange to get the best possible joint. I used good old Testor’s tube glue to cement the bow. I wanted the strongest joint I could get. I used tape to hold the parts in position and then used Microweld fast drying liquid cement on the inside joint. (Microweld is like Tamiya Extra thin Quick Setting). The screws and nuts were reinstalled and the assembly was allowed to dry for several days. After the screws and nuts were removed the holes were enlarged to accept pieces of plastic tube with rod filling the center and these were glued in place with Microweld ensuring the plug was fully welded to the hull.



The two upper hull halves are glued up but the hole needs to be plugged. Some of the dimpling around this seam is visible here.



The screw hole enlarged and plugged.


Next I started working on the lower hull skeg. I cut some thick .060 plastic card in the shape of the molded skeg and glued it inside the hull on the centerline. I left this to dry overnight and then filled all of the remaining open space with Bondo auto body putty. I left this to harden for several days. I checked my drawings from the Floating Drydock two of the six sheets are hull cross sections. In this case they were no help. There is a drawing of frame 209 which shows the widest part of the skeg and the next is at frame 230 which is aft of the skeg. I would be tapering this by calibrated eyeball rather than scientifically.

I placed masking tape on the bottom and stern of the skeg. I drew the shape I wanted and removed all the tape that would be outside this shape. I used my hand piece with the largest drum and round burrs that I have. I removed the areas a little at a time until I had the shape refined. I mixed more Bondo and smoothed it over the surface of the modification. I let this harden overnight and then came back to sand it smooth using sandpaper on blocks, dowels and foam sanding pads until the area was smooth. Then I went after the seam lines and the big sprue gate. All of this was sanded smooth.



I have sketched out the shape for the skeg with masking tape



The skeg is roughed out



The skeg with a top coat of Bondo



The top coat sanded out.



The sprue gate smoothed out.

I gave a lot of thought in my spare time over how the model will be attached to the display base. Rather than using nuts and bolts I wanted to use all threaded nipples for lamps. This makes a conduit for wiring from the base into the hull. The center point of the lower hull is where the big sprue gate was. On the hull bottom I marked out from the center point 6 inches forward and aft where I wanted the holes for the tubes. The outside diameter of the tube is 25/64” which is a large hole. I did not want the drill to catch and fracture the hull so I started at about 3/16” and drilled from the inside while the hull sat on a piece of scrap wood for support. I went up progressively a couple of sizes at a time until I arrived at the right size.

I ran nuts up two tubes and inserted them through the holes. The nuts rest on the inside of the hull. A second nut is threaded on the rod outside of the hull until it is finger tight. I mixed up some 5 minute epoxy and let it flow around each nut avoiding getting any on the threads. When this cured I loosened the nuts on the outside and removed the threaded rods leaving two nuts glued to the inside bottom of the hull. The lamp nipples I bought are plenty long enough to go through everything with leftover. I will cut these to the required size when I have the base ready.



The pilot holes for the pedestals drilled out. Note the cut out portion of the upper hull to access the motor and transmission.



The initial epoxy to secure the nuts in the hull. Later I will add more layers of JB Weld Steel Epoxy.

Tamiya and Mini Hobby completely misrepresent the exterior hanger doors at all four elevator wells. The closed doors are molded with a corrugated texture that looks like an overhead roll up door on its side but this is wrong. With the kit parts you can only portray all of the doors closed. Tamiya and Mini Hobby both mistakenly mold some of the closed doors right at the side of the hull. There are no doors in this position on the real ship. They then provide various panels that you glue inside the hull to portray the closed outer doors or inner doors. And again there is no such thing as an outer door.



Hanger door 1 as molded.



Hanger door 2 chain drilled.

I’m at a loss to understand what they were trying to accomplish. The Tamiya Kit hull has two of the four doors molded with a closed door at the hull. Tamiya then has 3 elevator wells with closed doors on the inside and they have 3 other panels that would close off the two open doors like the molded ones on the hull. Why would you need 3 of either if the hull is molded closed at 2 locations? Mini Hobby has three of the four molded closed in this manner but they give you 3 elevator wells and 1 closed panel! Again if three doors are closed at the hull why would you need 3 elevator wells?

