The Ship Model Forum

I don't have any extra photos of Liscombe Bay and I haven't hit the textual records for CVE flight deck markings, but in looking over other ships in the class for about the same time period they look generally consistent with other types. That would be the number fore and aft on the flight deck, with thick dashed lines (16") outboard and a thin (2") dashed center line. The dashes were essentially every other segment of deck planks between tie downs.

I do not see any lines or number(s) in this link. https://www.navsource.org/archives/03/0305602.jpg
https://www.navsource.org/archives/03/056.htm
https://www.navsource.org/archives/03idx.htm

Which flight deck markings did CVE 56 Liscombe Bay carry in late 1943? On the few photos I found on the web I can see only a black number near the bow. Was there a number near the stern, and any lines? If so, which color were the lines?

Sorry to be late to the discussion here, but the topic of British CVEs is near and dear to my heart.
When there is reference to "twin 20mm" on a British CVE, they are talking about the British Mk V power operated mounts, rather than the hand-operated twin 20 used by the USN. This mount is identified by a slanted operator's station on one side and the two guns offset to the other side.
[url]https://www.shapeways.com/product/D8HSK43ZA/1-56-twin-20mm-oerlikon-powered-mkv-mount-25-ordm[/url]

The mount is really visible on the bow in the first photo that DavidP posted - [url]https://www.navsource.org/archives/03/0302208.jpg[/url]. As near as I can tell, when the twins were put in the bow location, they were also mounted around the deck edges, swapping three singles out for two twins. That still left a couple of singles.

Searcher is an odd critter, because she was a member of the earlier "Attacker" class of eleven ships, but she eventually received the weapons upgrades of the later class. The later eleven "Ruler" class were originally configured with eight twin 40mm mounts, while the Attackers started out with only four twin 40s, one on each corner. Again, that photo clearly shows two 40mm mounts forward of the island, so she was updated to have eight twin 40mms. The power operated twin 20s would have been a part of that update also. My guess is that those changes would have happened during a dockyard period in New York between 1 May 44 and 2 July 44.

And like all of the British CVEs, her flight deck was extended before going into British service. A twelve foot extension at the after end is only a whopping 5mm in 1/700 scale, but it is a fun way to differentiate the USN from RN CVEs. There are drawings of the British CVEs, but they were created at the time of handoff from the US yard to the RN, so they don't show the RN changes that were implemented before going into service. I haven't figured out how to tell where the external fuel lines were, as they seem to vary from ship to ship.

And the 4" guns were the US pattern.

I will now stand by for corrections. :-)
Rick

[quote="DavidP"]are you certain those are twin 20mm mounts & not twin 40mm mounts as there appears to be no shields normally associated with 20mm mounts?
https://www.navsource.org/archives/03/0302208.jpg
https://www.navsource.org/archives/03/0302201.jpg
https://www.navsource.org/archives/03/022.htm[/quote]

Yes, twin Oerlikons. British power twin Oerlikons were totally different mounts and didn't have the shields that manual Oerlikons had

I'm looking to resurrect my build of HMS Searcher based on the Skywave Bogue model. Looking at the photo of HMS Searcher on wiki, I can see what look like twin 20mm guns on the bow and possibly another one on the port side midships 20mm gallery, just forward of the funnel. I have found a site that claims she had more twin 20mm fitted, which seems plausible given the photo evidence. Does anyone know anything about her 20mm outfit? I believe the photo to be of her in 1944, when she was operating as a 'fighter' carrier with Wildcats. Also, would her 4in single guns be US or British guns?

thanks
Mike

[quote="DavidP"]would sheer & body plan work for you?[/quote]

Certainly wouldn't hurt.

Ahoy,

Digging through this thread, I've found that there are some options on the web for finding Nabob plans, but, when looking at them, they do not have a complete set of hull lines included, only partial, with only 7 frames present.

Frame 170, 142, 120, 100, 78, 55 and 13.

That seems...inadequate to build a decent hull form to me.

Does anyone have access to other plans that may have more detail?

Does anyone know if there is a copy of Commencement Bay class Booklet of General Builder's Plans floating around anywhere?

[/quote]
Maybe not very respectful , but these really look rather like the proverbial 'garden hose wall mount'. Should not be too difficult to scratch these yourself.[attachment=0]garden-hose-holder-wall-mount.jpg[/attachment][/quote]

You're not wrong, that should be fairly easy to scratch.

