by Sgt. Ryan Labieniec, USMC
1/350 USS Nimitz CVN-68 (Trumpeter)
This is probably my largest undertaking so far in my ship building, and took probably about 4 months total. I used Gold Medal Models brass set for the majority of the ship, which as always was a great set to work with. A few brass pieces were from White Ensign Models which I bought from someone's leftovers from a modern Nimitz class build. The airwing is all Trumpeter aircraft, with some kit decals, and Yankee Modelworks decals for the Jolly Rogers, the Hawkeyes and on the Vikings, and Starfighter decals on the Prowlers. This was my first time using either of these aftermarket decals, and they were both awesome, I especially like the color placing guide that Starfighter provides. Some of the aricraft were great kits,a nd some are not so great. The Vikings and Intruders were really good and i liked the clear canopies, but lacking in any underwing pylons or tanks. The Tomcats were good with the exception on the front windshield molded on in grey plastic whil the back half of the canopy is clear which made no sense. The prowlers I liked except for the clear plastic they molded the whole planes in, again, why??? The C-2 Hounds had some wing fit issues, as did the Hawkeyes. The SH-3's were just OK in their details, but had no fit problems.
All paints used were poly scale and model master acrylics. I used 3 or 4 different tones of grey on the aricraft to give subtle differences between some of the planes, but after weathering with oil paints, the differences are hard to notice, but still a nice effect to make it look more realistic.
Much has already been written about this kit, I had no major fit problems, other than the top and bottom hull halves requiring a lot of sanding and filling. My only major gripe about the kit is the Sea Sparrow launchers are 100% WRONG!!! I used some spares from a Tamiya Enterprise, which are way overscale but a lot better than what it came with. Eventually I will get around to scratchbuilding correct launchers. I scratchbuilt some very basic hangar deck details, not really paying much attention to details since they are nearly invisible once the ship is completed.
The mian reason I went with the Nimitz and this timeframe is that I have always wanted a Hi-Viz ariwing with the VF-84 Jolly Rogers Tomcats aboard, I just love the colors and the skul and bones design. I placed my frind Commander Brown's Tomcat #201 on the bow catapult getting ready for launch.
So far this is my favorite ship in my collection, and I had a lot of fum building it. I kept a close eye on Kelly Quirk's build of the Truman, and got a lot of pointers from his amazing work.
