1/72 Casablanca class escort carrier

[ADM]

Thank you Folgore, and for Goodwood, yes, any navy plane can land on an escort carrier if an Avenger (the biggest of them) can do it. Some corsair were based aboard escort carrier for ground support of the troops as you can see there :



see this link :
http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stor ... ir-support


Not to mention conveying them on remote island of the pacific :



The marking on planes really doesn't matter because planes moved from one carrier to another very often, so nothing is wrong here. doing a carrier air group with the appropriate marking for one specific aircraft carrier could look right but it's wrong, reality was much different.

[ADM]

In order to provide accurate informations to CVE builders, here is more photos, any kind of Navy plane can be embarqued aboard.

A corsair aboard USS charge 1943 (navsource)



A Helldiver aboard USS charger 1943




A Dauntless crash landed on a CVE (Casablanca Class)



A F6F Hellcat crash landed on CVE 89



Another Corsair landing aboard CVE 89

[Fliger747]

Indeed landing on the CVE's could be a challenge. Fortunately the USN aircraft were built hell for stout. Besides the small deck landing area they were not as fast as the fleet carriers if wind over the deck was an issue. Catapults could be used for takeoff, but landing could be more problematical. Off Italy with no wind the British Seafires had something like a 50% attrition rate from deck landing accidents. In the Pacific the FM2, the wilder Wilcat was a commonly seen aircraft aboard.

Great little ships, perfect for convoy escort. Daniel V Gallery's escort won some fame for the capture of U505.

I do have a C2 hull in 1:144 I built 50 years ago which might someday make a a CVE or possibly be reincarnated as the APA which it once was.

Great ship project! Tom

[Rene]

There are no amount of superlatives I could use to describe your effort on that carrier, but safe to say she turned out more than gorgeous.

Unfortunately...

...how did all those fleet planes get onto her deck?! Is she going on a supply run for the bigger flattops to provide replacement aircraft (a task that was, I might point out, pretty common for jeep carriers in the Pacific War)? I know you said that this is just for wargames and all, but there were no Hellcats and Corsairs�and certainly not Helldivers�stationed aboard escort carriers! Those planes were simply too big and required too much speed at takeoff and landing to operate on them! Rather, these smaller ships only utilized Avengers and FM-2 (an up-engined version of the venerable F4F) Wildcats, and maybe some Dauntlesses (though unlikely, since they didn't have folding wings). Not to mention that the Corsairs and Helldivers are marked with insignia from other carriers (VF-84 and the USS Essex, respectively).

I know this isn't what you want to hear, but it would be better IMHO to be honest in this regard. Your planes are by no means bad or what have you, but most of them look way out of place. That said, I think your work on all those figures is amazing. I can't even get that much detail out of 1/35 scale!

I'm sorry if I have to drop in with some critiques but some of what you said is simply not correct. All the above shown aircraft were stationed aboard CVE's througout the war. BUT when the Avenger arrived, the Dauntless was phased out, simply because it needed much more space among those small carriers than an Avenger because it lacked folding wings. Corsairs were usually not stationed aboard any CVE together with Hellcats, simply because it would have been a logistical nightmtare (you need spare poarts for both of them), same is true for Avengers and Helldivers, either one of them but not both of them at the same time. CVE's had very, very limited space aboard, and even less inside their hangars. The Sangamon class CVE's which were the biggest of all CVE's besides the Commencment Bay class of which only a few became operational in the closing days of WWII usually had Hellcats and Avengers maximum 34 aircraft. But due to accidents and operational losses they usually had about 28-30 aircrafts aboard.

If you could criticize anything at all about this model it would be the muixture of all those aircrafts which never served aboard any CVE at the same time, and their markings which do not match, when Corsairs came abopard CVE's they were usually in the glossy blue camo, the 3 tone camo was being phased out at this time, the red surrounding of the stars was only carried for a very short time and definitely not in 44 when Corsairs first came aboard.

Otherwise I have been following this build quite some time and I think I can say that I know how much effort is behind such a project. I built my CVE in the same scale during a period of no less than 5 1/2 years. If you really build this ship in only 20 month, you've got mey respect for that.

