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

[Mikey25252]

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

Part 17 Working on the under deck structure Part 1

Back when I removed the catwalks from the flight deck I also removed all of the underside detail that was there originally. It was interfering with the flight deck fitting to the hull so I sanded it all away. There wasn’t any in the area around the elevators anyways. The flight deck has pins now that ensure it always is positively located. When I was working on Sponsons 8 and 9 I started adding the girders to the aft end of the flight deck under the ramp. Now I began filling in the area under the starboard side going forward. There is a pretty good sized overhang in this area and I filled it in with .030” square strip. There are 3 angled gussets that run more or less perpendicular to the girders. I placed the girders the full length of the overhang and when they had dried cut away spaces for the gussets to fit into. The locating slots for the gussets made sure they were positioned correctly.



I have completed the girders on the overhang on the starboard side. Note the 3 gussets. The forward one is not correct and I removed it later. On the forward end of sponson10 I noticed that the extension I added had no gusset and I added one there.

I glued the 3 gussets in place and while I was trying to get a clearer photo of the detail on the gussets I came to realize that only 2 were needed. I can’t find any photos that show 3. I removed the smallest one and put a piece of flat strip in its place. This will be directly over the 03 level landing so it will be difficult to see anyways. It is possible that the gusset was under there but I am going without it. Each gusset was wrapped on the exterior edge with a section of .010” X .060” strip then vertical .010” X .030” strips were added to each the faces.



This is how I outlined the area where girders need to be added.



The work on the starboard side is done.



This is the area around Elevator 4.

I flipped the hull with the flight deck over and drew the outline on the rest of the overhanging deck to see exactly where the girders will be needed. This will be primarily around each elevator and under the angle deck to some extent. While the hull was upside down and still sitting on the flight deck I went a step further and cut and fitted .030” square strip to outline the features in the elevator wells and the overhang at the angle deck. This may not be accurate but it ensures there won’t be any gaps in the support structure.



This photo shows the landing which provides several entrances to the 03 level, also called the Gallery Deck. This was taken after they have started stripping the ship..

6

This grainy photo from the early 80’s shows this area as it also was in 1978.



This is a photo of the interior of that landing area. The 2 blue shirts are stenciling flight deck jerseys.

Under the aft section of angle deck there is an enclosed landing to the 03 level which is not represented in the model kit. The Eduard set part 5 has this piece pretty much as it was on the exterior in 1978. This is a large piece of brass and rather than gluing it together, after it was folded, I soldered it. I did not add the details yet I just wanted the basic assembly. I needed this piece in place to lay out the girders under the angle. This landing was the flight deck entrance which led to my shop. I remember knee knockers at the forward and aft entrances and a couple more inside. There were originally 4 oval openings to the exterior when the ship was built but by 1978 the forward pair was covered by an equipment room extension for the port ECM antenna. During the 1976 deployment there were still 3 openings.



I have just about finished soldering the part.



This is the Eduard part glued to the model. There is quite a bit missing from the interior and the catwalks.



I am in process of adding the girders around the exterior.

We actually used to sit in the openings when we were in port. There was a 6 inch sill which went around the oval and made a convenient seat. I remember being in port in the Philippines during the 1976 cruise I was in the Duty Section and was required to remain aboard. The ship had to pull out into the bay and anchor for a couple of days because of a storm. It wasn’t a big storm but because of wind gusts and the waves in the bay the ship wanted to play it safe. The airplanes were all ashore at Cubi Point and there wasn’t much work to do on board. I was able to relax aboard for the most part. I couldn’t get ashore but most of my supervisors couldn’t get aboard either. It was generally nice and cool in that passageway and the design caused a breeze to flow through it. It was a great place to read when we weren’t operating.

The Eduard piece is simplified as it does not have the various knee knockers or the outboard bulkhead that covered the openings. The room is open to the passageway. I will add those parts with plastic when I get to detailing this area. You won’t see much in there but it will have some value to me. There were 2 or 3 passageways off this landing to shops under the flight deck. I know there was one aft of ours and I am pretty sure there was a third. We explored them to see if there was a better way into the main interior passageways but all the exits were the same, go down to the main deck, go inboard and climb back up to the 03 level.



The assembled landing was positioned so that it extended past the angle precisely. This allows the inclined ladders from the catwalks to reach the landing. Once I was happy with the position I glued it to the hull with medium superglue and flipped the ship right side up. With the flight deck removed I made sure that the landing was correctly adjusted. Then it was hit with accelerator. I also let thin CA run into the joint making a good strong connection. I turned the model over again and laid out the outline of girders around the landing.



This is a photo from a museum ship I am not sure which one but this is generally what would be behind the elevator skirts.

When all the basic layout work was done the ship was set upright and the flight deck removed. I could then work on the underside of the flight deck itself to finish the girder detail. This involved a lot of very small pieces of strip. Around the elevator fore and aft edges I left about a .020” space to accommodate the elevator skirts (I am sure there is a proper name for these facings to the elevator wells but I don’t know what it is). These skirts have the up locks and cover the cable reels. The model does not provide any of this structure. The Eduard set part Number 4 has the skirts, up locks and supporting structure for the Elevator 2 and 3 skirts. These are the elevators which they instruct you to lower. There are some struts but no skirts for Elevator 4 and nothing for the area around Elevator 1 since it is molded to the deck in the Tamiya kit.



This is the Eduard photo etch at Elevator 2, notice how it is attached to the edge of the flight deck. This is from Eduard’s page in their digital catalog.

Between Elevator 2 and 3 at Sponson 1 Eduard has you add a framework piece to the forward side of the big vent box. I have to confess that I never saw that in any photo until I got this Eduard set. I went back to my photos and then found it in several. I added about 15 fore and aft girders to the overhead of Sponson 3 from .030” square strip. This area was blank and it has a lot of overhang out in the open.



This shows the framework piece from the Eduard set on the edge of the vent box. I am pretty far along with the skirts in this photo. Unfortunately the flight deck has dropped away from the hull spoiling the effect.

The Eduard parts for Elevators 2 and 3 are supposed to be glued to the edges of the elevator openings. They add just enough thickness to the opening that the elevators won’t fit if they are in place. Cutting them shorter to sit on the flight deck would be difficult and I did not want to sand the edges of the previously assembled elevators. Neither of the two sets will be useful on the starboard side so I will make my own. I looked into the possibility of using one or the other of these 2 sets at Elevator 4 but the detail would have to be on the inside since this elevator is a mirror image of the others. The parts would have the plain side out and none of the struts fit. There was one brass support for the structure at Elevator 2 which I would have used but after I folded it I dropped it on the floor and then rolled my chair over it. It was broken at all the fold lines and I never found one piece. The idea was pretty easy to duplicate in plastic. There is another of these struts at elevator 4.

All 3 of these elevators are very close to each other in size in the kit but in real life they were each unique. It simplifies the cut program because I can make all the skirts the same. I can make them slightly longer than I need and cut them shorter to fit each well. I will make enough parts to do all the remaining sets of elevator skirts in plastic and several extras. I designed them to be built up in layers for a 3 dimensional appearance.



This is the area around Elevator 1.



These are the parts that were produced for the second try on the skirts for El 1. I was especially pleased with the fine detail on these items.

I first made a Cameo cut program just for the skirts around Elevator 1. I did this to save cutting time and material in case of mistakes. It allowed me to make corrections before proceeding to the parts for the rest of the elevators. On my second try the results were really good. I was even able to make individual up locks. This design was carried over when I made the remaining sets. To install the Elevator 1 skirts the model was placed upside down on the flight deck once again. I assembled the parts and glued the aft (straight) skirt to the hull only at the outboard edge. I worked my way inboard adding supports until the piece was about as solid as it would ever be without the flight deck glued in place. The forward skirt has an angle and it was a bit trickier to do until I hit on the idea of holding the skirts in place with blue tack until all the horizontal braces were in place.



The aft skirt on Elevator 1 finished.



The view from below.

This is the end of part 1 of this post.

 

[Mikey25252]

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

Part 17 Working on the under deck structure Part 2



The forward skirt in position.

Once you get some horizontal supports attached this skirt assembly gets pretty solid. There are also angled struts that run from the lower edge of each skirt to the next lower level (upside down it is the next higher level) of structure under the deck or the 02 level. These were added at this point too. I periodically checked the fit of the raised elevator in its well to make sure that I hadn’t obstructed it. Since I had success with the Elevator 1 skirts I went ahead and incorporated changes I thought would be helpful and cut parts for the rest of the elevators. When I got all the skirts in position I turned the model back to upright and started adding catwalks. I only added physical reels to Elevator 4 because they simply won’t be visible on 1-3. They are barely visible at El 4.



This is the pile of parts from the cut program for Elevators 2 – 4.




This the bottom of Elevator 2.

4

This is he forward skirt on Elevator 3.



This is a nice view of the aft skirt area.

There are some unique features on Elevator 3. I studied my reference photos to get the details correct. Then I moved to the other side to do elevator 4. The problem with elevator 4 is the lack of actual photos of this area. I have some of the ship with the elevator up but with it lowered I only found 2 photos at all of the elevator lowered. These are from Enterprise being stripped and they were recent, very clear and showing good detail.



This is the first photo of Elevator 4 lowered.



This is the second from a slightly different angle. Note the one up lock forward, the plated over opening and the strip over the lock area.



I am holding the skirts at Elevator 2 in position with Blue Tack they have be glue at the outboard edge and I will start adding horizontal struts next.



All the struts have been added and I am testing the fit of Elevator 2. Note that the girders have been completed on the overhead of Sponson 5.



Both skirts around Elevator 3 are in position.

El 4 has an additional skirt on the inboard side. This is different from all the others. It is because Elevator 4 travels the most horizontally when it is raised or lowered. On the other 3 elevators the inboard up locks are on the hull. The skirt houses the only inboard up lock which is on the forward corner of El 4. All the others elevators have 2 in this area. To make this cover I cut a piece of strip the right height, made 2 cut outs and added a strip to the lower edge which partially covers the single up lock. On the back side of the cut out I placed one of the up locks from the extra parts I made and the other opening is backed up with some flat plate.



This is the aft skirt at Elevator 3.



The forward skirt at the same elevator.



Looking forward on the starboard side (pardon my finger).

This skirt is positioned at the inner edge of the elevator opening between the elevator guides. The skirt can be glued to the forward guide but it stands away from the aft. Not knowing exactly how it was supported I added horizontal struts from the skirt to the center of the guide. This is a 3D resin part from Shapeways so I could tack the plastic parts to it with Microweld and after it was all firmed up I hit each joint with thin CA for good measure. Because this was still very fragile relative to the other skirts which were glued plastic to plastic I added a heavier horizontal piece above the detail parts. This provided additional gluing surface for the skirt and it is solid now. You will not be able to see this support from below.



I have made a start on Elevator 4.



All three skirts in place.



A closer look forward.



Elevator 4 looking aft

I added additional detail at each up lock on Elevator 4 since they will be on display here. I used some of the photo etched up locks from Eduard on both of the outboard positions. I had the Cameo up locks and I glued one of these at each position on the fore and aft sides. This gives a 3 dimensional appearance to the locks. The one on the inner skirt is more or less covered so I did nothing more there.



