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

[Mikey25252]

Part 9 Addendum

After reviewing my posts for detailing the hanger I found that a portion of the text had been deleted with references for several photos. I blame over enthusiastic editing (strictly on my part). I had wanted to show some of the photos of the work that went into making the double watertight doors and the Weapons Elevator Doors. After I showed the photo of the Double WTD blank I should have had several photos showing the built up doors in position. I checked all my backups and could not find the missing text so I'm afraid that it is gone forever.



This photo shows the doors at Sponson # 5 going through these doors will bring you to the hanger via another set of double doors between the weapons elevator trunks.



These are the doors at Sponson # 1. They lead to the hanger. This area was the quarterdeck in port when we were tied to a pier. This access to the ship was for officers and chief petty officers. I got these doors a bit crooked but fixed it later.



These are the hanger side doors for Sponson #1.



This is the hanger set of doors for Sponson # 5. Just above this door there will be another double door on the platform. This was access to the ships Calibration Lab and was used to hoist large heavy items up to the shop rather than carry them up 2 flights of inclined ladders. Note that the divisional door tracks are beginning to fail.



This photo shows the double doors over Elevator 3. This is also an access for the calibration lab to hoist items from the elevator when it is lowered. This area required some additional corrections to make it agree with this reference photo below.



I had to cut away quite a bit of the molded deck and then add the box like door well before gluing on the double WTD.




These open doors lead to the tunnel. This area is primarily Supply and AIMD avionics work centers. Because I had to move the forward bulkhead aft about a 1/2 inch (see part 8 basic construction of the hanger bay) there will be another set of open double WTD aft of this one. It is okay as this would be the alcove around the forward most weapons elevator trunk. I am going to add ramps for both of these doors.



This is the set of doors leading to the Yellow Shirt Locker. I haven't placed any of the vertical ladders or the platforms yet.



This the installed Powerplants door looking in or forward from the fantail.



This will become the interior bulkhead for Powerplants. I have installed the ramps and the L brackets will later be covered.



The 3D printed engine on a trailer. The reorganization of shapeways was a great loss of detail parts. I now wish that I had spent more getting items that are no longer available unfortunately money is a finite resource.



Happily the engine and stand fit through the doors.

After this section on the double doors I would have gone back into the text in Part 9 post 2 which explained about the Weapons Elevator Doors.



Several Weapons Elevator Door parts blanks on the cutting mat fresh out of the Silhouette.



This piece has just had all the chads removed. Some of the plastic bits are nearby on the mat. That part actually went fairly easy.



These three parts stacked up make up one door.



Here the door is installed on the forward elevator trunk.



The door on the aft trunk has been added as well as frame detail on both trunks.



This photo show the nearly finished elevator trunks with the pulley system represented.

Because of the trouble I had with getting the large amount of details written up in part 9 correctly I am thinking about going to a reduced amount of material in each post. I am currently working on the 3 Hanger fuel stations and I am thinking of trying a post just dealing with those. What do you prefer longer or more frequent?

 

[Mikey25252]

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

Part 10 Hanger Bay Fuel Stations

In order to fly aircraft you must be able to fuel them. There are of course parts to represent the fuel stations on the flight deck in the kit and the photoetch sets. But the Hanger fuel stations are usually overlooked in most builds of the Enterprise. The 3 hanger JP-5 fuel stations were vital to the day to day operations for the ship. They were necessary to fuel up aircraft coming out of maintenance before testing of repaired engines, flight controls, fuel cells and drop tanks. They were used to defuel as well as fuel. Pretty much every aircraft and support equipment vehicle ran on JP5.



This photo is a hanger fuel station on a museum ship. It is a detailed photo which was very helpful.

JP5 and diesel are similar but JP5 is refined to the same standards worldwide while the standards for diesel can vary widely from nation to nation and time of year. Diesel can be refined from biomass as well as crude. JP5 is refined from crude oil only and it has a higher flashpoint than other jet fuels which is why it is the only jet aircraft fuel authorized for the US Navy (vice JP4, JP8 or Jet Fuel A). To me the diesel smell of jet fuel pervaded the flight deck. When you came off the flight deck after working up there for a day of flight ops your clothes and you reeked of diesel like a bus station. They carried that smell even after a trip through the ships laundry.



This is the midships fuel station on Enterprise. The photos that I have of the other 2 are usable but if you didn’t know what you were looking at you would miss them. Note the width of the reel to the inside versus the one to the outside

When Enterprise was first commissioned, prop aircraft with reciprocating engines were still in use. There were various marks of A-1 Skyraider aircraft and several versions of the C-1 also. Both of these aircraft were used on Enterprise. There were possibly other prop aircraft in use. When I first reported to VA-122 at NAS Lemoore California they still had two T-28 Trojan aircraft. The ship had a C-1A Trader, side number 000 which was used as a utility/ COD aircraft for both of the workups that I made. When we deployed it was left behind. This aircraft still needed type 100 aviation gasoline or AVGAS (highly flammable) .



Grumman C-1A Trader BUNO 146057, Modex 000 from USS Enterprise at NAS Alameda, CA on 8 Aug 82.

I know that after the C-1A was retired from the Navy in 1988 and they also got rid of the AVGAS reels on all the carriers at the same time. None of the reels in the hanger dispensed AVGAS according to Wikipedia. I don’t know how they knew that but it referred me to their article on Enterprise. I would guess that the volatility of AVGAS had something to do with that. There was only one AVGAS Station on the ship at the Starboard Bow Between the second and third JP-5 stations.



I made this set but I wasn't at all happy with it, the hose reel was too wide, the hose diameter was too big and the pedestals were a major pain to assemble. The pedestal base sort of dictates the width of the hose reels. Oddly none of the three sets were the same width or height.

Each set of Enterprise specific photoetch sheets that I have feature enough reels to make all the stations on the flight deck. None of them are exactly the same though. I liked the White Ensign sheet as the best of the 3 so they will be reserved for the flight deck. For the hanger I decided to use the reels from the Gold Medal set but I did not care for the pedestals from any of the sets. I did make up an example using parts from both Eduard and Gold Medal sets but I did not like the resulting prototypes. The actual reels at some of stations were different widths. In the hanger I just made them the same width although that is wrong by my one good photo. I tried 3 different versions in all before I finalized my assembly. I had to play around with the width of the reel, the size of the hose, (lead wire)as well as the parts for the pedestal to finally get what I wanted.



I am getting all the various parts for the fuel station. I have just cut out the bases and removed all the reels from the fret.

I decided to use plastic strip to make the base and pedestals. I used the widest .010 strip for the base that I had. For the uprights I glued a thin strip on the center of a .010” X .060” strip to give them some detail. This combination long strip was cut into equal lengths slightly longer than the diameter of the reels. I trimmed the pedestals at an angle from the border of the thin strip to the edge of the base. Finally I glued a shorter piece of .020” rod to the thin strip to look like an input/output pipe. For the center of the reel I wound lead wire onto a 2 inch piece of Evergreen 1/16” tubing. I glued the coiled wire tightly in place with thin CA and cut the tube into equal wafers about 1/16” thick with the Chopper.



Making the upright supports.



Assembling the hose reels.

I glued one upright to the edge of each side of the base strip pipe side out and allowed them to set up, paced an assembled reel next to it and glued the other uprights in position. When the four uprights had firmed up on each base I glued a reel between each with CA. To make some representation of the plumbing I started with a very small section of .040” rod vertically between the pedestals. Another short piece of .025” rod was glued vertically on top of it. Then a second piece of .025” rod was glued on top of the .040” rod perpendicular to the base as an input pipe. This was trimmed just slightly wider than the base. I let all this dry hard.

The midships station is a bit unique since it is placed against a perpendicular bulkhead. Each of the reels is at an angle to the wall at their back in order to make rolling and unrolling the hoses easier. I have some Black Cat Hand Wheels on pipe sections which were used to provide valves. I used one large and 2 small hand wheels on each base. The large valve was glued on top of the input pipe. The smaller ones right next to each inner pedestal pipe. Finally I glued some lead wire to look like connecting pieces of pipe. Not accurate but kind of looking the part. I want a basic method of building and assembling these because there are far more on the flight deck.



The 3 stations have been assembled and I have been adding extra plumbing to the left most one. It is almost fully assembled and the other 2 are in work.

I had to check these stations in the various positions as the assembly progressed to ensure they would continue to fit. Happily this went well and I went through assembly quickly. After testing a final time I confronted the last part. Tiny, tiny nozzles. Since most of this work will only be seen in photographs and the merest glimpse through the hanger doors the main purpose here was to come up with a sure fire way to manufacture and assemble these reels so that when I get to the flight deck it won’t be like pulling teeth.



The mostly completed forward fuel station dry fitted.



Here the midships station is in place.



The aft station: note the tiny hand wheels

Most of aircraft refueling is done at a single point pressure refueling port. This port allowed all the tanks including drop tanks to be refilled at just one place. The nozzle is grounded, then inserted and twisted to cam lock it tightly in place. So this nozzle has 2 handles to grip and give the technician better leverage to lock the nozzle. Fuel is fed under pressure into the system so you do not want this thing coming apart.

To make these nozzles I tried various gages of wire and bits of micro tubing to represent the fitting. Then since I had already used part of a 1/700 scale vertical ladder to make the windows for the hanger projection booth I cut off three sides of each ladder rung. This made a handlebar of sorts. This was placed on the nozzle and delicately glued in place. I took a small section of the lead wire for the hose and glued it to each reel to look as if the end of the hose was draped over the top. I glued the nozzle to the reel like it was connected to the hose.

This nozzle was used for aircraft but the vehicles did not have this type of port. They used a nozzle like a normal gasoline nozzle but larger. This nozzle was also used to defuel individual drop tanks when they needed to be moved or replaced. I think that they used a similar fitting to fuel the reciprocating engine aircraft. This nozzle was a bit smaller than the pressure nozzle so more experimentation with wire and tube followed until I was satisfied with it. I made three of each type nozzle and placed one of each on the 3 stations. I don’t know if this was the actual configuration but it seemed good to me.



The fuel nozzles have been added.

I wanted these made but not installed yet so I had to make a protective box or something to store them until I was ready to put them in place. I had used up a package of Black Cat parts so I re-purposed the package putting down a bigger strip of double sided tape. I marked it clearly and placed the 3 fuel stations inside. Then stored them in a secure location. I am pleased with the results that I have made and it will be a bit easier to make the flight deck reels.



The 3 finished stations going into protective custody.

Doing work this fine is difficult for me. I have to fight my eyesight and the arthritis in my hands. So it is all the sweeter when I can make something this small and have it look at least okay. To do this I use some good tools. In the photo below you see the package of hose reels inside the headband of my lighted magnifier. It has one attached lens and 4 other lenses that can supplement it. For these parts I used a 3.5 X lens with a 1.5 X lens.

Super glue is too expensive to waste and I am clumsy so I made this glue station. The aqua colored cap holds enough thin superglue for most sessions, the blue cap holds acetone to keep my applicators clean and the clear cap holds accelerator. I use “T” pins, wire and applicators I made with the eye of a needle and an old paint brush handle. I have 3 of them in small, medium and large they work precisely and neatly. The red applicator is my medium and is lying next to the green handled nippers. I can place a dollop of thick or medium CA on the card in the lid of my station and use a toothpick or the handle from a worn out micro brush to apply glue where needed. The green lid which has a spare thin superglue holder in it is for debonder or acetone when I need to clean a part that I have messed up. This system is working really well for me.

There are two pairs of tweezers which I found by trial and error on the internet. The pink ones are eyelash tweezers and work great for photoetch. The other is an ANYZ set who make superior tweezers as well as model detail parts. They weren’t cheap, about 30 dollars for the pair but so worth it when you need to hold something tiny and not shoot it off into the ether someplace. I have many cheap tweezers that I got on the internet but found they did not work. These are now clamps and heat sink and such. I use both a small scalpel and a standard hobby knife with new sharp blades regularly. The green nippers are strictly for wire and brass. They are sharp and I have had them for years. This also is not something to chintz out on. The lead wire, tubing and copper wire went into each of these reels. I have a variety on my bench and I always look for this sort of thing whenever I am out shopping with my wife. Curiously the lead wire and tubing came from a fishing catalog that somebody sent me in the mail. I am not a fisherman but I found several items in that catalog that I use a lot.



The tools necessary to put these items together

I hope you find this smaller post easier to digest. Take care and enjoy your modeling.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 11 The 1960 Commemorative Launching/Commissioning Bronze Medallion

This does not have to do with any part of the model build for the ship but it has a direct relationship with the original vessel. I have a friend Bill Scoggins who like me served in the US Navy. He was an Aviation Ordnance Man. Between 1987 and 1990 he served aboard Enterprise in the Weapons Department as the Leading Petty Officer in G-3 Division. They stowed, broke out, maintained and assembled the bombs that the airwing launched with. They were responsible for transferring these weapons to the flight deck. They also maintain and repair the weapons elevators that moved them. He was aboard during operation Praying Mantis.

In April of 1988 The Samuel B. Roberts FFG-58 hit a mine while operating in the Persian Gulf as part of the Task Force prosecuting Operation Earnest Will. Earnest Will was a show of force to stop Iranian efforts to deny the gulf to the Iraqis. The explosion opened the hull and broke the keel of the Roberts which nearly sank. The heroic damage control efforts of the crew saved the Roberts. The investigation traced the mine to Iran. Iran threatened and harassed ships trying to trade in the gulf and then laid mines. Praying Mantis sank 2 Iranian frigates, numerous small armed boats and captured oil platforms.

