I've glued down the starboard hanger sections. Added a few fun items along the way. It's not perfect and I'm missing some stuff but at least I can see the similarity in pictures.
Task Force 48 provided me with a picture that I was intrigued by and wanted to run with. The picture below shows a Sunday service being held at the center elevator area.
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Service 01 69.jpg [ 68.31 KiB | Viewed 2664 times ]
You'll notice that the bulkheads around the elevator are very dark. I don't know what year of the war this was taken but given the number of times the Enterprise was painted, it seems it was dark at one time or another. We thought there was a very good chance these were painted deck blue to prevent the elevator opening from being a giant white target square for dive bombers to aim for if it was down in an attack. Going with this assumption, I've decided to paint the bulkheads around the elevators deck blue. I can't prove this but it adds interest to the hanger area and I like the idea. Don't fret modelers, I also have pictures of this same area painted the same color as the rest of the hanger...so go with your creative spirit.
Here's a photo of the rear hanger section.
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Aft Elevator 01 56.jpg [ 55.61 KiB | Viewed 2664 times ]
I've created elevator wells because I've never seen this done before.
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Aft Post 01 59.jpg [ 58.9 KiB | Viewed 2664 times ]
Looks pretty cool...guess the elevators will be up now.
The bow elevator well is interesting in that it's stepped because the hull is too narrow at this point. I saw this in the general plans and verified it with a repair photo taken after the kamikaze blew the elevator out of the ship in May '45 off of Okinawa.
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Bow Elevator 01 46.jpg [ 45.38 KiB | Viewed 2664 times ]
See the lower right of the picture where you see the step begin.
I've also added the raised hanger catapult in the forward section.
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Bow Post 01 68.jpg [ 67.72 KiB | Viewed 2664 times ]
I can't imagine using this thing. The ship would have to be dead still unless you wanted to launch into a 90 degree crosswind and then you're what...30 feet above the water. Crazy! Attached is a picture of a Hellcat being launched off one of the Essex carriers.
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Deck Launch Post 01 53.jpg [ 52.99 KiB | Viewed 2664 times ]
I've always been fascinated by a picture of the Enterprise hanger when it was being salvaged. It shows the battle record of the ship on a bulkhead but I've never been able to figure out where is was located. I think I found it when I put in the stair to the Gallery deck. It looks like it's on the bulkhead between the two starboard forward roller doors. The stair appears in the background.
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Salvage Post 03 48.jpg [ 47.69 KiB | Viewed 2664 times ]
Then finally a picture of the mid-section of the hanger.
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Mid Post 03 78.jpg [ 77.8 KiB | Viewed 2664 times ]