stusbke Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Hi guys, You have these projects that get stuck in your head and stay there like an itch you just need to scratch? This one for me, surely was one of them. Wanting to build a boat for a long long time and ever since I got the Phoenix F-18 Chippy Ho decals I knew this was the bird that was going to be sitting on top of it! It's bold flashy and loud as hell. A true CAG bird IMHO. so off I went... mind you this is been on my bench for quite a while now but I managed to get a lot done so I'm happy to get you guys a look on one of my biggest projects so far.. Now to say this is done overnight is far from the truth! As ever, it all started with paper and pencil. And with the aid of google maps to get some shapes angles and dimensions going... A few months, and I think version 7? I lost count to be honest, later and you end up with something like this. So we are making the right forward side of the Kitty Hawk along with the cat walk and the netting in front and the end of the catapult. I'm also adding the antenna platform as it adds a little more detail to the whole diorama.So figuring out what I wanted to keep and what to discard making sure not to have that much empty voids everywhere but you get the idea on that... Once I got the dimensions of the base figured out it and drawn out as a blue print it was time to cut up plastic at last! The planning alone is for sure about a year worth of work, at least, not working on it daily but when I was in the mood I revisited it, and got more and more done as I went along or found out I made a huge mistake and had to restart a couple of times.. Like I said google is your friend or foe for that matter here... The basic lay out and idea of how I want to depict the Hornet on the deck. that's a 50cm steel ruler you see in the picture A couple of sessions of bench time later and this emerged of the cutting mat, and in my mind I was getting really excited as I knew this idea was going to be working! All of this, is 1mm styrene. All the small boxes sturdier-ed up with little triangles top and bottom turn this into a pretty solid construction. The key is to keep it straight and true to size. I made all of this on a thick glass plate that ensures its nice and flat. The deck surafce is going to be a sandwich of 1 mm and 2mm styrene in order for the pad eye's to be integrated in the deck...I have an Idea on them time will tell if I can make that work as I have it planned in my head and paper... to give you and idea on the size I put a 32nd PWMP figure on it, when all is said and done it's going to be around 50cm by 60cm and about 15 cm high. the front was done by laminating 2 pieces 0.5 mm sheets on top of each other so I could make the curve work I tried it in 1mm but it was just not doable for me to make it work. Splitting it up made it a tad more doable and I like how it turned out. Then I added the frames for the netting and it's starting to take shape! the net framing is 3mm styrene rod and there's more to come but at first I planned on doing the boat in separate pieces. It started to bite me pretty fast and I glued the front firmly to the base..and discarded the idea of keeping this in separate pieces so the one thing missing now is the cat walk.... That was a whole different story all together even with my drawings I noticed errors as I was plugging along making them and I also noticed the Kitty Hawk cat walk changed a lot during her service time due to mishaps and repairs all over.... Its interesting to search tons and tons of pictures trying to figure out what's what and most important what detail you need to keep and what picture tells you a whole different story all together... long story short after trail and error and a half restart here we have the basic catwalk shapes build.. the small antenna platform also added Everything mated together and its starting to look the part isn't it? Also got Ben Shumacher's pad eye's in the mean time and drew the pad eye lay out trying to see if my lay out was matching the pictures i had of the kitty hawk.. Work begun detailing the side of the boat making the blend complete. I first drew out everything roughly on the styrene so I could keep tracks of things and then added mostly accordingly slightly altering a few bits here and there when I compared them with pictures...there's tons of things going on on the cat walk and not much pictures to go by to get it all correct but IMHO its feels about clustered enough to pass the mustard at least for me anyway! LOL wen you putt it all together it look like this.. Now we are getting almost there and its starting to look a lot like the Kitty Hawk ATM. So then I went out and started working on the antenna and boy that was tough nut to crack. Now there are hardly any good pictures of the antenna around and mind you its not like the dimensions are online somewhere. So this is all being eyeballed for the most part. the antenna is definitively in that category... I found two great pictures showing this antenna in the background so I could relatively guesstimate its size and dimensions and off I went.. this little bugger actually took me two weeks worth of work and this is mk3 IICRC. now the mast/ antenna itself is not on it.. I tried and tried to make in styrene but I think I need to get that printed as I just don't have the equipment here to make it ... the whole thing can swivel as the real deal does. Yet Il'l be gluing it firmly in place when it's time to get it installed for painting purposes I'm not gluing it on for now.. here it is on it's platform. After I was done with this little