If you want all the doors closed realistically you would need to open the doorways at all the hull locations. Either kit gives you 3 elevator wells but you would then need to fabricate the fourth. You could use one of the flat panels with the closed doors for the fourth well but you would have to make the 2 bulkheads, deck and overhead. The corrugated doors are still wrong but it would at least be closer this way. You could also remove the corrugated doors and replace them with plastic sheet. The actual doors are overlapping panels with a smooth surface. Since the doors overlap there is an inner and outer panel. When the doors are open to the hanger bay you only see them at one end of the well. When the doors are closed the overlap would be at around 1/2 of the doorway. The doors on the real ship were almost always open. This was the best way to ventilate the hanger. The only exceptions that I can think of would be during inclement weather or if the ship was at general quarters. In all the photos I have there are a couple with partially closed doors but only one fully closed. The fully closed photo is during a ceremony after the final deployment, possibly the decommissioning.



Elevator door 3 fully closed, there is no "outer door" and you can see into the elevator well with the closed doors on the inside.

I intend to have a full hanger bay and to open all four doors. On the Mini Hobby kit the best way to remove the doors is to chain drill around the edge of the door, connect the holes and then removing the door. Then you file and sand until the opening is a smooth oval. I won’t be using the elevator wells provided in the kit as I would need to remove four more doors plus the hanger deck would have to be cut to fit around the wells if they are glued to the inside of the ship hull. I will fabricate all 4 wells from plastic card so they sit on the hanger deck. That will be the subject of a later post.

There are molded drain pipes, ladders, doors and small mooring bits for barges and ships boats to tie up to the hull when the ship is in port. I decided to remove all of this molded detail and replace it with more delicate parts. There are some raised vent details which I left. While I was sanding, I addressed the raised locators for the forward missile and phalanx sponsons which must be removed for a 1978 Enterprise. Once I had removed all the details I wanted off and coarse sanded the surfaces it was time to think about assembling the upper and lower hulls.

I would have to remove some of the upper hull bottom surface if I wanted access to reinstall the motor parts later on when the hull was assembled. There is a defined cut out over the area of the battery box so you could get to it. I started deepening the cut out lines until I was able to remove the panel. This would allow for working room from the motor forward but would not allow access to the transmission and shafts. I extended the cut out aft by around 3 inches. With that portion removed I could reinstall everything. I had placed one mounting hole under the motor and it would be accessible to route wiring but the forward hole would be covered. I did not want to remove another large section of upper hull bottom so I resorted to using a hole saw right above the mount. To do this the hull is drilled from the inside but supported at the bottom with scrap wood.



The hole over the forward mount hole and elevator door 1 opened up.

The upper and lower hull were fitted together and taped to check for fit issues. I used files and small sanding blocks to thin the gluing flange on the lower hull. I also deepened the groove on the upper hull by repeatedly scoring with an acrylic knife and micro chisels. After this work I only had a significant gap at the very forward point of the bow. I deepened the grove and shortened the gluing flange in this area until there were no gaps. I used the Testor’s tube again for the initial cement. The hull was clamped from the bow to the stern gluing with the Microweld cement along the seam as I worked aft. After drying overnight I was able to remove the clamps. The seam was pretty tight but the upper and lower hulls did not always match up without a step along the edge. I may have I applied too much pressure with the clamps when I glued the parts up. It seems the biggest problems are the ones we create for ourselves. I used sprue goo to fill the entire seam applying it with an artist’s palette knife and allowed it to dry overnight.



Most of the seam is pretty good.




The gap at the bow needs to be corrected.



All clamped up.



Sprue goo what a mess.

The next day I began sanding the entire seam on both sides. I started with some fairly coarse 180 grit wet and dry sandpaper to smooth out the plastic along the seam. The worst of the step was amidships on both the port and starboard sides. It took quite a lot of work but I was able to achieve a level seam. I finish sanded with 220 – 1500 wet and dry papers and sanding pads until the hull was smooth. Then I discovered a slight dimple on the starboard side where the forward and aft hull sections are glued together. It is very small after all the sanding I have already done but in the right light you can see a depression forward and aft of the seam. This has to be a fault from the molds. And I don’t see it on the port side.



Starboard side after sanding.



Port side after sanding.

