David Hingtgen

The carrier is now what the battleship was 50 years ago---whenever there's a "minor" conflict in the world starting or about to start---send one in the region. Things'll usually quiet down. Their mere presence is a big part of diplomacy.

Because they are THE symbol of America to much of the world. Certainly our power. (getting darn close to politics here). And the biggest/newest ones get the most attention.

Enterprise always was longest, and they made it longer. (same time they completely redid the superstructure). Enterprise is the fastest, partly due to its length. (length=sleekness for a ship). I consider the JFK fully Kitty Hawk class. (if the JFK isn't Kitty Hawk, then the Bush isn't Nimitz) Enterprise is her own class, but clearly "Kitty Hawk esque". (kind of like Ticonderoga vs Spruance)

Yup. The Kitty Hawk was supposed to be decom'd years ago--it's the oldest---but it turned out all the others were in worse condition. The JFK was in godawful condition--it was the one originally scheduled to go to Japan to replace Independence, being the newest and most advanced conventional carrier---but it was so bad it was decom'd, and Kitty Hawk was sent in its place. (the JFK had catapults that couldn't launch, it was that bad) The Kitty Hawk has only survived so long due to literally decades of care. I think 20 years ago it was reported to be "better than expected for its age" and got out of drydock months earlier than originally planned.(a major refit for a carrier can be a good 2 years) Seems the Kitty Hawk just got lucky for a long time with the people onboard really taking good care.

Because every mod's different, and there is no formal mod rule book to follow. I close stuff that EXO lets go, Azrael closes stuff that I let go, Roy closes everything, etc.

Kitty Hawk is the last conventional carrier, when it's officially gone the fleet will be all-nuclear. Enterprise is basically "a Kitty Hawk with reactors" and is far less efficient (by several definitions) than Nimitz class, and is just plain old, which is why that's going too, when Ford arrives.

Several zillion, it's been under construction for years, and wasn't shrouded or anything (unlike submarines). Just google "CVN-77".

Can we go 3 posts without mentioning war/politics? Might as well just close this thread... Anyways, this carrier will replace the Kitty Hawk. Ford will replace the Enterprise.

They keep decommissioning squadrons, and making existing squadrons smaller. Yeah, that would make it harder to give a wing a 'full load' of planes... One could argue multi-role effectiveness---60 craft that can do anything and so you could use many for any given mission, rather than 85 that are highly specialized so only a few at a time are used.

Ai-Kun-25F! That shows thought/creativity.

Mod comment: Current POTUS has nothing to do with carriers.

Current carriers have nowhere near the max draught nor beam listed for the Suez though. Plenty of room.

Nothing in that article mentions length limitations though.

I would guess the length max is due to existings berths, dry dock, etc.

Next carrier is Ford, but AFAIK it was hoped to be the America, not Enterprise. I don't mind Ford much as an individual ship name, but as CLASS name? That sucks. America-class would rock, and it'd be the effective flagship for a while. But the Ford as class leader and flagship?

Tampo artwork is always one of the last things they finalize---rarely will you see them until the actual toy is released and someone posts pics of it. Many "final" and official pics from all sorts of model/toy companies are still hand-painted with stickers, instead of molded in color with tampo-printed markings.

They're interpreting CNV-77 too literally. It may be number 77, but it's not the 77th. There's always some gaps. Most of the 50's are missing when it comes to carriers.

Why does Brera have green hair?

I hear ya on the ankle circle detail. I ended up just doing it "inside the groove". I tried doing it "properly" (with the curved outer ring white too) but it was impossible for me to mask. There's really nothing TO mask---the "not white" section surrounding the outer edge is less than .5mm wide for about 1/2 the circumference (the right side on the pics), and every masking tape type/size I had ALWAYS just "fell off" the edge and lifted up off the part in that area. (I am loathe to cut tape directly on a part to make a mask---I always try the "ultra-thin-strips wrapped around" method) PS---if you freeze-frame the show, you'll find LOTS of minor inconsistencies for how small details like this are painted. How Bandai did it is "only correct for 1 particular scene", if that. I don't worry too much about it being "correct" when there's obviously multiple models/texture maps used, and they're not identical.

Crappy HP power supplies can die instantly with no warning for no reason. It wasn't because it was in the garage. It just died.

I plan to wait for the red repaint of silver car man. (no repaint=no purchase)

Hope they fixed up the mold. I've got Ruination, and he's not nearly as nice as my G2 Bruticus. Sigh---I don't really want to buy a THIRD copy of the mold, just to get the best colors... Maybe if he goes on clearance. (thing is, G1 Bruticus is the best version by far, colors are great IMHO)

I buy small things from IA though--Revoltechs and the like---they are often the first place to get things in the US, and I'll pay 5 bucks more on a 20-25 dollar item to get it 3-4 weeks sooner.

Well they're about 2 days late, should have clarified that immediately, or after the numerous calls they got.

Pics later. Just FYI, case assortment seemed to be 2-2-2 (repaint Lockdown's the other). (if they come 8 to a case I don't know what was missing)