Calling all Essex-class (Cold War configuration) fans

[Cliffy B]

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=P ... 20=%20true

Check this out!!! 130 LABELED exterior and interior shots (including about 10 of the hangar deck) of CVS-12 laid up alongside BB-62 in Puget Sound. There's a few underway and WWII shots at the end as well including some close ups of the typhoon damaged bow. There's other SCBs and CV-41 along with some FF-1052s and MSOs and 2 of the Asheville PGMs hiding in the overall shots.

Make sure to download the high-res TIFFs guys

Enjoy!
-Mike

[gtbred]

AWWWWW MAN!!! Thanks,Cliffy!

[Cliffy B]

No prob man! I found it by accident while looking for USCG plans (which I found a bunch on there!)

One thing I did notice though about the labels...some were shifted to the right or left by one photo, IE shift them by one either way and they work, or just plain wrong. Still, better than nothing.

[NJJK]

I need some color help on the deck and landing area of the Wasp CVS-18 around 1970 time frame. I thought I saw it on here before but I can't find it.

[gtbred]

I need some color help on the deck and landing area of the Wasp CVS-18 around 1970 time frame. I thought I saw it on here before but I can't find it.

May I ask what your Wasp scale is?

[NJJK]

I have an old 1:540 Revell kit I'm going to use.

[Trulahn]

With all these 3-D printing services online, maybe someone with 3-D modeling expertise can come up with a 3-D digital file so we can buy 3-D printed parts?

[NJJK]

Saw on another site that at the IPMS Nationals Gallery Models is coming out with a 1/350 USS Intrepid (Essex-class SCP-125 angled deck) end of this year/early next.

[Timmy C]

Saw on another site that at the IPMS Nationals Gallery Models is coming out with a 1/350 USS Intrepid (Essex-class SCP-125 angled deck) end of this year/early next.

Also discussed here! viewtopic.php?f=2&t=153525#p593559

[NJJK]

Saw on another site that at the IPMS Nationals Gallery Models is coming out with a 1/350 USS Intrepid (Essex-class SCP-125 angled deck) end of this year/early next.

Also discussed here! viewtopic.php?f=2&t=153525#p593559

Thanks for the link!

[Mark McKinnis]

I need some color help on the deck and landing area of the Wasp CVS-18 around 1970 time frame. I thought I saw it on here before but I can't find it.

I use gundeck gray for my modern carrier decks. Sometime you see the landing area painted black and the rest of the deck gray.

[drdoom1337]

Has gallery provided any 3d rendering of the kit or is it all just whispers at this point?

[jpeeler]

Although it's not the 1:350 kit we're all excited about, Revell-Germany's reissue of the 1:530-ish-or-so SCB-27A/125 kit as USS Hornet is now out, and the two I pre-ordered arrived yesterday. Along the centerline of the hull bottom you can see a very slightly raised thin squiggly line (easily sanded off), and that looks like where the now-repaired crack was in the hull tool.

The kit is exactly as you remember it, and it does have the E-1s and S-2s (which for Apollo 11 purposes are easily converted to C-1s) and SH-3s. The decal sheet is not accurate for the Apollo 11 deployment; it's instead a mashup of 1950s and 1960s-style deck markings. Instead of the "runway" style markings for the angled deck it has the three solid lines as seen in the 1950s (and in white). No markings for helo spots, which were very prominent in 1969. There are markings for the aircraft, including specific unit and aircraft markings for the Apollo 11 deployment, and those actually look pretty decent. For the ship, though, the Starfighter Decals sheet will be a must.

Although the decal sheet let me down, I am happy to see this kit come back to life, and I commend Revell for making the needed repairs. I've criticized this kit's shortcomings a lot, but it's an old friend and I can't help loving it.

Jodie Peeler

[jpeeler]

Renwal kit is now in stores in the US. I bought mine yesterday ($28.95 US is what I paid for mine at the shop, IIRC).

Jodie Peeler

[ShangHist]

The question below was forwarded to me by email. I am familiar with the details about SHANGRI-LA's conversion, but the others will take some research. Unfortunately, I am away from my reference materials for a couple weeks, so I am asking for input from our members.

"Does anyone know the criteria that decided which carrier received the SCB27a, 27c and 125 upgrades? Why did the ANTIETAM only get the angle deck; was that the test ship? It couldn't be condition, because the INTREPID sustained major battle damage in WWII and it still received all three upgrades. CV-39, 40, 45 and 47 weren't considered and they were 2-3 years newer."

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob

[jpeeler]

The question below was forwarded to me by email. I am familiar with the details about SHANGRI-LA's conversion, but the others will take some research. Unfortunately, I am away from my reference materials for a couple weeks, so I am asking for input from our members.

"Does anyone know the criteria that decided which carrier received the SCB27a, 27c and 125 upgrades? Why did the ANTIETAM only get the angle deck; was that the test ship? It couldn't be condition, because the INTREPID sustained major battle damage in WWII and it still received all three upgrades. CV-39, 40, 45 and 47 weren't considered and they were 2-3 years newer."

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Educated guess - and that's all this is, so somebody call me out if I'm wrong - is that CV-40, 45 and 47 (among others), being newer ships, had remained active postwar and were still needed on the front line at the time, especially given the needs of Korea and other early '50s hotspots. Older ships that had been laid up and weren't in use at the time were available for the extended yard periods needed for modernization. Antietam was indeed the test ship for the angle deck (and it was a pretty basic conversion for test purposes, though she retained the modification).