Bill and I met through our wives. He became interested in my build of the Enterprise since he served aboard and is thinking of making his own model. He is also interested in memorabilia related to his service. Neither he nor I were old enough to be invited to the launch of CVAN-65. It would have been something to be there though. On 24 September 1960, the ship was launched. The wife of the Secretary of the Navy, Mrs. William B. Franke, sponsored the ship with the traditional bottle of Champaign. On 25 November 1961, Enterprise was officially commissioned, with Captain Vincent P. de Poix, commanding. De Poix was formerly of Fighting Squadron 6 aboard her predecessor, CV-6.



The face of the medallion.



The reverse.

As part of the ceremony a 2 1/2 inch bronze medallion was struck. I haven’t been able to find out any more particulars of who received them but I would guess they were given to the invited guests at least. Maybe they were also issued to the crew as well. Bill found one of these commemorative bronze medallions from the launching ceremony and bought it. I wasn’t aware that he had it. When he told me that he was going to give it to me I was a bit nonplussed and tried to refuse. He was firm and wouldn’t take no for an answer so I accepted it. I will incorporate the medallion into the display of the model to honor the ship and all who sailed in her with many thanks to Bill. I hope my model will live up to Its Namesake.

Memorabilia (1)



My hats, coffee cup and cruise books from my service on Enterprise.

Any of you readers who have certain knowledge on the history of the medallion please feel free to respond.

 

[Jimsky]

The medallion you have was a commemorative launch of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65). This type of bronze medallion was produced to commemorate the ship’s launching on September 24, 1960, at Newport Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport , Virginia. Shipyards commonly created such medallions for major milestones — keel laying, launching, commissioning, especially for historically significant vessels.

USS Enterprise (CVN-65) was:

• The first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier
• At the time, the world’s largest warship
• The only carrier ever built with eight nuclear reactors
• In service from 1961 to 2017

The medallion:

• Front: Relief image of the carrier at sea, with the inscription “World’s Largest Ship” and “First Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carrier.”
• Reverse: Commemorates the launching date and location, with the builder’s name around the rim.
• The shipyard emblem at the bottom is the Newport Shipbuilding logo.

These were typically presented to shipyard officials, Navy personnel, sponsors, or VIP guests attending the launch ceremony. Some were also sold or distributed in limited numbers.

 

[Mikey25252]

The medallion you have was a commemorative launch of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65). This type of bronze medallion was produced to commemorate the ship’s launching on September 24, 1960, at Newport Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport , Virginia. Shipyards commonly created such medallions for major milestones — keel laying, launching, commissioning, especially for historically significant vessels.

USS Enterprise (CVN-65) was:

• The first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier
• At the time, the world’s largest warship
• The only carrier ever built with eight nuclear reactors
• In service from 1961 to 2017

The medallion:

• Front: Relief image of the carrier at sea, with the inscription “World’s Largest Ship” and “First Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carrier.”
• Reverse: Commemorates the launching date and location, with the builder’s name around the rim.
• The shipyard emblem at the bottom is the Newport Shipbuilding logo.

These were typically presented to shipyard officials, Navy personnel, sponsors, or VIP guests attending the launch ceremony. Some were also sold or distributed in limited numbers.

Thanks that was more than I was able to find just asking google.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 12 The Powerplants engine work stands.



This photo gives you an idea of the number of engines in work and the general shop arrangement.



A second photo from the opposite direction. In this picture you can see the stands are bolted to the deck.

The next detail item will be the engine work stands that will be visible through the Elevator 3 and 4 and the open roll up doors to Powerplants. There were 3 rows of stands with the ability to have up to 3 stands in each row. The stands were designed in such a way as to be able to have multiple engines in work at the same time. Adapters for the different engine types and other support equipment were stored in the cages on either side of the work center. Each individual stand had a pair of rails supported by 3 legs on each side and the pairs of legs were connected together by a cross brace. The legs in the earliest configurations were bolted to the deck.



Look at the pads with the uprights. I believe this is a Nimitz class carrier. The location of the Powerplants work center is consistent among modern carriers.

Later round pads with a hole in the center were welded to the deck and the stand uprights were threaded into them. The rails of the stands in each row were connected together at the ends to form a continuous surface so any engine could be slid along its length. There will be one more single stand on a shock mount on the fantail for testing engines for a total of 10 individual stands. The long stands in the work center will be left together.



This is the cutting mat after I removed the 12 x 6 inch plastic sheet. To the right you cqn see the parts still stuck to the mat.



A closer look at the mat, when I pull away the part the individual chads stay with the mat. You can see also that some of the cross pieces did not turn out very well which will cause problems later.

To model the stands I looked at several ways to make the parts. I thought of drilling holes in the deck, inserting rod and joining that to a rail then once the glue had dried being able to remove the assembly. This was discarded because of the size of the parts involved would just be too complicated to get assembled with regular spacing. I also discarded repurposing some photoetch because it would have been too flimsy and 2 dimensional (I also couldn’t find anything that I wanted to waste). Since I had some pretty good success with the Silhouette making the drop tank racks I went back to the cutting machine for this too. I was able to make a cut program based on the size of the stands in my drawings. These were verified against the size of my 3-D engine and some Eduard figures. Based on experience with past cut jobs, I put a runner across the bottoms and ends. Typically this produces a better part. After assembly undesired material can be cut away. The stands came out fine but some of the cross braces were kind of messed up. I had made many extras and so I had plenty of good parts to make what I needed.



The first set with all the cross members shakily glued in place. As the glue firmed up I got them all to relatively perpendicular.



These 3 sets of stands have all the cross braces. They will all be in the Powerplants shop. The thin rail capping off the ends will be removed. I’m not sure about the bottom rail. Removing it may weaken the frame too much.

In this case when I removed the top sheet all the cut out parts remained on the mat. As I removed parts from the mat the chads were left in place. I did not have to spend time removing them. I took one of the rails and began gluing cross braces in place. I kept this up until the all connected stands and the one individual stand had all the cross members in place. At this point I had to stop until the glue on each had dried. I left them to dry overnight.



All the parts are waiting for the glue to dry. At the bottom is the single stand for the test cell on the fantail. Note the engine an trailer at the very bottom of the shot.



These are the discards of my first attempt.

When I came back to the bench the next day my goal was to glue the two parts of each stand together, I started with the short stand since this only needed 3 connections and it actually went together pretty well. Encouraged I moved on to the longer stands and ran into complications. There was absolutely no way to set the outside frame to the inside and make all the connections simultaneously. Since I had put small dabs of glue on each cross brace they softened and in some cases collapsed. I tried variations on the other remaining stands but I just couldn’t bring it off.



I am well along in gluing these two sets together.

Back to the drawing board. I got out the 1/16” deep channel and sliced off wafer thin pieces. These would be my new cross braces. They were stronger than the parts I had made although less detailed. I had plenty of frames so I glued up cross braces on 3 new frames. The next day I came back. This time I taped each stand to the mat, checked that everything was square and put a drop of glue on just one end. I glued the sides together but just at that one brace. I did this to all three frames and let them firm up. Being extremely careful I returned to the first and glued the second cross brace in place. I kept rotating through the frames one joint at a time until I had them all in place.

Engine Stands (8)

This is the third stand. I had to keep the units that were drying well away from the ones I was working on so I did not bugger them up with an errant elbow.

The frames were still taped down and I let the glue dry a bit before I tried anything else. I went back to my cross braces and glued them on top of the channel one at a time. This stiffened up the frames measurably. Once this was mostly dry I trimmed the ends of each stand removing the first vertical and the bottom runner that was past the second vertical. I left everything to dry for two days. When I came back to the bench I was able to remove the bottom runner and the stands remained solid.



It’s together and trimmed on the ends.



All the stands in the hanger for safety.

Engine Stands (12)

I couldn’t resist putting the stands in the shop to see how it would look. I haven’t removed the bottom rail yet.

I printed drawings and photos for the fantail and I will work on that area next. Thanks for looking this over and happy modeling.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 13 The Fantail (Part 1)

I previously reported that the hanger door mural was painted in 1972. That was incorrect. I found several photos of a USO show in the hanger from the 1965-1966 Cruisebook which show the mural as a background to the show. The photos I used as a reference from the 1971-1972 cruisebook must have been a retouching of the mural. There is a photo in it with sailors on ladders painting and a caption “painting the mural.” I looked through all the cruisebooks page by page from 1962 to 1978 to try and pinpoint when it was painted but was unable to find a date. I apologize for the mistake.

The fantail of the ship was primarily a working area. 3rd Division of the Deck Department (formerly of the Weapons Department), maintained the space and during the 1960’s the side painters stowed their small boats from the starboard side overhead out of sight. During that same era there was a large drop tank rack suspended from the port overhead. There appears to have been some sort of platform at the fantail to starboard from the beginning of the ships career. There were two capstans, 3 very large fairleads and 4 large bitts for mooring. Just off the fantail were the vertical mooring line spools in the port and starboard passageways leading to the fantail. Off the stern below the deck level were swinging brackets for support while rigging the after accommodation ladder. The upper platform was designed to fold out and lock into place. There were ladder rungs welded to the stern for access while rigging.



This photo shows the test cell in the background, you can see the opening for the jet exhaust and the stand with a yoke. In the foreground the bosuns are prepping the accommodation ladder for deployment or to return it to storage.

The accommodation ladder was stored above the fantail just under the ramp of the flight deck. There was access to the ladder provided by a catwalk at the 03 level. The ladder was lowered down to the level of the fantail and swung in to be prepared. Once the ladder was ready to be rigged it was lifted up and lowered into place resting on the brackets until attached to the upper platform. The lower end of the ladder had a platform installed but later it was removed and would then be dropped down to a camel or float below. The ladder had rollers on the lower end to account for the motion of the ship and the float. This could catch the unwary or inebriated sailor by surprise (Don’t ask me how I know). The whole process of rigging this ladder was labor intensive and I owe many of my best liberties to the hard work and efforts of the Deck Department. Later much of this was built right onto the stern greatly simplifying the process.



I think this is what they were trying to make with the grid on the kit left fantail bulkhead but that was from the 1960’s era. The after accommodation ladder is rigged in this photo and if you look under the flight deck you can see the catwalk where it is stored. In this photo they did not use a camel or float at the bottom so there is a platform at the lower end. The starboard folding strut is being used as a support davit.

AIMD used the stern to test new and repaired aircraft engines. During the Comprehensive Overhaul which began in 1979 the test cell was moved to the center of the fantail from the port side to make room for the Phalanx system. There was an enclosed operator booth added. They added a deck level platform which extended out from the center of the fantail where the engines were situated on a trailer. However during the time I was aboard there was a shock mounted platform between the outboard access door to the port side sponson and the aft wall of the fantail. I think there was some sort of fume extraction or ventilation system exiting directly aft on the port side. The engines were placed on a stand attached to the platform with the exhaust pointing out through the port in the side of the hull. The controls and all connections were handled from a console box which was also on the platform.



This is an engine being tested on the fantail after the 1979 refit. The trailer is what I referred to as transport trailer but it has been modified with jack stands to make a more rigid mount. There would be some sort of holdback to keep the engine from moving. This particular engine is at full afterburner.

To get an engine onto this stand must have involved an overhead crane but while I found no photographic evidence of this I will portray it that way. The only other way it could have been done would have been to use a jacking engine stand and align it with the stand on the platform. The engine would then have been slid across to the platform stand. It could have been done this way but it would have been very time consuming. Just trying to align the trailer with the platform stand would have been difficult at best. Generally the jacking stands were used to install and remove the engines from aircraft because each end could be raised or lowered independently. I believe that power plants used simple transport stands.



This photo shows the Enterprise in 1978 at NAS Cubi Point RP. Note the orientation of the AN/SPN-41 ACLS antennas on the flight deck. Forward of the exhaust opening for the test cell on the port side is the doorway opening to the fantail. Note that there is no door. On the upper port fantail you can see the pipe for the fume extraction or ventilation system.

In the Restricted Availability between the 1976 and 1978 deployments the AN/SPN-41 Automatic Carrier Landing System (ACLS) was installed. The platform on the stern was enlarged and the azimuth antenna for the system was mounted on the platform, the elevation antenna was on a tower on the aft flight deck. There was some other antenna on the little finger that extends aft of the platform on the starboard side. I don’t know if this was part of the ACLS or another system. Another pilot landing aid were the drop lights running down from the landing area center line. These lights with the centerline lights on the flight deck provided visual cues to pilot’s line up when landing at night. These drop lights were just behind the azimuth antenna and extended from just under the flight deck to just above the waterline.



This is Enterprise from the 1978 cruise with a stern quarter view that gives a pretty good idea of the layout of the fantail at the time. Note that the after accommodation ladder has been rigged on a camel.



This photo from 1972 shows the layout prior to the installation of the ACLS system. The drop tank rack appears to have been removed.

The thing about ships in general and warships in particular is that they are constantly being updated. In order to model a ship like Enterprise you should have an era in mind and do some research to see what it looked like. Then you have to judge if the kit parts are satisfactory or need to be modified. The kit fantail parts weren’t deep enough and the orientation of the azimuth antenna did not appear to be correct.

When I designed my hanger deck I incorporated the deck of the fantail as part of it in order to correct the kit fantail dimensions. I placed the aft bulkhead at its correct location at frame 255. This makes the fantail deeper than the kit parts would depict. This change caused some problems with the use of some of the Eduard detail parts but I found work arounds. The detail on the kit’s aft bulkhead is a bit spurious in most cases so I made my own bulkhead from the start.