Looking aft at Elevator 4 with the platform lowered.



The forward view.

This is the end of part 2 of this post.

 

[Mikey25252]

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

Part 17 Working on the under deck structure Part 3



The gratings and cable reels are all completed on the aft side of Elevator 4. I have the cable reels on the forward side.



Looking through the openings on the in board and outboard ends of the forward skirt you can just make out a touch of brass which is the cable reel.

I used some generic USN cable reels from Tom’s Modelworks. I folded up 4 and located them in the frames so they would be visible in the right places. Next I fitted some appropriate sized round rod for drums. I made the catwalks out of the deck grating from the extra elevator decks. I cut the pieces to size, dropped them into position from above with the flight deck removed and then secured each with extra thin CA. I left openings in the catwalk for the 4 sets of cables to run. After the ship is painted I will glue EZ line to Elevator 4, then glue the elevator to the hull and run the lines to the cable reels. This will be done before the flight deck is glued to the hull so I can still access the reels. So far that is the plan.

After all the final detail was applied to Elevator 4 I went back to the starboard side and finished all the frame work on the inboard ends of each elevator. By the time I had finished all three the first had dried sufficiently for me to cut the catwalk grates and get them glued in place. I took a lot of photos for this section and I am posting a lot of them here.



This is the final round of detailing on the Elevator 4 aft skirt.



The finished forward skirt.



The catwalks from spare elevator deck material I tried to avoid pad eyes as much as possible but I wasn’t too worried if one or two were visible. I have added the elevator cable reels in this photo too.



This is the view of the elevator 4 well from below.



The finished Elevator 1 well from below.



Elevator 2.



And Elevator 3.

That will finish up this section of the post. I will move on to some of the 03 level landings and when they are done I will go back to the sponsons. I hope you found this post helpful. Take care and happy modeling.

 

[Mikey25252]

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

Part 17 installing the catwalk landings Part 1. There will be 4 posts to cover the port side.



This view of 1962 Enterprise shows the Gallery Deck area with none of the appendages she sported later. The red arrows point to the fore and aft exits.

2 CVAN 65 1978 PORT CLOSEUP SFB

This photo from 1978 shows the additions. Note in both photos there is a whip antenna under the aft entrance and there are 2 life raft baskets.

So I will begin this section on various 03 level landings by going back and detailing the landing under the angle. I am only dealing with some of the larger of these features. As it was from Eduard you would be able to look into the forward opening and see the section that should be closed off by an outboard passageway bulkhead. This was my first correction. I cut a strip of .010” sheet to the height of the structure. Once I had a piece that would go from the start of the open area to the front of this catwalk. I cut my strip off there. In real life this bulkhead was straight. Mine wanders over at an angle. I already checked and with the flight deck in place you can’t tell. If I had closed off the forward entrance first with its knee knocker then run the passageway bulkhead next I would have been able to get a straight wall. This was just one of those things that I did not want to go back and fix.



In this photo the outer passageway bulkhead has been installed. You can see where it continues to the forward catwalk and becomes the catwalk splinter shield.

The next correction is the forward outboard rail. Eduard provides railing here which is correct for the era of their set. However from launch and commissioning into the 80’s this was a solid steel splinter shield. Later and I am not sure when it was changed, it became an open rail with an exit to the exterior catwalk to access the ECM antenna. When I was aboard there were ladder rungs for technicians to climb over the splinter shield and get access to the catwalk. I imagine they did not want to make this area too inviting to unauthorized personnel. I drew a pencil line for the edge of the catwalk on my new wall and then another the same height as the aft entrance splinter shield. I cut away this corner of my part and glued it in position so my bulkhead becomes a splinter shield where it exits the gallery.



I am in the process of making 4 knee knocker panels.

Now I needed to make 4 knee knocker openings to section off the interior of the catwalk. There was at least one more but it will be buried in the interior and not visible. You will be able to see the entrances and the other 2 through the side ports. I used a Trimaster template to make 4 oval openings on a scrap of .010” strip. These were cut out and fitted to the places where they would be installed. One at each end, one between the 2 ports and one forward of the most forward port. Before they were glued in place each received an oval photoetched doorway opening for the coaming around each door. The one between the 2 ports had an oval on each face.



In this photo from aft I have placed all 4 knee knockers, installed the coamings around the doors, and added 2 QAWTD’s and the large view port sills.

I found a couple of QAWTD’s and installed them on the inboard bulkheads where they can be seen through the ports. There is virtually nothing else on the inboard bulkhead so no further detailing needs to be done to it. There would be some stanchions on the outboard side of the interior but nobody will be able to stick their head through the view ports and see that there aren’t any. To represent the sills in the 2 ports I cut a very thin strip of .005” plastic and took short sections formed them into a loop. The loop received some Tamiya extra thin around the outside. They were placed in the openings and formed into the contours of each opening. The overlap melts together since the plastic is so thin. I left a bit hanging over the edge on the inside and outside. Then I secured each loop with thin CA.



The same area from the side …



… and from the bow.

I made another test fit of the flight deck and corrected a couple of fit discrepancies from the new parts. After looking at photos of the real thing I added some strip to the flight deck to fix some over sanding on the bullnose and extended the port side deck edge by about .060”. After this was blended I made a new forward end piece for the gallery which is also an angled gusset out to the deck edge.



This photo shows all the above work from forward …



… and the aft.

Eduard did a pretty fair job with the exterior details for this gallery. There are 7 support girders which are folded and glued to the underside and two gussets for the outboard side supporting the flight deck. There are 4 long girders and 3 short ones. Each flat piece is folded twice into a U channel. Eduard shows the correct locations in their instructions but I noticed in their digital catalog the photos showing this etch in place have the 3 short ones incorrectly positioned. None of the girders should be under the outer catwalk. To position the two gussets I had to cut a notch through my plastic girders under the flight deck. I marked the positions then used a razor saw to cut the notch for the gusset to fit in. The gussets have a single fold each. The long edge of each gusset is then glued to the side of the gallery with medium CA. When this had hardened I removed the flight deck and glued each gusset with thin CA to get a solid connection.



This photo shows me working with the long channels. I used the folding jig because I wanted to ensure it was all straight. These are very small and difficult to bend with tweezers or even my fine Tamiya bending pliers.



The layout of the exterior catwalk supports.

There is a catwalk around the exterior of the gallery which Eduard supplies as a single part. The rails fold up, are bent as needed and are then glued to the catwalk. Their railings are super fine and this metal is scale thin. The fold lines will break apart if they are even just flexed a bit too much. I managed to break the railings apart and had to fix them but it got done. Eduard forgot to provide a section of railing to block off the forward end of the catwalk. By their instructions the ladder from the upper catwalk comes down and rests there but this is wrong. The ladder from the catwalk comes down into the brass forward entrance to the gallery. I used an extra piece of railing from one of the unused forward sponsons to fix this. There is a small piece of railing which is to be used to close off any gaps from around the forward ladder but I found this piece to be unnecessary so it could be used to block the forward end if you are using the forward sponsons instead.



The view from aft…



… and forward.

The catwalk is nicely detailed and actually has some gluing tabs to hold it to the bottom of the gallery. They are small and I did not trust them to hold the catwalk until the model was completed. (Mostly because I would clumsily bump it and surely knock it off while mangling that fine detail. All of the Enterprise catwalks with splinter shields have stanchions on the exterior sides only. These are joined with a support across the bottom. Since I was going to add these supports to the catwalks along the flight deck I also reinforced this access catwalk too. This way if I knock it off I will really destroy it.


With the Flight Deck removed looking down from forward…



…and from aft.



This is the AN/SLQ-17 Port side antenna from the flight deck.

There were 3 final details to be made, the life raft baskets, the whip antenna with its mount and the AN/SLQ -17 ECM antenna. The kit does have whip antennas but they are big and way out of scale. There should be 25 movable antennas around the catwalks and 2 more fixed ones on the island in 1978. There are only 20 in the kit. Not enough for my era so in order for them to all look the same (also much better) they will have to be scratch built. The whips are either transmitting or receiving antennas. Visually you can determine which is which by the color of the insulator at the base. Red is a transmitter and blue is a receiver. All the receiver whips but one are on the bow and all the transmitters are amidships ending forward of Elevators 3 and 4. These locations are different in every era, for example there are some whips aft of elevators 3 and 4 in 1968 but none are there in 1978 and there is the layout portrayed in the kit all of which are different. Prior to entering port all the whips were raised upright and at sea they were kept lowered unless we were going alongside another vessel. Then they would be raised on the affected side.



Receiving antennas on the bow. Note the insulators and counterweight handles.



Transmitting antennas on the port side. Note that the aft 2 do not have the catwalk below but the forward one does.

The mounts were pretty much the same, a flat base supported by a pair of gussets, a pivot with a counterweighted handle and the antenna itself. The mounts were different lengths to account for the width of the catwalks where they were installed which the kit parts do portray. Some of the transmitting mounts had a catwalk suspended underneath the mount. There was one transmitting whip with a suspended catwalk on the aft gallery entrance. There were also 2 life raft baskets aft of that.

This is the end of Part 1

 

[Mikey25252]

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

Part 17 installing the catwalk landings Part 2



The basic parts for the whip antenna have been assembled.

I found a likely mount pivot from a set of White Ensign RN cable reels. I had enough to do all the whips if I didn’t send too many into the maw of the garage monster. I folded the reel up and glued it to the end of a piece of .015” X .080” strip. I used a piece of thick strip to make the base of the antenna and glued it between the reel uprights as if the antenna was lowered. I punched a disc from the same material and glued it to the face. I drilled the face out to take a 1 mm O/S diameter tube (antenna socket) from an Albion Alloy brass tube set (P/N SFT-1, consisting of .4, .6, .8 and 1 mm telescoping brass tubing). The 3 smaller sizes will make up the antenna with the largest acting as a mount socket and the base of the antenna.



The brass antenna and the kit part for comparison.

With the socket glued to the mount I punched and drilled a thin disc to slide over it for the insulator. Next I made 2 angled gussets and added them to the underside of the mount. At the inboard end I glued another piece of strip to support the catwalk slung below the mount. From a White Ensign set of railings and walkways I cut a piece of catwalk with railings on both sides, folded it and glued it to the bottom. This set had some additional railing which I could use for the outboard end of the cage. I should have placed an access ladder on the inboard inside end but I forgot. I did not want to try and take it apart to get one installed. Hopefully nobody will read this and it will be difficult to actually see it.

I put a small disc on the forward side of the pivot to act as a standoff for the counterweighted handle. The White Ensign Enterprise set has 20 of these handles but there won’t be enough to do all 25 antennas so I will use a modified fuel hose reel on some of them. Some of these mounts have a pair of handrails between the catwalk and the antenna but I couldn’t discern any on this one. I glued this mount in the wrong position at first photographed it and then I spent some tense moments prying it off, cleaning everything up and gluing it in the right place, so much for studying the configurations in the photos. I didn’t mangle my prototype which made my day. The antenna itself was made up of 3 sections of tubing laid alongside the kit piece to get the length right. I imparted some sag into the piece and tried it out before stowing it away. In real life these antennas were very flexible and bounced around all the time. I found an article which said they could be made of fiberglass or aluminum. I went back to the front entrance and added some ladder rungs and at the rear entrance placed a small oval hatch over the whip mount like an access hatch.