Cheers

Ren�

[ADM]

Hi, ren� and thank you for giving your opinion, you don't have all the informations about CVE air wings and I'm glad to complete your knowledge, you can really mix any planes on a CVE, The USS Santee for example, during "Torch" operation on October 25, 1942 (part of Task Group 34.2) was loaded with VGF-29 (12 Wildcat, 9 TBM Avengers and 9 SBD Dauntless). Dauntless were frenquetly used with Avengers aboards many CVE.

The Helldiver was supposed to replace the Dauntless but the Dauntless remained in operation until the end of the war, mostly land based or aboard CVE.
The USS Kasaan Bay (CVE-69) was loaded in 1943 with composite squadron 69 (FM2 and Avenger), in 1944 with Fighting squadron 74 (F6F-5 Hellcat) and composite squadron 72 (FM2 and Avengers) in 1945. So you see, air wings were often moved from one carrier to another, like this one :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_Air_Wing_Seventeen

Carrier Air Group Seventeen (CVG-17) was established as CVG-82 on 1 April 1944 during World War II and was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Bennington (CV-20). CVG-82 consisted of Fighting Squadron 82, flying the Grumman F6F Hellcat, Bombing Squadron 82 (Curtiss SB2C Helldiver), Torpedo Squadron 82 (Grumman TBM Avenger) and the two USMC fighter squadrons VMF-112 and VMF-123 (Vought F4U Corsair). After training on the U.S. East Coast, Bennington reached the U.S. 5th Fleet on 7 February 1945. Nine days later. CVG-82 attacked targets in the Tokyo area, mainly the airfields at Nachijo Jima, Nanpo Shoto, Mikatagahara, and Hamamatsu. From 20 to 22 February, the wing supported the landings on Iwo Jima. This was followed by attacks on targets in the Japanese Inland Sea and on Okinawa in March. On 7 April, aircraft from CVG-82 participated in the sinking of the batleship Yamato. The Air Group then supported U.S. troops on Okinawa until June. On 17 June 1945, CVG-82 was replaced aboard Bennington by CVG-1, and was transported to the US aboard USS White Plains (CVE-66). During its deployment, CVG-82 was credited with the destruction of 167 Japanese aircraft in the air and 220 on the ground. However, CVG-82 lost 40 pilots and 13 crewmembers, 25% of its regular strength.[4]


CVE 56 USS Liscome Bay loaded with Dauntlesses, TBF Avengers and F4F Wildcat



And when it's about conveying plane you can add seaplane, army planes, heavy bombers and anything you want, see all the photos on Navsource website, you will be surprised.

Yes, I've really done my CVE in 20 month, it was a really hard work, thank you for your appreciation.

[ADM]

Before somebody else ask me about planes on my flightdeck, a sample of what can be found on the flightdeck of an escort carrier


CVE-61 with a load of B-25 and A-26





CVE-63 (Dauntlesses)





CVE-70 with A-20, P-38 and P-47





CVE-72 with Hellcats





CVE-74 with mostly Catalina and probably some C47





CVE-76





CVE-81





CVE-87 with Corsairs





CVE-90 with Catalina





CVE-98 with F4U Corsairs and F6F Hellcats



You can find plenty more here :

http://www.navsource.org/archives/03idx.htm

You have much more choice with a CVE than an Essex class when it come about planes (on the flightdeck) because CVE were also used as Cargo to ship planes on remote pacific battlefield, and also when planes like Dauntless were not used anymore on a Essex Class, in the meantime still serving aboard CVE.

[Fliger747]

What's the biplane aboard?

T

[domi13]

What's the biplane aboard?

T

It might be a Grumman Duck.

domi13

[Skybert]

ADM

What a project you have finished here, in a record time. This thread is rich source of CVE info, that should become pinned. I for one will be tapping into this goldmine for as long as i takes to finish my Rapana class.

I understand you will use the ship in board based wargaming rather than a diorama which makes the plates under the figurines more logical, though less lifelike. I have tangled with magnetized iron powders in paints to solve that, but was much to cumbersome.