These are the kit fantail parts dry fitted off the model. The two ACLS antennas should have the same orientation. I determined to the best of my ability that this one is incorrect it will have to be rotated 90 degrees to the right. Unfortunately I did not find this out right away.

Tamiya/Mini Hobby have molded very basic details. Hatches, doors deck equipment and structures are just rectangular or round bumps. The ribbed structure to the right is one item that is pretty close to what was there and I cannibalized it for my model. I think the grid to the left side may have been trying to represent a drop tank rack that was there in the 60’s. It wasn’t there in the 80’s which is the period that the kit represents. There was a platform which was used for storage. I think this might have been items to set up the Quarterdeck on the fantail. It was wider than what is portrayed by the kit parts.

To start I compared the position of the ribbed structure from the kit part and transferred that position to my bulkhead. I cut this portion free of the kit bulkhead. I filed the ends smooth and sanded off the thickness of the bulkhead itself from the backside. On the inboard side there was a sink mark and I covered it with some plastic card. That inboard edge was cut at an angle at the bottom so I duplicated that. I had to fill the little positioning indent for the kit ACLS equipment deck. I sanded the bottom smooth and then used some strip to continue the ribs across the bottom. I was then able to transfer the part and glue it in place on my bulkhead.



In this photo I have modified and transferred the ribbed structure. I have added some doors and the storage platform. The first rendition of the ACLS platform is finished. The inclined ladder did not last long before it was hopelessly chewed up.



In this photo the ACLS platform has been extended to reach the forward and starboard bulkheads.

Eduard provides a metal part to replace the kit ACLS Platform. I had to extend it in order for it to reach the new bulkhead location. I used the photoetch part as a template and cut out a longer piece from some .010” sheet. I got it to fit from the fantail opening to the bulkhead and then I noticed the detail on the underside. I also found a photo which makes me suspect that the platform reached all the way over to the starboard side bulkhead so I used some additional .010” sheet to extend it again to the side. I used some .010” rod to detail the underside of the plastic parts to look like the photoetch. I did this more than once because I broke my first platform trying to move and reorient the antenna. I had to start over and make a new one. It was easier to replace it than to try and repair it. The second time the parts of the old one did act as a template for the new one plus it is all one piece and a bit stronger.



Although this 2012 photo is pretty dark back under the platform it can be discerned that it extends to the starboard side. You can see the skirt around the edge. There are more electronics under the platform which weren’t there in 1978. Up on the platform there is a hint of a bulkhead walling off a section of the platform. The second antenna is visible on the finger.



Now I have added the skirts, the support trusses and the wiring. The antenna is oriented incorrectly, different but I got it wrong again when I first glued it down and the second time I moved it was too much stress and the platform broke where I extended it to the side.

12 Fantail (15)

This photo shows the detail on the underside. Too bad that it gets wrecked in the end.

In photos of the platform there is a skirt around the inboard and aft edges of the platform. I used some HO scale Evergreen 1 X 3 strip to make that edge. The Eduard set includes a single diagonally braced truss for the starboard side but there should be a second that runs athwartships and connects to the first. So I used one from the Gold Medal set. The White Ensign set also has 2 but they are too long because they are designed to run the width of the platform in parallel to each other which is incorrect. There are 2 diagonal struts supporting the platform but only one is provided by Eduard. I could not find any way to add it now as it would interfere with removing the ACLS platform and/or be destroyed while trying to remove and install it. I went and lost the singe Eduard strut and made 2 out of plastic strip.

13 Fantail (64)

These 2 struts have been cut and fitted to the ACLS platform the longer one supports the platform fore and aft and the marked one runs from the aft center of the platform to just above the rail on the starboard side.

The Eduard Photoetch Set Part 5 set includes piece 27 for the ACLS platform railing. It’s sized to fit the Eduard photoetched deck and includes the skirts. Because of my extensions the railing is too small to fit the platform I made. The Eduard part incorrectly wraps the railing around the finger extension. The finger extension does not have railing because of the second antenna. In the 2012 photo above you can see some vertical supports on the inboard side of the platform. I made these from plastic strip. I bent some generic railing to fit my platform and glued the vertical supports to the railing. This railing and the inclined ladder won’t be glued in place till the fantail is being assembled.

14 Fantail 60a

This is the prebent rail with the vertical struts for the ACLS Platform

I ran some lead wire to the antennas and also a branch off to starboard on the bottom of the platform. I used slices of channel for brackets. On top I glued the antenna in position. I made a bulkhead with an offcut from some plastic sheet. I glued it in position and when it had dried I put a door, wiring and a lamp on the visible side. There is a sink mark on top of the azimuth antenna and I covered it with card. I added the second antenna’s pillar and some struts from Albion Alloys micro tubing and .010” rod. I used some ultraviolet curing resin to glue this together. I was impressed by how easy it was to assemble the antenna with this material. From photos it appears that the antenna pivots but I never found a photo showing it extended. I just modeled it on the folded antenna in all my pictures.



This is the underside of the new platform.



This is the upper side it shows the correct antenna orientation and the second antenna.

Eduard provided an inclined ladder for access to the platform but I broke off the lower step. It is also a bit long. The Tom’s ladder is a bit short. They have you remove the molded door on the starboard side of the kit fantail bulkhead. But there is supposed to be a WTD there. Eduard uses the photoetch deck which puts the ladder in the wrong place. I used a shorter inclined ladder but placed a hole in my deck to move the ladder inboard and I glued it on the bulkhead. This turned out to be a bad idea though because with all the fitting for the platform I managed to mangle it and ended up removing it to be added later. I went back to the Eduard ladder in the end. It was easier to fit down through the access hole and I cut off the bottom step which brings the ladder to the right length.



This photo shows the mid to late 80’s fantail under the platform. The duct arrangement leads to a grill on the exterior. This was not there in the 70’s. It was added at some point when the girders on the port side of the opening were installed. You can see the bottom of the inclined ladder, the open deck hatch and the WTD in the corner.

On my fantail bulkhead I used some Tom’s Modelworks doors for the port and starboard access doors to the fantail. I added a small door to access the catwalk around the vent unit. I had some leftover parts from the elevator door machinery platforms that I made for the hanger bay and I used a set of these to make the storage platform on the port side. I made the support braces from another set. I glued several runs of lead wire for electrical cables. I decided to use slices of channel for the brackets which worked better (read less fiddly) than the aluminum tape that I used in the hanger. This ends part 1 of this installment.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 13 The Fantail (Part 2)

The interior bulkheads on the aft, starboard and port sides of the fantail were detailed with some strip to represent “I” beams. I also framed the interior side for the duct opening and the test cell openings with slices of tube. There were doorways leading to the two side sponsons. These were just simple openings with no doors. I used a template to mark the locations on the exterior. I carefully drilled out as much as possible and cleaned up the opening with a round micro file. I had some L’Arsenal photoetch oval door openings and I framed the doors inside and out with these. The Eduard set has one frame but I wanted the frames to all be the same size.



The open doorway on the starboard side…



…and the port side

On the deck of the fantail I placed 2 generic deck hatches. The chads from the power plants engine frames were perfect to raise the photoetch hatches off the deck a bit. I placed a photoetched scuttle in the center of each of these. I continued electrical runs on the port interior. Then I started adding some plumbing on the Fantail bulkhead. There are several pipes and a couple of rectangular vent ducts. There is a large round vent duct on the starboard stern interior.



These are the 2 capstans that I made.

There are several items of deck furniture that need to be installed. I made 2 capstans from rod, tube and punched discs. To position these on the deck I cut out the fantail from one of my drawings. I used this to make marks on the fantail section of the hanger deck. I glued the capstans in place then punched holes for their locations on the drawing. I slipped the drawing over the capstans and marked the locations of the 4 bitts. I used some Eduard CV/BB bitts for these and glued them at the marks. I used 3 Black Cat CV/BB fairleads and glued them on top of the hull at the fantail opening. Finally I assembled a photoetch rope/cable reel but did not glue it in position yet.



Some of the plumbing on the starboard side of the fantail bulkhead. The deck hatch can also be seen. I later rerouted the pipes from through the deck to suspended to the bottom of the platform.

I made a coaming for the fantail opening. It extends inward but is smooth on the outside. On the starboard side there needs to be a small gap around the ACLS deck. On the port side there were ladder rungs welded to it part way up. The individual rungs were tried first but it was beyond my dexterity level in the confined space of the opening. I tried twice to drill the coaming for the rungs before installing it but I couldn’t get the rungs glued in position later. It wouldn’t be possible to glue the rungs in place off the model and then try to glue the coaming to the ship because of the pressure necessary to form it to the opening. Instead I used the 5 Star ladders like I used on the Powerplants doors.

I scratch built the engine test cell platform with strip and rod. It has a control console and a stand for the engines. On the long sides of the console 8 photoetched small oval doors were glued in place in 2 rows of 4. The controls and engine connections were behind these doors. I didn’t know if they were duplicated on the other side but I installed some there too.
X


The coaming, ladder and test cell are all visible in this photo.



This is a detail shot of the center fantail in the early 80’s. Some elements like the test cell and the AFFF hose reel weren’t there in the 70’s. The tank like object with It’s loop plumbing was.

I continued to detail the fantail bulkhead and the port interior with more wiring runs and plumbing. There is a complicated piece of equipment which I can’t identify surrounded by some odd plumbing. I found a photo of 1966 Enterprise entering Pearl Harbor and although the photo is grainy and dark you can make out the vertical tank. I made the pipe and tank from plastic rod, punched discs and bits of strip. The plumbing was recreated with rod bent to shape. Some Black Cat valves finished this off. I don’t know what the loops were for, possibly some sort of backflow prevention. Then I added electrical panels, an AFFF fire station and an AFFF control group station. There were several light fixtures on the bulkhead and these were made from slices of channel for the base and rod for the lens. At this point I added some plumbing to the overhead for sprinklers and an “I” beam for the overhead crane.



This shot shows the completed fantail bulkhead.

To model the round vent duct on the port side I used a piece of rod that would fit through the hole in the stern, detailed it with a slightly larger diameter disc at the end and then drilled it out. I passed it through the hole and marked its location on the bulkhead. I drilled this out to give the vent a solid resting place at both bulkheads. On the back side of the bulkhead I made a stop to limit how far in the vent would go. On top of this pipe suspended from the overhead is some sort of vent blower. I couldn’t tell if they are connected. I made this with 2 pieces of strip glued together to make the right thickness. I sanded the edges and on the inboard face and added some photoetch to detail it. I cut slices of channel and glued them to the bottom. These brackets straddle the pipe and locate the fan unit. To the forward edge I added a duct which runs inboard and enters the fantail bulkhead and some brackets to mount the unit to the bulkhead.



The vent pipe in place on the port stern.

I positioned the fan on top of the round vent and glued it to the fantail bulkhead. Once it had dried I could remove the round vent and the fan remains in position on the bulkhead. There is a second duct running from the inboard side of the fan to a vent on the upper aft end of the port interior. There is a photoetch grate on the exterior. I glued this to the bulkhead but not the fan. You would not see the connection in any case (the real one exits on top of the blower but mine is positioned by the location of the exterior grill). I used some Tom’s Modelworks catwalk sections with attached railings to make a work platform around the fan.



This shows the ventilation unit and catwalk on top of the vent pipe.



This photo shows a great deal of detail on the stern it is a closer shot of the 1972 photo above

To make the numerous details physically on the stern I first tried the individual rungs again. I taped the drilling template over the area to port and drilled holes for 8 rungs. The smallest bit I own is a #80 Xacto micro bit (.0135 Inches or .3429 mm). This is too large and the rungs fall into the holes. I wasted 3 rungs to the garage floor before I got one installed. It just didn’t look right with the large holes. I do want to try these out but I probably won't use them on this model now. The smallest bit I could find online was .1 mm. I ordered some circuit board drill bits from .1 to 1 mm.

I filled the holes in and went back to something that I know works. I used the 5 Star ladders there, in the center and a longer one next to the lower set of drop lights. There are 2 wider rungs inboard of the port ladder. I found some wide ladder on a Tom’s Modelworks sheet and cut away 2 rungs folded them at the second rung and used the folded section as a gluing surface. I made 2 of these and glued them in place. There is a bracket and some other unidentified details that I made from bits of plastic strip and glued on the hull.

The 2 folding braces on the stern are represented in the Eduard Part 5 set and I glued these on either side of the center ladder. They are very fragile the lower hinge on the smaller brace just broke away from the force to cut the fret. I had to replace this with plastic since the tiny hinge disappeared. I wanted to use the Eduard ladder/drop light part but I broke it trying to fold the lights over and then some of the ladder rungs too. I broke all the lights off and use the part as asingle layer without the ladder². The part is too flat around the lamps even if I had managed to fold it. In the Glenn Hoover Model Build Instruction Series on the Enterprise he uses the kit part to supplement the Eduard part and so that is what I did too.

I took the kit part for the lower section of lights and sanded the back down until the connecting link was very thin. I then cut the lights apart into individual lamps. I placed the strip of the Eduard part with the lamp locations next to the ladder and then glued the plastic lamps on it one at a time. This looked pretty good actually. The upper lamps are smaller because they aren’t in the waterproof boxes like the lower ones. I made these out of small pieces of strip and a punched disc. These 2 parts will not be installed until the platform is permanently located.



This shows the fantail with most of the detail on the stern exterior.

