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

[seadude]

In addition to buying the 3D printed bulbous bow part from 3D-Wild website, I also bought:

1. SMQ-11 radars - Gerald Ford carrier only has one of these radars on the port side. Though I've seen some older photos of Nimitz class carriers that have two radars: one on the port side and one on the starboard side. For my carrier, I'll be using the type that has the "rounded corners" so to speak.
2. SLQ-59 - This is a new ECM system that the US Navy started implementing on warships several years ago, particuarly on 7th Fleet vessels in the Pacific/Asia area.
https://www.twz.com/29626/shadowy-new-electronic-warfare-system-has-been-installed-on-u-s-navy-7th-fleet-ships
Any US carrier that has this system usually has four units. One at each "corner" of the vessel. This is what I'll probably do to my model as well.
3. SPN-46 - This is a type of landing aid radar I think for aircraft aboard carriers. All carriers have two of these units at the back of the island superstructure. I'll be adding these to my model as well.






SLQ-59





SMQ-11





SPN-46

[seadude]

I'm liking the extra parking space. Looks good like that. Maybe you could move the landing tower outboard a bit more to gain even more space ? Looks farther out in the pic above.

Here's a better pic to show how things will look.
You can see the landing aid tower (which is next to the crane vehicle) is right to the edge of the deck.

[seadude]

*sigh*     Another model part down the drain that I spent money on and can't/won't use.
I could try and "snip" the SPN-46 radars off the 3D printed base, but they're too delicate and I'm afraid I'd do damage to them.
Anyway, the third and fourth pictures below that show the back end of the island superstructure are pretty self explanatory.
Just showing the placement/location of stuff and how it will eventually look.

[kerick]

I'm not up on modern Navy stuff but the phased array idea sounds good to me. It will help it look more beyond modern!

[Gondor]

How about using a small saw? You can get saws for scalpel handles these days which are very thin.

Gondor

[seadude]

How about using a small saw? You can get saws for scalpel handles these days which are very thin.

Gondor

A small saw for what? You mean cutting off the SPN-46 radars? Maybe I could. But as I said in my picture further above, it would probably make better sense to have something more modern.

In other news...........I also gave some thought to cutting/sawing off the bulbous bow of the TAMIYA Enterprise kit and putting in place the 3D-Wild bulbous bow part.
But if I were to do that, it's something I should have done long, long ago when I first attached the bow section of the hull to the rest of the model kit hull.
I think trying to cut/add, etc. would be too late now.

[seadude]

FIXED!    I guess there really is a silver lining in the clouds sometimes.
These new scratch built SPN-46 radar units and mounts are a little bigger than I wanted.
But I think it will do the trick for now. Just need to paint them, then add them to the back of the island superstructure.

[Gondor]

I do like the solution you came up with for the SPN-46 radars, the B version I presume as in B for Bigger?   

Gondor

[seadude]

I do like the solution you came up with for the SPN-46 radars, the B version I presume as in B for Bigger?   

Gondor

   No. Not really "B" for bigger. But it's the only thing I could come up with. It'll just have to do for now.
I wanted them to be slightly smaller. But I didn't have the spare parts to do it.
Just think of what I built as a more advanced future version.
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AN/SPN-46(V)1

[kerick]

Looks good to me. The old spare part from a completely unrelated kit trick.

[Captain Canada]

Looking good !

[NARSES2]

Looking good !

It is indeed 

[seadude]

After I finished the SPN-46 radar units, I was hoping to continue with more work on the carrier. That didn't happen. The U.S. presidential election happened and I got distracted by that and started binge watching the news and everything else concerning it. And I shouldn't have.
Because now I've started to get anxiety, depression, and whatever else about what may happen in the future.
But...........I'm trying ever so slowly to climb out of that hole and "try" to get back to modeling. Modeling is supposed to be therapy. I hope it helps.
So..........I started to work on some of the aircraft for my carrier. And I have to tell you, I've got a lot! More than what I'll ever need.
How much and what types I put on my carrier, I haven't decided yet.

[seadude]

[seadude]