So, let's start at the bow. The following is a drawing of Indomitable (damage report sketch from the Armoured Carriers website) with a drawing of Victorious (Anatomy of the ship) overlaid in red:
As you can see, the hull and deck heights match up exactly up to deck "d", which is the hangar deck on Victorious but the lower gallery deck on Indomitable. The most interesting thing for me is that Indomitable retains the same number of decks. The extra height is added, roughly equally distributed, among only 2 decks - "c" and "d". The upper gallery deck on both ships is the same height if measuring down from the flight deck. The effect of this is to move the openings of the bow anchor handling area up by 3 feet while the flight deck itself moves up 6 feet.
In my first picure, I am cutting just below deck "b", to increase the height of deck "c". I will make nother cut just below deck "c", adding the required height there too. This also splits the hull bow flare up into even sections, which will make it easier to preserve and sand down to a smooth curve after reconstruction.
Initial cut plan is below (red lines). Although the deck height changes are the same throughout, from midships aft there isn't much external that visually indicates this, so I'll save the trouble and add the extra height at the top of the hull, taking care to preserve the relative distanc below the flight deck of various tubs and sponsons.
I have actually already compromised this plan and will not be making two long cuts all the way under the bridge. The thin strip of hull would be too flimsy, I will raise the height from just the lower cut and relocate details as required.
Other changes that will be required include:
- repositioning the elevators and 4.5" gun sponsons - at both ends of the ship, these are moved towards midships
- extend the open quarterdeck
- blank off any hull openings that are no longer required
- lower the positions of the aft set of boat bays
- raise the crane pedestals (without raising the forward boat bays)
- flatten the stern round-down
- make 20mm tubs at the stern and on the bridge
- relocate any rows of portholes or scuttles that are now out of alignment due to the compromises I make in raising the hull
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It's a shame he never finished it, he did the hard part and it looks great. Although I don't agree 100% with the way he has done some things, time will tell if I'm in any position to judge.
