Guest wrote:
Hi, I am wanting to make a CV-12 Hornet. My grandfather server on her until the end of the war. I bought a trumpeter CV-10 Yorktown since they are both short hulls. Is the CV-10 a kit I can use to make the CV-12 or should I get the CV-9 Essex?
I have also read that the CV-12 used a lighter blue deck stain than the others, does anyone know the actual color?
On Ebay, I noticed that the only unstained Essex wood deck is for the CV-14 Ticonderoga. Would that deck fit seeing that CV-14 was a long hull?
I'll probably have a lot more questions, but those are a good start for now.
Hornet was basically unmodified from her commissioning in 1943 until her refit after her forward flight deck was damaged in 1945. Best starting point for a CV-12 in dazzle would be the Essex kit. I'm building one myself (one of many 1/2 finished projects).
Here is a quote from our resident camouflage expert, John Synder, regarding the flight deck stain:
John Snyder wrote:
USN flight decks in WW2 were not painted, but rather were stained in either Norfolk 250-N Flight Deck Stain (1941-42), or Flight Deck Stain 21 (1943-45 and on into Korea). This stain was subject to fading under the hot sun of the Pacific, and to wear from aircraft handling. It did not stay pristine for long.
I'll leave the length of the flight deck question to more knowledgeable folks.
_________________
Martin"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne
Ship Model Gallery