Correcting Ronnie's & Georgie's islands
![](/albums/img/3/6/5/1117365-12448-45-p.jpg "Compare unmodified (but still superbly built) model island to the previous photo. (google image- apologies to the builder, no info to credit image). It's obvious it's too short in length, what's not so obvious is it's also too tall in height. The USN deleted one deck from the ship compared to the earlier Nimitz class, but kept the overall height the same to provide more headroom per deck. There are still 3 decks with windows (Pri-fly, main bridge and flag bridge) so the removal of height should come from the main island halves (parts 29D and 30D).
While Italeri got this part soooo wrong, they also got it right! Let me explain... All the details are there and in the right place.
Did you ever try to resize a photo on your pc only to stretch it instead? Or squash it in one dimension rather than maintaining original ratio? It looks here that Italeri got all the info correct, but then someone squashed the drawing lengthwise to make the overall length the same as the Nimitz class island still in the kit. They also then increased the overall height to compound the error. So to be truly accurate, extending the island is not enough, we need to "stretch" it and have all the associated details to stretch with it, into the correct positions. Of course this is not possible, but where we can we will reposition to a more closer approximation of the real thing.
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![](/albums/img/2/7/9/1117279-12448-82-p.jpg "Roughly 2.5mm needs to be removed from the height of 29 & 30, (see the upper impression of the remains of the hatch doors on the left). Personally, I removed this from the bottom of part 30 to keep the overhang deck part, and the top of part 29 to keep the moulded on detail closer to the right height. Also see here the 11mm length added on in plastic card to the left, and from the spare island to the right. I also removed the TV camera station from part 29 before reducing the height, and the triangular support on part 30, to be added again later in the "stretched" positions. | View full picture")
![](/albums/img/2/7/8/1117278-12448-35-p.jpg "Visual explaination. In general I found it easier to work the plastic card rather than the spare kit parts, but they did have moulded on detail. The "kink" on the port side here (part 29) will now be too far forward for accuracy, the only way to correct this is to rebuild the whole port side of the island from scratch, including the upper decks. I decided it was fine for my eyes.
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![](/albums/img/2/9/1/1117291-12448-60-p.jpg "And side walls of walkway areas (vulture's row) added from strip styrene. Again the "kink" should be further back, but life's too short..... | View full picture")
![](/albums/img/2/9/7/1117297-12448-21-p.jpg "There is a small issue with all of the lower halves of each of the 3 upper decks. Italeri has moulded each with a solid plastic area as if there is a wall around the walkway that goes around the bridge windows. in reality there is a walkway but on the real ships a light railing should be there. I used a square section file to remove this but leave a "deck" for the walkway. looking back it might have been easier to remove it all and add plastic strip later. Never know now... | View full picture")
![](/albums/img/2/9/4/1117294-12448-27-p.jpg "left modified, right unmodified. The "wall" should drop vertically from the bottom edge of the windows, not 2m in front. | View full picture")
![](/albums/img/3/0/7/1117307-12448-48-p.jpg "left unmodified, right modified. The "wall" should drop vertically from the bottom edge of the windows, not 2m in front. | View full picture")
![](/albums/img/3/0/1/1117301-12448-30-p.jpg "as opposed to these "blocks" | View full picture")
![](/albums/img/3/0/9/1117309-12448-56-p.jpg "Lucy finally thinks I've lost it.... "Roy, are you sure you're OK?" | View full picture")
![](/albums/img/3/1/1/1117311-12448-25-p.jpg "Strip and stock added to 33D and 90D. Offcut of 21D (the "flag bags") added to approximate correct location (eyeballed from resized photos) to calculate the extension required for parts 21D and 93D (Pri-fly). | View full picture")
![](/albums/img/3/1/6/1117316-12448-87-p.jpg "93D was fun. Pri fly upper half. We need to "stretch" everything. We can't, so multiple cuts and repositioning of details are again required, not the least of which is the location of the mainmast. | View full picture")
![](/albums/img/3/2/9/1117329-12448-14-p.jpg "Mast positioning. Again, eyeballed from photos resized on my computer screen (yes, I held a steel rule to the screen!) With no plans to work from, I printed photos of the real islands that were resized to the (now modified) correct 1/720 dimensions, so then just measured from them. Try to use photos taken 90deg "side-on" and from a distance, to reduce the error from perspective. | View full picture")
![](/albums/img/3/5/3/1117353-12448-32-p.jpg "So everything needs to move back ("stretching") and the further back you go the bigger the move! The first hole at 7.5/8mm is for the forward dome part 39D. Leave it as is. Move the location for the radar (53D) back about 3mm (10mm from front bulkhead on part 93D as shown). | View full picture")
![](/albums/img/4/5/5/1117455-12448-99-p.jpg "Finished model. Compare to the next photo. There is at least one aftermarket decal sheet purporting to supply the correct size numbers for the island (one sheet even has two different sizes for each side). Use the kit sheet, they are closer. Yes the horizontal line in the middle of the "6" is too high, but again I'm prepared to live with this, at least they are the right height. Of course, if you are building 77 this won't matter! Of note here too is the correct positioning of part 55D, the small tower aft of the island. Italeri would have you position it on the flight deck where the radar tower is on the earlier ships, but it actually goes in the catwalk with a little extra catwalk and railing around it. | View full picture")
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2 27 November 2021, 15:01
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A slightly insane attempt to make the Italeri CVN-76 & CVN-77 kits less inaccurate (note I never said more accurate!)
Макетарска база података | Менаџер залихаМакетарска база података | Менаџер залиха
A slightly insane attempt to make the Italeri CVN-76 & CVN-77 kits less inaccurate (note I never said more accurate!)
