Wow, the entire airwing has taken about as long as the rest of the ship together. I had purchased some additional SU-33s to be painted and configured as J-15s and some extra helos. My airwing thus ended up being 14 J-15 fighters, 4 KA-28 ASW helos, 2 KA-31 AEW helos, 2 Z-9 ASW/SAR helos, and 3 Z-8 AEW, transport helos. That's 25 aircraft altogehter. The first part was to build them. The aircraft had 18 pieces each and so were a pretty good model themselves for each. The helos generally had 11 pieces each. So, for all of the aircraft, there were abpiut 350 pieces...many of them very small and delicate.
Then, painting the aircraft, finishing the smaller detail partsa, and adding the decals and rotors for the helos was able to be accomplished.
All of the above took almost 4 weeks to accomplish, working on it after work and on weekends when I could. We did have a five day break when I took a trip with my wife down to San Diego for one of our daughter's weddings which also gave me the opportunity to visit Naval Base Cornado and the anchorage across from there. So that added to the time.
Now, for the PLAN Carrier, will come th eplacing of the aircraft on deck and the building and painting of the deck equipment...tow bars, fork lifts, pus trucks, carts, etc. And finally the paining and placement of the 1/350 scale personnel I have purchased. I expect the painting and placement of those very small individuals will take some time too.
This is now where I have gotten to date. My plan to finish the carrier is the following, and, as usual, I will update this posting as I go along:
At that point I will be finished with my PLA Navy Carrier from Trumpeter. Then, I will build my priniple PLAN Escort for the carrier, Trumpeter's DDG-170, Lanshou Type 052C destroyer. This is the Chinese Arleigh Burke-like destroyer with PARS, battle management and VLS air defense missiles. After that, I will build Hobby Boss's PLAN SSN attack submarine, the PLAN SSN-405, ChangZheng5, a Type 091 Han class SSN, for escort duties. Then, rather than build the other three surface combatants (Trumpeter's DDG-168, Guangzhou; DDG-139, Ningbo; and FFG-570, Huangshan) as part of the Chinese Carrier Strike Group, I will build the initial portion of the US Navy Carrier Strike Group.
- By April 23rdh, 2012: Complete all deck equipment building and painting and aircraft and equipment placement.
- By April 30th, 2012: Paint and place all all 1/350 scale personnel on the carrier, complete carrier and place on stand.
That US CSG will be centered on Tamiya's 1/350 scale USS Enterprise, CVN-65. I will build Trumpeter's USS Bunker Hill, CG-52, and the Los Angeles Class attack sumbmarine (which I have already completed), Testor's SSN-764, USS Boise (It was actaully the San Juan, but I built and marked it as the USS Boise) which I have already completed.
Then back to finish the Chinese CSG, and then finish the US CSG with the following five vessels: Trumpeter's DDG-82, USS Lassen an AEGIS destroyer, Trumpeter's USS Iwo Jima LHD-7, Trumpeter's USS Freedom, LCS-1, Cyber Hobby's USS Independence, LCS-2, Hobby Boss's USS Texas, SSN-775. I already have completed Tamiya's 1/350 scale USS New Jersey battleship to the late 1980s upgrade and modernization (with the Tomohawks, Harpoons, CIWS, and SH-60 helos). When a USS Gerald R. Ford comes out, I will add it to this group along with another AEGIS Cruiser and Burke DDG.
Outside of the new Trumpeter Type 054A FFG-570 Huangshan which comes out in May (and which I am pre-ordering two of), I already have all of these vessels and the photo etch sets to go with them. I will post seperate postings/threads/pages for each build as I go through it.
Once the US and PLAN groups are built, I intend on building complete Russian (centered on Trumpeter's Kuznetsov) and a UK group centered on the HMS Queen Elizabeth if it is available, and if not then on Airfix.s HMS Illustrious which I have already purchased. That group will also include two Type 45 Daring Class Airfix models which come out in May and which I am on the advnced order list for, a Trafalgar SSN (which I already have) and an Astute SSN (which I also already have purchased.) Once the models are available, I'd like to build a Japanese group centered on their new 22DDH carrier and the Hyuga, an Italian Group centered on the Cavour, a French Group centered on the De Gaulle, a Spanish Group centered on the Jaun Carlos, and ultimatly an Australian Group centered on the new Canberra. If they ever build the models, an Indian group centered on either the Vikramaditya or their new ADS Carrier the Vikrant would also be nice. You can see all of these carriers at my site:
All of these along with their escorts will be in 1/350 scale. Literally years worth of building.
...and most of their surface escorts at:
AEGIS AND AEGIS-LIKE VESSELS OF THE WORLD
Jeff Head
April 19, 2012