bugger I was off to the netting again as this is a defining type thing on carrier decks and something pretty prominent on the front end of the boat! So I had to make it right. The netting is 3mm in square in 32nd scale so I had planned on doing this myself made a jig and all and with woodglue and sewing wire I went to work... not to shabby, yet quite time consuming, and not really bendable once the wood glue dried all up! Went back and forth in my mind on how to tackle these not looking forward to weaving 6 more of these buggers, when I was grocery shopping with the missus and noticed something of interest on bagged onions in the shelves ... It looked about the right size and fair enough when I got back home ripped it out measured it and BAM! right on the money and it looks way better Another win in my book and far less time consuming then making the netting myself! This is where I am with all of it ATM more to come surely but I'm really excited that I started this project. And I for one am having a blast making it! And since the Kitty Hawk is due for scrapping () its a cool way to keep her alive in scale anyway! Cheers guys and till next update Frederick Jacobs Jaro, panzerrob, Scotsman and 32 others 31 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dandiego Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Super cool. stusbke and Martinnfb 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Fleischmann Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Frederick! YES! How cool is this!?? Love what is going on here!! Fantastic! Cheers Pete Martinnfb, stusbke and Anthony in NZ 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrish Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Wow!….just, wow!! stusbke and Martinnfb 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Amazing stuff, Frederick! Kev stusbke and Martinnfb 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 Love it! Really great work so far. stusbke and Martinnfb 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easixpedro Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 Oh, hot damn! This is right up my alley! What time frame you depicting? Might have photos for you. I LOVE everything thus far. Seriously, I've only managed to do these in 1/48th and have had an ultimatum about no more deck scenes?! Apparently my lovely bride isn't as enamored with recreating scale scenes as I thought... last one was 30" x 30" As you work on the netting, there's little steel balls where they crimp the cross pieces together. It actually ends up looking like a diamond pattern vice a square. Can't wait to see more, even though I still have nightmares about that round down! -Peter stusbke and Martinnfb 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themongoose Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 Oh this is awesome!! What a labor of love. Going to be a super creative diorama! Martinnfb and stusbke 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinnfb Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 Most impressive school of model making, magic ! Cheers Martin stusbke 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stusbke Posted October 27, 2021 Author Share Posted October 27, 2021 7 hours ago, Dandiego said: Super cool. Cheers.. Dandiego at first it looks daunting. Then the skeleton is actually super easy to do its just a matter of cutting it up in little boxes and adding them all together. the pudding is in the details. Yet that's with everything we do in modelling isn't it? 6 hours ago, Pete Fleischmann said: Frederick! YES! How cool is this!?? Love what is going on here!! Fantastic! Cheers Pete Thanks Pete, Glad you like. Your viper modelling book surely helped me out a few times here. I flick trough it from time to time but the first chapter really got stuck on me... I'm surely training my modelling eye ATM. 6 hours ago, chrish said: Wow!….just, wow!! Thanks! Nothing a mere mortal on this forum can do... 6 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said: Amazing stuff, Frederick! Kev Thanks Kev! 5 hours ago, Out2gtcha said: Love it! Really great work so far. Cheers my friend 4 hours ago, easixpedro said: Oh, hot damn! This is right up my alley! What time frame you depicting? Might have photos for you. I LOVE everything thus far. Seriously, I've only managed to do these in 1/48th and have had an ultimatum about no more deck scenes?! Apparently my lovely bride isn't as enamored with recreating scale scenes as I thought... last one was 30" x 30" As you work on the netting, there's little steel balls where they crimp the cross pieces together. It actually ends up looking like a diamond pattern vice a square. Can't wait to see more, even though I still have nightmares about that round down! -Peter I knew you where going to like this I LOVE your work my friend so thanks for the word of praise here appreciate it. The time frame is going to be around 2003-4 Last Black Knight tomcat cruise transition period to the SH I think... that's the earliest I've seen the Chippy HO CAG. and its been depicted on the decal sheet. I'll take any help I can get so if you have anything please let me know! doing this one Picture is from my good friend Kai Wolter who helped a lot during this build already as did Ben S. en Thomas M look at that green weathered back man I'm itching to start it and truly looking forward trying to replicate it in scale..! 