Calling all USS Hornet CV-8 fans

[Michael Vorrasi]

I just love this photo. SBD's landing on Hornet at Midway. It is too big to post directly, so here is the link to a Hi-Res copy.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... Midway.jpg

This is another from same series;
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... Midway.jpg

[Tracy White]

How did they infuse so much jaggy into that first picture? *_*

[Harpy]

I was looking at the Merit USS Hornet instructions and the only difference they call out is an extra motor launch on the port side for the Doolittle raid vs. Battle of Midway. I hadn't heard the difference noted on the thread or and unable to find any pictures. The extra motor launch is next to the first approx. under the 20mms.

[Michael Vorrasi]

I was looking at the Merit USS Hornet instructions and the only difference they call out is an extra motor launch on the port side for the Doolittle raid vs. Battle of Midway. I hadn't heard the difference noted on the thread or and unable to find any pictures. The extra motor launch is next to the first approx. under the 20mms.

Not sure where they dug that up. I just compared a port side shot of Hornet on the return from the Doolittle launch with a capture from John Ford's color Midway footage. I don't see any difference. Barge ahead of the crane, big boat aft of it, small whale boat atop the big launch. Same as the Tokyo Raid. I think they may have looked at a photo from her commissioning period. She had a second barge under the gun battery location that was lowered on a large swing-out overhead davit. It was removed when her 20mm's were installed.

8/23/14 Edit: I checked the plans for the boat types. On starboard, aft of the hangar deck boat crane was a 50 foot officers boat (had cabin top) and ahead of the crane was a 50 foot motor launch (open top) normally stowed backwards on the plans ie., boat's bow facing aft. (Hornet usually had a 26 foot motor whale boat nested atop this one.) Moving to port, we have aft of the crane, a 50 foot motor launch and a 26 foot motor whale boat nested on top of it. Ahead of the crane we have a 40 foot motor boat (admiral's barge- had cabin top). There was a third boat pocket ahead of the reach of the crane, and a swing out overhead davit was there to handle a 35 foot motor boat (had a cabin). This one was removed, along with all the boats stored along the island's starboard side, when the three Yorktown class ships were readied for war. There was also a 36 foot open motor launch carried on the platform above the fantail. It was moved back on runners and lowered from the flight deck overhang. It shows in Tokyo Raid photos.

[Harpy]

Thanks Mike.

What is that platform on the first set of hanger doors, the hanger catapult? What I am really interested in are thoughts on the supports underneath the platform. I first though it looked like round poles, but maybe girders? I marked a crude line on the photos I had of it.







Don't know if anyone has any better photos. Thanks, Jim

[Jon C Ryckert]

Yes, it is part of the catapult and it does appear to be girders that support them. You may try Navsource.com and see if they have any more pictures. Steve Wiper published a photo book ( Warship Pictorials #? )a few years ago that covered all three ships of the class but it is no longer in publication and I hear copies are costly and hard to come by. Hope this was of some help.

[Michael Vorrasi]

Thanks Mike.

What is that platform on the first set of hanger doors, the hanger catapult? What I am really interested in are thoughts on the supports underneath the platform. I first though it looked like round poles, but maybe girders? I marked a crude line on the photos I had of it.

Don't know if anyone has any better photos. Thanks, Jim

Jim, Those structures are the hangar catapult guards. The guards are to protect the catapult track ends from wharf strikes or tall tugboats, or even bumps during underway replenishment of screening ships. Early photos of CV-5 and CV-6 show these were initially absent. They were added after construction when the vulnerability of the catapult tracks was realized. CV-8 had them as built. The underside supports were girders surrounded by heavy plates around the edges. They did form a sort of sponson as the top was decked. After Midway, both CV-6 and CV-8 had the hangar cats removed and these catapult guards were also removed from both ships. Yorktown took hers to the bottom, where they still exist 16,000 feet down.

[Harpy]

Steve Wiper published a photo book ( Warship Pictorials #?

Thanks, It is #3 and I found one online fairly cheap. Would like to get the MarylandSilver too, but may have to wait a bit.

They were added after construction when the vulnerability of the catapult tracks was realized.

That's helps a lot. I thought it might be to support the platform, but see they are reinforcing the plates.

Will have to do that and the armor band and if I figured right it would be .002 thick in 200th.

[Angeliccypher]

After Midway, both CV-6 and CV-8 had the hangar cats removed and these catapult guards were also removed from both ships. Yorktown took hers to the bottom, where they still exist 16,000 feet down.

Are you sure about the platforms themselves being removed after Midway? When I was doing the camo research to find the differences for Midway versus Santa Cruz I am pretty sure I saw them in the Santa Cruz photos. Of course my computer that has all my photos on it is dead at the moment.

[Dick J]

I reviewed the photos of Hornet at Santa Cruz and the extended platforms for the hangar cats are not visible in any of them.

[Angeliccypher]

Wow big miss on my part while I was looking. Did they just flaten them out?

[MartinJQuinn]

I just love this photo. SBD's landing on Hornet at Midway. It is too big to post directly, so here is the link to a Hi-Res copy.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... Midway.jpg

In the first photo, what's the thing that looks like a traffic light hanging off the side of the island?

[Tracy White]

Not facing the correct direction for a fighting light, so I would guess it is some sort of traffic or position indicator.

[Elvis965]

Just found this pic of Enterprise on wikipedia:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... _1942.jpeg

I believe it's the same thing that's visible in the bottom left of this picture.

Possibly an indicator light of some sort to tell the the flight deck personnel if the flight deck is open for take offs, landings, or closed to flight ops?

I was going to say to tell the pilot when to take off, but that doesn't make sense since the shooter (modern term, I know, but I don't know what they were called in WW2) is visible in the middle-bottom of the photo.

Bob

[Michael Vorrasi]

Possibly an indicator light of some sort to tell the the flight deck personnel if the flight deck is open for take offs, landings, or closed to flight ops?


Bob

Bingo!! That is what the indicator lights are for. Deck status at a glance for the flight deck crew.

[Elvis965]

Bingo!! That is what the indicator lights are for. Deck status at a glance for the flight deck crew.

"Blind Squirrel�.Paging Mr. Blind Squirrel�..We found your nut!"

Bob

[Hippy Ed]

Bingo!! That is what the indicator lights are for. Deck status at a glance for the flight deck crew.

"Blind Squirrel�.Paging Mr. Blind Squirrel�..We found your nut!"

Bob

[Harpy]

If you look at the middle dry dock photo I posted it looks like the armor band is about 4' wide and runs underneath the boot topping. Am I interrupting that correctly?

[Michael Vorrasi]

If you look at the middle dry dock photo I posted it looks like the armor band is about 4' wide and runs underneath the boot topping. Am I interrupting that correctly?

Yes, that is the armor band.

[Haijun watcher]

Alright, here's a question not just for CV6 fans, but for all Yorktown class modeller experts in general...so I'm cross-posting this same question to all three threads that deal with each ship in the class. (makes one wonder why there isn't just one Yorktown class fans thread)

If Tamiya's Enterprise, Hornet and Yorktown kits are all wrong since the hull is aid to be smaller at 1/719 scale, then what about the superstructure?

Is the superstructure the right scale? Or was it just made sized proportional to the hull?

It couldn't be that Tamiya got everything wrong even down to the planes and superstructure.

I don't see why we can't just attach the Tamiya kits' superstructures to Tom's modelworks Hornet hull which is the correct 1/700 scale.

It could be like the way others attach the Trumpeter Hornet superstructure and flight deck to the Tom's modelworks hull.