Calling all Shokaku (翔鶴) and Zuikaku (瑞鶴) fans

[chuck]

Does anyone know the diameter of Shokaku's propellers? A set of after-market props for Fujimi 1/350 Shokaku look distinctly small for medium or low speed props attached to geared turbines.

[Dan K]

Good to see a post from you, Chuck.

I know that there is a table in the Gran Prix Shuppan volume on IJN CVs but, I didn't get a chance yet to cross reference the English translation. Maybe tonite.

[Dan K]

Table says 4.2m. I'm curious as to how the kit's version scales out.

[chuck not logged in]

Hmmm, the factor after market props definitely scales out too small, then, to just 1/3 of the ship's draft.

[Dan K]

Scalewise, they should measure 12mm diameter.

[chuck]

The scale props are 8mm.

[Atma]

The 1942 version of 1/700 Shokaku by Fujimi is out:
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10149057
Enjoy !

[Dan K]

Yep, mine's been shipped. And the 1944 Zuikaku is already in hand. May review that one shortly.

Thx to the folks over at the J-ship board, there's been some searches done of the USN/USM photo archives. Found this photo of Zuikaku under attack 10-25-44 that I don't recall seeing before. Taken from an aircraft from USS Intrepid.

[Atma]

Dan any chance for a IJN Takao review too ? Waiting for your IJN Zuikaku anyway
Enjoy your Fujimi

[Dan K]

I hadn't really planned on doing so, Atma, but thx for asking. However, perhaps you might care to take a shot...........

[Atma]

I hadn't really planned on doing so, Atma, but thx for asking. However, perhaps you might care to take a shot...........

My English grammar will spoil the fun in making one, unless if you want one in Norwegian or in Greeks

[D-Boy]

Yep, mine's been shipped. And the 1944 Zuikaku is already in hand. May review that one shortly.

Thx to the folks over at the J-ship board, there's been some searches done of the USN/USM photo archives. Found this photo of Zuikaku under attack 10-25-44 that I don't recall seeing before. Taken from an aircraft from USS Intrepid.

Tamiya releasing a circa 1941 Zuikaku in August: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10157021

[Dan K]

OK, I'll post here, too.

This version has been announced in several publications. It�s really just a re-box of their 1941 Shokaku with different box art and decals. But, such great box art. So very evocative for me, almost certainly meant to be Hitokappu Bay prior to the Kido Butai�s departure.

However, there is an error with this depiction. It shows the two additional triple 25mm mounts upon the stern boat deck. You can also see an additional mount/tub just aft the island on the flight deck. These were not added until after Midway, probably late July. So, the depicted fit is correct for the Guadalcanal campaign. Maybe there was a freak snowstorm at Truk that year

[Dan K]

Toshifumi Kimoto of the Vanguard site has some interesting research to share about the extent of the round down at the end of the flight deck: the round down, and the red & white striping that marks it, may be shorter than we have come to believe.

The first pic is taken from the new Fujimi 1/700 Zuikaku 1944 kit and Toshifumi-san has illustrated it accordingly. The next few photos are offered as corroborating evidence. The last is a colorized version of the previous ones of Zuikaku training its airgroups in late 1941.

If this information is true, then none of the existing kits, in any scale, are accurate in this regard. It appears to be an impossible fix, short of scratchbuilding the flight deck as the planking needs to extend back to the striping. I may have to just play dumb on this.

[Atma]

But what facts do we have that this space wasnt painted the same as the wooden deck ? And the red/white stripes started a bit further from the non wooden deck.

[Dan K]

Well, this previously posted photo of Shokaku's round down established the fact that the planking meets the treaded round down & striping. And, the overhead of Zuikaku 1943 seems to further establish that the striping only reaches to the aft end of a line that aligns with the aft ends of the landing light lattice arrays. So, it does seem that Toshi-san has uncovered something unexpected.

Incidentally, this limitation on the extent of the striping, which also can be said to extend only to the point where the angled aft ends of the round down meet the full width of the flight deck, is also present for Kaga, Soryu, Junyo/Hiyo and most of the CVLs & CVEs. It's only Hiryu whose striping extends further forward, as all the Shokaku class models depict.

[Atma]

And what if that was somekind of modification happend only after the 2 month drydock at Yokosuka at 27 February 1942 interupted only at 7 March 1942 to to intercept Halsey's TF 16 after the American raid on Minami-Torishima islands and then interupted again with IJN Zuikaku, accompany Admiral Takasu's IJN Ise and IJN Hyuga on a sortie to sweep for enemy believed to approaching Japan, she went back at drydock leaving it only at 17 March 1942 ?
Some small modifications happend to almsot all aircraft carriers from the Pearl Harbor attack till the Midway Attack, mostly from gained war experiences from landing aircrafts and AA fighting.
Im insisting on that cause I know Fujimi used original shipyards blueprints.
And at the end of the day, maybe this is a disadvantage/mistake of Fujimi using from using shipyards blueprints, change during the construction process happens from the original plan to almost all ships till they are commissioned.

[Dan K]

Well, it's been often stated by folks who've been there that blueprints don't always match reality, though it could equally be true that modifications did take place at some point after commissioning.

However, Toshi-san was trying to make the point with Zuikaku 1941 photos that this particular configuration was there from the beginning. It's a tough angle but, to me, it does seem that the striped portion of the round down stops at the rear of the lattice light arrays.

[Atma]

And maybe this is one of the differences between IJN Zuikaku an IJN Shokaku.

[Dan K]

Good point, though Fujimi does not differentiate in its molds, obviously.