I am trying out my antenna. Both of the life raft baskets have been added.



The assembled kit parts on the right with the Eduard assembly on the left. My only modification to the Eduard assembly is the plastic back piece to make it easier to glue the assembly to the side when the time comes.

The final piece of this gallery is the AN/SLQ-17 ECM antenna which sticks straight out from the port side. I got the 2 kit parts out and assembled them and then compared them to the parts in the Eduard set Part 5. They provide 5 very fine little pieces that assemble into a very nice replica. I did add a strip of plastic at the inboard end to make attaching it to the gallery easier. With these pieces I was finally able to assemble the Eduard parts; I lost nothing and did not break anything putting it together. The White Ensign Set also has parts to replace the 2 kit parts but Gold Medal does not. The Eduard set portrayed the antennas the best so that’s the one that I used. I did not want this delicate little bit hanging off the side of the ship where I could break it so it was not attached yet but stowed with the whip antenna. I did stick it in place with some Blue Tack to take some pictures.



The antenna attached with some Blue Tack to hold it in place temporarily.



This is a side view of what I will call the missile blast shield landing, notice how the shield attaches to the splinter shields on the catwalk.



This is a fairly good view of this landing. I also found Silver Shadow’s photos at The Ship Model Forum which are just fantastic. Unfortunately he stopped posting in 2013. I don’t want to post any of his work here without permission but you can go to the link below to see them. He did a great job on the on everything he built or modified for his Tamiya model.

https://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=210966

Now I moved all the way aft on the port side to install the missile launch blast shield landing (I’m sure that is not what it was called). This was a regular landing for the port aft catwalk but after the BPMDS launcher was installed shielding from missile launches was desired. They secured that landing and the aft catwalk for any planned launches when I was aboard but all the smoke and debris would have a detrimental effect on the area. The bottoms of the catwalks were even fitted with angled plates to keep the missile exhaust from coming up through the perforated catwalk deck and direct debris away from the flight deck. You won’t get anything for this landing or the shielding from any of the aftermarket sets. The kit doesn’t even have a hole in the catwalk for an inclined ladder at this position which is probably why none of them offered a landing.



This is a scan I made of the aft flight deck when I was getting ready to remove the kit catwalks. The red arrow points to where the ladder opening should be.

I had made a landing platform and support web when I cut all the catwalk parts. Mine wasn’t right but it was easily modified to correct it. When I made the cut diagrams I did not have the clear photo above. I could have left this until I started adding catwalks but this way it will be glued securely, plastic to plastic. The original landing was like all the other catwalk landings around the ship. But it appears to have had the hefty girder system around it dating from before the first missile launcher was installed. My first supposition was that it was like that to mount the forward blast shield. But it was built like that prior to 1967 so I don’t know why this particular landing needed all the extra support. At any rate by the time I was aboard on the forward end supports a reinforced steel blast shield that came up to the catwalk and then passed it on the outside. At the top the shield leaned forward and joined to the outside splinter shield of the catwalk around the missile sponson which also leaned out but only on the fore and aft section.



The red arrows point to the 2 parts for the missile shield landing. They will have to be modified to be usable.

I cut off the front of the framework that I had made. Then I trimmed up the perforated deck material until it was just a rectangle like a regular landing and glued the 2 parts together. I glued some of the girders that I made for the elevator skirts to make up the beefy triangular girders. The front girder extends past the forward outboard edge of the support web. At the outside end I glued a second girder to make a triangle around the landing. To fit the shield though I would need at least a portion of the aft catwalk to determine what the height of the shield should be and exactly where it should go.



I am gluing the catwalks up

I got the aft catwalk section and a section of the thin deck edge coaming that I had made previously. I was going to drill out all the perforations in the deck but I realized I could just punch them out with a needle in a pin vise. No more broken micro bits! The coaming was glued to the deck at a right angle on a magnet board to keep all the parts true. I assembled one of the tubs for the fuel stations and I glued it under the catwalk. The catwalk turns 90 degrees and goes outboard. This section also needed its coaming added. Once the catwalks had dried I took some ordinary staples and inserted them through the holes in the coamings facing inboard. These were laid on the flight deck and taped in place. This will be the actual height of the catwalk once it is glued in place. There was another section of catwalk attached to this one which would have continued forward. But it did not fit the deck edge right and I cut it into 2 sections until I could reposition it and glue it back together.



The Landing has been assembled and is glued in position. The door is in place but not the rail.

I could temporarily fix the landing under the catwalk and the make a shield to fit. I detailed the shield with some reinforcement strips. I removed the landing and glued the shield to the front. I had some right angle gussets left from the MK-115 platform and used a couple to add further detail to the landing and shield. The landing was now glued permanently in position. I tested that the catwalk could be dropped in position and allowed it to dry overnight. I used an Eduard pre-painted scale figure to test the depth of the catwalk. The average man would just have his head and neck above the coaming, taller fellows head and shoulders.



This is how it all fits together.

With all the glue joints firmed up I continued detailing this area by adding a door and railing where the ladder will rest. I couldn’t resist continuing to work with the catwalk around the stern quarter. Building it up a bit. So there was a bit of digression from my original purpose at this point. The first thing needed was the gusset under the flight deck which will be used to support the aft end of the catwalk. I made a triangular gusset by calibrated eyeball and added it to the end of the hull. There was a pair of gussets at the end of the catwalk which attached to the gusset under the flight deck. The aft most one is actually the end cap of the catwalk. These two parts had to be cut and test fitted until I arrived at the final product.



The gusset has been added here.



The two end gussets are in place at the end of the catwalk aft of the fuel station tub.



This is the finished blast shield platform with the gussets and railing in placed.



The catwalk is in position held up by stables and tape. Note the tab at the outboard end.

Each section of the catwalk had a support web underneath. These extend out past the edge of the deck and stanchions were welded vertically which in turn supported the outer the solid splinter shields. The splinter shield did not run the full length of the catwalks. Open railing was used in multiple locations. I needed to make parts for the outer splinter shields, the stanchions and the support web. I made some new drawings that go along with the flight deck coamings to make these additional parts. After a morning making the drawings and an afternoon cutting them on the Cameo machine I had a good supply and if more are required I can easily do another cut job now.



This is a photo of the sheet of catwalk parts ready for use. I try to cut complicated shapes like this until the chads start popping out as this makes it very easy to peel the parts off the mat.



These are the remaining 3 deck sections of the aft catwalk. The coaming is already glued to one of the sections, the middle piece is the actual landing and the final L shaped part goes around the deck edge at the Mk-115 platform.

This is the end of Part 2.

 

[Mikey25252]

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

Part 17 installing the catwalk landings Part 3

I made the support web in 2 sizes to cover the various widths of the catwalk. Additionally I made the vertical stanchions in a third smaller web. The pattern was the same so the stanchions and supports match exactly. I began by adding the supports to the underside of the fuel station first. I made the web so that it can overhang the catwalk. It can be glued on, allowed to dry and then it can be trimmed off. I worked my way along the bottom of each section of catwalk and the LSO 03 level landing. When I made the coaming sections I included numerous underside support gussets as well. On the aft section of catwalk there is a final open gusset just aft of the inclined ladder opening on the fuel tub. This particular gusset is different than all the others that I had made. This one was cut and fitted to its spot the old fashioned way and I had to manually cut out the opening. I managed to do it but it brought home just how handy the Silhouette Cameo is.



This is the bottom of the LSO landing where I have added the 4 support gussets.



This is the aft section of catwalk glued together with all the support gussets installed. Aft of the ladder opening ( to the right of it) is the gusset I had to cut by hand.



This is where I discovered that my MK-115 platform would be covered by the catwalk.



Here I am preparing a strip of catwalk support gussets. I even saved the chads to use as solid gussets somewhere else.

I used several of the machine cut catwalk gussets to represent the support of all the catwalk sections. I popped out the chads, detached them from the sheet and glued them in place. I needed 4 to get the LSO landing ready for permanent attachment. I used the hanger deck height gage to determine where the 03 level was. I drew lines to mark the position and then glued the LSO landing in place. I glued flight deck coamings to the remaining catwalk sections and I got them fitted to the deck edge. When I positioned the outermost section I immediately realized that my MK-115 director platform was too small. The catwalk nearly covered it up. I had to remove and replace it. It was destroyed it in the process. It wouldn’t have had any use even if I could have salvaged it but it was painful all the same.



The old MK-115 platform that I just grabbed with pliers and ripped off.



The new enlarged one in process.



The finished part.

I was also going to need a LSO platform. I would have thought that the kit or one of the 3 Enterprise detail sets would have furnished this item but there is nothing in any of them. The molded catwalk correctly drops down to what I have been calling the LSO landing so they really could have added some parts to make the platform. 3-D Wild has a printed set with the platform stowed or open for $12.50 for the pair. While I was at the drawing board for the MK-115 platform I designed my own LSO platform. The LSO platform was stowed until the beginning of the recovery cycle. As soon as the last aircraft was launched the platform was rigged. It was not open if we were launching aircraft. There were exceptions to that rule, for instance during carrier qualifications, aircraft would trap and then go forward to the bow to be launched again. So the platform was open during launches too. If there was maintenance that needed to be performed it could be opened up also. Below is a link to the 3-D wild LSO set. They also make a set that covers the gallery.

https://3d-wild.com/collections/cvn-65-enterprise-conversion-kits/products/big-e-1982-17-lso

With all the parts cut I was ready to continue on with the catwalks. I positioned the most aft section, cemented a small tab underneath where the cut off section needed to mate with it. Then I positioned the catwalk that will run forward with staples and tape on the flight deck to hold it in place. I applied a small amount of Testor’s Liquid Cement at the tab and joined the sections again. I also added a piece of angle where the 2 flight deck coamings come together as an additional reinforcement. The next day the entire aft catwalk was a solid single piece.

Underneath the catwalk where it goes around Sponson 8 there were a number of support gussets. These support the angled blast shield under the catwalk. The last gussets were made solid to cap off the ends. I cut and fit panels to fit these 2 locations and glued them in place. I cut out a small section in the corner for the access ladder to the catwalk from the sponson. The later versions of Enterprise had a door to get into this area. I left them to dry solid. At the inner ends where the angle meets the deck I covered the joint with a thin piece of strip. I left the assembly to dry solid before I did any more work on it.



The Mk-115 upside down. When I install the part I will first cut off the long side of the outer mount and make a new strut from strip,

While I waited I assembled my new MK-115 and LSO platforms. I made all the parts on my Cameo in several layers. The MK-115 had to be resized to be a larger diameter and the LSO platform is just the basic framework with a center deck. The touchiest part of assembling the MK-115 platform is forming The half rail to support the net gussets, then gluing it and gluing the multiple little angle gussets to that. These will form the frames for the nets. Now the MK-115 platform had to dry thoroughly so I glued the LSO platform to the flight deck coaming section, allowed it to dry and removed a section of the coaming for the entrance. While that was drying I went back to the MK-115 platform and added safety nets 1 section at a time. Having made this assembly twice before I was able to do the nets and even impart some sag between the supports. Finally I glued some .010” strip around the rim. This one is cleaner and better made at least.