I worked that area with wood sanding blocks that spanned the whole fault going from coarse to fine again until I had leveled it out and smoothed the hull again. In the next installment I have some parts to add at the bow and stern and the bilge keels to install. Also all the sanded off detail will be reinstated. Until then Happy modeling.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 5 Hull Details

To keep from damaging the work that I had accomplished I put together the kit stand. I glued the two pieces of stand together end to end. The Tamiya stand has a connecting joint but Minihobby has two identical pieces with no connectors. The Tamiya stand also uses two name plates to help secure the 2 stand parts together but the Minihobby kit does not provide a nameplate at all (Maybe because they didn’t want to make a new tool that didn’t say Tamiya). I drilled the stand to match the mounting holes that I made in the hull and used short pieces of 1/8” electrical nipple, nuts and washers to secure the model to the kit stand.





The kit display stand.

I wasn’t done with filling or sanding yet. On both sides of the hull are indentations which represent air intake and exhaust duct openings. All of these must be filled to use the Eduard photoetch grills. I tried to frame the forward duct on the port side with some Evergreen plastic strip. I thought I could paint the interior black and glue the grill flush with the surface. Unhappily the grill is too big to fit the selected opening. I assumed that the rest would be the same. So I filled them all with Bondo and sanded everything smooth again.



Starboard missile sponson corrected on the left and port uncorrected on the right. Later I will add a band of plastic strip to bring these up to final size.



Port side gallery deck parts notice how they don't connect. This will be corrected by filling the gap with strip.



Another flaw at elevator 4. Eduard and Glenn Cooper's instructions have you reduce this part at the forward edge before you install it. I didn't get why. Later I would figure it out.



This part at elevator 1 should be cut back at the aft edge. The part aft of the elevator should be reduced also.


Both of the parts around elevator 2 will have to be modified.

There are several parts that make up the upper hull and overhang under the flight deck. All of these were added to the model. There are fit issues and locators for plastic parts which must be filled and sanded in many locations. The decks for the aft missile sponsons are not shaped right for the older ship and so they were corrected and attached. I sanded too much off correcting the shape so I glued a styrene strip around the edge. The fit of the parts is not good so more filling and sanding ensued. The aft panel on the stern was added and filled and sanded. I reinforced the inside of the hull to strengthen the joins around the stern and the missile sponsons. Because all this filler needs drying time I looked for something else to work on while I waited. The fit of the three sections of flight deck to each other and the ship could be better for instance. I’ll cover all the Flight Deck Work in detail later it provided something else to do when the hull needed to dry



The arrows point to the reinforcement panels.

With the hull smoothed I wanted to build up the detail that I had removed. First I needed to add something that I found in my research. If you look at the photo above you can see regularly spaced irregular hexagons welded on the hull. I am guessing these plates were added to stiffen it at joints. They don’t appear on my plans from Floating Drydock but they are in many photos. I have found only one other model with this feature. Even the Smithsonian Model doesn’t have them. In photos of the just launched ship you can just make them out so they were there from the beginning. It was fairly easy to make a template with the Cameo. To recreate this effect it must be subtle so I cut the parts from Bare Metal Foil first but I just couldn’t get them applied without tearing. I probably ruined about 20 before I gave it up. I made a new set from .005” plastic card after trying with the foil many times.



I'm ready to send the cut program for the hull stiffeners to the Silhouette Cameo cutting machine.

Applying the stiffeners was pretty simple. I used a set of dividers to determine the location above the waterline on my Starboard Profile drawing. I transferred the level to the hull of the model and then used a surface gage to draw a pencil line along the hull. Going back to the drawing I used the dividers to measure where each panel would be located and transferred that to the hull making a center mark on the line I just drew. Holding the panel in place I used just a touch of Tamiya Extra Thin Cement to secure the plate in place. With sheet plastic this thin you don’t want to use too much solvent glue or you will dissolve the part. These have to dry thoroughly before you can sand them back a bit. They do need to be sanded to reduce thickness of the piece. If you used too much glue you will get holes in the part and you will have to remove it and try again. It is too bad that I couldn’t get the Bare Metal Foil to work as they would have been just right. The anchor hawse pipes have an extra plate to forward where the anchor flukes contact the hull. I made these plates of the .005” plastic and added them. Then I repeated all this on the port side.



The first of the plates go on.

The stiffener plates continued under sponsons so they will be cut off at the bottom but reappear above deck level on sponson 1,3, and 5 (sponsons on the starboard side have odd numbers and to port they are even. Sponson 2 and 4 on the port side will have this feature also. I had to assemble all the sponsons to determine where the plate would cut off and reappear. When I watched Modelar’s You Tube video of this model he had to add support inside each sponson or the deck sags under pressure. I wanted to remove all the details so I followed his example and added supports. All the decks were sanded smooth.