[quote="Tracy White"]If you're just looking for photos I may have some, but you'll need to wait until the weekend for me to have enough time to go looking.[/quote]

That would be great, thanks. I have some time before I get to that area but as usual for me I tend to get hung up on details that I'm not ready for and it has a tendency to stall my projects. :huh: I'm really just looking for details to busy up the catwalk area on my Bluejacket Gambier Bay build, and what happens to the lines the run vertically up the sides of the hull. Thanks to BobW"s explanation I have a bit of a better understanding of those. It's a great kit but lacks any details in this area so I'm trying to avoid that sparse look that can happen on some scale model builds, we'll see how successful I am. :cool_2:

[quote="jep1210"]I found a nice shot of what I believe to be what you were talking about Bob. Just to the left and below the nose of the plane is a vertical tank, but there's only one...maybe the other one is behind it(?). The oddly shaped circles with the hoses draped on them are what I assume Hasegawa is representing in the molding of their 1/350th scale Gambier Bay (see the picture in my post above), and presumably the hose reels you mentioned. This shot is from the NavSource site, and is of CVE 57, U.S.S. Coral Sea. I had seen it in one of many times I combed that site's pictures but thanks to your explanation, I know what I'm looking at.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/p57RQ5Vl.jpg[/img][/quote]
Maybe not very respectful , but these really look rather like the proverbial 'garden hose wall mount'. Should not be too difficult to scratch these yourself.[attachment=0]garden-hose-holder-wall-mount.jpg[/attachment]

If you're just looking for photos I may have some, but you'll need to wait until the weekend for me to have enough time to go looking.

I found a nice shot of what I believe to be what you were talking about Bob. Just to the left and below the nose of the plane is a vertical tank, but there's only one...maybe the other one is behind it(?). The oddly shaped circles with the hoses draped on them are what I assume Hasegawa is representing in the molding of their 1/350th scale Gambier Bay (see the picture in my post above), and presumably the hose reels you mentioned. This shot is from the NavSource site, and is of CVE 57, U.S.S. Coral Sea. I had seen it in one of many times I combed that site's pictures but thanks to your explanation, I know what I'm looking at.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/p57RQ5Vl.jpg[/img]

This photo was posted to me by Rick Davis. I was doing a diorama for a Vet who was on my Dad's ship, USS CVL 26 Monterey. He was a first loader on 40mm Mount #10. Here is that build:

http://www.shipmodels.info/mws_forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=76455&hilit=1%2F32+bofors+40mm+oneslim&start=20

The photo was a wide shot that showed the aft half of the ship fitting out. It was blown way up to show the mount. Being a large crop the angles are distorting the size. My guess is 25 or 30 gallons. I'm not really sure, don't know how the system worked .

Hope this Helps,

BobW

Oh man that's awesome, thanks for the great description and pic. I guess Hasegawa is trying to represent the hose reels (minus the two vertical tanks) in their 1/350 scale CVE 73? I have them circled in red in the picture below? I'm just wondering if I can use that as a reference to determine location and the number of them present. In your picture they look to be about the size of 5 gallon buckets, correct? Also, were they a standard design from ship to ship or did they differ on different classes of ship?

[img]https://i.imgur.com/kKJJOyfl.jpg[/img]

Found IT

jep1210,

Look for two small vertical tanks with piping between them. Also a hose reel. These lines were drained and filled with CO2 when general quarters was called.

Sorry I can't find a shot right now.

BobW

I've resurrected my Bluejacket CVE-73 build and want to add as much detail as possible. I've recently found out these pipes that run on the outside of the hull are for the aviation fuel. I can see lines going vertically up to the flight deck area presumably to refuel the planes on the deck, but I can't seem to find any clear pictures of what they look like once they get up to the catwalk. Picture from NavSource. I have the Anatomy Of A Ship: Gambier Bay but there's nothing clearly showing what's up there.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/eMYR3lZl.jpg[/img]

The US Navy data sheets for the Bogue class list a flight deck length of 439 feet. The RNRA site you cite states that the added round-down aft was 15 feet long, making an overall length of 454 feet, which seems more probable. The site does not mention any extension forward. If, as I suspect, the site has transposed overall length and flight deck length in its tabulations for the classes, it suggests that the overall flight deck length was 465 feet, but it does not explain how that was arranged.