The LSO platform attached to the flight deck coaming. This is the bare frame along the deck edge you can make out the cut away coaming for the entrance.

I allowed the MK-115 platform to fully dry and then drilled out the locater hole for the MK-115 director. Next I cut off the long side of the outer support gusset. I positioned the platform on the end of the finger and glued it in place. I cut a section of .030” square strip and glued it to the platform and the H beam stub. I used one of the open angle gussets to detail it and added a smaller sect of .020” strip for the second brace. There the platform was replaced! I verified that the catwalk would not cover the director any more, and with the catwalk in place I penciled some locator marks, folded and glued a ladder in place on the aft face of the finger to the platform. This is just under an engraved access hatch in the catwalk.



The new platform will have plenty of room for the director.

On the outer section of catwalk on the finger I made an end cap for it and detailed it with stanchions and a cap rail. I won’t be adding any of the outer splinter shields until all the detail on the catwalk inner wall is detailed. One of these details is the top of the coaming and the scuppers. I used .010” strip along the top of the coaming and then another just below the drain holes. Then I placed a strip of .010” X .020” on the lower strip to form a channel. This is the scupper and along with the coaming runs around about 95% of the deck edge. There is a short ladder to the flight deck on the aft side of the finger in this outer section. I cut out the opening in the flight deck coaming, glued a tab from strip and a support underneath it. I won’t add the ladders until much later. The flight deck coaming was shortened to just the thickness of the flight deck inboard of the end of the outer catwalk. I’ll finish detailing the catwalks after all the basic construction and fitting is completed on all the other catwalks.



The completed outer catwalk section. The additional parts for the coaming and the scupper have been added. You can see the inside of the endcap.



This is the stowed LSO platform from forward looking aft.

13

From aft looking forward.

14

From the side opened up

I made the LSO platform stowed for my model. I cut plastic strip to build up the level of the middle section where the LSO team would be standing. I then made the wind break which folds back on the forward section. To represent the windows on the break I used some 1/700 scale photoetch ladder material, I added a loudspeaker and glued it down. The aft section is where all the equipment folds down. To represent this I used plastic and photoetch to represent the various cases.



This is my take on the stowed LSO platform

I detailed the hull around the LSO landing, I added the doors and a small door these were all the photoetch needed for now. There is a loudspeaker and some panels and lights. These were connected up with .010” round rod for wiring. The section of landing facing out board has a modified splinter shield. It is full height at both ends but drops down in the middle for the safety net and pad to be anchored.



The hull around the LSO landing has been detailed and a splinter shield created and installed.



This is the overall view of all the detail that has been added from aft looking forward. There are two catwalk to flight ladder locations added, all the coaming, scupper and support detail is complete.



From forward looking aft.



This is the view from above. The red arrows point out the flight deck entrances. There will be a short inclined ladder at each location.

This is the end of Part 3.

 

[Mikey25252]

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

Part 17 installing the catwalk landings Part 4



This is the one good photo that I found of the LSO net from the exterior. It is prior to my time aboard but is probably very close to the same.

If there is an imminent risk of a crash like an aircraft impacting the ramp then the safety net is the egress for all the LSO team. There were 2 - 3 officers and an enlisted man at the minimum in the team. To clear the area quickly enough for them to survive they jump off the platform to outboard. There is a net formed by cable and covered by a thick pad. The pad is anchored to the frame at the top, sides and the catwalk at the bottom. The doors on this landing were left open so the crew could get inside to safety. I confess that I tested the net myself a few times on the USS Abraham Lincoln CVN-72 because the door for the LSO landing was just around the corner from my squadron’s Maintenance Control Office.



Here the frame parts are glued together and I am waiting for them to firm up.



Now I have added the net. Notice the wing on the right side.

I made the upper frame as part of the platform there are 2 angled braces to the catwalk and a couple more for the sides. I measured each section of the frame with dividers and cut 4 pieces from .020” square plastic strip. I made a 4 sided trapezoid and fitted it to the landing and the LSO platform. Once I had a good frame I used photoetch grating for the net. I placed the frame on the grating and marked the dimensions on the grate. I cut it out leaving 2 triangular wings on each side. I connected the net to the frame with tiny amounts of thin CA, fit and trimmed again. I used more square stock to frame the wings on the net. I added some tabs to the inside of the net to make it easier to put in place. For the pad I used some textured metal foil from a scalpel blade wrapper. This assembly was made to be a separate part until after painting. I will need access to the inside of the net to be able to paint the hull and deck around the landing.



All the framing is done and the tabs are in place on the top and bottom.



My rendition of the pad.



Here it is just set in place under the LSO platform.

I looked through my reference photos to see if there was anything else that I wanted to add now before I called this part of the project finished. There are 2 large square ducts under the port overhang that seemed to be something simple that I could do now. I went through the kit instructions and there are no plastic parts for these ducts. That is odd because on the starboard side the furnish some. These ducts would have been there when they were making the original kit at Tamiya. Well Eduard provides brass replacements on the starboard so surely they made some for the port side. No they did not. So the simple addition became just one more scratch built part.



This is the larger of the 2 ducts.



The second is pretty clear here.

There is a fairly long duct under the gallery and a smaller one just about in the middle of the boathouse overhang. I used some .125” square rod for the body of the ducts. I first cut an angle that matched up to the sloped part of the hull. Both of them are raked aft and I cut and glued each duct to model that. I fitted until I was happy with the two parts. I cut .020” square strip to make junctions or hangers on 3 sides of both parts. On the longer one some were also added to the top near the outlet end. I used some scrap grating from making the net to make 2 grills and glued them to the ends. I also found some square coaming and place that over the grills. I glued them in place on the hull and called it good.



The long duct.

10 Catwalks Landings (95)

And the short one. Both of these ducts are visible in photos of E beginning the scrapper’s process so I would guess that they were there from the beginning to the end. Certainly from 1976 to 2017.

This will be the end of this post. In the next I will be bringing the starboard side up to this level of detail. When the catwalks are all assembled I will be revisiting them to detail the interiors, deal with the splinter shields and installing them on the fight deck. Till the next part I wish you fair winds and following seas. Enjoy your modeling.

 

[KennyG1968]

Hi Mike
Impressive build so far, look forward to seeing more.
Is there any chance you could share your cutter settings?
I have a Portrait but have heard it is hard to cut out styrene. Does it just score the card or cut through?

On a side note (and not to make you feel old
) but I remember as a kid catching a ferry in Hobart to go out and have a look at this great ship. Caused quite a stir in Tassie

 

[Mikey25252]

Hi Mike
Impressive build so far, look forward to seeing more.
Is there any chance you could share your cutter settings?
I have a Portrait but have heard it is hard to cut out styrene. Does it just score the card or cut through?

On a side note (and not to make you feel old
) but I remember as a kid catching a ferry in Hobart to go out and have a look at this great ship. Caused quite a stir in Tassie

Thanks so much Kenny. Thanks also for the wonderful hospitality that I experienced in Tasmania. It is one of my favorite memories. I loved those ferries especially the on board canteens.

I like to get the stickiest mats I can find. I will go so far as to also tape the plastic card on the mat to make sure the card won’t shift. I generally use card that wiil fit the job in length and width. Be careful with the tape, you don't want the pinch rollers on either side of the cutting mat to run over the tape or the mat can shift. This will ruin the cut job. You can either score or cut through on my machine. I cut until I start to see small interior pieces come free (chads). I based my cut settings on the thickness of the plastic that I am using. I have done this successfully on plastic up to .020" thick. I always start out by lightly scoring the material and gradually increasing the pressure and depth. I make multiple passes. On complicated jobs I break it up into multiple parts. For example on the hanger deck used 4 or 5 different score jobs. Then I cut out the grate areas and finally cut out the deck. The whole process took most of an afternoon and evening. But in the end the hanger deck was nearly a drop fit.

1-350 Scale USS Enterprise CVN-65 - Google Drive

drive.google.com

This is a link to my Google Drive. Back when I built the hanger deck I wanted anyone who would like to, to have access to my actual ship photos, drawings, some references and the Silhouette files. If you have the link you should have access and be able to download what you would like. Try something small first. If you try the cut files and have problems I will try and help you through it. There are also bit map raster drawings in black and white if you need to convert them to your machine. Good luck.

 

[KennyG1968]

Gee, thanks a lot for the link. That is what I like about this hobby. People always happy to help others
I am currently building a version of the Big E at her last cruise, but would also like to build another version from 1976 when I saw her

 

[Mikey25252]

Gee, thanks a lot for the link. That is what I like about this hobby. People always happy to help others
I am currently building a version of the Big E at her last cruise, but would also like to build another version from 1976 when I saw her

Yes that is why I post to a forum for the sense of community with other modelers. The nearest club or hobby shop in my area is more than a 60 mile round trip. Anyway happy to help.

 

[Mikey25252]

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

Part 18 installing the catwalk landings Part 1. There will be 2 posts to cover the starboard side.



In this Image from 1961 the landing is only a fairly normal catwalk to 03 level landing. It had to extend outboard further but nothing else is unusual about it (red arrow). The catwalk under the flight deck is just visible in this photo (white arrow).



In this photo from the 80’s the original landing indicated by the red arrow has been extended both fore and aft. Notice that the angled blast protection does not extend all the way across on the forward side of the sponson (yellow arrow). Also the blast shield on the fore and aft section isn’t a simple piece of angled sheet it levels off and runs under the overhang (blue arrow). There is a catwalk under the flight deck that will have to be added too (white arrows).

In this section I will be working on the catwalks and in particular the large landing on the starboard side from the stern to Elevator 3. The landing was pretty ordinary until after the 74 -75 deployment. The flight deck over hung the side of the ship by a large amount and the landing had to extend from the hull by a similar amount. After that deployment the landing was extended aft and forward making a large wedge shaped platform. I do not know the purpose of it and I never had occasion to come down from the flight deck via this exit. From the pier you could see some large gray boxes on it and when we were in port guys would drag chairs out there and enjoy their own balcony which I thought was pretty cool.



This 1978 photo with Enterprise anchored off Fremantle, West Australia shows the extended landing too.



These are the majority of the parts that I will need to assemble the starboard catwalk and landing.

From my experience building the port side, I came up with some ideas to make things a little easier. I prepared all the pieces of flight deck coaming with the strip detail for the top of the coaming and the scuppers before I glued them to the deck sections. I collected all the main parts and punched all the perforations in the deck pieces. Then I started to fit the pieces to the flight deck. Like the port side I had to cut apart the catwalk where it makes the final turn and goes forward because the section heading outboard was too long. And I found a section of the flight deck that required some .010” and .020” X .060” shims to fill a gap between the catwalk and the deck edge.



The gap is fairly large. I have begun layering strip to fill it in



This is the wedge shaped extended landing. Originally the landing was only as wide as the tab sticking out the outboard side.

