by Monty Fowler
1/720 USS Enterprise CVN-65 (Revell)
This is my first aircraft carrier, and it may be the last … moving from a 1/700 cargo ship or frigate up to this monster was a sobering experience, once I realized it was three times the size of any previous build and it would test my mediocre scratchbuilding skills to the limit.
A friend of mine asked me to build the USS Enterprise as a gift for her daughter, a brand new ensign who promptly got shipped out on a six-month deployment! I said sure, having no idea that the ancient Revell kit is of the Enterprise “as built,” which in no way resembles how she appears today. By the time I got done studying a ton of photos, I knew I needed to do at least this much to update the kit to her 2006 appearance:
I worked on the project on and off for six months. Those of you who have built this kit know about the awful seam between the upper and lower hull halves. It was so bad on mine that I ended up “plating” over it with a thin strip of plastic and then sanding that down smooth. It still ended up not that great, but the boot topping stripe helped hide it. And for some reason the flight deck, which dry fit perfectly, stubbornly refused to mate flush with the back of the hull when glue was applied, which necessitated repeated rounds of superglue and finally some thin strips of plastic stock to hide the worst gap.
Purists will note that this updated Big E is not perfect – a few of the added deck structures on the hull are missing (or simplified), the supports under the sponsons are greatly simplified and I accidentally left a structure on the very top of the island that should have been removed. Oh, and the forward portside CIWS, which was superglued on before I figured out that it had been replaced by a RAM launcher …
A LOT of aftermarket bits and pieces went into this kit, along with laser printed decals I made myself for the squadrons the Enterprise carried for this deployment. I especially wanted to get the VAW-123 Screwtops logo on top of their E2-C Hawkeyes because this was the daughter’s squadron, but also had to include VFA-86, the Sidewinders, because her fiancé flies an F/A-18C. Here is a listing of all the aftermarket parts, plus a generous selection of Evergreen styrene sheet, strip and rod:
I did some minimal hangar bay detailing; the port elevator is in the down position and the door is fully opened, and one of the starboard hangar doors is halfway open so you can see the tail of a Hornet. I cheated for the aircraft you could (vaguely) see inside the portside opening – they’re the F-4 Phantom models included in the kit, with the wings shaved back, tips turned up and distinctive tails lopped off. I just wanted to give the impression of aircraft, and blocked off most of the view inside with an S-3 Viking, SH-60 helo, the Fujimi deck tractors and a Prowler on the elevator.
All of the air wing decals were made by yours truly and printed on a laser printer with Micromark's decal paper. I chose black instead of the correct low viz gray because if I was going to go to the trouble of making these, I wanted people to be able to see them! Although by the time I got done decaling the 37 aircraft on the flight deck, including modex numbers for each, I was about ready to “launch” the Enterprise out the front door!
I don’t own an airbrush, so painting was either rattle cans or by hand. The hull and all vertical surfaces are Testors Aggressor Gray and the flight deck is Testors Gunship Gray. I opted not to give the flight deck a “used” look, since this was more along the lines of a presentation model. All the aircraft were hand painted Testors Flat Gull Gray except the Hawkeyes, which got Flat Light Gray and then a semigloss coat to give them the shiny look they always have. I experimented with trying to give the Prowlers the correct gold tint to the canopy and was partially successful.
Was it worth it? Absolutely, based on the “How did he do that?” and “Look at that!” reactions that were reported back to me. Would I do another aircraft carrier? Ask me in about a year!