The outlet pipe on the port side has several supports to hold it up. I dithered around with many options to make this part. I wanted it to be affixed to the pipe so I wouldn’t lose it and I needed to keep the pipe removable for now. Since I had 3 different types of hose reels for the flight deck fuel stations I could afford to use one or two to make the struts. None of the three sets had any reels that were large enough in center diameter to drill out so the pipe would fit. I found a ring that slid over the pipe on an old set of photoetch from my spares. I soldered this to the center of the hose reel (I did not think it would hold up if I just glued it).



The white arrow in this photo shows the troublesome support bracket for the vent duct.

I drilled out the center by slowly increasing the drill bit size until I arrived at 1/16”. I cut away a section of the outer ring and tapered the part over a pencil. It slid into place on the pipe and the pipe was positioned on the fantail then I glued the support to the pipe only. It took 3 hours to finally make one that worked. I destroyed 3 while drilling, lost 2 to the garage floor and finally glued one to the part. I probably should have given up after 2, certainly after 3 but I just could not reconcile giving up. No expletives were uttered, maybe a moan or groan or 10. I just doggedly kept trying until I got it right.



The railing and the upper platform for the accommodation ladder on the port side have been added to the stern. The stowed ladder and catwalk are installed above the fantail.

The upper platform for the accommodation ladder is modeled in the stowed position. It closes off the opening for the ladder at the rail. I used a platform for an accommodation ladder from a Tom’s Modelworks set and some angle brackets from the L’Arsenal to make the folded platform. I arranged the supports by the photo. I glued this on the stern at the proper location. I cut sections of generic rail to make the stern railing and glued them in place on the hull. I did have to remove sections of the lower rails around the 3 fairleads.

I had to do this twice also because test fitting the 2 upper drop light pieces indicated that both outer fairleads were out of position. So the two fairleads were removed (I didn’t break them yay) and glued them in the new positions. Then new sections of generic railing were glued to the stern hull. I had to remove the deck both times. I did this to keep from gluing it at the stern prematurely. Eduard does provide railing for the stern but it is in multiple sections for working around the 2 platforms that are added for the 1982 and up Enterprise.

The final item was the catwalk and accommodation ladder above the fantail opening. The Eduard Part 5 set does include these items. !2 tiny parts must be cut from the fret, folded and assembled. The set has you rig the accommodation ladder like the crew were going on liberty and does not provide instructions for stowing it. I thought that it would be easy to mount the braces for the lower catwalk with the angles left out rather than folding them in per the instructions. The real angled brace would swivel in or out as needed but they are far too long. I cut them off, shortened them and glued them back in place sticking straight out to hold the ladder.



The mostly completed fantail with the ACLS platform test fitted.

There is a small inclined ladder to make the transition from the upper to lower catwalk which I mangled trying to fold. I substituted a cut down one from the White Ensign sheet. There seems to be some issue between me and Eduard. I managed to fold the accommodation ladder rungs the wrong way and of course when I tried to fix my mistake they all broke off (I can't blamethis on Eduard). I used a generic accommodation ladder from Tom’s Modelworks. I cut off the handrails and glued them lying on the steps of the ladder. I also cut off the top and bottom platforms since they weren’t needed.

15 Fantail (65)

Here I have test fitted the fore and aft strut and the inclined ladder to the platform. I have not shortened the ladder yet.

So the fantail is mostly complete all the parts are made but not necessarily installed yet. This is the end of part 13. In the next section I will work on the aft port and starboard sponsons 10 and 11 respectively. Thanks for looking over my work and happy modeling.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 13 The Fantail (Part 3)

There were three details that I had forgotten when I made the last 2 posts. On the fantail coaming there was an angle used for some sort of tackle anchor point. The first photo in part one shows this piece of angle. I used a piece of L’Arsenal photoetch to make one and installed it. There should be some sort of cargo in the storage platform. I took some blocks of strip and glued them together so they would fit on the platform. I covered this piece with tissue soaked in white glue. I let this dry and cut away the excess tissue.



This is the finished cargo for the storage platform.



The cargo pallet is in place on the platform and if you look closely just above the ladder on the opening you can make out the angle frame.

And finally in the majority of photos of the engine stands there is a wishbone shaped yoke clamping sections of the engine as a hold down. The test stand needed one and I figured that I would need at least 3 or 4 more. I made 5 all told by punching out a disc large enough to just hang over the rails of the stands then punching out the center of that. The plastic washers were trimmed and the bottoms cut off. I built up the areas of the stands where the collar would be placed on the stands with .005 plastic strip. At the top of the hoop is a hand wheel to drive an arced block down and put pressure on the part below. I used the larger of the black cat hand wheels on pipe sections to simulate this. One yoke was placed on a long set of Powerplants engine stands and another on the test cell stand. I made 3 others which I can leave separate until I decide where to place them.



Here I am punching out the large discs.



Here I have punched out the centers and at the bottom I have begun shaping the first wishbone



I have glued the yoke to the test cell stand. It sits on a copy of the photo I mentioned. At the top left you can see the angle on the coaming and to the right is the yoke on the stand.



This is the test cell with the stand. There are 3 more yokes in pocess.



This is the long stand for the power plants shop with the yoke installed.



These are the 3 completed yokes. Each yoke required 7 parts total.

 

[Mikey25252]

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

Part 14 Sponsons 10 and 11 Part 1

Sponsons are common to US Aircraft Carriers and Helicopter Assault type ships. Other ships have no need for them since their main decks are not enclosed although you can’t rule them out entirely. In order to have places to moor carriers or conduct UNREPs you need to have deck space available to do so. That is why carriers are festooned with appendages hanging off the sides. As Enterprise aged in order to keep her up to date with the latest technology more sponsons adorned her sides.



In this photo you can see 2 ladders on Sponson 10’s sides. There appears to be a tarpaulin stuffed in the test cell exhaust and the garbage chute is not rigged but appears to be laying on the deck under the missile sponson.



This port quarter view in color is very rare for this time period. The rigged pipe to direct engine exhaust from the test cell is of note here. It must not have had the desired effect because it was gone 2 years later in 1976. But the configuration of the ladders has changed from the 1971 photo.

The definition of sponson from the Merriam Webster Dictionary is: “a projection (such as a gun platform) from the side of a ship or a tank.” Sponsons are odd numbered to starboard and even numbered to port starting at the bow and working aft.

On the starboard side Sponson 1 is between Elevator 1 and 2. Sponson 3 is the forward end of the platform between elevator 2 and 3 and Sponson 5 is the aft end. Sponson 7 includes both crane platforms and Sponson 9 is the Starboard Basic Point Missile Defense System (BPMDS) platform. 11 is the last on the starboard side. On the port side the 2 small fore and aft deck houses don’t project out of the hull so they are not included. The port boat house does so that is Sponson 2. Sponson 4 is forward of elevator 4. Sponson 6 is the projection under the finger of the aft flight deck. Sponson 8 is the port BPMDS. 10 is the last on the port side. I am pretty sure that is the correct numbering but if you know for the era prior to 1979 then please correct me.

3 CVN

This is only other clear port aft view that I have prior to the refit.

One oddity that I pointed out before is that at the launching ceremony there was a different sponson 1 just forward of elevator 1 on the main deck level. The flight deck and the 03 level just overhung this sponson and there was no bulge under the flight deck. The sponson was removed as the ship was fitted out and the bulge was added before the ship put out for sea trials.



This view of the Sponson 11 from 1968 is very clear. And the details remained mostly the same.

After the big 79 refit there were additional sponsons on each side so the numbers of individual sponsons of course changed. Up till then Sponson 10 and 11 would have been near mirror images of each other except for the extension that ran forward to just under the starboard BMPDS sponson. They were there to tie off the aft mooring lines when we were pier side. They were used to tie off camels when needed at anchor. Each was furnished with a boat boom to tie up ships boats when not in use. At sea a lookout was always posted on each one. Life rings were available on both.

In the 1968 photo above there is a rack of what appear to be barrels. These might have been targets for the Marine gunners to practice on with the M-60, M-2 .50 caliber and 20mm Oerlikon. The aft sponsons did not have any stations for small arms weapons during my time period as far as I know. They fired the M-60 off the fantail periodically and the catwalks had multiple locations for the heavier weapons. These were a holdover from the Vietnam era when it might become necessary to repel small boats in and around the Tonkin Gulf. During the Gulf War era gun positions were on all the sponsons.



This color photo from 1978 is helpful also.

The aft sponsons were also where all the garbage and trash were dumped. Starting in the late 80’s ships started to get trash compacters and extra incinerators to dispose of refuse. Emphasis was placed on recycling rather than disposal. Prior to the late 80’s pretty much all ships not just military ships dumped waste overboard. The kit parts even feature a piece for the chutes where the garbage cans from the galley were dumped when we were outside of the 50 mile limit. These appear as pipes angled down at the aft rails. Each of these sponsons was fitted with a small diameter 1” or ¾” rubber hose coiled on a rack to keep the sponsons clean. Deck furniture consisted of 3 fairleads and 3 bitts on each side. On each side was a mast for rigging the booms. To port there is a mast at the rail and to starboard a tripod is attached to the hull above head level. As a junior petty officer I made my share of trips aft to dump the trash from our shop. Typically during flight ops the sponsons were secured (off limits to unauthorized personnel).



These are the basic parts for the two aft sponsons after my initial assembly. The decks have been sanded flat which left some holes on the surface after removing larger items.

Construction actually began for the sponsons back in June of 2025, (which I described in Part 5, Hull Details). I assembled anything that was needed to build the basic sponsons and reinforced the decks of each since I had been warned by Modelar that they could sag under heavy sanding. On sponson 10 I backdated the kit sponson to 1978 trim by removing all the Phalanx modifications. After all the deck fittings were removed I used some .010” sheet to cover the decks for a uniform surface. On Sponson 11 there were several mold punch outs on the underside of the extension area. I sanded these smooth and thinned the extension deck and gussets.



I have covered the deck areas with sheet.

The gussets in the kit are straight across but they should taper towards the outboard edge. I sanded the angle with a wood backed piece of sandpaper that covered all the gussets so that they would all have the same angle when I was done. I glued a piece of .010” strip to the outboard edge of the extension to form a skirt that has a scale thickness. Both sponsons were glued to the hull. After drying, gap filling superglue sealed the joins and was sanded smooth. Sponson 10 needed a piece of .010” plastic card on the aft end to match it with the hull at the fantail. I went over all the joints with Tamiya White Putty and sanded everything smooth. I originally wanted to leave them separate for easier painting but they don’t fit very well and they won’t stay in place without some assistance.



The sponsons are glued in place, the gussets have been sanded down and the skirt has been added to the extension. I have begun detailing the side of the hull with wiring and ladders.

The drain pipes on the hull had also been added back in Part 5. Now beginning with the starboard side I added all the wiring. The photos are pretty helpful here. Because there is only 1 strand of lead wire I reverted to the aluminum tape for clamps. Channel is too large for just one strand of wire. There are three vertical ladders on the starboard side, one aft that climbs up to the running light, the middle which goes up to the loud speaker and the forward one which is access to the missile sponson. On the 5 Star photoetch ladder sheet there is ample caged ladder material. The ladders are separate from the cages and are designed to be folded. When done the folded part has rails and stand-offs on each side then rails and rungs on the face and they look nice in place. I am finding their products easy to work with and they produce a nice result.



This section of ladder has not been folded yet it is destined for the port side.



These are the parts for the vent pipe.

There is a large round vent pipe that went through numerous changes during the life of the ship. It was first just a round outlet up high about the 02 level and by 1978 a duct came out went aft and turned outboard again at the end. The pipe was supported by several stand-offs. Later a leg would exit the hull near the deck and rise to connect with the horizontal length. I bent some plastic rod to shape, hollowed out the end and cut several slices of short channel for the stand-offs. I drilled a hole in the hull where the pipe emerges and glued my assembly to the hull. I wrapped the pipe with thin strips of aluminum tape at each standoff and secured them with thin CA.



The vent duct is glued in place and I have added straps to each stand off to simulate clamps. I also made clamps on all the electric cable. Between the middle ladder and the white drain pipe is the tiny section of vertical pipe with the valve attached for the hose shut off.

To make the boat booms I took some .030” x .030” square strip and cut 2 equal lengths based on the boat booms in my drawings. I used some double sided tape and fastened these side by side to the bench. To taper one of the ends I used that same wood backed sand paper and tapered one end. I detailed them with pieces of strip and a piece of rod for a hinge. I glued one to the rim of each sponson per my photos.



The boom on the starboard side and …



the port side.

To model the stowed wash hose I added a pipe and valve to the sponson. To make the unique hose hangers I used a wafer of tube and a punched disc. These were placed on double sided tape while I built them up. Once the two parts had dried I drilled out the centers. I wound lead wire onto the hose rack, secured it with a drop of thin CA and glued the assembly in place next to the valve. I glued a Black Cat generic locker just forward of the doorway. I used one of the kit jack staffs Part # E31to simulate the mast for rigging the boat boom. It was glued to the hull above the vent grill later although I realized my mistake and that it should be much finer and below the vent grate.

I went a couple of days before I couldn’t stand it any longer and removed and replaced it with some repurposed photoetched drop tank rack which I have plenty of. The positioning pegs were cut off 3 kit fairleads and the seam lines sanded smooth. Then they were glued to the deck in the correct positions. I made up lamp assemblies and glued them to the hull and I glued a loudspeaker next to the middle ladder. Three Eduard bitts were glued in place on the deck. I then glued the Eduard photoetched railing in place. This part is designed to fit this sponson and it was right on the money. I cut out the bottom two rails where the fairleads were installed.