I ended up cutting the deck into 3 sections. The first two were fore and aft sections and then the outboard section. In each case I glued a small tab to overlap the cuts to the underside. Then positioned and glued the deck sections together. I test fit frequently and then moved on to the next section. I did not glue the final section yet, preferring to wait until I had added the flight deck coamings first. I did all the basic assembly next gluing the web on that wedge shaped platform. I glued the coamings and deck sections together. When they had dried I glued on the fuel tub and the bottom supports on all the pieces.



I have started gluing up the various pieces.



These are the two assembled catwalk sections and the crane operator station.

Around the area of the crane the catwalk stops and drops down to the landing just above the crane. I wanted the coaming to extend to the corner and then outboard but did not want the deeper flight deck coaming that was present around the catwalks. I cut down the coaming just to the thickness of the kit flight deck. This will run from the end of the catwalk to the corner of the finger and then outboard to the small section of catwalk aft of the elevator where I believe the crane operator was. These were glued to the fore and aft sections of the outboard catwalk. I let that dry hard then I inserted staples through the flight deck coamings and placed the aft section first with tape then the outboard section joining the two at the deck tab at the corner. A touch of liquid cement, a piece of angle at the corner and a tiny clothespin clamp were all that I needed to mate the two pieces. This was left to dry overnight.



I am gluing the two major sections together here.



This is the underside of the landing I will need to cut away the red marked portion to get the fit correct. The arrows point to were the fore and aft sections were cut back.



This is the cut up landing.

Once I had those parts where they needed to be I began fitting the wedge shaped platform under the catwalk. This is another item not addressed by the kit or the aftermarket. The kit catwalk doesn’t have a ladder well opening on this side just like the one on the port side. Right off the bat I could see my platform was too long by the photos of this area. It was also running into some of the vent gratings and the long vent pipe. I had to remove the vent pipe and the gratings and rearrange their placement to make everything fit right.

Thankfully I was able to do this without ruining anything. The gratings had been positioned over some indentions in the hull. This was the kit representation of this big vent. I had originally based the location of the grates as going over the indents to give them some depth. I believe the Eduard instructions told me to fill them. They were evidently right and I had to fill them now with plastic strip and CA glue and then the area was sanded smooth. While I had the sanding tool out I also sanded the shims on the flight deck edge. I installed the catwalk with staples and tape and then positioned the landing under it. I had to remove a portion along the inside edge to position the tab under the ladder well opening. The drawings for these parts were the ones based on the AMR 1/400 Enterprise and simply up scaled. I guess it was inevitable that there would be some adjustments.



This is the side on view of the landing after everything had been repositioned.

I measured and marked the 03 level where the platform would sit and then marked the forward and aft edges on the flight deck. I cut off the forward and aft edges of the platform at the first frames in from the edge, shortening it and keeping it symmetrical. Then it was a simple matter to use some of the heavier Testor’s cement to glue it in place. A piece of masking tape kept it level until the glue dried. I reinstalled the gratings and vent pipe and gave the attachment point some reinforcement with thin CA. I verified the position with the catwalk and then glued an endcap on the catwalk at the aft end.



The landing is glued in place here. The catwalk is positioned so the opening for the inclined ladder is right over the tab on the landing.



The entire run of the aft catwalk with the aft end cap in place.

I can’t really make out how this portion of the catwalk was braced from the ramp until it comes to the missile sponson. I assume that there must have been something to gusset the inside wall of the catwalk along the overhang. In any case it is irrelevant on the model because flight deck is thick and will provide the necessary gluing edge and I am not about to cut it down to scale thickness. Visible bracing starts where the catwalk goes over the missile sponson.



This is the catwalk underside before I fixed the blast shield. All the gussets are in place.

The entire fore and aft section of this area has a blast shield. This time I only put the solid braces on the ends of the blast shields and one in the corner to support them instead of one every other joint. I cut and fit the angled plates and glued them in place. This section angles down, levels off and runs inboard. I initially simplified this in my part by making both sections as an angled plate to the hull. This began to bug me enough that I cut the angled portion off and leveled it off with a piece of strip cut to fit. The forward section blast shield stops about 1/3rd of the way across the sponson and then there are exposed angled braces. The final fore and aft section of this catwalk to the crane landing also has angle gussets under it. They are in pairs fairly evenly spaced which I was able to duplicate. Every one of the fuel station tubs has a pair of angled gussets on the forward and aft ends. I failed to mention this when I built up the port side. I did put them in place though.



The blast shield has been corrected here.



I am assembling the support pillars for the landing.

On the landing there are support pillars which run from the landing deck to the underside of the flight deck all the way around the perimeter. I cut and fit a piece of strip to get the correct dimensions for the forward set. I used the height of the strip to cut multiple pillars from .030” square strip. Then I used the length to get a beam for the upper and lower frames. I assembled a rectangular frame from square strip on a piece of waxed paper. I used the platform to obtain lengths for the aft and side frames. These were assembled and when they had firmed up they were glued in place. I left them set back from the edge slightly to provide room for the railing. I placed a door and some other bits on the hull and placed 4 Black Cat 3D printed ammunition lockers on the deck. Finally I measured, cut and glued railing around the edges of the platform.



The pillars, boxes, door and other details are in place.

Part 1 ends here. There will be a short part 2 to finish up this area.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 18 installing the catwalk landings Part 2.



The railing is installed.



The catwalk and landing are set in place in this photo.

On the Crane Operators catwalk section I first cut some .020” strip to make the aft support brace. I cut end caps for the fore and aft sides and glued them to the catwalk. This tub was too small to have an inclined ladder to the flight deck so I glued a vertical ladder to the inside of the catwalk. I went ahead and cut a section of the premade catwalk splinter shield and glued it in place enclosing the crane operator station. There were a couple of control boxes, one outboard and one aft. I made these from bits of scrap strip. I put this in place with some blue tack for a couple of photos.



Here I have added a support for the crane operator catwalk. Mote the shortened flight deck coamings in the corner.



The crane operator catwalk has been assembled and is tacked in place with blue tack.

The final item in this section was a section of catwalk under the flight deck from the hull to just under the edge of the aft end of the starboard catwalk. This is yet another part which is ignored in the kit and the 3 Enterprise sets. I placed a small oval door on the hull where the catwalk will be installed. The catwalk was from a White Ensign Models photoetch sheet PE3510 Ladders and Walkways. It was built up like the catwalk under the whip antenna mount. I cut a section of the catwalk with railings to length and folded the railings up. The end railing came from another ladder sheet. This section runs at a slight angle so part of the forward inboard railing was cut away and the deck angled. I tacked this in position with blue tack for a photo and then the new parts went into a storage container with the port side parts.



The assembled catwalk. I did not fix the rail since the catwalk butts up to the large aft gusset.



The small oval door on the hull.



The catwalk tacked in place with blue tack.

8 Catwalks Landings (234

The same section from the side.

That finishes this section. In the next I will begin working on Sponson 4. Take care and happy modeling.

 

[Mikey25252]

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

Part 19 Sponson 4, 3 and 5 Part 1 of 3 parts.



This is the final state of sponson 4 sometime in 2026. The large vent box and other vents are clearly visible. Also visible is the platform with the 2 stage ladder to access it.



This is from the photo of Enterprise entering Subic Bay. Sponson 4 appears to have multiple boxes of what appears to be trash (white arrow) for offload once the ship is tied up.

When I was aboard Enterprise Sponson 4 was used primarily for storage. It did not have the double WTD like the sponsons on the starboard side so it was limited to what could fit through the single large WTD. It was originally configured as a port side refueling station but I never saw it used for that. I believe that the navy was going away from port side UNREP’s for safety reasons. Navy carriers still have portside refueling capability today according to the google AI but it is used only when conditions permit. Wikipedia stated that carriers always receive replenishment to starboard implying never to port. To my eye if an occasion came up to use port side replenishment the hardware just couldn’t be ready in any kind of timely manner.



This photo shows the exterior catwalk for the overhead refueling rig (red arrow) and what I believe is the deck winch (white arrow).

Normally a fuel transfer station would be marked with the red, yellow, blue and black symbol (like the Zulu signal flag) but there wasn’t any painted on this sponson in any photos like there was on the starboard side. On the starboard side at Sponson 1 and 5 the fuel hoses were generally always rigged for refueling during a deployment but they weren’t at sponson 4. There was an overhead track for the pulleys and a similar catwalk like the one on sponson 5 to help with rigging. But they were unused as far as I know. I have one photo which I believe shows the deck winch still on the sponson. I have another which shows the sponson piled with crates and boxes which may have been trash for off load going into port. I have a photo of the sponson in the early 80’s which shows that the tracks have been removed but the outer frame is still there.



When you look into the area of sponson 4 you can see the complete lack of detail on the kit parts.



The hull has some pipe and stiffener detail that I have added. The upper locator for the sponson needed to be removed.



I have added the door, the vent box and the largest of the four vent ducts. I removed the entire upper row of the locator to get a good fit of the sponson.

The kit is devoid of detail in this area. There is no door or any of the other lumps present at other exterior locations. The big vent box is missing and the only thing on the deck is a square-ish lump and a locator for a kit fairlead. My sponson had already been assembled and everything on the deck was removed. When I tried to install the part for a test fit it would not go over the hull placement guides leaving a gap at the deck to hull joint. I sanded and filed the interior edges but did not get a good fit until I removed the entire top guide. Then I could put the sponson in place with no trouble. It would be extremely difficult to paint the sponsons if they were all glued in place because of the obstruction of the overhang.



This is the deck side of Sponson 4 the lump has been removed but rather than filling the fairlead locating hole I just covered the entire deck. The black mark is the location for the slot.

The Eduard kit provides the large vent box on the side of the hull as a fold up part from their number 5 Enterprise sheet. The part reflects that area going as far back as the original launch. Tamiya molded the vent structure at Sponson 1 so it seems odd that they would ignore this area. The modern layout is reflected in the other parts provided on the sheet. Eduard uses the square-ish lump as a small deck building with a 2 level inclined ladder to a platform and door on the 02 level of the forward bulkhead. This is visible in later photos of the ship. There was a door and platform there in the 70’s but it was accessed by a vertical ladder. There were several vents and some large pipes that you will have to fabricate if you want to add them. My drawing of this area is pretty close but the door should be further forward than what I drew. I had already added the pipes and the hull stiffener earlier.



The slot has been cut out.



The deck and the cut out have been skinned.

The deck furniture consisted of 2 large bitts or bollards and one large fairlead. There was a deck winch and a set of refueling connections (I am assuming). One critical missing item is the slot through the aft edge of the sponson which was there for the forward inboard elevator support to pass through. Sponson 4 and all the starboard sponsons will need to be modified with these slots. With the sponson set in place I positioned the elevator above it and marked where the slot will go. I removed the sponson and cut the marked area out. This is the only elevator I intend to place down so it is more important here to locate the slot correctly. The cables will pass through the slot. I put a piece of .010” scrap to cover the deck area like I did on Sponsons 10 and 11 and glued it down. When it had dried I cut off the excess and covered the edges of the slot with more strip and putty. I let this dry overnight then sanded it smooth the next day. While this was drying I folded the Eduard vent and glued it in place. I found a suitable door and glued it under the vent.



