Calling all USS Hornet CV-8 fans

[wildspear]

Can some one give me a run down on what weapons the Hornet had when she left for the raid on Japan?

[Cliffy B]

Can some one give me a run down on what weapons the Hornet had when she left for the raid on Japan?

Let's see here Hornet had as follows:

1942:
8 Single 5"/38 open mounts
4 Quad 1.1" AA guns
30 Single 20mm Oerlikons

She received the 20mms in Feb of 1942, 2 months prior to the Doolittle Raid so there you go!

Check the photos over at Navsource for placement and other details.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/08.htm

Hope that helps.


*Edit: I stand corrected! Correct numbers entered. Thanks Michael!*

[Cliffy B]

Found these new color photos of Hornet while still in Norfolk at the end of Feb 1942. Thought they were interesting.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/020831e.jpg
http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/020831f.jpg
http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/020831g.jpg

[Hippy Ed]

Found these new color photos of Hornet while still in Norfolk at the end of Feb 1942. Thought they were interesting.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/020831e.jpg
http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/020831f.jpg
http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/020831g.jpg

Cliffy... You da man!!

[Michael Vorrasi]

Can some one give me a run down on what weapons the Hornet had when she left for the raid on Japan?

Let's see here Hornet had as follows:

1942:
8 Single 5"/38 open mounts
16 Quad 1.1" AA guns
23 Single 20mm Oerlikons

She received the 20mms in Feb of 1942, 2 months prior to the Doolittle Raid so there you go!

Check the photos over at Navsource for placement and other details.
http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/08.htm


Hope that helps.

Cliffy, your 20MM count is incorrect. She mounted 30 single 20mm's before she left Norfolk. It is one of the few things Trumpeter got right, because they got the info from me. Two in the bow tub, five in the starboard fwd catwalk, five in the port fwd catwalk, five in the aft port catwalk, four alongside the starboard edge of the island, five in the starboard catwalk aft of #4 1.1 tub, one directly aft of the LSO platform and another directly opposite it on the starboard side, and one in each corner of the aft flight deck ramp. And, to be precise, she had FOUR quad 1.1" mounts totalling 16 barrels, not 16 quads. (BTW, note who sent them those color photos.)

[Cliffy B]

Cliffy, your 20MM count is incorrect. She mounted 30 single 20mm's before she left Norfolk. It is one of the few things Trumpeter got right, because they got the info from me. Two in the bow tub, five in the starboard fwd catwalk, five in the port fwd catwalk, five in the aft port catwalk, four alongside the starboard edge of the island, five in the starboard catwalk aft of #4 1.1 tub, one directly aft of the LSO platform and another directly opposite it on the starboard side, and one in each corner of the aft flight deck ramp. And, to be precise, she had FOUR quad 1.1" mounts totaling 16 barrels, not 16 quads. (BTW, note who sent them those color photos.)

D'oh! Thanks for the correction. That's what I get for not reading closely enough. I was looking at a chart and goofed by posting CV-7s armament instead of CV-8...

[Hippy Ed]

D'oh! Thanks for the correction. That's what I get for not reading closely enough. I was looking at a chart and goofed by posting CV-7s armament instead of CV-8...

Well Cliffy, yer man enuff to admit ya goofed We wont make ya walk the plank this time

[falcon04]

http://images.google.com/images?q=battl ... e&safe=off

I know this or a similar link have been well covered, but the "HNT" marking on the forward flight deck and the flight deck striping shown on some of the 1941 pics is of interest. I did not know that Hornet carried her initials like the other pre-war carriers.

Was the deck already in blue a that time - I'm assuming so as well as an "unmodified" measure 12 camo.

( Currently doing pre-build workup on pre-war 1:700 Yorktown ( conversion ), Hornet, Lexington, Sara, and North Carolina - all in the 1939-41 period. )

Too many models, too little time !

[Cliffy B]

Was the deck already in blue a that time - I'm assuming so as well as an "unmodified" measure 12 camo.

Yes the deck was painted Deck Blue at the time. Read this article from ship camo.com. It clears up the "blue flight deck" questions that abound around here and talks about Hornet as well.

http://www.shipcamouflage.com/specialto ... Decks.html

[Tracy White]

Paragraph 2 on this memo should give you some idea of the marking colors as well.

[falcon04]

Some questions:

(1) I assume the Life pics were taken at the Hornet's commissioning in November, 1941. Any idea when the "Measure 12 Graded" camo was "modified" to it's 1942 appearance? Did she operate in the original scheme for any time at all ?

(2) Where was the break point on the superstructure between the Ocean Gray and Haze Gray for the tops ? I'm assuming Sea Blue was the lowermost color.

(3) Has anyone scoped out the original deck marking layout ? Were there some cross-deck wide light gray stripes like her sister ships had ( albeit they were yellow on mahogany ?

[Michael Vorrasi]

Some questions:

(1) I assume the Life pics were taken at the Hornet's commissioning in November, 1941. Any idea when the "Measure 12 Graded" camo was "modified" to it's 1942 appearance? Did she operate in the original scheme for any time at all ?