The Plates go up to the bottom of the sponson and then reappear above deck level.

Sponson 10, the Phalanx sponson on the port side aft had to be modified since the gun mount was added in the yard period that re-shaped the island. On the 1978 ship sponson 10 and 11 were mirror images of each other minus the extension that runs forward on 11. I drew a line on the top and bottom parts and cut the aft portion off. I made up an aft end plate, glued it together, reinforced the deck and sanded it smooth.



Modified Sponson 10



Support material is added to the inside of each sponson to support the deck.

On the port side there are three deckhouses. The middle one is deep enough to use the main hull as it’s inboard bulkhead but the way its molded makes the space too shallow. I chain drilled the inside bulkhead and opened it up. I will have to make a new bulkhead which will show the top portion of the hexagons. The forward and aft deckhouses were also on the shallow side so I opened up those as well. They do not use the hull for the inside bulkhead as far as I can tell. They are molded shallower than the middle deckhouse.



The boathouse and the "cleat decks" (per the instructions) opened up.

The hull piping on the model was not accurate so I decided to sand it all smooth. To build the drain pipes up I used .040” (1 mm) half round evergreen strip. I measured the typical end points top and bottom, and marked these off with a surface gage. On the lower line I used 3 mm Tamiya tape for curves. I took locations for the pipes from my drawings and constructed each one by one. I had to place sponsons into place in order to get piping positioned properly above and below the sponsons. The horizontal pipes have brackets while most of the vertical ones seem to be welded along the entire length. To make the brackets Tamiya tape was sliced into .05 mm strips using an Infini cutting mat. This was applied to the pipes, the excess cut away and then permanently positioned with a dot of superglue. Some brackets had to be added to some vertical pipes as well. The area under the three starboard hanger doors is the worst as the brackets are close together. The brackets on the horizontal pipes on the bow are further apart as are brackets on the vertical pipes.



Cutting the tape.



About halfway on the the horizontal pipe brackets under the elevators.



The addition of the hull piping on the starboard side.



The piping on the port side. Note the bilge keels have been added on both sides.

On the forepeak of the bow there ls supposed to be three hawse pipe openings below the bull nose but they aren’t represented in the kit at all. It must have been a limitation of the molding process but they could have added parts to represent them. The Tamiya kit has the same problem. These three holes need the raised rim like the openings on the hull sides. I used 2 sizes of Evergreen tubing to make them. The center hole is larger than the two upper ones. I flattened the tubing for the upper holes to make an oval but the center one is round. These hawse pipes could be plugged off at sea to maintain air conditioning boundaries or in inclement weather. When the ship is moored they have to be open to run mooring lines. I will portray all of them closed. There are also some portholes on the bullnose between the bridal recovery sponsons which will be open. I can’t put these in place until the flight deck is matched up to the hull because more sanding will be needed.



The hawse pipe openings.



Glued in place.

On the stern at sponson 10 there was a large round port opening where the jet engine exhaust was directed when they ran any engine up on the test cell. This made by drilling the port and surrounding it on the exterior with 2 sections of nested tubing. On the ship from 1981 to 2012 the test cell control booth was enclosed for the operators and the engines were pointed directly aft. It was on the starboard side of the double doors into AIMD Power Plants. From launch to 1979 the test cell was on the port side. The operators, (AD’s Aviation Machinists Mates.) were outside rather than in a booth. There was a large box where the controls and connections were made on the port side of the fantail. I imagine they moved the whole setup to avoid having the jet exhaust blowing right on the Phalanx mount. There was an exhaust vent on the port side of the fantail pointing aft. I think it was used to remove fumes during test cell operation. I drilled and detailed this opening too.



Test Cell engine exhaust opening.



Eduard Part 5 photoetch sheets.

The next hurdle was to add all the Eduard photoetched vent grills. There are some 131 of them from Eduard if I counted right. As I proceeded to install them per the instructions it became obvious by my research that Eduard didn’t provide them all especially the smallest ones. I collected all my sheets of etch and checked for grills and filled in what I could. Where I had something to use from other sources I added them in but I was unable to come up with everything I probably added another 20. Working carefully from bow to stern first on the starboard hull and then on the port I glued each piece in position and marked it off on the instructions. Be aware that nobody but L’Arsenal makes any kind of grills in a generic set that I know of. Eduard’s set is the only Enterprise set which includes them. There aren’t any spares so don’t lose any.