This is the elevator in the lowered position. You can see the support through the slot.

There are 4 duct openings on the hull aft of the big vent box. The largest one has a curved top and an angled face. I made this from a scrap of strip and some photoetch grill. The other 3 ducts were much smaller and were simply cut from strip with one edge beveled. I placed a light fixture under the vent box, a loudspeaker and some electrical panels on the hull. These were connected up with some cables from .010” rod. I added 3 punched discs for fuel provider connections to the front bulkhead later. This is also conjecture base on photos of the other sponsons.



The other vent ducts, electrical panels, cables and the 02 level platform, door and ladder have all been added.

The final feature on the sponson bulkheads was the small platform, ladder and door on the forward end. I used my gauge to mark the deck at the 02 level. The platform was formed from part of a photoetched accommodation ladder and some plastic angle gussets. I cut the platform from the ladder and folded the railings up which left an opening facing inboard. I glued the angle gussets to the hull and placed the door above them. Later I glued the platform on top of the gussets after they had dried. I measured and folded some vertical ladder with stand offs and placed it between the vent box and the platform.



Typical deck winch on an unidentified aircraft carrier sponson.



In 1/350 scale these deck winches are incredibly small but the level of detail is amazing. There is some assembly and I needed to drill out the locating hole to get the additional drum to fit.

After this was all complete I turned to the deck itself. I used a kit part for the fairlead and some Eduard 3-D printed bitts. The starboard side fueling sponsons had 3 transfer pipes on each sponson and probably 3 more connections depending on if Enterprise was providing or receiving fuel. So I just assumed that Sponson 4 had these features too. I used Black Cat 3-D Hand Wheels on Pipe Sections for the uprights and added a punched disc hose connection on each one (modern fuel connections are a bit different). That only left the deck winch. While looking for something else I found that Eduard was offering a set of modern 3-D printed USN Deck Winches. I had originally planned to make my own based on parts that I made for the hanger door winches but these were too good to pass up. There is a second drum and shaft that has to be added but I had to drill out the hole to get the shaft to pass through.



The deck layout on my Sponson 4. The winch is facing outboard but it should be facing aft on this sponson. I was able to remove it without damage.

Truth be told these winches would have been covered unless they were in use or undergoing maintenance. But they were too nice to cover so they must be undergoing some maintenance. I placed the winch facing outboard but later I changed it to facing aft based on the little I could find in photos. The winches on the decks of the other sponsons face forward or aft but the ones on the platforms face outboard.

I placed the sponson on the hull and marked the deck where the railing would stop on the fore and aft ends. I clamped the sponson in my little hobby vise. The Eduard kit has railings for the sponson but these were made to fit before I cut the slot and I knew the bends would not stand up to working around it. It would most likely have been too short anyways. I used a section of Tom’s Modelworks railing and carefully bent it to fit the deck. I cut away the bottom 2 rails away around the fairlead. Then I glued it in place one section at a time. Finally I did a test fit to see if I could get it in place without ruining the new railings. Surprisingly I put it in place and removed it just fine. I immediately made a place for it in one of the storage boxes since there was no point tempting fate.



I have formed and glued the railings down. This sponson is unusual in that the railing goes all the way around the slot. On the others the railing cuts off at the slot finger. They also have a pulley on the finger but from what I can see in the photos there isn’t one on Sponson 4. I have re-glued the winch on deck and it is now facing aft.

The next thing to do was to fit the support strut to the bulkhead and the under deck structure. The kit furnishes these and they are all the same. No matter what I tried I could not get it to go into both locating holes. I cut a tiny bit off the lower end and then glued a small section of 1/64th inch rod to the tip. Now it went into place but doesn’t fill the slot at the top. There are some seams and two mold knockouts on each strut so I sanded each face till they were flat. In some of my photos the struts in open locations have ladder rungs on the inner face. I found some generic ladder and glued a length on it. It isn’t visible at all and the shape of the strut at the upper end makes it difficult to fit a gusset.



The kits strut with its new locating pin.



I used a plain vertical ladder for the strut but I didn’t like it. It is invisible on the model. Because of the upper locating peg I couldn’t fit gussets on the outside upper end. So I discarded the kit part in favor of a scratch built one.

I went back to the drawing board again and made my own strut. I used some .060” square strip and cut the angles based on the kit part. I also put some small sections of .010 X .060” strip on each end to cover the mounting holes. I used the 1/64th rod for the lower peg and some .060” strip for the upper peg. The strut fit just right now. I added gussets at each end from .010“square strip. I added the ladder with 5 Star Caged ladder photoetch which made the rungs stand up and they are visible on the model now. I don’t believe the airbrush will be able to cover the strut if it is glued in place so I stored it with the sponson.



This is my home made strut.

That is the end of part 1.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 19 Sponson 4, 3 and 5 Part 2 of 3 parts.



With this type ladder the rungs stick out like they are supposed to.



In this cut off photo of the actual sponson 4 in the upper right corner you can see the frame for the overhead tracks. It appears that all the rails have been removed. This photo was from the early 80’s after the refit up to 2008 as the visible crew members are wearing bell bottom dungarees and not camo fatigues.

The frame was added to the overhead with enough protruding beyond the overhang to add the platform after the catwalk is done. These frames were heavily gusseted on the outside so I spent some time making and gluing tiny gussets. There are tracks for three sets of pulleys on the other stations so that was what I modeled here. I used the finest strip that I have for the tracks and placed 3 equally spaced strips. It is possible that the rails were already removed by 1978 I don’t have a good photo so I can only guess. There probably weren’t any pulleys or other rigging though. At the end of the frame there is a plate to cap it off which remained through to the end of the ship’s career. I cut the plate from some .020” strip, cut the lower corners at 45 degree angles and the upper edge was notched to fit over my frame.



Sponson 4 and strut mounted on double sided tape in their own cubby in one of the storage boxes.



I have begun making the exterior frame for the overhead refueling rig.



The finished frame, rails and exterior plate.

Now I turned to the long section of catwalk between Elevator 4 and the aft entrance to the gallery landing. This was cut as two sections of catwalk in order to fit it on the sheet when I cut them on the Silhouette machine. I removed them from the sheet and glued a tab on the underside of one, let it dry and glued the two sections together. For this section I am using the wider flight deck coamings that I had previously made. The idea being when the catwalk is glued to the flight deck it will cover the 03 level. I will be able to add the doors and landings when I detail the catwalks. I added the strip to finish the coaming and the scupper. Since this won’t fit on my metal build board I used a metal rule to hold the parts while I glued them. I marked the level of the catwalk deck and held the coaming down with magnets. The deck was glued perpendicular to the coaming and held with more magnets. I left it to dry overnight.



I have done all the basic assembly on the run of catwalk from Elevator 4 to the aft ladder down to the gallery landing.



Here I am adding the support web to the underside of the catwalk.



In this photo the support web has been finished on this long section of catwalk.

The next day I wanted to get the first level of support web on the underside of the catwalk. This was fairly simple just cut a section and glue it in place. I let it dry and cut off the excess. After this was completed the gussets and other braces would need to be attached to the web. The largest support brace was the platform for the Fresnel Lens Optical Landing System (FLOLS). There is a kit part for the platform but it is chunky affair that I decided to thin down. I had to file off some ejector pin marks on the underside anyways. Originally I was going to just leave the molded gussets but thin them down too. Eduard provides one gusset which is a 2 sided item that folds over on itself. But when you look at the photo below it is apparent that the gussets were open and that there were two. Later in the 2000’s gussets were solid.



This is the FLOLS on Enterprise in the 1980’s which I believe was the same as the one in 1978. Note the pair of open gussets underneath the platform.



The kit part, note the ejector pin marks.

I sanded off the gussets on the kit part and around the edges I thinned the deck down till it was about ½ the level of the rest of the part. This left a raised center which I detailed with some strip to look like a support web. I split the Eduard part in two and glued one gusset forward and one aft. I beefed up the photoetch with some strip glued to its surface and added some cross supports. This part was held up to the catwalk where it would be located and the edge of the catwalk deck was marked on the top of the platform. I skinned the deck with some .020” sheet starting at the line on the part and trimmed it to match the outline. When it was glued to the bottom of the catwalk the platform now is level with the catwalk.



This shows the modifications to the bottom of the FLOLS platform as well as the extensive gusseting to support the catwalk.

The majority of catwalk support comes from open angle gussets but additional support for the catwalk is provided by the four whip antenna mounts and the FLOLS platform. For now I marked the positions of the mounts on the deck. I could then add short and long gussets to the catwalk underside following these basic rules. A double short gusset at the start and end of the catwalk, A double short gusset in the middle of each thin catwalk section except where it is supported by something else and a long gusset at each end of wide sections of catwalk. I added an extra gusset in the middle of one wide section that was longer than the others. I tried to find photos of these areas but the best clearest photos that I have most of the gussets are obscured by the life raft canister mounts so I made my best guess. It looks well engineered.



This photo of Enterprise being scrapped shows the complexity of the supports under the catwalk. One section of catwalk has been removed already.

I will need 15 more short whip mounts for placement around all the catwalks. There will be 9 others that will be longer for a total of 25. The 2 on the island are fixed so I won’t need to do much there but make a block for the mount and drill it for the antenna. I went ahead and assembled 15 mounts. There is one already attached to the gallery which brings the short mounts to 16. I began with 30 lengths of .010” X .080” strip. 15 of these will be the platforms and the rest were cut in half diagonally for the gussets. When all the parts were cut out it was fairly easy but tedious to glue 2 gussets to each platform.



I have placed gussets on 14 of the 15 whip antenna mounts the 15th is still waiting to be assembled.

Before I glue these whip mounts on the catwalk I will complete them as much as possible. I added the pivots from White Ensign RN cable reels to the ends of each mount. Then I made the block with the tubing socket from .060” square strip, two insulators, a pivot stand off and the rotating handles. To cut the tubing I rolled it under a sharp knife blade. When the tubing has been cut it must be chucked into a pin vise so it can be drilled out enough to clean up all the burrs. Otherwise the antenna won’t slide into the socket. One of the 4 mounts has the catwalk installed below it while the other 3 are plain.


I am in process making the pivots on the 15 whip mounts I have just cut the last 4 pivots from the fret. There are some others that are folded and 5 mounts in the background that have been glued together. In the end I made one more mount because I dropped one. I found it later but having a spare won’t hurt just in case I experienced some more dropsy.



All 16 whip mounts have been assembled but I still have to add the sockets and insulators.



In this photo the first insulator has been added to all the mounts and they have all been drilled out to receive the socket. The 3 at the top have the socket installed.



All the mounts now have the sockets installed.

I was having a great deal of difficulty in getting a thinner disc for the outer insulator drilled to fit over the socket. I needed something that I could do that was easier and repeatable. I decided to try something else and found some wiring insulation of about the right size. I stripped a section of insulation off the wire. I cut the insulation in slices then slid a slice of insulation onto some fine tweezers. Sliding the ring of insulation along the tweezers stretched it out a bit and then the ring was quickly slid off the tweezers and onto the socket. The insulation quickly shrinks back to its original size and I could position it and glue it in place with thin CA.