Sponson 11 Is nearing completion but the boat boom mast is positioned incorrectly and it is too big. I wanted to use the same parts on both sides but it didn’t look right. I still need to add the railing and the trash chute.



This shows the brass chute, the white part is the one I made and the bottom is the kit part. I haven’t removed the sprue gate on top yet.



A closer view of the port chute.

The last items that I needed to make were the garbage chutes. The kit parts were originally designed to plug into the deck but they will not fit over the rails and the mount looks too bulky anyways. Eduard tells you not to install these. My first thought was to use some brass tube. I had a diameter that was too small and the next size up was too large. .080” plastic rod was about the right size compared to the kit part. Drilling it out was tedious at best. I finally got 2 drilled out after a couple of failures. I chucked it into a pin vise and then using progressively larger bits hollowed it out. Rather than trying to drill all the way through I had better results when I drilled in from each end. I used two wafers of channel, a smaller piece at the upper end to hang on the rail and a larger size at the bottom to create a stand off from the sponson.



This photo shows the completed sponson but with the original mast.

18 Sponson 10 and 11 (29)

This view is the completed starboard sponson with the corrected mast.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 14 Sponsons 10 and 11Part 2

The port sponson is not so well and clearly documented as the starboard. I was able to establish where the wiring and any plumbing were routed but the ladders were a different story. It appears that locations were changed. Up to 1974 there appear to have been two, one forward to the missile sponson and one aft to service the port running light. By 1978 there seems to only have been one just forward of the doorway and It climbs to the loudspeaker. The running light remained in the same position. In 1974 there was some sort of a pipe extension to the test cell exhaust port. It was short lived. At any rate I can find photographic evidence of 2 ladders up to 1971 and only one after 1974.



This photo from the 1978 time frame shows the single ladder.

The port sponson had the drain pipe previously installed but it should have gone up vertically to the catwalk as well as a second leg that angled aft and up to the catwalk so this was corrected prior to running the wiring. There is a second pipe that runs down from the catwalk area and then turns to go into the fantail. I added this and went back to the fantail and continued it down. When I made the boat boom for the starboard sponson I also made and installed a second one for the port side. Then I added all the wire runs with lead wire and light fixtures. I also made a second hose reel for the port side and it was added forward under the missile sponson with its pipe and valve before it gets too close to the deck.



This was the first iteration of the sponson 10 detailing good but wrong. The test cell exhaust opening was off center in the interior and was reamed out to correct it.



The details have been corrected and I have ringed the test cell exhaust opening with gussets and put clamps on all the cables. The second pipe is the short one on the aft end.



This photo shows the continuation of the second drain pipe on the fantail interior. It is the most aft detail on the port side.

The deck furniture was a mirror arrangement to the starboard sponson. I added the bitts and then the boat boom mast. On this side it is next to the railing rather than the hull. I used the one I had removed from the starboard side since I had removed it intact. It looks pretty close to the photos. I added the railing from the Eduard set. It needs to be shortened at the aft end since the part was modified. Surprisingly it ends on a post just like it was designed for it but about 1.25” were left over. The garbage chute on this side seems to sometimes have been stowed on the forward end of the sponson but it was used so I placed it on the aft rail like on the starboard side.



All the hull details have been added at this point. I have to do the railing and the deck furniture.



Sponson 10 is finished here. Life rings will be added after painting is done.

8 Sponson 10 and 11 (39)

This photo show the aft view of the fantail and both sponsons.

This is the end of the part 14 posts. When I return I will be working on Sponsons 8 and 9 the BPMDS mounts. Thanks for reading, see you next time.

 

[Mikey25252]

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

Part 15 Sponsons 8 and 9 Part 1



A typical Terrier mount. Enterprise’s oft time escort USS Long Beach CGN-9 had these for AA armament.

When the Enterprise was under construction plans included antiaircraft defenses provided by Terrier missile launchers on sponsons 8 and 9. Due to the mounting costs of building the ship and the price for the missile system this never happened. So Enterprise put to sea and these two sponsons were used primarily for storage. Many photos show engine cans or crates on them. This continued through her first 4 deployments. On the fourth 1965-1966 she made her first Vietnam deployment. Operating in the Tonkin Gulf without any antiaircraft defenses finally broke the financial log jam. Prior to the next deployment in 1966-1967 one Basic Point Missile Defense System (BPMDS) Mk-25 Launcher and its Mk-115 Guidance Director were installed on the port side.



Sea Sparrow launch on USS Midway. In the background at catwalk level on the extreme left by the UHF antenna is the director. This arrangement on the sponson is similar to Enterprise.



Loading the launcher on Enterprise’s port side in 1966-1967. The rail is extended to accept the missile.



Note the bridging plates over the catwalk and the folding platform for the GMM’s (Gunners Mate Missiles) to slide the missile onto the rail.

This system was not only for anti-aircraft purposes it also provided defense against sea skimming missiles that the Soviet Union deployed. The RIM-7F Sea Sparrow was an adaption of the air to air AIM-7F in use on the F-4 and F-14 aircraft. The missile launcher had eight missile tubes which were manually loaded unlike the auto loading capability of the Terrier. The Director was placed on the port side hanging off the finger at sponson 6 like an afterthought. Prior to the next deployment in 1968 a second launcher was installed on the starboard sponson and its director was located outboard of the island in the Bomb Farm area. This configuration stood until the refit following the 1978 deployment.



Enterprise’s port Mk-115 director during the same period.



A typical Mk-115 Director.

I watched several successful missile tests with this system on the 5 ships that I served on but I also saw a failed launch from the Enterprise. When we were operating with the Australian and New Zealand Navies in 1976 the ships in the task group provided demos of their various systems for each other. Enterprise launched a missile that left its launcher but failed to follow its guidance and immediately plunged downwards and impacted the sea. It was pretty spectacular and not at all confidence inspiring. It certainly was not a good demo. Thankfully a second launch went off without a hitch. I never saw another failure like that again. During the major refit of 1979 the ships self-defense systems were given a major upgrade with 2 Mk-29 Sea Sparrow launchers, 3 Close In Weapons Systems (CIWS) mounts and some decoy launchers.



These are the kit parts for the Mk-29 Launchers. I assembled one for comparison to the Mk-25 I was making. The rest of the parts went into my scrap box.

The kit missile parts are for 3 Mk-29 launchers which is a bit peculiar since only 2 would be needed. The kit instructions place one on sponson 9 which is incorrect. After the refit the former sponson 9 had some decoy launchers installed and on a new sponson 1 forward, an Mk 29 was installed. The second went on Sponson 8. The new launchers are a bit different from the Mk-25’s. The Mk-25 is longer and boxier looking and the mount is taller. They still are manually loaded from the rear instead of the front. Back when I was working on the 1/400 scale Enterprise I bought a set of Mk-25 launchers from Shapeways. Unfortunately I never went back and ordered the 1/350 scale versions.

I recently looked for anyone producing Mk 25’s now and the only thing I found was a 1/700 scale photoetch sheet by 5 Star. I did not find anything in 1/400 or 1/350 scale. Having a set of plans would have been helpful but I didn’t find any drawings either. The drawings I purchased from Floating Drydock represent the early Enterprise as launched and do not show the launchers. That left only scratch building by calibrated eyeball so here is how I made mine. I was able to download a couple of pages of the 5 Star instructions which I found really useful.



The Mk-29 that I assembled on sponson 8.

The Launcher size was actually determined by the size of the missile. Because the fins did not fold on the on the RIM 7 Sea Sparrow each tube had to be big enough to hold it. The missiles were slid onto a rail from the front and it’s X shaped, head on profile set the inner tube dimensions. I had reasoned that the length of the Mk-25 and Mk-29 would be about the same so I measured the length of the kit part. I made the launcher about 5/8” long and 1/2” wide slightly longer than the Mk-29. .125” square strip looked too big for an individual cell so I went with .10”. The RIM 9 had one set of smaller fins and so the Mk-29 tubes are smaller. I cut 8 sections of .010” strip 5/8” long.



8 sections of rod to make one launcher.



Two outer and 1 inner sections of tubes with spacers next to an assembled set of launcher tubes.

I glued 4 sections together to form a .20” X .20 X 5/8” box for the center 4 tubes. Then glued the other 4 together to form 2 .10” X .20” X 5/8” boxes for the outer 2 tubes. There is a space between the inner 4 and outer 4 tubes. This is where the mount pivot goes. I cut 10 spacers from .030” X .040 strip and glued them vertically to each set of outer tubes then glued the outer and inner sets together. On my initial 2 sets the spacer strip was glued with the .040” side glued to the tubes but later I changed this to the .030” side to make the space bigger for the pivot. Across the top of each assembly I put a piece of .010” X .030” strip at each end of the launcher tubes. On the outlet end of the launchers I made 8 .080” square doors from a piece of .010” strip and glued them in place. On the exhaust end I punched 8 round covers and glued those in place too.



The discs laid out for the exhaust end of the tubes.



I have fitted the doors on both ends of the tubes.



This is one of the downloaded page from the instructions. The idea of folding up this launcher in 1/700 scale sets my teeth on edge but it looks really good if they had a set for 1/350 scale I would have gotten one..

That is about where I was at when I found the 5 Star instructions. After studying them I recalculated like the GPS does when you go past your turn. Their assembly of the photoetch parts made more sense than what I was doing. I took the 2 sets of tubes that I made and tore them apart back to the outer and inner tube assemblies. I removed all the strip on top and the inner sides and sanded them smooth. I left the doors and covers in place though. There is a pivot in the middle of the vertical sides of the inner tubes just slightly off center to the rear end of the box. I drilled a hole to accept a piece of .030” plastic rod. With careful assembly I would have an elevating launcher.



The first parts of the bases

For the base I punched a ¼,”disc. a 5/16” disc and a small rectangle of .020” strip. These three were glued together with the large discs and the small disc centered and the strip centered on top of the smaller of the two discs, (later after studying a profile photo of the starboard side I thought the mount was too short and I added another 5/16 disc). I then cut 2 squares the width of the center tubes then these were centered on the rectangles. All of the sizes of these items were just guesswork based on photos of the launcher. I took 4 pieces of .020” strip, stacked up then cut and drilled them to make 4 identical pivots. 2 pivots were glued butted up to the sides of the square piece on top of the platform. While they were drying I pinned the center launch tubes in place on the bases and allowed them to dry ensuring everything stayed plumb and square. I installed the stand offs on both sides of the center tubes using a different pattern this time to allow for the pivot.



The initial glue up of the basic mount bases.



The center tubes pinned into one of the mounts waiting for the glue to dry. I have added the spacers in a different arrangement than my original 5 vertical strips.

Attached to the center of the tubes on the underside there is an elevating gear. I have a bin in my scrap drawer that holds gears from various clocks and toys that my kids discarded over the years. I found a gear that could be broken up to model this part. The metal gear was cut into pieces, filed smooth on the cut edge and glued onto the center bottom of the tubes and centered under the pivot pin hole. The gear on the real thing shows several lightening holes. I just cut a single spoke for the center of the tiny opening but it turns out you can’t see it.



The elevating gear glued in place on the bottom of the center tubes.



The mount bases after the first detail session.

It took around five 3 hour sessions to detail the bases and assemble the parts. To detail the bases I added bits of strip, rod, photoetch and lead wire to each one. I tested the launcher in place and ensured that I hadn’t obstructed the range of motion with anything I had added. Where the two 5/16” discs were glued together I sanded the join smooth. Then I added bolt detail to the base. I took metal T pins and cut them off for the pivot pin instead of plastic. I pinned the center tubes onto the mounts, trimmed the pin on one side and glued one set of outer tubes in place. Then I trimmed the other side and glued that set of outer tubes onto the assembly which traps the rod and keeps it from popping out of the mount pivots. No glue was necessary on the pivot rod. I clamped the tubes in mini vises while the glue dried.

Part 1 ends here.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 15 Sponsons 8 and 9 Part 2



The first set of parts for final assembly.



An assembled launcher on Sponson 8.



My launcher compared to the 1/400 part, (above left, clear resin) and the kit launcher (above right).

With both launchers together I could add the final details. On the exhaust end there are some curved plates or tubes. They might have been there to force the round plate down when the missile launched or they are some sort of exhaust. They are visible in the photo below. These were made from pieces of strip cut at an angle and glued above each round plate. After these dried overnight I hit them with a sanding stick to make them appear the same. Underneath on the two outboard sets of tubes is an angled channel support on each side. The smallest channel that I have is too large for this piece so I had to make it from 4 pieces of strip. Across the top are the two strips that I had to remove when I re-worked the mounts and tubes. I drilled a .036” hole at the center of each sponson and placed a .030” rod in the center of each mount. That finishes the missile launchers themselves.



The exhaust end and underside in this handy photo of a launcher being hoisted showing a great deal of detail.



The top of the launcher is visible here. Loading this thing would not have been easy in a combat scenario. The Mk-29’s are loaded from the back instead of the front.



The finished launchers on the sponsons. You can see the top straps and just make out the little tubes.



Lastly a profile shot next to a 25 cent coin on a grid of ½ squares on the cutting mat for size comparison.



I used this photo in part 14 but if you look at sponson 8 you can see what I am referring to about the lip of the deck (Yellow Arrow). Also the ladder to the sponson is there in the corner (Red Arrow). Note also the angled plates under the catwalk.