The Eduard parts are installed to elevator 1. I have started adding extras on the bow.



Extra grills on the aft edge of the sponson.



Here you can see all the extras on the starboard bulge.


There were 3 mistakes in the instructions that I found. First the instructions have you place a small square grill over each hawse pipe opening on both sides of the bow. These were actually small hatches that open inward not grills. I used some rectangular plates from the L’Arsenal sheet of structural details. This actually worked in my favor as I could use the grills elsewhere. Second on page 3 of 8 of the Eduard instructions there are 4 grills that are listed below sponson 5 but there are no arrows to show where they go. I didn’t notice this until I was finished and assumed they were not included. I made these out of photoetch floater net baskets from Tom’s Modelworks. More spares for when I inevitably pinged one off into infinity. Third on the Port side the instructions have places for 2 grills that are not matched to any part numbers. I used some of the small number 8 parts here.

I spent quite a bit of time researching photos to make my drawings and they are pretty accurate (Yeah I’m tooting my own horn). There are some additional vents on the bulge forward of elevator 1, on the front of the port bulge and some on the port missile sponson which I added. I placed other missing grills here and there as I worked. I kept the drawing for the side I was working on under the model which allowed me to refer to it instantly when I needed to. There will be more grills on the overhead of the port boathouse and in the elevator wells that I will manufacture as I get to them. I have a bunch of extra flight deck safety nets that could be called into play if needed. I did as much as I could on the hull but I could not make it all and I am not going to buy any more photoetch to make it complete. The effect is very busy as is.

On the Tamiya kit the bilge keels are molded on. On the Mini Hobby kit they are separate parts with different numbers for port and starboard. I looked these over carefully and they appear to be exactly the same. They are completely symmetrical so they could go on either side. I glued these on now, holding them in place with masking tape and letting cement run into the joint. These actually fit quite well. Once dry I filled any gaps with Mr. Hobby Surfacer 500 and sanded the joints smooth.

There are 3 round small boat mooring bits along each side of the bow. They are represented in the kit by a round depression. I had a sprue of parts from the Aurora /Monogram/ Revell kit that had these but they weren’t molded well and most had no bit. I used some L’Arsenal photoetched hand wheels to make these instead. I cut away all the spokes but one and glued the ring around the opening with the bit pointed up. A different style of these bits continues along the sides of the hull. These were molded on the hull but I had sanded them off too. They were a little soft in the crispness of the molding but would have been acceptable I suppose. I had purchased a sprue of 3-D printed bits a long time ago made expressly for this kit from Shapeways and I always planned to use them vice the molded ones. The sprue of bits comes with more than enough to do both sides of the hull with plenty of spares. When you cut them from the sprue there is a pin out of the back side of the part. I didn’t cut this off as it provides an ideal mounting point. I drilled a hole at each location, fit the pin into it and glued with Tamiya Extra Thin. Later I reinforced this with superglue but the parts seemed to work well with the Tamiya cement.

I drilled out all the bilge outlets. They are on the same level as the bits. I marked each spot with a pin so the drill bit wouldn’t slip around. The thickness of the hull helped here as I didn’t have to drill all the way through and consequently didn’t have to block any openings to prevent light leaks. The anchor hawse pipes needed to be blocked off though. I built a couple of crude boxes around each opening. I don’t think any of my lighting would reach up into the bow, but you could see from one opening to the other.

I had been working on the flight deck concurrently so I found some issues to deal with around the elevators and the structures around the sponsons. Eduard provides the plating around the elevator openings but only for elevators 2 and 3. These shields cover the elevator machinery under the flight deck and box in the elevator opening at the flight deck. Some of the bracing is provided for these shields also but the machinery areas on all 4 elevators will need some work. You can see this area if you are looking under the overhang. So it will be visible for elevator 1 and 4 also. Making the plates and the bracing will be a straight forward scratch build project but the way that Tamiya and by default Mini Hobby molded the structure of the overhang you will have to cut some of the 03 level structure to be correct. I wish I had thought of this before I glued all these parts in place. They would have been much easier to cut if they were not on the ship. When everything had been carefully cut I needed to rebuild the missing areas and then get them faired back in properly. The structure was built with .020” plastic sheet cut, fitted and assembled at each elevator. This took quite a bit of work and once everything had been built back up required that the flight deck be checked for fit again.

