This is my USS Constellation CV-64) in 1/720 scale. I built this model using the Italeri carrier kit as a base, but improved the structure and details
with a lot of scratchbuilding, and use of Gold Medal Models (GMM) 'Supercarrier' photo-etch set. The airwing is a mixture of Skywave and Trumpeter planes,
and White Ensign Models resin helicopters. All aircraft have home-made authentic decals for CVW-2  circa 1996. For reference I used the Internet and
'Combat Carriers' by Tony Holmes. The finishing touches were authentic home-made decals for the flags/ensigns, the cabling was made from hair (my mum's!). The deck crew are photo-etch items from GMM.

Painting was straighforward, haze grey with dark (almost black) deck. The deck and hull were weathered with pastels to simulate fading over the decals.
I used spare decals to get the placement right as it is wrong in Italeri's instructions. The base is varnished wood with a slot cut in for the perspex dust cover.
The 'sea' was made using a technique from Fine Scale Modeller magazine: It is painted tin foil covered by clear gloss sealer. Waves are acrylic gel medium with white paint (toned down slightly with grey), and the wake is white paint diluted with distilled water.

This model took 6 months of on-off building to complete, but it did eventually win a bronze medal in its class at Scale Model World 2006 (IPMS UK Nationals)