1/350 USS Carl Vinson CVN-70

DavidsScaleModels

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Here is my project of the USS Carl Vinson completed in 2018. This represents how she was at the start of her maiden deployment on March 1, 1983. This deployment was a World Cruise starting in Norfolk Virginia and ending in San Francisco California. The kit is the Trumpeter 1/350 scale USS Nimitz that was converted to the USS Vinson. The project took 9 months and 777 hours to complete. It has over 500 feet of fiber optic lighting and 40 LED's to illuminate it. The hangar bay decals and air wing decal were made by myself. Most of these photos were taken by Andy Schneider Photography. Featured in the IPMS magazine "The Journal". You can see over 300 photos of this build in my build log at https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-350-uss-carl-vinson/



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Here is my project of the USS Carl Vinson completed in 2018. This represents how she was at the start of her maiden deployment on March 1, 1983. This deployment was a World Cruise starting in Norfolk Virginia and ending in San Francisco California. The kit is the Trumpeter 1/350 scale USS Nimitz that was converted to the USS Vinson. The project took 9 months and 777 hours to complete. It has over 500 feet of fiber optic lighting and 40 LED's to illuminate it. The hangar bay decals and air wing decal were made by myself. Most of these photos were taken by Andy Schneider Photography. Featured in the IPMS magazine "The Journal". You can see over 300 photos of this build in my build log at https://davidsscalemodels.com/build-log/1-350-uss-carl-vinson/



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Wow, can't say much more.
Irishvic/Pantherman
 
Is that your Order of Magellan and shellback certificate ?
I got my bluenose on the Theodore Roosevelt .
Yes, I was aboard during the 1983 World Cruise. Actually am a Golden Shellback as we crossed at 0*/0* and later crossed the international date line at 0*/180*.
 
What department ?

We did shock trials -- I would have rather done the world tour ;)
... and then of course the Gulf War
 
Reactor Mechanical .
I intended being an AD but they continuously tried to make me go nuke power , from the recruiter all the way to MEPS .
They finally got me to sign . Somehow . probably because I was only 17 and they wore me down .
I almost enlisted in the Coast Guard after leaving the fleet to go into gas turbines , but having to go to boot camp again and losing a crow was very unappealing .
 
Excellent work on that!

I have a 1/350 Nimitz waiting in the wings and I was curious about lighting but info seems hard to come buy

How similar would the lighting be, in particular the runway lighting?
 
Excellent work on that!

I have a 1/350 Nimitz waiting in the wings and I was curious about lighting but info seems hard to come buy

How similar would the lighting be, in particular the runway lighting?
The lighting is the same for all Nimitz class ships. There are differences over the years though. The biggest is the island numbers. They were originally many small lights (like on my ship) and later they went to long light bars to light up the numbers. Let me know if you have any specific questions. I have a lot of references.
 
The lighting is the same for all Nimitz class ships. There are differences over the years though. The biggest is the island numbers. They were originally many small lights (like on my ship) and later they went to long light bars to light up the numbers. Let me know if you have any specific questions. I have a lot of references.
Anything you have for lighting would be great

A top down shot showing runway light locations and colors would be awesome

Also what type of "running" lights the ship may have

I would also be curious what the various lights mean and when they would typically be used
 
Anything you have for lighting would be great

A top down shot showing runway light locations and colors would be awesome

Also what type of "running" lights the ship may have

I would also be curious what the various lights mean and when they would typically be used
The runway lights are white and the foul line is blue (foul line is the line of lights between the runway and the island side of ship - Also called "safe parking guide light" on the reference drawing). The lights on the island that shine on the deck are yellow. The numbers are white. The bridge is white during day or in port and at sea are red at night. The hangar bays are white during the day and yellow at night. The stern guide lights are red. Deck edge lights are yellow for early years and green for later years. I did not do these as the photo etch catwalks did not allow space for the fiber optic lines. Here are some photos I used for reference.Flight Deck Lighting.jpg13Dec4-1024x539.jpgphoto-day-07_25_12-920-0.jpgVinson bridge at night.jpgFlight deck lights.jpg2618-uss-nimitz-ike-version2zip-14-8-night.jpgOptical_Landing_System,_night,_aboard_USS_Dwight_D._Eisenhower_(CVN-69).jpg

Here is my landing light

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