With the discovery of some good clear photos of both Sponsons 8 and 9 it became apparent that I had made a mistake when I added the rim all the way around the sponson to the aft end. Where the sponsons meet the sides of the hull at the aft end the lip should have faded away to nothing rather than the overhang that I created. Correcting this required some delicate razor saw surgery. It was simply a matter of cutting away and sanding the aft lip on the both sides but I had to exercise great care not to destroy any previous detail.



In this photo Sponson 9 has been cut and reshaped. On Sponson 11 the rail has been shortened, the ladder removed and has been extended.

On the starboard side the sponson was cut and sanded but the ladder running up from Sponson 11 was now too far away. I had to lengthen the extension on sponson 11 by about 1/8”. So I cut off the corner of the railing, removed the ladder and then glued a piece of strip to the forward edge of the extension. I went over the joint with Perfect Plastic Putty. I also puttied the rims of sponson 8 and 9 to make sure all was smooth. All this work needed to dry overnight.



I Have puttied the rim of Sponson 8.

The next day I went back and sanded the putty smooth and replaced the missing ladder and railing. Because I was modeling the 1978 instead of the 1980ish Enterprise I had plenty of extra Eduard Railings that I could match with the existing railing. Because of the above photo I decided to place a ladder to the port missile sponson after all. In the higher quality photo from 1978 you can see that ladder is in place. In the inboard corners of each sponson there is a ladder leading to trap doors in the catwalks. I added a short section of vertical ladder to fit on each. There does not appear to be any exposed wiring, doors or panels on either of the sponson bulkheads. Anything on the sponson exposed to a missile launch would have been roasted.



Sponson 8 has been sanded smooth and a ladder added to Sponson 10 to access Sponson 8 and a second ladder to the catwalk has been added to the corner.



The gussets under Sponson 9.



The gussets under Sponson 8….

Before I did the railing on the 2 sponsons I wanted to finish up the undersides. There are around 6 gussets under the aft outboard lips on both sponsons. I removed the hanger bay parts, taped them together and moved the whole thing to a safe area. I set the flight deck in place too. I used .030 X .080 plastic strips to make the gussets. I cut off a small square, cut it in half diagonally and glued it in place then repeated 11 more times. While I had the ship upside down I decided to replace all the gussets on the aft edge of the flight deck. And there’s the rub as they say. The upper catwalk for the accommodation ladder was installed too high! There wasn’t any choice really I carefully broke off the entire catwalk and ladder and dropped them in some acetone to remove all the super glue.

14 Sponsons 8 and 9 (45)

…and the aft edge of the flight deck

I went ahead and installed 34 gussets. Not a single one was the same size as any of the others. I marked the height of the gussets on the hull before I turned the model back over so when I reinstalled the catwalks I wouldn’t have any more problems. I also marked the spaces between gussets around the area where the upper catwalk door will be relocated. To cut the angle on the longer pieces I set up a fence of sorts on my Chopper and was able to get consistent cuts. Once I had finished this I placed the model right side up and removed the flight deck ensuring that I hadn’t glued it to the hull. With the deck separated I hit each joint with more Tamiya Extra Thin Cement to lock them down.

In this photo I have place support strips and installed the bras pylons on the lower catwalk.

To make gluing the 2 catwalk parts a bit easier I placed .010” X .020” strips to positively locate each portion. Some of the support pieces disappeared during the removal and cleaning so I made most of the supports out of plastic. The exceptions are the lower catwalk pylons. I cut out pieces of the locator that I had glued to the hull to make a spot for these two brass parts and used some L’Arsenal structural photoetch for the folding ladder supports. The lower platform was the first that I put back together. I reinforced some areas on the underside with plastic strip and these made a firmer gluing surface for the aft railing. For the small starboard side rail I found a suitable piece of Eduard railing and glued it in position after I had glued the platform back on the hull.



The reworked lower catwalk with its aft railing back in place,

The entire upper railing was destroyed so I had to make a new one from some generic railing. And the inclined ladder did not survive either so I had to find another. Then the upper platform broke in two while I was attempting to rebuild it! I made a new unit from perforated photo etch deck stock from White Ensign and some plastic strip. I glued the new railing in place and installed the platform. I reinstalled the small door ensuring that it would be between two gussets when the flight deck is installed. I installed the small section of ladder between the two platforms. Finally the accommodation ladder was reinstalled. I am leaving the flight deck in place for now to make the photoetch on the stern less susceptible to damage. Now I could go back to the main focus of this post and finish off Sponson 8 and 9.



The catwalks, ladders and door are re-installed.

Eduard provides railing for the kit sponsons but mine were modified pretty extensively so I had to shorten the railings by one section to make them fit. Making the curve around the aft end of the sponson was easier than bending the outboard end in at 90 degrees and getting that in the exact right place. At any rate the two railings went on fairly easy. The next and final detail was the life raft baskets which hang from the perimeter of the deck. Part 2 ends here.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 15 Sponsons 8 and 9 Part 3



The railing on Sponson 8…



.. and Sponson 9.

During the Cold War era the US Navy moved away from the Carly Floats of the WW-II years. They went with 25 and 50 man inflatable rafts that were pre-provisioned and held survival gear. They could be tied together easily as there was a tether rope. These rafts were salt water or manually released and activated so even if the ship sank the rafts would disengage, inflate and float up. They were even covered on top to limit exposure. They were carried in steel baskets hanging from railings of the catwalks and from the perimeter of sponsons like the BMPDS sponsons on the Enterprise.



The baskets and the braces on the underside can be seen here.

When the securing straps on the basket were released the outboard face and the bottom would open and dump the raft out. Once in the water if nobody manually activated the inflator salt water would. The rafts were rolled or folded, covered and tied to the ship with a light line which would break away if necessary. These were used well into the 1970’s and were replaced with the hard plastic canisters represented in the kit. These were installed on Enterprise during the 1979-1981 yard period replacing the metal baskets.



Tom’s Modelworks Cold War Era life raft baskets and instructions.

Tom’s Modelworks makes a sheet of these baskets and I got 2 of them to ensure I had enough for early Enterprise. There are 3 sizes of basket on the sheet. I am assuming that the larger rafts were stowed in the biggest size. It appears from photos that the large baskets were used around Sponson 8 and 9. The assembly instructions on these were pretty good and show you how to make a tool to get the rounded bottom and most importantly how to get consistent results. I made 6 of these for the starboard and 4 on the port side. These hung just below deck level and they were braced to the hull.



Forming the baskets.



The Starboard side…



…and the port. I have added the rigging eyes.

Before I added the supports to the underside I located a rigging eye on the deck centered on each basket. The retaining lines for each raft will be attached to these later. Once all of these were installed I flipped the ship up-side down and installed the braces which were made from bits of the metal drop tank racks that I did not use. There are several large and small triangular parts that will be useful and also as well as some rings and straight stock. I cut 2 small angles from each rack an installed them from the hull to the sides of each basket.



I am almost finished with the supports on the starboard side. I cut portions of drop tank racks to get the struts.



Here the port side is done.

To model the life rafts themselves I cut strip to a size that will fit in each basket. I wrapped the faces with some aluminum tape that had been slightly crinkled. This portrays some wrinkles in the tarpaulin covers. After I had a good prototype I made multiple assemblies. I did not intend to secure these in the baskets yet but I placed six on the starboard side with a launcher for some photos. That is as far as I will go at this point any other detail will be added to the catwalk assemblies so I will work on that when I begin assembling them.



Making multiple raft bundles.



I staged a view of the starboard sponson with rafts in the baskets.



The port side with the baskets empty.

In the next post I will be working on Sponsons 6 and 7 this will include the crane on the starboard side and the Mk-115 director platform on the Port side. Until then stay safe and happy modeling.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 15 Rafts

In the last post I started making around 30 of the life raft bundles designed to fit into the life raft baskets. I will probably need 3 times that amount or more. Rather than make them all by hand I took my 30 and made a mold that I can use to cast whatever amount I will need. I first glued the rafts in three rows on a scrap piece of plastic card. This will produce a basic one part mold.



This will be my master for casting multiple rafts. After I make the mold these will be removed from the master and used on the model.

To make a mold I use 2 part RTV silicone rubber. To contain the rubber I made a dam around the master. Legos are a simple way to build a dam then break down when I am finished and use again. I build the dam about 1/2” higher than the master. I put a layer of plastic wrap over the dam, tamp down and insert the master. I tape down the plastic wrap. This is all the prep work I need to do for making the mold.



Preparing the dam around the master.



The dam is ready.



This is the rubber I used.

The RTV I use is a 1:1 mix so it is easy to get a correct mixture. After equal amounts of part A and B are mixed thoroughly, around 5 minutes of slow stirring, the rubber is allowed to sit for about 10 minutes for air bubbles to rise and pop. Stirring slowly minimizes aeration of the rubber. It is then poured over the master in the mold cavity. The rubber I am using cures in about 4 hours. I allowed this to sit overnight. Generally you don’t need any release agent for this type of mold.



After curing overnight the mold is solid and ready to be removed.



The finished mold, master and the dam ready to be returned to the Lego box.

Removing the mold from the dam is easy I just pull up the tape and it lifts out with no problem. The RTV won’t stick to the plastic wrap and the tape and plastic wrap are pulled apart and discarded. I broke down the dam and stored the pieces away. To get the master free doesn’t require tools just grab the plastic base and separate it from the rubber. Two rafts stayed in the mold but they were removed by simply flexing the mold to pop them out.



These are the basic products to make a casting.

The final part of the process involves using some type of material like an acrylic resin to make a casting. I have used white metal to cast parts and 2 part epoxy from molds like this. I’m using a 2 part resin called Alumalite. It is another 1:1 mix product which comes in black, tan or white. The hardest part of this evolution is determining how much resin you will need. My method is simple. I pour water into the mold until it is full then pour the water into some kind of measuring cup. I divide the amount by 2 then I let the mold dry overnight.



The Alumalite has hardened

Once the mold has dried I mix up the resin per the directions using my measurements and carefully pour it into the mold. I use a micro brush to ensure the resin has gone into all the cavities of the mold. This will help avoid bubbles in the finished casting. A word of caution, you don’t want to leave mixed resin in the little plastic mixing cups because as it cures it will heat up especially when it is concentrated like that. The larger the amount the hotter it can get. The heat will melt one of those cups. Spread out in a mold it shouldn’t matter. But if you have a large casting to make you can pour the resin in layers. This stuff will usually cure hard in just 15 minutes or so. I will normally do a pour then go over to the modeling bench and work. When I’m ready to quit the casting is ready to come out of the mold. I flex the mold and the casting will readily pop out.



The finished casting.)

This is the simplest type of mold for making basic parts. More complicated items require 2 part or more molds. There are several ways of doing this happily the internet is full of tutorials. I have been working on sponson 6 and 7 and I am just about done with the. Hopefully in a week or two I will have finished and be able to do another post. Take care and happy modeling.

 

[Mikey25252]

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

Part 16 Sponsons 6 and 7 Part 1





In this photo the white arrow points to the mystery platform and the red arrow is pointing to the port Mk-115 director platform. Photos of these two locations in my era are fairly scarce. This is one of two pictures that I found which show details with a reasonable clarity.




These are some of the parts that I needed for the work in this post. I made a cut program for my Silhouette. There are parts for a new crane and to the left parts for the Mk-115 platform (later discarded). The mystery platform is the gray kit part.

Sponson 6 will feature two small platforms which hang off the ship on the port side. Kit part A-28 is a very small part in step 3 of my instructions and you could easily miss it. It is better in the Tamiya Instructions as part number A-5 in step 9. This is the mystery platform for want of a better description. I knew there had to be a kit part for this small platform because there is a slot to insert a mounting tab into. I finally found it in the instructions and then on the A tree. It is on the aft side of Sponson 6 in the corner between the rounded part of the sponson and the finger at the 02 level. I have no idea what this platform was for. It wasn’t there in 1971 up to 1974 but it was present in 1975. My references do not mention it being added between 1970 through 1975 during any of the various yard periods.

The second platform was added when the BPMDS was installed prior to the 1966-1967 deployment. It provided a location for the port Mk-115 director for the missile system. It looks as though it would have been better for target acquisition if it had a clearer view both forward and aft. But I do not know what other problems caused it to located where it was. It looks like it was installed hurriedly, almost an afterthought.



I am making the modifications to the kit part.


I filled the locater slot for the kit part with some scrap strip and I am waiting for it to dry so I can sand it smooth.

One of my books has a comprehensive chapter on all the yard periods and modifications made to the ship and this platform is not mentioned. It was something of a major change since a door had to be cut through the rounded part of the sponson to even access this deck. It may have had something to do with the F-14’s coming aboard because most of the rework during the 74/75 era was to prepare the ship to operate the new aircraft but I found nothing to describe its use. There is some sort of ready use locker on this deck in the photos but not the giant box of the kit part. Disappointingly Eduard and the other sets do not provide a sized rail for this item.



The modified kit part waiting to be installed.



The part installed and detail added to the area.

When you cut off the box it leaves a hole in the middle of the deck and underneath part of the support structure is missing, not because I cut off the box, but because it wasn’t molded. The box is hollow below. Previous work correcting the hull moved the mounting area aft so the tab can no longer go into its slot. I cut the tab off the part and filled the slot in the hull. A piece of .010 plastic was fitted to the deck to cover the entire area and obscure the hole. On the bottom I patched the missing chunk and replaced the gusset. Some small knockouts had to be filed smooth and I thinned out the gussets while I was at it.

