So I've been obsessively tracking down photos of WASP, I want to scratch build her in 1/700. Photo's of her early career are quite few and far between. I've got about 180 photo's in all, the vast majority from 1942. I'm curious about her deck markings 40/41. All pictures from 1942 on, show a plain deck painted with 250N deck stain. Below is a nice find of her commission in April 1940. You can clearly see the yellow(?) stripes on what I presume is a mahogany stained deck. ENTERPRISE had the same going by the beautiful colour shot by LIFE in 1940.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/686yd63mxga0f79/002%20commission.jpg?dl=0This picture is without a date. The planes on the deck are P-40 from the 8th Pursuit Group.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i1yxpl3svnbh60u/28879473296_fe40354fbb_o.jpg?dl=0From DANFS:
..Norfolk Navy Yard on 11 October (1940). There, she loaded 24 Curtiss P-40 fighters from the Army Air Corps' 8th Pursuit Group and nine North American O-47A reconnaissance aircraft from the 2d Observation Squadron, as well as her own spares and utility unit Grumman J2F Duck flying boats on the 12th. Proceeding to sea for maneuvering room, Wasp flew off the Army planes in a test designed to compare the take-off runs of standard Navy and Army aircraft. That experiment, the first time that Army planes had flown from a Navy carrier, foreshadowed the use of the ship in the ferry role that she performed so well in World War II.If this is correct, the photo should be the 12th Oct 1940. You can clearly see the deck stripe but it's two tone. Yellow and gray? White and gray?
Regarding the Measure 1/4 conundrum. I found a great colour shot of LSO David McCampbell, legendary USN ace. The photo said 41/42 which doesn't help much but you can clearly see the island is painted black. It's certainly not Standard Navy Grey and it's too dark to be M12 so that puts this picture in mid 41. Is there a yellow stripe on the deck or are my eyes playing tricks on me?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fx0rlf2u2imz5o6/McCampbell-LSO.jpg?dl=0In this picture, WASP is anchored in Hvalfjorour, Iceland in Sept/Oct 1941. She's in Measure 12 (unmodified!) and you can see the deck stripes in the original format but perhaps gray. I think also that the mahogany deck colour has been replaced with 250N...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/m5xowqqiflv6e2f/001%20Iceland%20SB2U_USS_Wasp_CV-7%20%281%29.jpg?dl=0Also interesting to note that there's no CXAM-1 which according to DANFS was fitted in her March 41 overhaul. I suspect this was fitted in her Dec/Jan overhaul in 41/42.
It's fascinating to study these pictures because there's always a new detail that stands out and sheds a little more light on her short but illustrious career.