something in between: 1/144 light harrier carrier (FINISHED)

[cthulhu77]

You are operating at +5 !!!!   

[Joe C-P]

Are you using clear plastic for the bridge?

[Spey_Phantom]

Are you using clear plastic for the bridge?

actually, i was gonna use clear styrene, but that wasnt available so i used clear polyester instead.
the bottom half of it will be painted up, so its gonna look much better.

anyway, i have been fiddling on the island, added an extra catwalk allong the side and mounted some railing.
the bars for the railing will be cut in half once the cables are fitted.
still need to work on the 2 big radar masts, so thats gonna take a while, after that, its of to the paintshop 

seen here on test in the second pic, is a Royal Navy F-35B, im planning on displaying 2 or 3 of them on the deck in Leutonian Markings  , this one was made about a year ago 

[Rafael]

Seriously cool

Rafa

[Spey_Phantom]

thanks for all the kind comment guys 

OK, final update for today

ive just finished making the 2 new large antenna masts, ind i must say, its quite scare how much the island resembles the one of the british Invincible-class carriers 

ive really outdone myself on the construction. i just need to find something put on the rear of the island, and im thinking of a small radome made from a rear landingwheel of a 1/48 C-130.

also i managed to modify a minigun from a 1/72 AC-47 Spooky into a 1/144 CIWS, in the same style as the Goalkeeper/PHALANX system. the carrier will also be equiped with 2 NATO Sea Sparrow launchers to defend itself 

here are some pics of the progress, and a good view of the 2 subcomponents for the bridge and controltower.

[Spey_Phantom]

FINISHED

after many months of work, the 2nd carrier, is finished.
well, at least as good as, all thats needed is for the cables on the boardwalk to be fitted, and cut the poles in half.

she has now been handed over to its new operator, the Leutonian Navy  and is named "LNS Westkerke" (named after the village i will be moving to next month)

it took me a day and a half to do all the painting on the island, and the only parts drying is the self defence equipment.

let me give you the grand tour 

here are 2 pics, showing a good view of the ship, now lets go on board shall we 





seen here on the rear of the island, is the PHALANX CIWS, witch is part of the final defence line of the ship.
this system is scratchbuild from a 1/72 minigun from an italeri AC-47 Spooky kit, the radar on top is made from a piece of sprue, the side-plates are from plasticcard, the maretime radar next to the CIWS is a leftover part from a scrapped 1/350 bismark.



this here is the SH-135A, a naval version of the eurcopter EC-135 and is 1 of 6 operated by the Leutonian Navy, this chopper also served on board the old carrier Hadock before it was retired, its a revell minikit EC-135, with scratchbuild maretime equipment in the nose such as FLIR and a small radar. the aircraft is night vision equiped.
3 are on board and serve as SAR and plane guard helicopters, but can also be used to land troops and maretime enforcement.



next here, we have the hart of the ship, the island superstructure. the small island on the first floor is for stearing the ship, the larger top one is the command center for all sea and air operations. on the roof, you can see the big rotating radar dish, this can detect anything in the air and on the surface within a 150km radius, for a larger coverage we plan to recieve 4 AgustaWestland/Sikorsky Seahawk AEW.1's, who will expand the detection to arround 250 to 300km radius.
the 2 large masts houses a number of electronic warfare systems, radio and satellite recieving gear, ECM gear and Dopler radars.

parked next to the island on the deck is the Sea Harrier Mk.53, an export version of the FRS.1, of witch the Leutonian Navy operates 16, 12 are operational here on the ship while 4 are land based for maintainance, maretime attack and training purposes.



this here is the most important self defence system next to the PHALANX gun, the NATO Sea-Sparrow surface-to-air Missile. the missile is radar-guided and has a range of 30km+. these are used to shoot down enemy aircraft or missiles that manage to get past the SHARs patrol barriers.



OK people, that concludes out tour.
now everyone into the helicopter for the ride back to shore, and if you look down, you can see the LNS Westkerke is meeting up with an allied aircraft carrier, the Belgian "BNS Dendermonde". they will conduct an exercise together in these waters for the next 3 days.

have a safe trip home, and please come again 

[noxioux]

When I first saw the 1/144 carrier business, I said to myself, "No way.  That's crazy."  I'm sure glad I was wrong.  Its' great to see these two finished, sitting next to each other.

[Draken35]

Well done, Nils! 

[Brian da Basher]

That's awesome, Nils! I really like your detail work on the island, right down to the No Smoking sign.

Two thumbs up!

Brian da Basher

[cthulhu77]

These are going to be the talk of the what iff world for quite a while !   

[Captain Canada]

Nice work, Nils !  Love all the little details. The Sparrow quad launcher is a nice touch as well. And anything with SHARs on deck has to be super cool, right ?

Now, bring on the warm weather so you can play with it out in the pool !

[ysi_maniac]

That is some serious scratchbuilding.  It's looking good so far.



Ed

Yeah, nice!