4 hours ago, themongoose said: Oh this is awesome!! What a labor of love. Going to be a super creative diorama! Well that's the thing with navy diorama's anything is possible on the deck. At some point in time it has happened LOL but I'm trying to keep it a real as I can possibly get it. 3 hours ago, Martinnfb said: Most impressive school of model making, magic ! Cheers Martin Well to be fair the magic all starts when you draw it. At least for me anyway. In my mind I'm almost there and can picture the whole thing done and dusted. When I was drawing it all up I had a firm grasp of what I wanted to get in the end. Having the drawings is saving my bacon on such a build and it's something one cannot do without! I'm not a computer type guy I like Ben and a lot of the guys here on the forum, I envy them a lot for it! Their skills are through the roof! I'm more of a traditional type of drawings paper and pencil and lots of retry's dude. But then again this makes me acting almost like I was cutting up plastic measure twice cut one IE calculate recalculate draw a line once... It really pays off in the end by just having a scale plan to measure from it becomes super easy after that... Cheers guys hope to have more soon Frederick Jacobs Landrotten Highlander and Martinnfb 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfighter Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 Absolutely brilliant - don't you dare not bringing it when you come to visit me! stusbke 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaro Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 Impressive! The final diorama is going to be amazing. Keep going stusbke 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Dog Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 Wow Fred This is outstanding stusbke 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easixpedro Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 Just looked at this on a full screen monitor vice my phone--even more awesome! Appears you're doing the bow as I can see the "3" of the 63 on your plans. Very cool! Don't get me started on the joys of the "Bow Dance." That's where they taxi you all the way up to the bow to turn you around to park you. The nose gear usually sits just underneath, or behind the cockpit, and the yellow shirts taxi you up so that the nose wheel is on the edge of the deck. It's horrifying. Especially at night, as you're hanging over the edge of the deck. In the Prowler, the ECMO would just be looking down at a black void. Day can be just as bad as you get a sense of motion, even though you're just taxiing (very slowly), it'll give you vertigo real quick. If you go over the side there, zero chance of ejecting and would likely be run over the the 90K ton ship. Don't think I know any aviator that liked it--and we all had to do it as that's how they park the planes after every cycle. And I was there in 03-04 when they had that bird. Know I have a few photos, but will have to dig. Had quite a few friends that were Chippys, so may be able to get more. I'll see if I can grab a photo of their helmets too. In Japan, there's magnets to let other drivers know if a driver is a teen or elderly. The Dambusters would put the new driver logo on every new pilot (FNG), while the skipper got the elderly driver logo! Will most definitely be following along. Will try not to overwhelm you with details and random sea stories! -Peter stusbke, Out2gtcha and Anthony in NZ 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stusbke Posted October 27, 2021 Author Share Posted October 27, 2021 34 minutes ago, easixpedro said: Just looked at this on a full screen monitor vice my phone--even more awesome! Appears you're doing the bow as I can see the "3" of the 63 on your plans. Very cool! Don't get me started on the joys of the "Bow Dance." That's where they taxi you all the way up to the bow to turn you around to park you. The nose gear usually sits just underneath, or behind the cockpit, and the yellow shirts taxi you up so that the nose wheel is on the edge of the deck. It's horrifying. Especially at night, as you're hanging over the edge of the deck. In the Prowler, the ECMO would just be looking down at a black void. Day can be just as bad as you get a sense of motion, even though you're just taxiing (very slowly), it'll give you vertigo real quick. If you go over the side there, zero chance of ejecting and would likely be run over the the 90K ton ship. Don't think I know any aviator that liked it--and we all had to do it as that's how they park the planes after every cycle. And I was there in 03-04 when they had that bird. Know I have a few photos, but will have to dig. Had quite a few friends that were Chippys, so may be able to get more. I'll see if I can grab a photo of their helmets too. In Japan, there's magnets to let other drivers know if a driver is a teen or elderly. The Dambusters would put the new driver logo on every new pilot (FNG), while the skipper got the elderly driver logo! Will most definitely be following along. Will try not to overwhelm you with details and random sea stories! -Peter Hi Peter Affirmative that's the part I'm doing alright... seen quite a few video's where they do that its indeed terrifying to see them manoeuvre so close to the edge of the boat its insane and I bet no pilot is ever chill with it! anything you have or can share I'd be more then happy to take it all in! And rest assured I never get enough of those stories and details its the main reason I model stuff in the first place, the history and story telling is a huge part of the game for me! Let me know when you see something out of whack or a total nono... glad to have you onboard on this one! Cheers Frederick Jacobs easixpedro 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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