All 16 of the mounts now have the second insulator in place made ironically with insulation.

That is the end of part 2.

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 19 Sponson 4, 3 and 5 Part 3 of 3 parts.

Because the cable reel used for the antenna pivot was the same width as the platform I punched discs and glued them at the pivot location to act as a standoff for the pivot handle so the handle won’t hit the platform. I glued the discs to the pivot point on the right side of each mount. In photos of the antennas they could be on either side but I don’t have enough good photos to Identify which goes where. For this reason I just intend to make them all the same. Once all the stand offs had been placed. I got out the White Ensign Enterprise photoetch sheet and removed the rotating handles which were glued onto the stand offs for the 4 mounts that I needed now. While I was working on the catwalk I dropped it and one of the handles broke off. The garage monster has it now, I looked for it but I couldn’t find it. Luckily I have a workaround for when I use these up. The rest went into storage without the handles because I don’t want to lose any more. I will hold off until installing them until they are needed.



Now I am working on the handles, all the pivot points have been added. I am also making the catwalk under the mount.



The short whip antenna mounts on double sided tape in the safety of the catwalk storage box.

The next thing was to make the catwalk under one of the mounts. I used the same photoetch sheet for this as I did on the previous mount under the aft gallery catwalk. I glued another section of .010” X .080” strip to the back of the mount to support the inside of the catwalk. I made it longer than necessary so the catwalk was positioned, the back plate marked and then cut to the correct length. I cut a small section of plain ladder and glued it to the railing of the catwalk. The catwalk was positioned and glued in place. I placed a small square of plastic on the top of the mount for an access hatch, glued the rotating handle in place and glued all 4 mounts to the port side catwalk. I added a piece of photoetch railing from a 1/400 sheet to the outboard face to close the catwalk off.



The mount with the catwalk is glued in place just aft of the FLOLS platform.



This is a close up of the refueling rigging platform in place. I haven’t added the struts yet.

I made a caged ladder from the L’Arsenal photoetch and glued it below the port catwalk just above the two supports for the refueling rig platform. To make the platform I used a piece of catwalk with rails from White Ensign. This piece looks like it is just framework. I cut up some of the Eduard perforated deck that I won’t be using and fit a section to my platform. I glued the two parts together and glued the platform to the flight deck coaming but not the supports attached to the hull overhang. The platform rests on the supports but can be stored away with the catwalk. I added some rails on the forward and aft ends of the platform. I made two struts and added them to the platform from the bottom of the port catwalk.



The port catwalk from Elevator 4 to the gallery landing off the ship.



And on the model.

I made a total of 26 antennas to add to the previously made prototype so I will have a spare. First I went through the photoetch sets for satellite communications antennas. On the 1978 Enterprise two of the whip antennas were SATCOM dishes and there is one caged whip antenna. These were on the bow. Two of the sets have dishes that were to be used on the island but because my island will be backdated and they won’t be needed there. The dishes are close enough that they can be modified into what I want. I had to drill a hole in the center of each dish to fit it over the tubing.



The SATCOM antenna is the 2nd back from the bow. There is another on the port side.

The dish sits on a round waveguide that I made from short lengths of Albion Alloys telescoping brass tube. After the tubing is cut the burrs are removed by chucking them in my Tamiya electric drill and filing then sanding the exterior. I drilled out the interior and checked the fit of the parts. Once the tube is put together I checked it next to the kit part and glued it together. I put the assembled tube in a pin vise, installed the dish and glued it in place.

There are four gussets on the back side which I got from left over parts on the Eduard part 4 set (these were gussets from the elevator supports). They were carefully glued in place with tiny amounts of Medium CA and then a touch of Thin CA to lock it in place. I managed to do this without clogging the mesh of the dish. The wave guide has a cap on the end of it which I made from a punched disc. I couldn’t figure out a way to make the other three rings or discs on the stem.



These are the two SATCOM antennas I made. One is facing you with the white dot the other is facing away. The white dots are the caps on the wave guides.



The same antennas from the side. Note the assembled whip antenna just above them.



A comparison of the whip and SATCOM antennas with the kit parts.



This photo shows the caged whip antenna on the port side.

All the remaining antennas are whips. I cut tubing to make 26 more antennas. Each whip has three sections and just cutting them out was tedious but the deburring and fitting was truly mind numbing. Each whip was assembled and glued together. I kept plugging away at these antennas over 3 three hour sessions until they were all finished. The whip mounts and antennas look much better than the kit parts. The kit doesn’t have any part for the caged whip. I took one of my whips and used crosstrees from the White Ensign Enterprise set to make my single caged whip. One was carefully drilled out to fit over the middle tube and glued in place. The smaller crosstree fit on the thin tubing just fine. I will not be rigging this antenna till after it is painted.



You can see the 3 bottle caps with the different sizes of tubing. In this photo I have made 2 more antennas and a third has just been started on the sandpaper block. The third completed antenna is the prototype from the gallery catwalk. Only 24 more to go!



The completed whip antennas.



The caged whip antenna



Trying to figure out how to store it.



Safe and secure storage. The small bag has the whip antennas inside.

So that is the end of part 3 when I next post I will be working on Sponson 5 and 3 on the starboard side. Till then stay safe and happy modeling.

 

[PeteG]

Fantastic work in every aspect. I love how you tell a story or an experience you have on the build. My grandfather was on the 1942 USS Enterprise and I wish I was more attentive before he died when I was young. What a wealth of information that I missed out on.

Thank you for your wonderfully crafted posts

 

[Mikey25252]

Fantastic work in every aspect. I love how you tell a story or an experience you have on the build. My grandfather was on the 1942 USS Enterprise and I wish I was more attentive before he died when I was young. What a wealth of information that I missed out on.

Thank you for your wonderfully crafted posts

Thank you for the response and comments I will try and keep the posts coming. My father was a Korean War veteran he never was very forthcoming about his experiences but I imagine he had good reason. I like to remember the good things not the dark stuff.

 

[Mikey25252]

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


Part 19 Sponson 4, 3 and 5 Part 1 of 4 parts



This is an early view of Sponson 3 and 5 during the 60’s. The boat is still on the sponson and the additions to the 01 and 02 level haven’t been made yet.



This is sponson 5 in the 80’s. You can see the refueling rig in the overhead, the aft and forward platforms and the duct under the forward platform. The appearance here is pretty much the same as it was in 1978.



This is Sponson 3 in the same time frame as Sponson 5 the deck winch has been removed. It was still there in 1978 though.

I will be focusing on Sponson 3 and 5 and the catwalk between Elevators 2 and 3 in this part. Sponson 5 was originally designed as an UNREP station and it was the starboard boat house. It was the crew’s access to the ship when moored and it had an accommodation ladder to receive visitors when anchored. I spent a lot of time running the gauntlet against the in Port Junior Officer of the Deck (JOOD) who stood watch at Sponson 5 when we were moored. The JOOD (In Port) was a ship’s company Chief Petty Officer tasked with making sure I was a good representative of the U.S. Navy whenever I left the ship. I needed a good haircut, proper uniform/civilian clothes and military appearance. Sadly sometimes I fell short in one or more of these categories and was turned back to correct my discrepancy.



This is Enterprise moored at NAS Cubi Point, Republic of the Philippines in 1976 from across the lower ramp.



We were covering a launch at NAS Cubi Pt during the 1976 deployment. The Dungarees that I am wearing aren’t faded so I must have gotten stuck in a good pair but my hair is getting a too long. I blurred the face of my colleague because I no longer have his contact info and I couldn’t get his permission to show his face or name.

I understood my liberty was at stake in port and more often than not I was ready when I was going out to town, haircuts being a raw spot occasionally. NAS Cubi Point RP was considered a working port which meant that you could not go on liberty unless you were off shift and off duty. If you were you would need your liberty card. My main problem usually occurred when I was working because it meant that I had to go off the ship and proceed across the NAS Cubi Point lower ramp and up the hill to meet the day’s flight schedule ashore. I had a fundamental disagreement with most JOOD’s with what constituted a proper working uniform.



This is my liberty card from the 1976 deployment. During that cruise they eventually just let us keep them so we could get back and forth to work, only taking them away if you were to be restricted to the ship for some infraction. Originally your supervisor kept them and you didn’t get it unless you were up to speed on your courses, uniforms and work. I think they stopped using them on the 1978 cruise. I stuck mine in a scrapbook.

They did not want me to go to the exchange or the base galley or anywhere else and get written up for some violation thereby embarrassing the ship and the C.O. They wanted inspection ready dungarees and I didn’t want to waste them working on airplanes. Dungarees were expensive after all. Small Stores where you used to buy uniform issue items cheaply had been turned over to the Navy Exchange while I was going to school in Tennessee. We received an annual uniform allowance but it wasn’t even enough to pay for a year of haircuts ashore (aboard ship they were free except for standing in line to get one).

I solved this problem by wearing an inspection ready uniform off and on the ship but I kept a set of salty dungarees in the hanger ashore to work in. This was okay and worked well until I was sent to the ship to pick up a part to repair a plane or on some other errand. The Maintenance Chief did not want to hear that I needed to change he wanted me to move it now. Sometimes that required a nimble tongue at the brow and another change of uniforms on ship. I finally got tired of fooling around like this and bought several new sets of working uniforms at no small expense and trashed my older disreputable ones. On deployment you didn’t need a lot of money so it was fairly easy to save some up.



Enterprise taking on fuel. Note the hoses running to Sponson 1 and 3.

Sponson 3 was originally an UNREP fueling station. It also was furnished with a boat boom if they were using the accommodation ladder. I believe that Sponson 3 was used originally when Enterprise was the ship receiving fuel and 5 was used when providing fuel. I could be wrong here and probably am. By 1978 this sponson wasn’t used for fueling anymore but I believe the deck winch was used to move stores at station 7B. I don’t know that much about the uses of this area so I will leave it at that.



In this shot from 1976 during an UNREP there is a crew on Sponson 3 manning the winch. Note the UNREP markings below the Elevator opening.

On Sponson 5 by 1978 the duty lifeboat had been replaced by a platform with a deck winch, there was another platform with a winch on the aft end of the sponson and a third on the deck itself facing aft. Sponson 3 had a winch facing forward. Sponson 5 was designated UNREP station 11 and Sponson 3 was station 7A but it was not marked as such in fact it did not have any UNREP markings. The sliding padeye at Elevator 3 was Station 13 and the sliding padeye at the aft end of Elevator 2 was station 7B. The forward end was Station 5. Sponson 1 was Station 3 and Elevator 1 was station 1 (odd numbers to starboard. That was in 1978 and the markings and their locations changed frequently over the years. During the 1978 deployment the markings were under the elevator openings and on the outboard edge of the sponsons

The UNREP markings denoted what was transferred at each station. The station number was in white on a square green field, vertical white bars on a green field indicated general stores and food. A white P on a green field was for personnel transfer. During one of my 2 deployments on Enterprise the ship actually did a high line transfer. It was a rare occurrence and the C.O. announced it on the 1MC and invited anyone interested to come up on the flight deck to see it. An orange field was for missiles, ammunition and ordnance. In 1978 Fuel, fuel oil and aviation gasoline was a blue field, with a yellow and red triangle in an arrangement like the red, blue, yellow and black Zulu signal flag. Because there have been changes this symbol is now a red and blue triangle joined together on the hypotenuse.

