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

[seadude]

It's getting there. I just wish I knew where "there" was. 
As I said before, the yellow TAMIYA masking tape indicates where the black boot stripe is on the carrier hull.
The picture I took below is a bit crooked, but only because of my poor photography skills and shaking hands.
The yellow line is the top of the black boot stripe. The red line is the bottom of the black boot stripe.
Compare my bulbous bow on my model and the yellow taped black boot stripe to the real pics of the Ford carrier further below.
It looks like too much of the top of my bulbous bow part will be in the "black boot stripe zone" if you get my meaning.
There's not that much of the bulbous bow on the real Ford carrier that is painted black on top.
Anyway, I placed my Tamiya tape exactly where it needed to go. The bulbous bow part was also placed exactly where it needed to go.
It's not exactly perfect, but then, the bulbous bow part was not designed to fit the Tamiya Enterprise carrier model.
It was intended more for the Trumpeter Nimitz carrier model so modelers could build the later CVN-76-77 Nimitz carriers that have the new bulbous bow shape. The older Nimitz carriers before CVN-76 don't have the revised bulbous bow.

[buzzbomb]

Been passively following this, on and off.

Time to get out there and say... well done  This is really coming together.

[PR19_Kit]

Remember it's a Whiff, the bulbous bow is just right if you say it is!

[seadude]

looks like its going in the right direction to me. 
please keep at it, im enjoying the build, ( and making notes for when i tack a ship my self)

I'm interested in seeing what you come up with.

Been passively following this, on and off.

Time to get out there and say... well done  This is really coming together.

Keep following.   I'm just trying to do the best I can.

[seadude]

Remember it's a Whiff, the bulbous bow is just right if you say it is!

Well then, Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead! 

[Old Wombat]

It's getting there. I just wish I knew where "there" was. 

Well, that's normal around here!

Remember it's a Whiff, the bulbous bow is just right if you say it is!

Well then, Damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead! 

That's the spirit!

[seadude]

Well, I think I've gotten the puttying and sanding of the bulbous bow on the front of my carrier model to the point where I've gone as far as I can go on it to the best of my ability. It's not perfect, but it'll have to do. You'd have to take a magnifying glass or stand really close to see any errors..........of which I have no doubt there will be some.
The better "side" from what I can tell is probably the port side of the ship. This is the side of the ship I'll be showing the most anyway whenever I take this model to any future contests..........unless I have to show the starboard side for a different reason. I'll finish adding the rest of the TAMIYA yellow masking tape to the bulbous bow tomorrow or Friday.

[seadude]

So what's next to do on this model?
I'm not really sure yet, but I may start laying down the flight deck edge "bumpers" (for lack of a better word). As you can see in the below pics, these "white rails or bumpers" along the flight deck edge act as a sort of guardrail or bumper to help prevent deck vehicles and/or aircraft from rolling along the flight deck and going overboard.
These white guardrails run along most (but not all) of the circumference of the flight deck edge. So I'll have to study pictures of where to put and not put pieces of guardrail down. There are some breaks in the white guardrails where ordnance jettison ramps overhang the flight deck edge as you can see in one of the pics below.
Eventually when it gets time to paint the flight deck later in Spring this year, I'll also need to paint colored marks (Green, Red, Purple, etc.) on the white guardrail to indicate where water, firefighting foam, fuel, etc. hose reels are located along the catwalks around the entire circumference of the flight deck.
What size should these guardrails be? I'm not sure yet, but I was thinking of using 2 mm x 2 mm square styrene strip. But don't quote me on that.
I'm also not sure which will be better or easier to do: Lay down the styrene strip for the guardrails, mask it, then paint the flight deck. Or paint the flight deck first, then add the white guardrails down.     Decisions, decisions.

[Captain Canada]

Paint the deck first, then lay down the bumpers. It will be alot easier to paint the colours on them when they are not glued down.

[seadude]

Paint the deck first, then lay down the bumpers. It will be alot easier to paint the colours on them when they are not glued down.

You may be right. Though I'll give it some thought.
Anyway, as I said in my last post further above, I was thinking of using 2 mm x 2 mm square styrene strip for the guardrails. But that was just a guess. After going through bags of various styrene strip, rod, tube, etc. at home, I finally found the size I'll end up using which will be 1 mm x 1 mm square styrene strip.
The TAMIYA Enterprise carrier actually has the guardrails molded on the flight deck edge circumference. But they are really skinny and probably in the size range (I'm guessing) of 0.5 mm x 0.5 mm. That to me is just a bit too hard to work on when painting something that skinny. I need something more "thicker" which is why I'm going with 1 mm x 1 mm square styrene strip.

[kerick]

Those "bumpers" look pretty chunky in the pics so the 1m x 1m sounds good. And definitely add after painting.

[seadude]

There's really not much more I can do on this carrier right now till Spring gets here with warmer weather so I can spray paint the flight deck.
Everything pretty much (or almost) hinges on that.
Though some small bits I can/need to add are extra spots/platforms for NULKA decoy launchers. A pic below gives possible locations for Nulka launchers as well as Mk.53 SRBOC launchers, and also Mk.38 25mm chain guns for my model. All are resin parts from Veteran Models.
I only have six Nulka launchers to work with. 3 for the starboard side and 3 for the port side.
I have 8 pieces of Mk.53 SRBOC launchers. But it's possible I may only use four instead. If I use the other four and where I'd put them, I have no idea yet. 
And I've got four Mk.38 25mm chain guns. The locations and addition of the chain guns was explained on another page in this thread long ago. You'll have to search for it.
Other than that stuff, I could work on the flight deck vehicles and the aircraft till Spring gets here. But to be honest, I don't want to. At least not yet. I just don't have the enthusiasm or motivation right now to work on 2 dozen deck vehicles and nearly 75 aircraft.
The other thing I could do is finish painting the hull gray and add the blue anti-fouling coat to the lower hull. That will be hand brush painted.