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Aircraft Carrier deck


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Depending on the scale, there are aftermarket resin carrier decks available that replicate anti-skid, weld lines, and has the "divots" for tie downs and PE pieces for the metal that goes IN the tie downs...

I think "Just Plane Stuff" is the name of the company I saw - IIRC squadron.com had them.

Edited by Karl Sander
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Actually they are not that hard to make. Below is one I did (1/48). Took a sheet of acrylic and drilled holes about every scale 6 ft. Sanded the surface down some. Sprayed some talcum over spray glue (for the non-skid). Sand. Painted the base and lines, then applied the tiedowns (used Tom's Model Works available from Squadron). I liked the outcome and may due a carrier launch dio next.

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Actually they are not that hard to make. Below is one I did (1/48). Took a sheet of acrylic and drilled holes about every scale 6 ft. Sanded the surface down some. Sprayed some talcum over spray glue (for the non-skid). Sand. Painted the base and lines, then applied the tiedowns (used Tom's Model Works available from Squadron). I liked the outcome and may due a carrier launch dio next.

Looks good! Question - did you attempt to depict weld lines, or did you decide that they wouldn't be noticible at scale?

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Looks good! Question - did you attempt to depict weld lines, or did you decide that they wouldn't be noticible at scale?

weld lines please tell us more on this

and if there are weld lines are they in a pattern as the rest?

and how far would these weld lines be apart?

ooh and one other thing is the surface on top of a carrier the same all aroiund?

i mean do elevators have the same structure as the rest of the ships deck?

love to know

greetz STB :thumbsup:

frederick jacobs

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the top of the elevators is the same color as the deck, the sides of the elevator is the same as the rest of the ship. both exact color are availeble from White Ensign Models modern naval color range

the color for the flight deck is; U.S. Navy Flight Deck Gray(Reference #M 05)

and the overal side color of a carrier is; U.S. Navy Haze Gray(Reference #M 03)

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Looks good!  Question - did you attempt to depict weld lines, or did you decide that they wouldn't be noticible at scale?

weld lines please tell us more on this

and if there are weld lines are they in a pattern as the rest?

and how far would these weld lines be apart?

ooh and one other thing is the surface on top of a carrier the same all aroiund?

i mean do elevators have the same structure as the rest of the ships deck?

love to know

greetz STB ;)

frederick jacobs

The flight deck is made of plates of steel, welded together. When you're walking on it, you can actually see the joints as the welds (like you might expect) are fairly robust.

I don't actually know the dimensions of each steel plate as I never bothered to measure (I'm usually not to keen on dilly-dallying on the flight deck). There is a fairly regular pattern to the tie downs, but I'm also not sure what precisely it is - some modellers (perhaps an ARC'er or two) have managed to find some navy pubs that actually describe the pattern...

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Karl,

When I built mine (very similar method to Chorse6 above) I replicated the weld seams by using very small diameter half-round sytyrene. Since I was applyinbg over sheet styrene for the actual deck, a little liquid cement blended them in nicely and I think they looked pretty good.

Not the best photo of it, but you can see them here:

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ok and what dimensions do the plates have in your dio? is it a 1/72 or a 1/48?

love to know

greetz STB :soapbox:

frederick jacobs

It's 1/48th and the plates are about 3 1/2 inches or so. Just looked like a good size.

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The non-skid material used to coat the decks is a different color than "deck gray" (commonly referred to as "slick deck" because it is just painted metal, no abrasive). For most carrier deck dioramas, you would only need to worry about the nonskid surface and perhaps the catapault as the "deck gray" areas are usually around the edges, i.e. all horizontal surfaces not coated in non-skid...vertical surfaces are "haze gray". If you are modeling the a** end of a Frigate with an SH-60, you would need to worry about the slick deck.

Nonskid weathers quickly and unevenly, especially when you factor in dirt, skid-marks, sun fade, rust and oil/water stains. Pretty much any shade of dark or medium gray would be acceptable depending on how fresh you want the scale non-skid to be. Freshly applied, non-skid is glossy and dark, but it weathers to a very flat, light color (almost a ghost gray...very close to haze gray).

The only way the non-skid matches the slick-deck is if the crew prepares a thin deck gray wash and coats -everything- in a short-cut method of short-term beautification. This typically doesn't happen on decks with aircraft markings as that would tend to de-certify the surface for use by aircraft and cause a re-surfacing and re-inspection.

-Mike

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  • 1 month later...

Masa Narita built a very nice diorama, all the catapult section is scratchbuilt. There's a good step by step tutorial in my site's article section (thanks for Masa!). At the end you can get something like this if you're good enough :wave: Although it's 1/32, all the technics can be used in other scales aswell.

Tamiya_F-14__005.JPG

Greetings, neu :thumbsup:

www.carrierbuilders.net

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