The configuration of these two sponsons changed over the decades. One of the major changes in appearance was the addition of several new spaces to the 02 level over the aft end of Sponson 5 and the 02 and 01 level over the forward end of sponson 3. This change might have been a factor in the removal of the starboard boat but I don’t know for sure. My Mini Hobby kit is supposed to represent the ship in the early configuration from 1974ish to 1978 because it includes F-14’s (It also includes F/A-18’s so I don’t know what that means) in the airwing and the beehive top for the island. But it still has parts for a boat on the starboard side which was gone in the early 70’s. Tamiya also has the same error and it’s even more incorrect for their model (early 80’s and up). Once again there isn’t a lot of surface detail on the exterior surfaces although there were at least door lumps (which I had sanded off). The kit doesn’t add anything else to Sponson 3 except for a fairlead. My plans were a bit more complex.



The ATO in a photo from 1970 or 1971.



The gray plastic part is the kit forward platform and the Eduard part is to the right and above it. I have already broken off the inside set of legs. They were very weak. To the left and upside down is the Eduard part for the Port Boat House.

Sponson 5 has some additional parts there is a part for a platform for the forward end on 5. It doesn’t go all the way inboard and this is wrong. When the boat was present it was smaller and just aft of the whaleboat. The kits have placed the platform in the correct modern position with the boat just aft of it but that is incorrect. So they placed the boat in the wrong location and to polish it off the davits are complete nonsense too. I am planning on junking all of it. So because the kit platform is wrong the Eduard photoetch that replaces it is wrong also (too narrow). I can use it by extending the deck to the inboard bulkhead but it is very flimsy and there would be a row of posts under the middle of the platform (wrong). They do not provide a platform for the aft end which was there in 1978 but later in the ship’s career it had been removed so it is understandable why Tamiya and thus Mini Hobby did not have a part for this. I made my own platforms so that their appearance will be consistent.



This 1978 Photo shows the catwalk between Elevators 2 and 3.



This is a good close up look at the ATO office from 1968. Note the missing whip antenna. The location of this antenna move to the forward end of the lower catwalk by 1978. The ship was in the Philadelphia Naval Ship Yard at the time of this photo. One of the things accomplished in this yard period was the installation of the MK-115.

The catwalk above Sponson 3 and 5 is a two level affair that drops down to the 03 level forward and aft of the island. That landing is the entrance to the Air Transport Office (ATO). This is the ship’s air terminal. They function like any airport terminal checking in passengers and cargo arriving and departing. The ship received aircraft from various Carrier Onboard Delivery (COD) squadrons and helicopters. During the 1978 Deployment there was a US-3A assigned to VS-38 and regular deliveries from VRC-50’s C-2A Greyhounds. Helicopters were always coming and leaving primarily to other ships in the Battle Group.

I was once offered a chance at a catapult launch (cat shot in the vernacular) in an EA-3B during the 1978 deployment. I was to fly into NAS Cubi Point, RP two days before the ship pulled in and repair one of our A/C that had diverted to the beach because of a malfunction. I think I was just bringing the parts because there was a beach detachment perfectly capable of doing the repair. Anyways I packed a small bag and the part and arrived at the ATO office prior to flight ops as directed. I was pretty excited to say the least. (I heard many stories of A-3 crashes the night before kind of in the way that people will tell a motorcycle horror story when they find out that you ride).

I got checked in and proceeded to wait almost 2 hours. When it was finally time to get briefed by the aircrew I was told that I wasn’t going because the aircraft was going on a regular mission and it wasn’t going to Cubi Point. It wasn’t a total loss because I did get to goof off and read my latest paperback while I waited. It would have been so cool to fly into the beach before the ship pulled in. Oh well. I never got close to another catapult launch during the rest of my career but I did get to make an arrested landing in the COD on my last deployment. I flew on and off various carriers several times in helicopters. My entire squadron deployed aboard ship via CH-47and CH-53’s. Our aircraft flew aboard. The Navy wanted to see if it could be done and it went off without a problem at my level.



The deck on Sponson 5 is being skinned. When the glue dies I will cut off the excess.



All the remaining starboard sponsons have had the decks skinned.



I have started to skin the slots in all the sponsons. The piece on the end is to fill a gap between the Sponson 5 and the hull at the forward end.

I took all of the remaining starboard sponsons and cut the elevator slots, skinned the decks and the slots. I also checked all three for fit issues like I had on Sponson 4. I corrected them as I went, primarily on Sponson 3 which was as bad as the fit of Sponson 4. I set Sponson 1 aside after this was completed. I made 2 new support struts, one for Sponson 5 and one for sponson 3. Sponson 5’s strut angles forward and then butts up to the inboard side of the small platform above Elevator 3 ending on the inboard side of the door protrusion. It then comes out the top and runs up to support the 03 level/flight deck. I had to cut the strut in two and then finesse it a bit, try it and repeat several times till I got it to where it was supposed to go.



The sponson 5 strut is glued in position.



Here is the sponson 3 strut.



Sponson 5 and 3 are both just sitting in position the fit is decent now with enough friction to keep them there without glue.

That is the end of part 1

 

[Mikey25252]

Part 19 Sponson 4, 3 and 5 Part 2 of 4 parts

I had to do the same thing for sponson 3 but this was accomplished with one piece. This strut is a bit different because it runs right along the side of the 01/02/03 level superstructure then it disappears behind the Elevator 2 skirt. I glued both of these in position. They look like they will be easy enough to paint in place neither of these required a ladder. On Sponson 3 the door is a larger WTD but not a double. It sits on a sub structure that protrudes from the hull. I used the same type door as I placed on Sponson 4. I just cut a plastic block for the protrusion and glued it to the hull and the door to it.



The door and some of the detail work has been completed on Sponson 3.



Most of the detail work and the relocated door on Sponson 5.

3 Sponson 5 (130)

The completed sponson 5 with the final detail a small pulley added to the finger.

Sponson 5’s door was placed earlier but I had located it more forward than it should be to match up with the door in the hanger bay so you could look through them into the hanger. Since I wasn’t going to open those doors anymore I moved the sponson door to its correct spot. I ran through the normal detail steps adding loud speakers, lights, electrical panels and wiring. I detailed the deck of each sponson with bitts, fairleads, fuel connections, cleats, and deck winches.

On sponson 5 I added 3 additional fuel connections to the bulkhead and the deck hatch to the accommodation ladder. Railing was cut, folded and glued in place. I glued the kit accommodation ladder in place and glued a photoetch accommodation ladder to it. It was glued into the cavity in the stowed position. There was a pulley on the finger of Sponson 5 and 3. I made a pair of these by cutting up the smallest photoetch cable reels that I had. I cut it in half and placed a punched plastic disc on one side and sandwiched it with the other half. Once the CA glue had hardened I trimmed the assembly. I glued a small piece of strip to the base and glued one to each sponson.



The brass accommodation ladder has been glued to the kit part and then to the underside of the sponson.



I have started working on the Sponson 5 platforms.



The forward platform is getting closer. The rod at the inboard side will look like plumbing but it ensures the platform sits correctly. Note the ladder well.

To make the 2 platforms I started with appropriately sized pieces of .010 sheet then added support web on the underside. I added some of the Eduard photoetched posts to the edges of the platforms. I cut square strip and glued them in place on the underside of each platform and to the photoetch. There were several reels holding rope which I added from photoetch parts and fine wire wound on plastic rod. I assembled 7 for Sponson 5 and 1 for Sponson 3 then they were glued in place. The platform positions were marked out on the deck of Sponson 5. 3 holes for positive location of the aft platform were drilled.

7

A look at the underside of the sponson 5 forward platform from one of the last deployments

On the forward platform I had put the lamps on the inboard bulkhead which support the inboard edge but to ensure it sits correctly I drilled a hole and inserted some round rod to support the inside edge. It looks like a pipe that runs from the first deck to the bottom of 02 level. There is a section of duct which runs out from the hull, turns forward and at the forward end turns outboard. This was made with some .040” strip and glued to the underside. I detailed it with.010” strip for hangers and added a photoetch grill at the end. On the upper platforms I cut holes for a vertical ladder aft and an inclined ladder forward. I added the winches, ladders and hand rails.



I made 12 of these tiny rope reels for the sponsons.



The forward platform with the reels installed.



The winches have been added to the platforms and both sponsons.



All the sponson 5 parts fitted in place for a picture before storage.

There is a track system like I made for sponson 4 in the overhead of sponson 5. The kit part has some raised detail that represents the track but it is too wide and it stops at the edge of the hull. There will be a photoetched platform and to make things easier for me I wanted to build it up like I did on sponson 4. First all the raised detail had to go. There are 4 rails total, 2 rails for the overhead rig and 2 rails for the boat but this was never a feature on the real ship. I used a side cutter to cut them away quickly and then sanded them flush with the overhead support beams.



This is the overhead of Sponson 5 as molded.



All the remaining detail has been sanded flush and cleaned up. I am adding in the plumbing. I am gluing it over the removed detail to help obscure it.

Once everything was cleaned up I assembled the rigging platform for the exterior above the sponson so I could mark where it was supposed to go. I managed to break the platform part 153 before I finished cutting it from the fret. I was still able to get it assembled. It was obvious that the 2 outer rails would go inboard of the locations for the removed kit detail and the platform spacing of the lower braces would work just fine for the spacing of the outer rails. I cut them longer than what I would need and glued them in place. I had saved the interiors of several dozen small open gussets cut for the port MK-115 platform. These saved chads now became the gussets for the outer rails. They were all glued in position. I used the .010” square rod for the pulley tracks cutting these long also.



These are the 2 Eduard parts for the platform. I broke the back of the platform off of the big piece at the side rails. You are supposed to fold it up from one part. The spacing of the lower braces (on the broken piece) set the spacing for the 2 outer rails of the refueling rig.



This is the assembled platform. When I mounted this part I cut off the lower braces to just touch the hull rather than mount them per the Eduard instructions.

There were 3 pipes running across the overhead and I use 2 sizes of rod to make these and glue them down. The platform and its brace were glued to the protruding rails. I purposely spaced those rails so the lower platform braces would fall on top of the protruding outer rails. To complete this area I will need to return to it and add pulleys and hoses for the refueling rig. There were 2 more catwalks for refuel rigging flanking the tracks on the inboard end. I used more sections of catwalk with railing to make two of these. On the outboard end I capped the catwalk off with the same railing that I used on the caged whips previously. Inboard I used some strip cut to the same height as the railing and I glued a photoetch access hatch to it. I flipped the hull over and glued the assembled catwalks next to the tracks.



The track, gussets, rails and pipes have all been added. Note that they all extend well past the hull.



The 2 inboard rigging catwalks in place on the overhead.



The platform mounted on the rails and the excess cut off.

That is the end of part 2