USS Nimitz Jan 1980 (pre-Operation Eagle Claw)

As my fascination with military aviation started with the movie “The Final Countdown”, I’ve always been eager to build a nice Nimitz model kit. Many, many years ago I've built a 1:700 Nimitz, but after it was finished I was disappointed: It was just too small, lacked the details I wanted and I guess that my "not optimal" skills at that time didn't help either. 1:350 scale was just too expensive for me at that time, so I abandoned my Nimitz pursuit.

In 2022 by accident I stumbled upon a very nice deal for a Trumpeter 1/350 Nimitz for less than €90 and immediately bought it. From that purchase on, I first needed to decide from which time frame I wanted to build it. The thought crossed my mind to build it as in the 1980 movie, but I wanted something slightly different.

Then I read about Operation Eagle Claw and liked the idea of a very full and varied mix of planes on the flight deck. One of my main goals became having RF-8’s and F-14’s on board together with RH-53’s and EA-3’s. Since the last 6 RH-53D’s arrived late January 1980 and the RF-8’s left the Nimitz to be cross decked with the USS Coral Sea 17-4-1980, my Nimitz would have to be in between these dates. As one of the two EA-3’s also left Feb 1980, I'm left with the last week of January 1980 if I want to have the two EA-3B's present otherwise I can use only one EA-3 if I wish to stay accurate.

Unfortunately, this time frame means that aircraft participating in the actual mission would not yet have been equipped with mission stripes on their wings. Also the RH-53D's would still have their blue colors and not the sand color scheme used during the mission. I had the RH-53D’s printed but will need to design and print the decals for these. For all the other planes, except the EA-3 and C-2, aftermarket decals are available and these have either been ordered or are in my stash. Not sure yet how to fix the EA-3 and C-2 decals.

Since October 2022 I’ve been trying to collect all the items that I need and most of the items for the ship have been acquired. I have been holding out on the planes, as I find the basic Trumpeter ones lacking detail. It is possible to buy additional PE sets for these, but this will take a lot of work. For the planes I’m now looking at buying L’arsenal printed ones, to obtain maximum detail with the highest quality and least amount of effort.

The ship itself will be getting a L’arsenal hangar bay kit installed and I’m considering adding lights as well. I’m also thinking about installing lights on and in the deck itself, but haven’t decided yet what I will do. In the end my model will most likely become a waterline model with resin water.

This project will most likely keep me busy for quite some time.