Calling all USS Hornet CV-8 fans

[wildspear]

Great photos!

[wildspear]

anyone know where I can buy some nice F4F-4, SBD-3, TBD-1 in 1/350. I'm detailing the hanger deck and it just wouldn't look right with out some aircraft. Plus, does any one have some pictures of the hanger deck of the early carriers? general photos some I can get an idea what types of clutter and nick nacks they would have with all those planes.

[Cliffy B]

Wild, check out Freetime, they have Trumpeter's line of 1/350 carrier planes.

http://www.freetimehobbies.com/search.a ... egory=2770

F4Fs are on the first page, SBDs and TBDs are on page 2.

[Hippy Ed]

Very nice pics!!

[wildspear]

Started work on my USS Hornet CV-8 on Jan 1st by washing all of the plastic and resin. I noticed in the kit that I only have 2 of each F4F, TBD, TSD, and B25b. They don't look the best, Where should I go for some nice aircraft? Does someone make some nive resin or should I stick to plastic. Go here http://usshornetcv8.blogspot.com . Thanks for reading.

[Cliffy B]

Wild, look up 2 posts. I posted a link to where you can get planes.

[wildspear]

Cliffy,
I saw the post and thanks for the quick response. Freetime has all the planes I need and at a good price. I was wondering if anyone else made planes....maybe in resin?

[Cliffy B]

WEM makes them in resin but you'll pay around $5-6 for a trio and they have no details. Just a piece of resin in the shape of the plane; no panel lines (their existence is debatable in the scale), no landing gear, props, canopies are solid resin so you'd need to cut em off and replace with clear. They're good for obscure subjects if you want to do a little extra work. Not to down play them, they are high quality, they just need extra work. If you're going for speed and a budget then go for the Trumpy planes.

[wildspear]

ty cliffy

[Michael Vorrasi]

Dick, considering all your thoughts and observations, I was looking at the CV-6 photos again, and was struck by how small the director tub was in relationship to the modified cloverleaf shaped gun tub itself. I don't think that little director tub on CV-6 could hold the directors of the type Hornet used for her original four 1.1" mounts. If a newer smaller director was used in Hornet for #5 1.1" mount, it is quite possible that it could fit inside one of the outer cloverleaf "lobes" in the main tub. Think this might be a possibility? Take a look at these comparisions between CV-8 and CV-6. Those wing lobes might fit. Only question is would the director be in the line of fire if the mount is trained that way. I think the director might be situated low enough to clear the barrels (but it might be noisy!) If one were to trace the circle formed by the added middle lobe, anything outside that circle would be clear of the gun mount, so it is a possibility. The only other alternative, and one I think unlikely and retrograde, was that number 5 mount was completely manual.

It is possible, I think, that the director was in the "side-lobe" of the tub. It probably wouldn't be much noisier than for the gun crew itself. Given a choice of sides, I would think the starboard side to be the optimal one. (The other 1.1's were to starboard and the low ones could have their port-side arcs masked by aircraft on the flightdeck, so improving the bow gun's arcs to port would make the most sense.) Of course, logic isn't proof. Friedman indicated that the bow tubs didn't have directors, but obviously that wasn't correct for Enterprise. Without more information, Hornet's config is still "best guess."

Dick J, we no longer have to guess, I just read Hornet's after action report from Santa Cruz, sent to me by Fred Branyon. Capt. Mason discussed the ship's AA performance in some detail. Mount 5, at the bow, was manually operated and aimed. No director. The other four had to go to manual operation when electrical power was lost, and Capt. Mason felt the 1.1" mounts worked better on manual. He noted that mount five, being manual, and also lighter, was easier to train and elevate than the four original powered ones. Mystery solved.

[Dick J]

Thanks, Mike. Any of the photos in his batch particularly interesting? I tried to e-mail Fred myself, but it bounced back.

[wildspear]

If I was to purchase the Nautilas flight deck what would I have to do to make it correct? I've read that it's to short, so would it just be adding to the deck? Any help would be most apriciated.

[Tracy White]

Came across some Hornet Photos on Google's LIFE images. Yes, they did call her "Battleship Hornet"

Hangar:
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l? ... %26hl%3Den
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l? ... %26hl%3Den
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l? ... 1cc1ab8ae4


Exterior:
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l? ... %26hl%3Den
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l? ... %26hl%3Den
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l? ... start%3D18
http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l? ... start%3D18

[Cliffy B]

Some nice shots Tracy! That last photo in the exterior section needs to be mirrored though. It's showing the front of the isle but with it on the port side

[wildspear]

In the book "The Ship That Held the Line", on page 171 they mention storing F4F carcasses in the storage bays above the gallery deck. Does anyone have some pictures that might show some of that?

[Tracy White]

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l? ... safe%3Doff

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l? ... safe%3Doff

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l? ... safe%3Doff

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l? ... start%3D21

[Michael Vorrasi]

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l? ... safe%3Doff

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l? ... safe%3Doff

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l? ... safe%3Doff

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l? ... start%3D21

Tracy, geat finds. This last bunch looks to be aboard Lexington judging by the aircraft involved. Battleship Hornet. Hmm. No wonder it is so hard to find stuff in the Life archives.

[Tracy White]

Hi Michael... the squadrons may be from Lexington, but the hangar bay is a Yorktown class. I haven't had a chance to go through my notes yet to see which one is most likely.

[wildspear]

Thanks for the pics Tracy

[Michael Vorrasi]

Hi Michael... the squadrons may be from Lexington, but the hangar bay is a Yorktown class. I haven't had a chance to go through my notes yet to see which one is most likely.

Easy money would have to be Enterprise. Going though some of the other shots that were identifyable as Enterprise for sure, I would say they all look to be a part of the same series or assignment for the photographer. How do you stop Google from timing you out claiming your computer is doing automated searches? Frustrating. Even more than their silly indexing (or lack thereof.)