(2) Where was the break point on the superstructure between the Ocean Gray and Haze Gray for the tops ? I'm assuming Sea Blue was the lowermost color.

(3) Has anyone scoped out the original deck marking layout ? Were there some cross-deck wide light gray stripes like her sister ships had ( albeit they were yellow on mahogany ?

1. The Life pix are from her commissioning, in October 20, 1941. She operated in original Meas. 12 during her abbreviated shakedown cruise. I don't know the exact dates, but sometime between Jan 1942 and the photo series of 28Feb42, she repainted to Meas 12 Mod.

2. The change from Ocean Gray to Haze Gray occurs on the three tripod legs at the level of the top of the funnel. anything above the funnel level on the tripod mast was Haze gray, but I am suspicious of the mainmast at the rear of the funnel. It looks to be black, along with the funnel top, no doubt due to appearance considerations from exhaust staining.


3. There were cross deck stripes during the commisioning ceremony, but they were removed or converted into less conspicuous dashed lines shortly afterward.

[Michael Vorrasi]

Was the deck already in blue a that time - I'm assuming so as well as an "unmodified" measure 12 camo.

Yes the deck was painted Deck Blue at the time. Read this article from ship camo.com. It clears up the "blue flight deck" questions that abound around here and talks about Hornet as well.

http://www.shipcamouflage.com/specialto ... Decks.html

When I wrote the article above, I was partly speculating that Hornet's deck had to be blue stained. Shortly after it was posted, Ron Smith sent me a note advising that he had seen original color slides of the commsioning ceremony, albeit badly damages ones, that confirmed Hornet indeed wore a blue stained deck at her commissioning.

[Tracy White]

Drop me a line if you want any of that edited Mike.

[falcon04]

Thanks, all. I think I have enough from the web available pics and my references to build Hornet as of her commissioning - keeping my pre-war theme alive. I think I have enough of the flight deck to SWAG the stripes.

I have noticed what appear to be canvas covered .50 or 20 mm on the starboard catwalks, forward and aft of the island. - Any thoughts ?

Also, the elevators - would they possibly have had the light gray outlines or is that just a visual illusion ? Interesting how the catapults are almost invisible except in this one construction pic:

http://www.maritimequest.com/warship_di ... 0_13_a.jpg

Edited by Tracy: Removed image tags. Embedding images from another server without permission is bad form.

[Tracy White]

Elevator photos via the Life Magazine online archive @ Google:

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? ... safe%3Doff

[falcon04]

Tracy - thanks. I had already downloaded that set. Combined with the set from maritimequest a pretty decent picture of Hornet at commissioning is available.

Looking at the pics, it would appear that the steel borders of both the elevators and the wells might be in the Ocean Gray of the upper works, with perhaps the top of the safety rail which rises as the elevator lowers painted red?

I realize that the flight deck stain well into the war was applied over everything, and colored even the tie down strips ( as evidenced by many color photos ), but this has the appearance of being more carefully done ( my pic of the "lonely painter" by the catapult for example). It almost looks as if the stain was applied very carefully to not cover the metal work on the flight deck ??

( AIZU Micron Masking Tape to the rescue !)

Also, color pics of the North Carolina taken in August of 1941 show use of the Ocean Gray on many deck fittings ( as well as some which appear to be in the pre-war dark deck gray )

( sorry about embedding the image - If I take pics of a model I'm building , I assume I can embed from my personal Home page ?)

[Tracy White]

Yes, you can embed from your home page or any image hosting site... it's just that if you embed from another server they might wind up having to pay for it monetarily depending on their hosting plan. This caused issues with Navsource, so we try and advocate for people to behave fairly. Linking to it is fine; people can click on it f interested. But if it is embedded it will download it every time you visit the page, including the times the subscription notification takes you to a post 3-4 down below it. It's much more of an impact on the hosting server to embed.

In regard to the raised railing around the elevator; I will not hazard a guess as to its color. If you've got color footage that shows red, then great, otherwise I'm just going to say "unknown" until I come across directives for flight deck markings (which I have been keeping my eyes out for but not found yet)

In regards to paints versus stains; I would imagine the applicable "paint & cementing guide" for the period would say, but I don't have any copies.

[apfelzra]

Hello USS Hornet fans,
I am new to these specific ship groups, although I have been posting photos of my 1:350 scale model builds on modelwarships.com for several years now. I was enthused by Fred Branyan's offer of providing so many digitized photos of the Hornet, but when I emailed him directly (fredb1948@aol.com) my message was returned as undeliverable. Fred, if you are still monitoring this website, could you please provide me with your corrected email address? I have one Trumpeter 1:350 Hornet kit (with both GMM photoetch sets) ready to build and a second kit to be built for a friend, and could sure use those photos to help me with fine detail work. They may also help me to decide whether or not to sand the bow down to make a sharper cutwater, though sanding styrene plastic can be quite tricky. Thanks for help and advice from any of you modelers out there.

Regards,

Bob Apfelzweig

[wildspear]

I have the trump 1/350 Hornet. It seems the walls of the hanger deck don't match up with the tabs that are on the underside of the flight deck. Has anyone else had this problem? What were your step to correct this?