1/350 scale CVN-90 USS United States Stealth Aircraft Carrier

[seadude]

With all those extra brackets and platforms won't the ship end up LESS stealthy than the Ford was in the first place?

No ship (or aircraft, etc.) is ever 100% stealthy. Nor will my model be 100% stealthy. The whole point of stealth is not necessarily to make the object 100% invisible, but rather to make the object harder to "detect". Stealth systems and technology will never be 100% perfect. There will always be some way and some means to detect something. As the old saying goes: "You can't hide forever."
Not even the cloaking devices on STAR TREK were 100% perfect as Starfleet could still track Klingon and Romulan forces through various means.
But anyway, Yes, the Ford class carriers and my model aren't really that stealthy. There's always something on the ship that will reflect a radar signal back to an enemy. Whether it's something like a flight deck tractor on the flight deck or something as small as a bolt. Stealth isn't about the size of an object. It's about shape. If you can have angular faceted surfaces on your ship to deflect incoming enemy radar waves from "seeing" your vessel, then you might be able to stand a slight chance of becoming undetected to your enemy. This is why I'm trying to put as many angular/faceted surfaces, etc. on my model. But, it's not perfect. There's always some surface or piece of equipment that won't be stealthy.

[seadude]

I'm probably getting ahead of myself with this next bit, but Oh, well, what the heck, heh?
All US carriers have what are called ordnance jettison ramps along the circumference of the flight deck edge for disposing of ordnance that might pose a hazard in some way. Most carriers tend to have at least approx. 12-15 jettison ramps. The below pics illustrate the jettison ramps the Ford carrier has in the blueprint circled in red. The blue circle is a slightly larger ramp behind the island superstructure which I'll eventually scratch build for my model.

[NARSES2]

Well you learn something new every day if you keep your mind open. I'd never heard about those "ordanance jetison ramps" 

[seadude]

Next on the "To do" list is/was adding more detail to the "bomb farm" area on the starboard side of the ship along the starboard side of the island superstructure. I've already explained construction of the bomb farm area on my model several pages back in this model thread. But I needed to add a few more details to it last night. And there will still need to be a few more details to add in forthcoming days too. The first picture below gives a list describing various areas of a flight deck on a US Navy carrier. Number 17 in the list is the bomb farm.
The larger ramp I added at the rear of the bomb farm can be used to throw ordnance overboard during emergencies and/or if small flight deck tractors/vehicles were to be ditched overboard for various reasons. Anyway, I still need to add a support structure under the larger ramp to support it as well as adding some sort of supporting structure along most of the length of the railing so I can add life raft racks along that area. In the very last picture below, Ford class carriers have what are called ammunition jettison lockers (Red arrow pointing to white boxes) located along the angled portion of the flight deck on the starboard side. The angled portion of my flight deck in that area on my model is too crowded with other stuff, so I can't put ammunition jettison lockers there. The alternative will be to put them somewhere along the bomb farm railing that I just added when detailing the bomb farm area. It's not unheard of to have these white lockers on the starboard side so close to the island superstructure. If you look at any pics of Nimitz class carriers, you'll see the white lockers in the same/similar place.

[Gondor]

That's coming on nicely

Gondor

[seadude]

And a few more smaller details I added. Some extra supports for the larger ramp on the starboard side, some extra support for the life raft racks/canisters on the starboard side, and adding ammunition jettison lockers and supports for those.

[Spino]

Gotta say I'm impressed with this thing.  Wish I could build something like this, but if I did it would have to be out of cardboard - the budget won't allow for anything else!  I could of course 3D print all the "fiddly bits", but the basic ship would have to be cardboard or maybe foam board.

[seadude]

Gotta say I'm impressed with this thing.  Wish I could build something like this, but if I did it would have to be out of cardboard - the budget won't allow for anything else!  I could of course 3D print all the "fiddly bits", but the basic ship would have to be cardboard or maybe foam board.

My "budget" $$ when building this model has been fairly minimal. Most of the spare parts, aircraft, styrene sheet and strip, and other materials has been sitting on my shelves at home already for months and years. I've hardly had to go out and buy much from a hobby store or website. I think anything new I did have to buy, the total cost is probably less than $100 or lesser than that.
The greatest expenditures though are creativity and imagination. But those are FREE.   

[seadude]

After I finish the ammunition jettison lockers, then I need to add a few photoetch hatches to the starboard side of the island superstructure that I forgot about.
After that, then I guess I move on to finish painting the lower hull of the ship.
Not sure what sequence I'll do it in. Either:
Finish painting all the grey hull, then do the black boot stripe, then finish the blue antifouling color. Or..........do everything the other way with the blue first, then black boot stripe, then the grey hull. I'm trying to think which might be easier?    I suppose it really doesn't matter just so long as it gets done. And as I've said in past posts, the flight deck won't be painted for at least another month or two till the weather warms up in the Spring.
Why a blue antifouling bottom paint color? Well, I'm tired of painting red all the time on the bottoms of ships. Time for a change. The TICONDEROGA class cruiser USS Port Royal had an experimental blue antifouling paint color on her lower hull during the early 2000's. I liked the color so much, that I used it for a few other ships I built in past months and years.
The color won't be an exact match to what the USS Port Royal had, but it's close enough. I'll be using Vallejo # 71.089 Light Sea Blue for the antifouling color on the bottom hull of my model.

[kerick]

I've always put down the lightest color first then work up to black. Doesn't always work depending on the masking required.

[seadude]

Another small detail I wanted to add to my model is a lift bar extension for the Tilly crash crane. It's a tiny detail that not many modelers notice or care about. But I really want to detail my model as much as I can. Anyway, this lift bar extension is used by the carrier's Tilly crash crane to lift the E-2C Hawkeye, C-2 Greyhound, and/or other similar sized large aircraft. It normally gets stored on the starboard side between the landing aid/radar tower and the rear of the island superstructure. As for the Tilly crane itself, I plan to order one from 3D-Wild sometime this month or whenever I get my tax refund.

I've always put down the lightest color first then work up to black. Doesn't always work depending on the masking required.

I'll probably start on the blue anti-fouling coating first, then paint the black boot stripe, then move on to painting the upper hull gray.

[kerick]

I like the look of that crane. I think I need one of those for lifting the lid off the bar b q!

[seadude]

I like the look of that crane. I think I need one of those for lifting the lid off the bar b q!

Ha Ha! It'll do more than that too. It could probably lift the entire roof off your house, or maybe the entire house! 

So anyway, I started painting the lower hull blue last night. That was the first coat.
But the picture shown below is after I had painted the second coat this morning.
Tomorrow will probably be the third coat. Why so many? I don't have an airbrush and can't use one for several reasons which will take too long to explain.
So everything on the model must be brushed by hand.
I'm using Vallejo Model Air Color paints which are mostly for airbrushing. But they can be brushed as well.
Though it can take 2-3 coats depending on color used and type of subject you are painting.
I'm using Vallejo Model Air Color paints because I like their self-leveling quality.

[kerick]

Excellent! Next will be Haze Grey and under way!

[seadude]

Excellent! Next will be Haze Grey and under way!

Nope. After the third coat of blue which will be added tomorrow, then I'll paint the black boot stripe, then the haze gray color.