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Robert Royes
257 articles

The Sixty from Dixie CV-60 and the Big John CV-67

April 3, 2017 · in Ships · · 15 · 2.8K

Two carriers I was associated with. First up Italeri 1/720 Saratoga. Had to correct the basic island structure and back date to Mid 1970's when I was a lowly plane captain active duty on F-4s, rearranged some sponsons, scratch built the dish antenna. used starfighter decals. Several nick names for her were Sorry Sara, Sinking Sara, Sucking Sixty from Dixie [You got to remember the era that I was in]. There was an attempt to make her a museum but it paned out, they've scrapped her. Second, Monograms boxing of 1/800 John F. Kennedy, built it out the box, using decals from Testors old fictitious USS Georgetown. Did a few Navy Reserve stints on the JFK. Now both are as obsolete as I am. These are older builds, reached a snag in the paint shop on my current build. very frustrating.

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15 responses

  1. Very nice Robert. No ships in my collection but I've always been interested in the USS Constellation (CV-64)

    • You know you're old when a ship you saw arriving in San Diego brand new for the first time reaches the end of its career and is retired. That's the Connie Barge to me. Seeing her come past Point Loma that first time was really impressive.

  2. Not bad for "old builds", Robert...you can always "spruce 'em up" later on down the road when you hit those "snags" again. 🙂

  3. Bob, good to see a couple of carriers done. Look real good to me.
    I started out on Revell ships, a long time ago. Their Roosevelt remains a favorite. I may still have some of the miniscule air group someplace in the old spares box.

  4. Looks like good work from here.

  5. Nice Job Bob, I have in my gallery here a build of Airfix's ancient HMS Victorious so I now how difficult these kits can be you made a really nice job.
    N.

  6. Nice work, Robert! Ship modeling is the most difficult genre in our hobby, esp. large deck carriers. Those look great!

  7. Don't often see any carriers modelled so this is a nice addition. Thanks for posting.

  8. 🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
    Nice rendition of the USS CONSTELLATION Robert, very clean and sharp.
    It seems to be a desk top model.

  9. Hello Robbert,
    Indeed, history models.
    Job well done.
    Regards, Orion / Dirk / The Netherlands.

  10. Nice job on the Sara, I was ships company on her so I'm a little biased. Too bad she couldn't be saved, all the names she garnered over the years aside she was a very fine ship. I made the 80 MED Cruise and then rode her up the Delaware River into the Philly shipyard for her SLEP refit.
    I've got this kit in my stash maybe it's time to break it out and paint her up and place her on the shelf. As I've already said this is a nice looking build.

  11. I'm a little biased too, she was the first ship I deployed on .

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