Part C32 in the Mini Hobby kit or A 28 in the Tamiya kit goes under the superstructure just above sponson 5, (The sponson where the starboard whale boat is added). The part has an area that extends aft from the structure forming a “balcony” area forward of elevator 3. This is shaped incorrectly and needs trimming inboard and outboard so that only a tab in the center is left. This area was part of the ship’s calibration lab and was used to move large items up and down to the lab for service. Far better than carrying delicate equipment up and down 2 flights of ladders, which in some cases would have been impossible. This was another delicate cutting job because I didn’t catch it before assembly. I managed to do all these cuts without damage but as I worked it became clear that the metal braces would have to be installed to keep the hull from flexing and keeping it spaced properly. Then I went through my instructions for some serious study. I have several sets, Mini Hobby, Tamiya, Gold Medal, White Ensign, Eduard and Glenn Hoover to go through. Hopefully this will help avoid any more situations like this. In the next part I will explain what I did with the flight deck and catwalks. I can only up load 25 photos at this time so I might make a separate post with some more tomorrow. Happy modeling.

 

[rtwpsom2]

Mike, I didn't know if it'll help you but I have a pdf blueprint I made some years ago of the early hangar deck. It was made using the book of general plans blueprints that a friend of mine got me access to, so I am fairly confident in it's accuracy. Let me know if you'd like a copy.

 

[Mikey25252]

Mike, I didn't know if it'll help you but I have a pdf blueprint I made some years ago of the early hangar deck. It was made using the book of general plans blueprints that a friend of mine got me access to, so I am fairly confident in it's accuracy. Let me know if you'd like a copy.

I would greatly appreciate a copy. Thank you so much for the offer. The plans I got from Floating Drydock were from an early book of general plans but they only covered the hanger on a few of the frame drawings. There wasn't a plan view though. I made my plan view and elevation drawings of the hanger bay from photos and memory.

 

[Mikey25252]

In this photo you can see that there is no vent directly over the hawse pipe. I found some photos of the foc'sle which show the hatches inside the ship.



You can see how the hatch and hawse pipe are closed in this photo.





This shows the page in the instructions with the problems. I highlighted the areas that concerned me. In the bottom view of the starboard side there are the 4 places and the part numbers below but no arrows indicating which part goes where. In all honesty I overlooked the numbers completely and just assumed that they didn't provide these parts. in the top view of the port side there are 2 parts to install as indicated by the blue squares but no numbers for the parts.



These mooring bits on each side are represented by just a depression.



I had these left over from the Aurora kit but the bits are barely formed on most of them and they are actually too large, imagine they were for a 1/400 scale model so I used some brass handwheels to make something a little better. they are shown on the port side below.





The remaining bits along each side look like this.



Here I have started installing them.



These crude boxes will block any light leaks and prevent you from looking through from one side to the other.



This is the elevator 4 area showing how the superstructure was cut back and rebuilt. Originally it would have reached to the elevator opening on the forward edge. I had to do similar work around the other elevators.



This I what the "balcony" platform came like in the kit.



This is what it is supposed to look like.



Finally this shows the test cell opening on the port side and the ventilation duct opening on the stern.

 

[rtwpsom2]

Mike I tried to put the plate you sent me into AutoCAD to see how you did in comparison, but ACAD and PDF's don't play well together. You're detailing of the hangar went way past where mine did, I just wanted to provide a basic structure for modelers to use to get started. Here's the pdf if anyone else wants it. The roof structure is not flipped. You would be looking down on it as if the plates above were removed.

 

[Mikey25252]

Mike I tried to put the plate you sent me into AutoCAD to see how you did in comparison, but ACAD and PDF's don't play well together. You're detailing of the hangar went way past where mine did, I just wanted to provide a basic structure for modelers to use to get started. Here's the pdf if anyone else wants it. The roof structure is not flipped. You would be looking down on it as if the plates above were removed.

Thanks, I was able to download it both ways. I drew mine when I was working on the hanger of my Monogram 1/400 kit. I'd make something pat myself on the back and then find a photo online that proved everything I just did was wrong. So I started drawing the hanger and eventually did the whole ship.