Calling all Midway-class (CVB-41) fans

[ORP Grom]

Hello!
Trumpeter's USS Midway model was recently released. I plan to work on this model for some time. I do not have access to appropriate literature. I would like to make this model in the 1945 version, right after construction was completed. I am looking for information about radars installed during this period. On the middle mast you can see the SK-2 radar antenna, below there was one more antenna, but they can't find information on what type of radar this antenna is. There is a radar antenna on the middle mast, I think it is SPS-8, but I am not sure (I would be grateful for a hint), at the top of this mast there is probably an SG radar antenna, but I cannot determine in any way what kind of radar the antenna is on the rear mast . I am also not sure what radars were installed on the USS Midway at that time - the direct control tower Mk 37, or Mk 12/22, or maybe Mk 25. I will be grateful for a hint.

[FFG-7]

take a look at these links.
https://www.navsource.org/archives/02/41.htm
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/h ... y-iii.html
http://www.midwaysailor.com/midway/specifications.html

[Mark McKinnis]

Greetings,

Took delivery of the 1/350 scale USS Midway last configuration from liners world. This is the design from YESTR Toys. $520.00 delivered. It is a pretty nice kit. Looks to be accurate. I have not measured it for accuracy, but it is pretty close, I think. It needs better radars, an air wing, and PE. One problem I have is that with Shapeways gone, I need a couple of detailed MK-25 BPDMS. Nobody makes them.

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various ... eady-model

[maurice de saxe]

Did the Midway-class carriers in their straight-deck configuration have a wood covering on the flight deck and, if so, in what pattern was it laid?

Maurice

[FFG-7]

the class were the 1st US aircraft carriers to have an armored flight deck so no wood there.

[maurice de saxe]

I am well aware that the Midway class were the first US carriers with armoured flight decks. Essentially, all US carriers from Lexington to the Essex class had steel flight decks with wood sheathing on top, primarily for anti-skid purposes (I understand). This image, from Ray Bean's Midway class set, seems to show fore-and-aft planklng on the flight deck, and he refers consistently in the section covering the ships' early careers to the use of blue flight deck stain (which implies wood since stain does not work on steel) but I've not located documentation of wood sheathing on their decks. That is why I was asking the question.

Thank you,
Maurice

[FFG-7]

I don't think that is planking as it is parallel to the ship's centerline as all previous carriers had the planking perpendicular to the ship's centerline. go thru this link to see if wood planking used on the flight deck. http://www.midwaysailor.com/midway/specifications.html

[maurice de saxe]

This image of Franklin D. Roosevelt circa 1950s, also from Ray Bean's set, also seems to show fore-and-aft planking.

[FFG-7]

I'm pretty certain it is not planking but anti-skid mats due to the layout.

[maurice de saxe]

Ah! All is clearer now. Thank you. Maurice

[FFG-7]

you are welcome.

[TZoli]

Anybody have good quality drawings of Midway in her commissioned state?

[FFG-7]

I presume you mean when she was 1st commissioned in Sept 1945?

[TZoli]

I presume you mean when she was 1st commissioned in Sept 1945?

Yes or early post war state.

[apfelzra69]

After receiving my 1/350 Trumpeter USS Midway I purchased the 3D-Wild upgrade set of 1946-48 3D-printed bridge, inner propeller shafts, forward and central (tripod) mast, crane, fire control directors and all eighteen 5-in. guns (equally divided between port and starboard versions). No instructions came with them, so I assumed a simple replacement of the Trumpeter plastic parts. However, I also purchased the Eduard parts 2 and 3 photoectch set, which is designed for replacing parts on the Trumpeter as-built version. I had wanted to build the 1947 upgrade version, but by this time, according to photos of the ship taken that year, the four starboard side mesh antennas had been removed and there were over a dozen whip antennas attached below both sides of the flight deck. Neither the 3D-Wild upgrade set nor Trumpeter's or Eduard's upgrades include these whip antennas. Furthermore, the 3D-Wild set does not include the (apparent) fire control device that replaced the original (MK 37) fire control director in front of the bridge that was moved in the 1947 upgrade to the top front of the bridge. This lack of certainty as to how to fully "upgrade" the Trumpeter kit may lead me to build it in the original "as completed" version, for which the Trumpeter and Eduard sets should be adequate and accurate. Unfortunately, I spent the extra money for the upgraded 1947 bridge that I now cannot use and for which 3D-Wild provided insufficient information on how to adapt the various Trumpeter parts that were still in use, as well as which radars to now use (the SK2 atop the forward mast was replaced with a different type).
Followup: By scrutinizing several high-def photos of the Midway from mid-1947 I can safely deduce that the heretofore unknown fire control device immediately in front of the 1947 rebuilt bridge is the original (more or less) one that was in place from the Trumpeter set -- but the original cylindrical base that held the Bk 37 fire control director has been absorbed into the newly lengthened bridge. That issue aside, I still can't find a reliable source for the exact radars and their location on the tripod mast, or how to scratch-build the numerous antennas along the edge of the flight deck, so I will just build the full Trumpeter version with Eduard photoetch sets-- the USS Midway as commissioned.

[Walter Sonderman]

Hi, Robert,

It took a long while before I could reply on your post, apologies! I am also building the 1/350 Trumpeter USS Midway, but I first did the hull, hangar, armament and so on. I used the correct skegs in the 3D-Wild set.
Now I am also turning to the 3D-Wild bridge. I am basically building that bridge with the PE and plastic parts provided in the Trumpeter-kit. I have a picture of the radar on the mainmast, I believe that is the AN/SPS-8A two-dimensional radar. I have used the PE one from the Gold Medal Models Set 350-12. You are right about the SK2, that has been replaced by another type, but I haven't found out yet which one. Maybe a person in this group?

Cheers, Walter

[TZoli]

Hi, Robert,

It took a long while before I could reply on your post, apologies! I am also building the 1/350 Trumpeter USS Midway, but I first did the hull, hangar, armament and so on. I used the correct skegs in the 3D-Wild set.
Now I am also turning to the 3D-Wild bridge. I am basically building that bridge with the PE and plastic parts provided in the Trumpeter-kit. I have a picture of the radar on the mainmast, I believe that is the AN/SPS-8A two-dimensional radar. I have used the PE one from the Gold Medal Models Set 350-12. You are right about the SK2, that has been replaced by another type, but I haven't found out yet which one. Maybe a person in this group?

Cheers, Walter

On the bridge on a pole behind the forward 5" gun director is likely and SR-3 Air Search Radar with a IFF array on top of it.
On the tripod mast just under the large platform where the legs ends there is a smaller platform holding an SG type Surface Search Radar, unknown type likely and SG-3 or -4 or just the plain SG-1
On the Larger platform that is a Height-Finder Radar an early iteration of the SPS-8 or it's precursor the CXRX but with another parabolic antenna mixed inside it? One site states it is the SX radar from which both the CXRX and SPS-8 developed from.
On top of the mainmast it looks like another SG Surface Search radar, it looks like the SG-2 variant
Behind the funnel that is an SR-2 Air Search Radar

Note:
Indeed it is the SX / CXHR radar as that is a twin radar set put together back to back with the vertical parabola on the front and the horizontal on the back:



It's like the mix of an SPS-8B and SPS-9 radars

[Walter Sonderman]

Hi, great info! Thx, Walter