I glued the part in place on the model, and then I added some wiring, lights and a suitable door on the hull for this area. I found a likely ready use locker in my Black Cat stuff and glued it on the deck. I used some generic railing, cut it to size, bent it into shape and glued it in place. I read all the command histories for the time period of 1970 to 1975 for a reference to this platform but found nothing. I asked an Enterprise group on Facebook what this platform was for and I got a couple of joke answers, (mail buoy watch station and port mooring observation post) but nobody could tell me what it was actually for.



The railing in place.



This shot from the door of a helicopter shows the director platform in the clearest photo that I have. Note how the finger is rounded over on the bottom and how the outer strut is supported. The first photo in this post is probably the next best.



This photo shows the mystery platform to the right and my first try at the Mk-115 platform to the left. The nets are flat, the platform is too small and it extends past the end of the finger without wrapping around.

Moving outboard and up slightly we come to the Mk-115 director platform. My first platform was overly simplified and did not look like the real thing, so much so, that I went back to the drawing board and cut out new parts that appeared better. In both cases I built up a 3-D part from multiple layers. In the first I had the shape completely wrong and although it assembled up nicely it did not look the part. My second captures the original better I believe.



These pieces are the second run of platform parts still on the Silhouette cutting mat.

I made the second platform to wrap around the outer aft edge of the finger and not just follow the aft side. I used 4 layers and 6 parts to get the deck correct. The bottom is two layers of the underside frame of the platform. On top there is the deck plate, an outer ring or coaming and 2 separate round plates to mount the director on. The support gussets were made up of 2 layers each. They were glued to the bottom on the frame layer. I drilled out the drain holes on the perforated section of the deck.



Here I have assembled the deck and the outer rim of the platform



The round mounting plate has been added.



This is the underside. I used 2 of the 3 underside parts to build this up.



The support gussets have been added.

There is a ring of safety nets that angle up from the deck level. To support the nets I first shaped and then glued a photoetch rail of half height around the outer circumference of the platform. I made several small plastic gussets to support the nets. One of these was glued to each vertical post on the rail. Then I cut up some safety net in my scrap box to fit the segments one at a time. Finally I glued small pieces of .010” rod at the gusset on each joint of the net to blend them together.



In this view I have added the rail, glued the net gussets to it and begun fitting the nets.



The finished second platform compared to the first one (left).

One thing that is noticeable in the photos of this area is that the end of the finger should be rounded over on the bottom outside edge not squared off as it is in the kit. I carefully sanded the edge of the finger to get a rounded appearance. This rounded profile necessitated the odd method of support for the outboard platform gusset and this is the reason that I said this platform appears to be an afterthought. I removed the hypotenuse or the long side of the outer gusset and then glued the platform to the hull. The bottom of the inboard gusset is just above the bottom edge of the finger. This leaves the outer gusset hanging out in the air a bit like on the real thing.



Here I have rounded off the bottom of the sponson.

I cut a section of .020” square strip and glued it to replace the hypotenuse of the gusset. It is cut off where it is comes close up to the end of the sponson. I made a short section of “H” beam and cut it at an angle for the strut to brace against. I glued it in place and added a short brace that I could see in the photos. After that was completed I had a gap at the outboard edge of the nets and filled that in with a spare gusset, some more net material and a small piece of the half rail. I left that all to dry and when it was secure I cleaned up the platform and drilled a hole for the director. The platform is very rigid now that all the glue has dried or cured.



I have added all the main parts for the outboard strut at this point but there is an additional brace that has been glued but not clipped to length yet.

Part 1 Ends here.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 16 Sponsons 6 and 7 Part 2



In this photo the platform is finished and I have placed one of the WW-2 era Mk-51 directors on it just to see how it looks.

I will need two Mk-115 directors so I made them now. A WW-2 era 3D printed Mk-51 gun director with Mk-14 sight for 40 mm Bofors from Black Cat forms the basis of my kit bashed pair. The Black Cat part has the pedestal, handlebar controls, counterweights and the sight which are all present on the Mk-115. The Mk 115 has some electronic panels in front and on the sides and some RADAR components which I had to add with tiny bits of strip and punched discs. The Black Cat 3-D parts are so small (not even ¼” tall and 1/8” wide. They are beyond delicate. The handlebars are especially so. It seems like a good sneeze is all that is needed to break one free (I know because I broke 3 of the 4 and hade to glue them back on. I held my breath so much that I made myself dizzy.



A nice profile view of a Mk-115 director on one of the Nimitz class ships.



This shows the face of a director. You can get a pretty good idea of what it looked like from just these two photos.

I carefully removed 3 units from the package (3 because I screwed the first up beyond repair trying to free it.) I nestled them in a bed of blue tack then added 3 bits to the pedestal for the electronics boxes. Then a crossbar was glued on top and some punched discs were added to represent the radar. One drum has a black cover and the other appears to be a dish with a waveguide. I started a concave area with a drill bit and finished it with a ball cutter. I drilled a small hole in the center for the waveguide. I added the barest representation of the cables. I glued a tiny section of .010” rod for the waveguide. I had brave plans for using lead wire to put all the big cables in place but just the 2 on each were more than enough work. These 2 units will have to be protected in a small box for the remainder of the build going forward. They will be one of the last things to be glued on. After looking over the photo with the completed Mk-115 on the platform I did one final thing to the platform. I used some .010” rod and glued a rim around the upper edge of the safety nets to tie them all together.



This is the beginning of the transformation from Mk-51 to Mk-115.



This is a completed Mk-115 on the port platform.



This photo shows the director platform with a plastic rim glued in place.



This photo shows the crane gantry close up and in detail. Note the upper support which is not portrayed in the kit at all. Also look at the shape of the base and the pivot. Note that the vertical post is square. The sides are flat there are no ridges that are a trick of the light in this photo.

8

This shows it from the opposite direction. Note the additional platform where the crane rests when it is stowed.

The ship’s crane was a necessary and handy piece of machinery. It was used routinely when aircraft were being hoisted aboard or off loaded. In port it could be used to hoist cargo aboard. It was also the method for getting the Captain’s Gig and the Admiral’s Barge in the water. The thing about the crane that was most important to the rest of the crew was that in a port with no ferries to rent the crane was the only method for launching whatever liberty boats we brought with us. There was no spare room in the hanger at the start of a deployment because about 1/3 of the aircraft aboard needed to be struck below or there simply would not have been room to operate aircraft on the flight deck. There was precious little space below for anything but business. So we rarely had more than 4 boats for the crew’s liberty. No crane, no liberty.

I did not care for the crane part in the kit. It is disappointing for a Tamiya kit even if mine is a copy. For one thing it is too skinny and it doesn’t portray the boxy shape of the real thing. It is very soft on detail. It is molded as one piece and the rigging molded with it is too thick and it isn’t close to the actual rigging. There is no kit part for the upper brace at all. I planned to scratch build a crane as soon as I saw the kit part. So I made a replacement that I feel is infinitely better.

9

The kit part was cut off the sprue and moved directly to the scrap box.



The sides and the upper pieces have been glued together. I have also added a plate on the sides that appears in photos of the crane. The tape holds the forked portion of the gantry to the top while the glue dries.



The new crane under construction in profile and …



… from the top along with some other parts.



From the bottom with all the components glued up except for the final bottom panel of the upper portion.

The crane sits on a round platform on the deck. The gantry connects to a semi hexagonal block with cut outs for the ends of the gantry to fit to (this is the vertical pivot of the gantry). This sits on a smaller round base which is glued to it and at the center a locating pin cut from a small “T” pin was installed. The base parts were cut, fitted and glued together. Next I punched some discs, glued them together and then cut 5 sides leaving the back rounded, making the hexagon shape of the pivot. I notched the corners of the longest side where the ends of the gantry will fit in place.



The base has been positioned leaving space for the rail and making sure it lines up with the upper brace. I had to clip a sliver off the back for it to fit like it is in the photo.

I made the upper support brace from 3 layers of parts from the cut program. There are 2 pieces of web and between them a solid piece. This assembly proved to be too wide as it originally was cut out. I was cut back and the web detail had to be restored. On the underside 3 gussets were made and glued in place. Then some cross braces were added to the mid web and the mating end. I reduced the diameter of the cranes horizontal pivot with some tubing that a .100” rod would fit through. I used a section of .080” square strip to make the bottom of the pillar. I cut it long and glued it on top of the pentagon. I could easily have made the crane movable but I chose not to.



These are the 3 major assemblies that will form the crane.



The hexagonal pivot and upright with the round rod on top.

I started assembling the crane gantry and the mount base on Sponson 7. I glued the sides of the crane gantry to the 2 top pieces, Letting them dry and sanding the edges smooth. At the bottom of the gantry I added a square rib at the joint of the bend. Then I fitted the lower bottom cover in place. I let this dry and then added the 2 inner sides and left them to dry hard. I punched 2 more discs to fit on the end of the gantry and cover the center pulley. I punched some smaller discs to tighten up the fit of the gantry to the vertical pivot. I layered 3 discs with the center being smaller than the outer 2 forming the pulley. This was glued in place on the very end of the gantry.



The gantry is fitted to the pivot and the brace is set on top. It is positioned so that it will slightly overlap the edge of the flight deck when glued in place. The crane is sitting on its rest platform. I have to make the rest cradle yet.

To get the base to line up with the brace I marked the center of the base discs, set them on the platform and placed the brace on top up against the hull. I moved the base around until the center mark was in the center of the pivot. Once the base was positioned I glued it to the sponson, let it dry and drilled out the center hole. The pentagon pivot fits in the center of the base and by holding the brace next to the upright I was able to cut it to the proper height. I cut a short section of .100” rod and glued it on top of the square pillar. Once it was dry I could fit the rod through the hole in the brace and I was smiling like a madman when I saw that everything lined up perfectly.



The end pulley is glued in place on the gantry.

Since I could position the gantry and the brace I used them to determine the locations of the crane supports on the small platform where the crane is stowed. These were made from short pieces pf plastic strip with an angle cut out of each. I glued the longer outside one first then positioned the gantry and determined a likely position for the inner. I let these dry and then repeated the process with the shorter aft braces. I placed the crane parts in position on the sponson in the rest position and placed a tiny drop of glue at the vertical and upper horizontal pivots. After drying overnight the crane is a solid piece which can be removed easily.

Part 2 ends here.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 16 Sponsons 6 and 7 Part 3



Here the 4 support cradle parts have been added.

I added more internal braces inside the top portion of the gantry. Then I test fitted the final bottom plate. The photos aren’t good for determining the working features of the crane so I made my best guesses and went from there. First I opened up the ports on the top of the gantry then added 2 strips at the edge to form walkways. Then I made groups of pulleys that would be visible through the openings. I made them from rod and punched discs. The pulleys made from solid rod were chucked in my hand piece like it was a mini lathe and grooves were cut using a razor knife for a chisel. I positioned them and glued them in place. I believe these rollers were to guide the lift cable back to the upper cable reel inside the gantry.



In this photo the internal braces and rollers are all in place.

On top of the gantry at the bend is a set of three pulleys that stands proud of the upper surface in a rounded off vertical mount. I made the mounts from strip and then built up a triple pulley from discs to position inside the mounts. There is a guide or tensioner pulley on a sort of spring platform after the bend in the gantry. I made this from some “T” beam cut at an angle to model the piece in the photos. I folded up a small cable reel from White Ensign to mount on the end of the “T” beam and glued it in place. I used my punch set to produce the tiny discs for the pulleys in this reel.



In this picture the the internal pullies as well as the cable reel at the bend have been added.

To make the reel assembly at the top of the pillar I first cemented a disc and on top of it a .100’ square piece of strip. I made sure it was oriented in the same direction as the rest of the crane. I rounded off 2 more pieces of .100” strip and these were glued in place to form the sides. A smaller section was glued to the front. I made another 3 pulley set and glued this between the 2 uprights. The back plate curves over the top a bit and I shaped another piece of .100” strip and glued it on.



I think this is some sort of spring loaded tensioning system.



The upper cable reel is assembled and glued in position. While fitting parts for the catwalk I found an area that required filling and here I am waiting for glue to dry on multiple pieces of strip before sanding.

There should be a ladder to the catwalk from the small rest sponson but again Eduard did not provide one. For that matter they also don’t provide the rails for it either. I needed to determine where the catwalk would be. I had been working on a solution for the coaming around the flight deck and I had made several strips of different widths with the drain holes peculiar to the coaming. For the area around the crane all the way aft I made sections that are catwalk deep. To determine where the ladder will end it is a simple matter to hold this strip in position and draw a line at the bottom. I cut a ladder to size, folded it and glued it in place.

There are 3 doors, an “L” shaped walkway and a small scuttle that need to be added to the sponson with the crane. One door is located on the main deck of the sponson under the walkway and it is provided by Eduard. They do not provide the other 2 doors or the small scuttle. Truthfully there is one door and a doorway but I had no intention of trying to open the doorway in that restricted space and simply placed a second door instead. The scuttle is an access point to the elevator machinery catwalk on the aft side of Elevator 3. The extra parts were sourced from my generic sheets.



You can see the 3 doors , the scuttle and the access ladder for the crane rest. Of the 2 doors on the walkway the forward one should be just a doorway.

The walkway had originally been removed from the kit hull and a new one cut from .010” sheet. I had made it with a partially perforated deck but new photos showed it to be solid. It is longer than the original part. This was glued in position. There are 2 transformer boxes or storage boxes on the forward section of that walkway and I made 2 somethings to portray that with some strip. On the main deck there is an electrical panel on a mount with drain holes just outboard of the crane mount I used some of my coaming to make this piece and glued it to the deck.



