USS Enterprise CV65, Tamiya

Andrew Gledhill
Update 1, 01.03.24. Well, here we go with a new project, and its a big one. I have had this 1:350 scale Tamiya kit in my stash since the late 1980's. But I have always been reluctant to actually build it. But, now that I am out of the air force, married with a spare bedroom man cave, I have the room to display such a model. Unfortunately, I cannot afford the nearly £130 for both Eduard Big Ed sets for it. So, it will be mostly built out of the box. However, I have had to source some replacement decals because the original ones are unusable. I have some replacement ship decals, and am waiting for some aircraft decals to come through the post. I have started by joining the front hull piece to the main hull piece. Unfortunately, despite the fact that I filled the join both with Vallejo modelling putty, and mr surfacer 500. The join is still visible after painting. I am not going to piss about trying to fill it again. I have sprayed the bottom of the hull with a can of Hycote Red Primer. This makes a great lower hull Red Brown colour. The rest of the hull has been painted with a Tamiya TS-32 Haze Grey rattle can. I will be building and painting as I go from now on. Enjoy for now.

Andrew Gledhill
Update 2, 03.03.24. I have had a go at re-doing the front seam where the two hull halves meet. This has not been totally successful, but I am sick of masking up to re-paint the hull. It's better than before, but not by much. I guess I am just crap at sorting big seam lines lol. Well, I am leaving it like it is. I have also installed the front missile launcher and vulcan cannon. I have also been working on the side sponson details. Ignore the grey splattered launch. I am in the process of re-painting that white. But it will take several coats. I have also put a matt coat down on the hull bottom to try to protect it from getting scratched. I have installed one elevator door in the recessed position. The instructions state to do this if you are having an elevator in the down position. So, I intend to have one elevator in the down position perhaps with a couple of planes on it. Now I can move onto doing the back end deck and sponson pieces. Enjoy.

Andrew Gledhill
Update 3, 08.03.24. OK, things are progressing along nicely now. I have finished the back end. I have also built up and painted the elevator platforms. I intend to have one platform in the down position. In one of the photos you can see how this will look. Now I have moved onto painting the deck pieces. A long tedious process. First I sprayed Tamiya TS-32 Haze Grey rattle can over the edge pieces of the decks. Then I masked all this off and sprayed Tamiya XF-24 Dark Grey on the tops of the decks. Then I moved onto painting all the lines. On the front deck piece, I decided to try some posca paint pens. There are raised lines to show where the red and white lines go. As well as the large 65. I did this all freehand without masking. Some touch ups were needed. I then finished it off by painting the tie down points with the white paint pen. Finally I sealed that all in with a coat of Tamiya XF-86 Flat Clear. Now I am moving onto the other 2 deck pieces. I have decided to mask off the majority of the lines on these 2 deck pieces. Hopefully that will limit the amount of touch ups needed. That's it for now. Enjoy.

Andrew Gledhill
Update 4. 11.03.24. OK I have finished most of the decks. There's just bits and bobs to add to the decks. Then I can get onto doing the island control centre. Painting all those lines was not easy, I can tell you. Lots of masking, painting with both paint pens and real paint. The white dots are on the aircraft tie down points. They are a bit rough and ready, but they will do. Same goes for the red and yellow lines around the elevator platform. They are a bit crap when you look close. However, I have ordered a set of deck marking decals. So I may be able to replace these lines with decals. I have installed one elevator platform in the down position. I will put one or two aircraft on this lift.

Speaking of aircraft. I have got 5 separate decal sets for aircraft. Tomcats, Vikings, Corsairs, Intruders, Intruder Growlers and Hawkeyes. The decals are tiny lol, so they should be fun to put on. Anyway, that's it for now. Enjoy.

Andrew Gledhill
Update 5. 13.03.24. I have had a major change of mind. I was not happy with all the white dots painted on the aircraft tie down points. When I had the model on the bench with the sun shining on it, I found that I had missed painting a good few of them. Plus I had put the white dot in the wrong places in some parts of the deck. Plus on checking reference photo's, I found that they were the same colour as the non slip deck paint. Plus a guy that served on carriers told me they were the same colour as the deck too. So I have painted them all out now. This has left some brush strokes on the deck. Put hopefully I can hide those under a matt coat and weathering.
I have also finished putting all the bits and pieces onto the deck and the side crew spaces. Hose reels and life raft containers etc. The next thing to do is paint and build up the island control centre. That's it for now. Enjoy.

Andrew Gledhill
Update 6. 14.03.24. Well, things are coming along quite nicely now. I have finished the island control centre apart from the rigging. Waiting on some gel super glue to come to do that. If you look at the photos, you will see that I placed some of those Eduard PE figures inside the bridge areas. Not that many because you can hardly see them. I have placed one guy saluting in there lol. The kit does not come with clear parts for the windows. I made window parts from cuts of a clear acetate sheet, then glued them inside. You can get a pack of 10 sheets of acetate from Amazon for £5. Great for making windows out of. The last gun emplacement has also been fixed to the ship. All that is left to do now, is the cranes and tugs etc. Then its onto the aircraft. I have also got to fit all the aerials to the hull. But I will do that last. Anyway, that's it for now.

Andrew Gledhill
Update 7. 26.05.24. Its been awhile since I posted an update on this one. I took a bit of a break from it to concentrate on the C2 Mexas kit. Anyway, I have more or less finished the ship itself. I still have to do the island rigging. Plus paint some of the antennas etc. I have been slowly working on the air wing. I have a load of after market Star Fighter Decals for aircraft. So far, I have finished 2 x E2 Hawkeye's and 2 x A6 Prowlers. I have also finished painting 8 x FA-14 Tomcats. But I have only applied decals to one of those. There are still many aircraft to build up and paint. Oh and I have made up and painted all the cranes and tugs. That's it for now. Enjoy.