The two things I look at most carefully are funding and scheduling - when a ship was scheduled into a modernization program, the funding that was available, etc. I'm away from my books right now, but IIRC Friedman's U.S. Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History went into the rationale a little bit. I remember funding, and scheduling, had a lot to do with why Lake Champlain never received a planned SCB-125 modernization. And even if the funding had been there, by the time you would have been able to get the likes of CV-21, CV-40, -45 and -47 into the modernization pipeline, bigger carriers were starting to haul more of the frontline load, the sun was starting to set on what the smaller carriers could do, and other missions called (i.e., the three LPH conversions; the -27A units moving from the CVA mission to the supporting CVS mission, and so forth).

The two ships with the most intriguing stories are Bunker Hill and Franklin, which although extensively repaired after the war were never modernized. I've never been fully able to nail down why, unless their damage had been beyond what could be totally repaired.

Jodie Peeler

[Michael Vorrasi]

The question below was forwarded to me by email. I am familiar with the details about SHANGRI-LA's conversion, but the others will take some research. Unfortunately, I am away from my reference materials for a couple weeks, so I am asking for input from our members.

"Does anyone know the criteria that decided which carrier received the SCB27a, 27c and 125 upgrades? Why did the ANTIETAM only get the angle deck; was that the test ship? It couldn't be condition, because the INTREPID sustained major battle damage in WWII and it still received all three upgrades. CV-39, 40, 45 and 47 weren't considered and they were 2-3 years newer."

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Educated guess - and that's all this is, so somebody call me out if I'm wrong - is that CV-40, 45 and 47 (among others), being newer ships, had remained active postwar and were still needed on the front line at the time, especially given the needs of Korea and other early '50s hotspots. Older ships that had been laid up and weren't in use at the time were available for the extended yard periods needed for modernization. Antietam was indeed the test ship for the angle deck (and it was a pretty basic conversion for test purposes, though she retained the modification).

The two things I look at most carefully are funding and scheduling - when a ship was scheduled into a modernization program, the funding that was available, etc. I'm away from my books right now, but IIRC Friedman's U.S. Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated Design History went into the rationale a little bit. I remember funding, and scheduling, had a lot to do with why Lake Champlain never received a planned SCB-125 modernization. And even if the funding had been there, by the time you would have been able to get the likes of CV-21, CV-40, -45 and -47 into the modernization pipeline, bigger carriers were starting to haul more of the frontline load, the sun was starting to set on what the smaller carriers could do, and other missions called (i.e., the three LPH conversions; the -27A units moving from the CVA mission to the supporting CVS mission, and so forth).

The two ships with the most intriguing stories are Bunker Hill and Franklin, which although extensively repaired after the war were never modernized. I've never been fully able to nail down why, unless their damage had been beyond what could be totally repaired.

Jodie Peeler

Jodie's explanation regarding the older ships being available while the newer ones were in service is in line with everything I have read. Bunker Hill and Franklin, however, were not the dogs most imagine. From what I read somewhere, they were actually in the best material condition of all the mothballed unmodified Essexes. They were being saved for a future ultimate upgrade that never materialized. Their repairs were so extensive that they were essentially put into nearly as-built condition by the yards. The damage was extensive, but vitals like keel and machinery were fine. Also, another factor in using the mothballed wartime ships is that the long hulled ships completed too late for combat suffered from some machinery shortcuts. I've read that several of their power plants were prone to trouble, unlike the earlier ships.

[Dick J]

My understanding of the selection process was that at the start, the selection went to the ships most "in need". Modifications were worked in as the ships were built, so newer ships incorporated more of the changes. Mothballed older ships that had few of the upgrades were selected for modernization first. The program began with only a few ships but the Korean War, followed by the then-escalated Cold War, opened the floodgates for funding. However, that doesn't last forever and as money became tighter, ways to cut corners were found. One way was to select "in-service" ships instead of mothballed ships because there was no additional cost for removal of the preservation equipment. But then the funding for major upgrades ran out as the new construction programs kicked in and absorbed all of the money. Among the short-hull ships, Franklin and Bunker Hill were actually in the best shape because of their damage. Both ships had been upgraded with the "latest and greatest" during repairs, Franklin especially so since everything aft of the forward elevator and above the hangar deck (except for the island and its base structure) was removed and rebuilt.

[WaspBrat]

From another thread, a Revell 1/540 USS Wasp I am building for a co-worker who served. This is the latest shot of the flight deck area. I got this as a built kit, disassembled it and then began to rebuild it as close to references as possible.

I've made good use of Gold Medal Models' PE set for Forrestal/Essex/Midway class carriers - lots of goodies to dress up this old kit. Also, the deck markings are the Starfighter Decals' Wasp set. Comments and observations are welcome.

Hello,
I am building this model also. It is not my normal subject matter (usually cars and wood ships) Instead this is a birthday gift for my father who served on her in the late 60s to her decomm. I would appreciate any help i can get for her. I have the photoetch and the decals, but its reference information i need. I am trying to get the book by alan raven. I have a goal to finished her by the end of feb to give to my dad for his 70th. Any help and recommendations anyone could supply would be very much appreciated. I really. Need it .

[WaspBrat]

CVS-18 USS WASP. 1969- decommissioning. I really need images of the rigging if anyone can share.