The extra detail on the sponson is visible with the crane removed.

Later I opened up the holes and then added bits of strip for some additional detail. Around the base of the crane mount I added some tiny gussets. That was a bit of artistic license on my part as there aren’t any in photos but it looked good to me. I placed a vertical ladder in the corner from the deck to the walkway. I found a small Black cat Deck fitting and put it under the walkway. I also put an angle gusset under the end of the walkway.



The extra detail to the gantry has been added in this photo.

There appear to be 4 rollers on the top side of the gantry to keep the cables from fouling I made them from bits of rod and strip and glued them in place. In the photos they get lower as they near the return pulley for the lift cable. There is one more just before the end pulley which is just tall enough to guide the cable to the pulley. Eduard provides some hand railing for on top of the gantry but it is only one piece and it should increase in height near the end. There should be 2 set of the shorter railing, one on each side out at the edge. I found 3 pieces of generic railing to use in its place. They provide the larger pulley and shackle for the second pulley but nothing for the end. I built the second hoist up and glued it in place.



All the final details are in place at this point on the crane sponsons.



An overall view of the starboard side.

The last thing that needed to be done was the hand rails, a fire hose, the life raft baskets and some rigging eyes. There was one Eduard handrail for the walkway. Eduard doesn’t have a ladder to the walkway in the corner so their rail is one piece and I had to cut things up to leave an opening for the ladder. I used generic rail for the main deck and the rest sponson. The fire hose is from a Gold Medal Models set. I folded up 2 medium raft baskets and glued them to the end of the sponson. Since I now had plenty of resin raft blanks I went back and trimmed blanks until I had fitted a raft in all the baskets on the starboard side and then the port. I took some pictures of each of the sponsons and some overall shots of each side.



The overall view of the port side.

That is the end of part 16. I’m not sure what I will do in part 17 but it will be one of these 3 threads: Continue forward to sponson 4 and 5, do some more on the flight deck or possibly make some of the aircraft. Until then take care and happy modeling.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 16 Sponsons 6 and 7 Part 4

I have a short update today because the great gaping maw in the garage has claimed more victims. I had several storage boxes that I used on builds but over time I managed to fill them up with other things. I have many new parts from this build and they were being stored in multiple make do containers. This necessitated a trip to the local purveyor of stuff and I purchased 5 new boxes. Now I could move those items into a more secure location.



Here is the crane yesterday afternoon please be on the lookout for the brass pulley indicated by the arrow.



Two of these also.

As I moved things into their new home a couple of discrepancies surfaced. I could not find the 2 extra yokes that I had made but did not glue onto the engine maintenance stands for Powerplants. Searching everything and everywhere proved fruitless so I will have to make 2 more now. When the crane was moved I noticed that the Eduard photoetch pulley was gone. This had 2 lines and it was designed to hang from them. Underneath the lines were still attached to the crane but the pulley had escaped somewhere. Even sweeping the floor and examining the debris in the dustpan turned up nothing.



One arrow points to the rigging loop and the other to the new pulley.

I will do the yokes later but I felt compelled to make a new pulley right away. I used 3 sizes of punched discs and many pieces of strip. I found a photoetched ring that I opened up into a hook. The new pulley was glued to the bottom of the crane plastic to plastic now and the hook was CA glued into a predrilled hole in the bottom of the pulley. So today was just another day at the workbench where no forward progress was made, well not entirely true, I forgot to put a rigging loop on the upper reel and I fixed that. So that makes two steps backward and one step forward.



This is the first of the new storage boxes. The crane goes in the upper left space. Hopefully there won’t be any more lost parts due to storage errors.

 

[Mikey25252]

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

Part 17 Finishing the Flight Deck Part 1



This is probably the best photo that I have of the Elevator 4 flight deck overhang. Before I move to sponson 4 this will need to be done especially since the elevator will be lowered on the model.



This photo of the most aft landing to the 03 level will be built up.

I moved back to the flight deck because as I detailed the aft sponsons I came to the areas around Elevator 3 and 4. There is a lot of structure under the flight deck around these openings plus there are a couple of large entrances to the gallery deck (the 03 level) that will need to be added and I would like to proceed with that now. There were a couple of details that I missed on my first go round and I wanted to add those. Finally I would also like to start fitting the catwalk parts and the flight deck needs to be finished before I go there. In this first part I will do some basic work on the flight deck.



This photo shows the area forward of Elevator 3



This photo shows the area aft of Elevator 3



This shows a large 03 level landing on the starboard side just above the two pipes .

Unfortunately while looking over a particular section of the flight deck I found what looked like a crack at one of my joints. It turns out that is just what it was. I have been watching the You Tube Scale Model Channel by the author/modeler Mike Ashey. He has a technique to find blemishes in joints by simply brushing silver paint onto the joint. This immediately makes any fault readily apparent. Ask anyone who has made a bare metal aircraft model. To be fair I had heard of this method many times over the years but after watching him demonstrate it I gave it a try.



I have painted all the suspect areas. After you sand out problems out you can retest with the paint and then remove it with mineral spirits.

I was a little put out when I saw how badly I had done in smoothing the joints as well as some of my scribing efforts. When I originally smoothed the joints I had difficulty with getting the deck to sit flat which probably didn’t help. This time I tacked wood shims with white glue to the underside of the deck so it would stay flat while I worked on it. There were also a couple of tools that I had purchased in the interim that were very helpful. I had a reciprocating hobby sander which was slow but it flattened out rougher sections especially dried superglue filler in joints.



I thought this joint was okay but it looks pretty bad under some silver paint and I will have to rescribe the middle hatch.



The flight deck sitting on its bed of shims.

I saw another modeler using some Dspaie rotary sanding pads in 5 and 10 mm diameters. I investigated and purchased these pads and the arbors. Dspaie also sells a low speed rotary tool but I used my homemade flex shaft. Then I found some 1 inch Ziploc discs and arbors on the internet. Using these rotary pads at slower speeds truly produces a good finish. The Dspaie pads come in 400 to 1000 grit in 4 steps and the 1“ discs can be had in virtually any grit between 60 and 10000. The Dspaie pads, being so small are extremely useful, getting into restricted areas while the 1“are nice for larger sanding jobs. Like the full width flight deck joints. After a couple of rounds of sanding and checking with the silver paint I was sure that I was good this time.



With all the joints smoothed out I needed to reinstate padeyes. Here I have drawn a grid over the existing padeyes to help locate any that need to be replaced.

Of course I sanded away some detail so the next thing I needed to do was to reinstate the padeyes. I used a ruler and pencil to draw the diamond grid from one end of the flight deck to the other. Next I got out my padeye punch tool and went over all the padeyes. This unfortunately cracked some of the joints again so I had to go back and forth until it was all good. After a couple rounds I had things looking pretty smooth and shipshape.

One of the sacrificial arresting gear blocks was damaged during sanding and I had to replace that as well as some of the arresting gear wire supports. When I finished these repairs I had to re-scribe 5 of the deck hatches in all. With those all done I could finally move into new territory. While I was looking over the instructions for the Gold Medal Models and White Ensign Enterprise photoetch sets I found some details for the arresting gear pulleys and I added those. There were 4 pairs but there wasn’t a fifth set for the Barricade so I made some from plastic to make it all the same. I went over the wire entrances for all 5 sets while I was at it. This will raise the pulley up slightly but it adds some detail.



The brass arresting gear pulleys have been added. The pulleys for the Barricade have not been modified in this photo.



The catapult tracks have been extended.

The catapults were next on the list. Along the sides of each catapult there is a pair of groves that the bridle runs in. These return the bridle after each launch. These grooves should run out to the bullnose on Catapults 1-3. They should also extend past the end of Catapult 4 but stop before they intersect with Cat 3. All 4 cats had parallel grooves to the end of the catapult so I just needed to extend them. I wanted to make sure they were straight so I used Dymo and scribing tape to ensure this and stop at the correct point on each catapult. If you are modeling a later era version these grooves were welded over.

Around each elevator there is a retractable safety barrier. When the elevator is up at the flight deck, the barrier slides back into the deck, stowed so that it won’t be damaged but the hanger barrier is up. When I made the hanger deck I set the program to scribe these for the hanger doors but I needed to add them to the flight deck. When I get to that detail Elevator 1 – 3 will have the barriers up in the hanger. On the flight deck there is a slight raised area around each side of the barrier slot to keep aircraft tires from running directly over the cable when it is retracted. They were actually molded on the flight deck as sort of a dashed line. This was more of a guide for painting the caution stripes than an actual representation so I sanded them off when I first assembled the 3 deck sections.

12

You can make out the slightly raised area around the barrier cable.

I used .005” strip to reinstate these on the flight deck. The hanger barriers do not seem to have the raised protector. On the flight deck they wander all over going around the elevator. They have to avoid padeyes, spaces and machinery above and below deck level. I thought that I could use my drawings to lay them out around the elevators but the drawings are different enough that I could only use them for a general shape. Possibly the reason for the slight ridge on the flight deck was because the designers didn’t want to affect the integrity of the armor.



This is the barrier protection on Elevator 4. I have added plastic parts for the Barricade pulleys.

I started on Elevator 4. I drew the groove with a pencil then laid out scribing tape. I scribed them with a needle in a pin vise. But after I glued the .005” strips on either side I realized that I didn’t need to engrave the groove first. On the starboard elevators after I drew the lines I just started gluing the strips. When the glue had dried I went back with the scribe and razor saw and cleaned the space between the strips. Lastly I sanded any glue smears and other defects and thinned them further by sanding them down.



I am opening the hatches for the Six Pack and between Elevator 2 and 3.

When the flight deck is glued in place and populated with aircraft and personnel I want to portray it in an alert posture prior to the day’s flight operations. An alert posture means that some aircraft would be manned. There will be an Alert 5 Fighter (launches within 5 minutes of being called away) on the waist cat, an Alert 5 Plane Guard Helo (would launch just before the fighter) and Alert 15 and 30 Bombers (launch in 15 and 30 minutes respectively). The fighter and the helo would be manned, all preflight checks performed, with power connected. The Fighter will have a Huffer connected ready to restart. This will require opening some of the deck hatches used for power and air conditioning. The waist catapult operator station will be open also. I marked the doors I wanted open with a black marker.

As a Troubleshooter I spent a lot of time covering alerts of one kind or another. They would have second fighter cued up behind catapult 3 ready to launch as the firsts wingman. The Soviets loved to send out long range bombers to try and overfly the battle group as well as surface craft trying to get in close. The alerts were out countermeasure to them. One of the F-14’s had a pretty spectacular set of photos with one of our fighters trying to turn a Bear away with a second flying under the plane in close formation. The Bear had his bomb bay doors open. The pilots would take pictures of each other with many gestures of derision on both sides. If we launched alerts the flight schedule would get an extra event.

15

This hatch is undogged because it has popped open slightly.

To open these hatches you needed a T handle wrench which was stored in flight deck control and had to be checked out. It was made from sections of pipe welded together. We had copied the design and had several in shops throughout the squadron. This practice was copied by other squadrons in the airwing. The T handle had a straight slot or hex head which turned a large pivot plate that undogged the hatch. The hatches were counterweighted and popped up as soon as the dogs were released. Our A-7E’s were parked in the 6 Pack routinely using the power from one of the three hatches was the only source of power unless you could attract an NC-2.



The waist catapult control station is opened.

I carefully chain drilled each hatch and then finished them with my Xacto knife and files. The plastic of the deck is quite thick and will provide the necessary illusion of depth. The flight deck is a construction of armored plate. The armored hatches have a beveled edge which matches the sill in the opening. Any pressure on the exterior closes the hatch tighter and tighter. I used .030” quarter round strip to create the sills. Tiny pieces of the strip were cut with 45 degree angles at each end and fitted to the edge of each opening on all 4 sides. I let the glue dry overnight so I could further refine the shapes.

When all the hatch sills were installed I flipped the flight deck over and removed all the wood shims. I reattached the deck to the hull making sure that everything still fit correctly. The next day I used a small knife edged file to make the sill less rounded. In the center of each opening was a roller fairlead which allowed the power cable to be drawn out smoothly but when the cord was retracted the plug could not pass through the fairlead keeping it ready for the next launch. I cut channel to fit in each opening and glued them in from the bottom. For the fairlead I glued a slice of .030” square strip and drilled a hole in it for the cable. Finally each opening was covered from below to prevent any light leaks. In reality these openings went through to the deck of the 03 level. Like the hanger deck I won’t place any power cords until I start placing aircraft.



Here is a very rare photo of the back side of the bow catapult control station showing the control panel on Enterprise

The catapult control opening did not require the fairlead so I only filed the sills and capped off the bottom. To make the doors I cut down pieces of .040” strip so they would generally fit each opening. On the deck side I made a small drill mark on the center of each to represent the pivot. The edges of each door were beveled and then for some extra detail brass photoetch was glued to dress up each part. On the catapult control hatch, White Ensign had provided 4 of the control panels with hinge pivots. I used the panel and glued it to the inside of my hatch cover. I made my own pivots by punching a small hole and then centering the hole in the punch two sizes larger. This makes a ring which is cut in half and the pieces are glued to the inside of each hatch.



These are the hatches for the stations that will be open. They will all fit on a U.S. 25 cent piece.
This is the end of Part 1 in part 2 I will add under deck girders and structures.