I have just started construction on Tamiya's 1/350 USS Enterprise aircraft carrier & have hit a bit of a wall, so I thought I'd try the Bush Telegraph for some help. Before I began, I did my homework & researched the actual ship itself, read the history, decided which era I was trying for, etc... Having made the decision to aim for post 2000 era and include a hanger deck, I sourced Photo-Etch brass detailing for both ship & air-wing, as well as more aircraft & decals. My stumbling block has been measurements & diagrams! There is plenty of scratch building to be done on this kit(as anyone who has built it before would know!), and while I have found many photos to base my work on, I have tried scratch building based off photos before & had mixed results. For this project, I want exact data, not best guess. I am hoping that someone can point me in the right direction for dimensions/diagrams for the Enterprise, with focus on the sponsoons, hanger deck & fantail. The book "USS Enterprise" by Bert Kinzey has been a great help, however is slightly dated for my purposes and lacks the diagrams I seek. Any help in this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

hey mate, i would love to get this kit one day!

have you tried posting on model shipwrights? also try finescale modeller.

Good luck and put some pics up sometime!

After a LOT of searching on the net, I have finally found enough reference material to get Project 65(my nickname for it!) started. I have chosen to model the Enterprise post 2000 refit, and aquired White Ensign Models Photo-etch brass for both ship & airwing. I am using Trumpeter kits for the SuperHornets & SeaHawk helicopters, but intend to utilize the Tamiya kits that came standard with the kit, plus a few extra that were included in the original purchase. Since the Big E is due to be decommisioned in 2013, I have decided for prosperity to include examples of all aircraft that have been stationed on Her, though only current aircraft will feature on the flight deck. The rest will appear on the Hanger deck. Another challenge to be overcome is the modern "dome" radar system, as well as a few other features of the current era. A lot of scratch-building is called for. Any sort of line diagrams are extremely hard to come by & are generally not much use. A set of digital calipers, pen, paper & lots of staring at pics has had to suffice. The Project is in it's infancy at the moment, and I hope to be able to post some pics once the hanger deck support is in place. Just wanted to say, if it hadn't been for the modelling sites, I would have wound up producing a very vanilla flavoured, uninspired model. Lets see where this Project 65 takes me...

I may be off-base here, but are you referring to the phased-array radar dome (often referred to as the "beehive")? If so, this was a feature of Enterprise as originally built. When refitted in 1979, this was removed and replaced with a conventional radar array

Before 1979
http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/026519.jpg

2004
http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/026556.jpg

The Tamiya kit represents Enterprise about 1981-82 and has the conventional radar array.

Not off base at all. I welcome help like this, as I know some of the terms I use are not accurate. I refer to the white half spherical domes(which some have referred to as "mushrooms") that seem to have been installed post 2000 from what I can tell. Articles I have read on the recent re-fits seem to rely on the reader being familiar with military systems & terminology, which I am still learning. My modelling has revolved around rail until now, and I'm finding the learning curve to be steep! Research is important & any pointing in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.