Herb Schmidt's Reviews


Herb's aircraft
JSC Escort Carrier the U.S.S Card
Download the "how to build a locomotive article" from the 1938 Mechanics and Handcraft magazizine. WARNING this is a very large file, over 2.6 megs and will take awhile to download. The file is in a ZIP file so you will have to have a program to unzip the JPEG files before you can read them.

GPM Aircraft Carrier CVN-65 Enterprise

I thoroughly enjoy your card modeler's digest and have learned so much from you, and all the other experienced card modelers. Having been constructing card models for only a year or so, although I built wooden and plastic models for 50 years plus, they have now taken precedence. First I tried aircraft as I had worked in the USAF and Grumman for over 40 years. Then I ventured out into ships - namely the GPM 30 USS Enterprise. Not the model to attempt as your first ship, but I did complete it after over 150 hours of work. The Polish-English dictionary you posted on the web was indispensable, getting 75-80% of Th. words, and allowing me most of the time, to figure out the rest. The kit instructions did leave a bit of detail out as did the diagrams, necessitating a venture into the internet for CVN-65 details, which I did find. The combination of all the resources proved adequate for me. The only serious problem with constructing this kit was repetition - 296 life rafts, numerous aircraft ---.

Aircraft:

Here are my Halinski F4F-3 Wildcat, the GPM051 A6E Intruder, and the Modelfan F14A.

JSC Escort Carrier the U.S.S. Card

Here are some pictures of the JSC CVE11 USS Card. The model came as 1/400, but I wanted it to match scales of the Enterprise, so I cut the parts from the sheets and scanned & printed them at +1.33, which gave a 1/300 scale model. I printed it on Exact Index 90# card as you have mentioned. I doubled the hull side thickness to get a firm piece with no distortion. I used 1/16" thick poster board for the flight deck to get firmness. As this model was a Waterline type and the Enterprise is a full hull, I surfed the net to get info on the CVE hulls. This led me to the data I needed. and I scratch built a below the waterline structure. As I like to research any model I build for it's history and details, this was no different. To me, this researching is a dedicated way of learning. One can look at a ship, aircraft, building, etc, and readily recognise and identify it. But can specific and minute details be related? After researching for a model, then building it, one can remember much more information about the subject.

Here is a comparison of just a few facts of the Enterprise And the Card:
Ship------------------------Enterprise------------------------Card
Length------------------------1101'---------------------------495'
Displacement----------------89600 tons-------------------7800 tons
Beam-----------------------------133'----------------------------69'
Flight deck width--------------252'---------------------------111'
Speed-------------------------30 kts+-----------------------17 kts
Number of aircract--------------85-----------------------------28

This page was created by:
Saul H. Jacobs M.Ed.
Avionics Specialist, United States Air Force (Retired)
Microcomputer Technology, Pima Community College (Retired)
Tucson Arizona