The Ship Model Forum

Bob, Bob W and Gordon, thanks so much for your compliments!

Installation of photoetch catwalks under the flight deck overhangs (bow, stern and port). Scratch-built girders and stringers under the flight deck, in the hangar deck and beneath the 20mm Oerlikon platforms' can be seen in these views. The catwalks are from the excellent Gold Medal Models Essex set which contains catwalks for both the short-hull and long-hull ships of the class.



Yorktown was a short-hull Essex. Adapting the GMM set's catwalks intended for the long-hull Essex, additional catwalks can be installed under the portside flight deck overhang as shown in AOTS drawings A6/1 & A6/2. Although AOTS indicates that the catwalks suspended from the port side overhang had corrugated decking (those suspended from the hangar deck overhead did as well according to several photos), a photograph Tracy sent me shows that the port side overhang catwalks actually had perforated decking. Since the GMM catwalks are perforated they work perfectly for this area too. Although only a few have been installed so far, you can see how these catwalks considerably improve the appearance of the underside of the kit's flight deck parts.



Note that in the aft-most roller-door opening, the camouflage pattern wraps into the opening.
That is because the roller door at this location is recessed into the opening unlike other roller doors which are flush with the bulkhead exterior. Generally, where there are bollards on the hangar deck, the roller door just outside it is recessed. All other roller doors are flush.

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-Steve L.

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That is fantastic Steve - the level of detail you've achieved is really remarkable.

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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

Steve,

Words fail me, love the detail.

Bob W

Cool!!!


Jose

I came across your model tonight ...unbelievable.

My grandfather served on the Yorktown during WWII -- he would have been proud of your ship. However, your ship makes me nervous about my own model -- I was planning on visiting the Yorktown as well as build my own (and first) 350 model this December (just ordered it), but how could I ever represent his ship after what you've done!

Nice Job ...that's an understatement.

compliments
very beautiful model and excellently realized
Luciano

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Had to come back here to see how to put together a 1/350 carrier the right way.

When I first saw this build I did one of these, Now what I see leaves me doing this Awesome build so far, look forward to completion. Can't wait to get back into carriers again, I just have to kick this destroyer and cruiser disease I have right now.

Matt

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In the yards right now:
USS Utah AG-16
On Hold
1/350 USS Portland CA-33 1942
1/350 Trumpeter Texas with a twist

Steve

Wonderful work! One question: there is a message that says "Do not have permission to view attached files." I sthis new? I have been accessing this thread for several weeks and this is the first time I have seen this message.

Brian

I see that message if I'm not logged in, I see the pictures when I am.

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Timm Smith
Learn something new about the ship or your job every day. Ignorance is not bliss aboard a warship in wartime. Ignorance could cost the life of yourself, a shipmate, or the loss of the ship.
- Personal Information Booklet CV- 38

We should be resolving that problem within the next few days. Please bear with us.

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De quoi s'agit-il?

great job man, i just finished my model the same scale, i left the hull the normal grey however...you really have a talent for replicating the smallest details...amazing

Hey! What happened to this thread ?

Too funny, I tried to find this thread too just the other day, wondered what happened to it. Thanks for digging it up. This is an excellent build and a thread worth saving.

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Building:
1/48 Lancaster (HK)
1/350 Akagi
1/350 IJN Kongo

Just a few quibbles about your write-up of the Yorktown's air groups. First, until (about) October, 1942, no air group was oficially known by a number. They were known as "ABC" air group, and were named that way - for example Yorktown Air Group, Lexington Air Group, etc. This allowed the squadrons that were "cats and dogs" in numbers, to be part of one ship's air group. To paraphrase what the historian William A. Riley wrote in an article in The Scuttlebutt (the journal of the enlisted pilots' association), it was name first, then number.
If Air Group 1 had any SBD's aboard, I don't think they used them. I have photocopies of a bunch of Air Group 1's Aircaft Action Reports for the June 1944 time frame - and there isn't an SBD among 'em.
I'd like to make two other points. Edward O'Hare was a full lieutenant when he flew on the mission on February 20, 1942. He had been promoted to lieutenant on January 3, 1942. (The promotion and its date is in Fateful Rendezvous, by Steve Ewing and John Lundsrom, page 112.) In my opinion, after promoting "Butch" O'Hare to Lieutenant Commander, the U.S.N. "left him on an island," so to speak. While he was promoted, roughly, in a "zone" with members of the Class of 1930 from Annapolis, he remained a Lieut. Comm. until he went missing in action. Perhaps the Navy meant to promote Butch again with other members of his class of 1937, when they were elibible for promotion to full commander (which I think would have been after the war). Other Naval Academy-educated officers (for example, from the class of 1931), became full commanders in August 1943.
Lieutenant Commander Richard Crommelin, like all the five Crommelin brothers, was from ALABAMA, not South Carolina. I don't know why VF-88 was nicknamed the Gamecocks, but it sure wasn't because the C.O. was from the Palmetto State!
I like your write-up, and only wanted to correct what I saw as some errors. I would be interested in corresponding further with you, on "just about" anything naval aviation from the 1920's up through the end of W.W.II.

Very nice on the detail work!

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Current builds:
Hobby Boss 1/700 Type VIIC U-Boat for my AH

Planned builds:
3 more 1/700 AH submarines

Awesome,how much time did u spend on it?

I'm still trying to pick my jaw up off of the ground. Fantastic!!!!
And then you provided an excellent history of the air crews.
Thank you kindly Sir!!!

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Completed:
1/350 USS Missouri (BB-63) * 1/350 USS England (DE-635) * "Underway Personnel Transfer" Diorama

In Progress:
1/350 USS Bennington (CV-20)
1/144 USS Greenling (SSN-614) - ACAD/3D Printing
1/144 USS Batfish (SS-310) - ACAD/3D Printing

Some errors about VF88 and the last Dogfight of WW2.

Leonard Komisarek was not the second survivor of the last dogfight. Ted Hansen and Maury Proctor were the two survivors.

The leader of the 6 Hellcats that fateful day 8/15/45 was Howard Harrison, not Howard Miller.

Awesome work!!!!
Mark