Also i have to get used to the manga style painting of eyes, as normally in 1/72, even at the distances we take pics, in scale eyes of humans are normally not seen. Does that maybe serve a boardgame purpose?

In any case i tip my hat to your achievements here, and thanks for sharing.

Cheers Bert

[ADM]

Thank you Skybert, I'm sure your Rapana class will look bright, painting eyes on my figures give them more life and they can express some different feeling in their face, it's just for more fun, it's important to have figures who suit your taste and wishes when you play wargame, it give you much more pleasure. yes, their eyes look big on photos where they're 2 time to 10 time their real size, but when you have such figure in front of you for real (22 millimeters or 0,86 inch height), it look right, you don't need a microscope to see details I'm also accustomed with base on figure, I don't notice it anymore and I wouldn't fix them on my aircraft carrier because moving planes and crew is also a source of pleasure, you never get bored by your model. I have already 50 Navy planes and can build more and change the configuration of the flightdeck if I want.
record time was a necessity for wargame, I can't spend 10 years just to build 2 or 3 warship, otherwise I can't play battle with them. It's a different approach compared to those building for Radio control or just display.

[Skybert]

ADM, Any pics of your warmgaming in this scale with fleets in 1/72: how does that look/work ? I have no idea?

[Haratio Fales]

Standing Ovation, You are the King of Styrene. I can't wait to get back on to building my Light Cruiser. I'm patiently waiting for My 3D printers to get here, and in the mean time learning the 3D graphics to use them. I am also writing a book about the Z plan ships. Your Carrier is amazing stuff though and proof that perseverance in small amounts can yield great results. I'm looking forward to what your next project might be, maybe a fletcher in the same scale, water line to escort the Cas.

Smooth Sailing as always. Haratio.

[ADM]

Thanks mate, I've plenty of others ship planned, including 2 fletcher class destroyers but not immediately (I'm still gathering plans, photos and fitting), I have also to work on my Marines Corps for my expanding landing force, not to mention japanese land defenses and so on. The complete wargame will also include islands and of course I need time. Still I've already started playing some battle with my aircraft carrier against nazi submarines or japanese attacking planes. It's too early to take pictures of that, it will look even better with more stuff.
Haratio I greatly appreciate your work and will keep watching your photos.


I need to paint much more figures, vehicules and so on for my landing force.

[thomastmcc]

excellent work mate what make is your LVTs ?..

also you got a 1/72 scale plan of fletcher class destroyers ? ..looking for one myself..

thomas

[ADM]

Hi Thomas,
many thanks for your appreciation, in this photo there's 3 airfix Buffalo Amphibian (item ref : 02302) and one Dragon armor LVT-(A)V 1 (item ref : 60500).
I haven't found yet a 1/72 plan for Fletcher class destroyer, still searching, but some 1/72 fitting for the Fletcher class can be found here :

http://www.scalewarship.com/store/index ... path=83_77

I will open another thread for my new work because this one is finished, right now I have plenty of 1/72 figures to paint but this message board is not about figures so I will come back after.

[thomastmcc]

cool thanks ADM if i find a 1/72 fletcher plan i will let you know ..

thomas

[ADM]

Perfect, me too I will let you know if I find something , for those who are curious about how I paint my figures they can see it here (just starting with 400 figures (1/72 US marines and Japanese infantry) :

http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.o ... &start=600

[gtbred]

beauitful work of art.

[DrPR]

The blueprints for the Fletcher class can be purchased for $30US here:

http://destroyerhistory.org/destroyers/store/

I have these and the scans are excellent. These are the Bath Iron Works plans for building the ships and there is just about everything you need for a model (and a lot more). You can print in any scale you want.

Phil

[ADM]

Thank you for your valuable information DrPR, the problem is the printer, I think nearly nobody can print a plan of such size because the printer need to be huge and cost a lot of money, this is why we're seaching 1/72 printed plans, but having this DVD will sure bring some great views, I already collected a lot of photos.