The Ship Model Forum

Update 51
It�s ma�ana, if just barely.

O.K., here�s what I came up with for the boat booms. Remember, before I start that I don�t know what the I�m doing. I know very little about ships and have very limited experience building models. The only scratch building I have ever done has been on this model.

I based my boom on Figure 2-20-Parts of a Boat Boom, in the NAVEDTRA 14067 Seaman manual. (Thanks Russ!) For positioning and boom lengths I used the �Yorktown Drawings Data Sheet� from Ray Bean�s Essex2, a clip of which is shown below. I started with the boom #1 in the photo, which as Tracy has posted, was used in underway refueling. To make the boom, I reasoned that if it has a catwalk it must be fairly large, but not too large. I picked a piece of styrene rod out of my assortment that looked good. It happened to be 0.06� diameter, which, if you do the math would be 1.75�. This seems reasonable to me for a narrow catwalk. In reality, they could be larger or smaller, I don�t know.

I used a narrow strip of PE sprue (if you can call it that) to make the catwalk. The width was perfect, so all I had to do is cut it to length, and glue it on to the rod, which was already cut to length. For the triangle shaped object that must be where the gooseneck is I used part of the NTDS Antenna Bridge from the GMM 1/700 Modern New Jersey PE set. I put an eye bolt from GMM�s 1/350 Buckley/England PE set on the end of the boom where the Topping Lift (or Vang) would attach and a part of the Boat Man ropes from the same PE set for the pulley near the center of the boom. It�s not perfect by any means, but I think once I paint it, it will look decent. I�m not sure that it�s worth the extra effort, but hey, I�m having fun, and besides, now that I�ve done one, I�m kind of committed to doing the others. As for the next one, based on comments by russ2146, who pointed out that Boom #2 doesn�t have access to a deck, I think I�m going to move it forward of where it is showing in the plans (as shown in green in the figure above).

CHEERS!

Update 52
My Ship Fitter (russ2146 taught me a new term and I had to use it) has been busy. He�s moved the starboard Boat Boom (#2) to provide better access. He also modified the design somewhat to include a small vertical piece of styrene at the gooseneck end, and refitted the refueling boom (#1) to incorporate his new design modification. I think he did a good job and deserves a cold beer and possibly a �swim call� (another one from russ2146). Then, I think I�ll have him install the port side boat boom.

Update 53
My Ship Fitter, being the hard working Navy man that he is, decided to finish installing the last boat boom before breaking for his �swim call� and cold brew. Now for the well earned brewski and �swim call�!

Update 54
Since I am still undecided about how much detail to put on gallery deck bulkheads, I decided to switch gears and think about it a bit. The focus of the attention, the aft elevator, or more properly the elevator drop and well. The two pictures I had to go on (shown below) have made the rounds I believe, but I got them from pictures labeled �Essex Class Elevator Well� and �Essex Class Elevator Drop Detail� respectively, on Ray Bean�s Essex2 DVD. I�m not planning on doing any detailing on the elevator in the hanger so the elevator well detail (1st photo) isn�t as of much interest to me as the second picture of the elevator drop, which will be plainly visible since my plan is to have the elevator part way down with a plane on it coming up. So, I have to build at least the drops, and at the moment I haven�t decided 100% exactly how I am going to do it, but if I want to incorporate some sort of well, then I need to know which side the opening is on, fore or aft, I assume it�s aft.
I decided to bypass the elevator well issue for a bit and focus on the drop. I had seen the picture of it several times before I had to go to the hobby store for something else. While in there I saw and bought some Board & Batten styrene thinking that it would look good for the drop. It�s not a perfect match, but it is close and it beats the heck out of laying strips myself. The first thing I did was cut the styrene to size. Because I can always cut off the bottom later if I decide to, I measured from the hanger deck to the underside of the flight deck and cut strips of this width. I then cut four pieces to length to form a box around the hanger opening. Using the picture as a base (a very rough base) I installed piping and �boxes� to the fore and starboard sides. Unfortunately, I ran out of the 0.024� styrene rod I�m using to make the piping, and the hobby store closed at 6pm. Since I couldn�t keep working on it, I taped the two pieces together and took pictures of what I have so far. OK, it doesn�t look much like the photo, but it looks better than a blank piece of plastic. Like I said, I�m not 100% sure what I am going to do, but at the moment I think I am just going to cut the aft sheet off at the bottom of the elevator platform and leave the others the way they are, but if I cut it right above the top of the platform, you could see into the hanger. I just don�t know at this point which would be more realistic. Any suggestions?

Update 54b
I couldn�t stand it. I had to get a better idea of what it is going to look like so I set it up and took more pictures. I am really happy with it so far and think it looks good. Of course, based on information russ2146 dug up for me, I may be switching the Helldiver for a Hellcat.

And according to some recent posts I have been reading the elevator shaft should be painted Deck Blue. But then, it�s not painted Deck Blue all the way down, so maybe I will just paint it part way down too.

CHEERS!!!!

HI rudnell

always as productive, a beautiful advanced
best regards
Nicolas

Thanks LE BOSCO! Here's the next update. I hope you like it.

Update 55
Today I finished putting together the elevator drop/well. After I put the pipes on the first bulkhead, I laid a strip of masking tape down and put the completed one, and the next one, backside down on the tape to align the bulkheads. I could then complete the second bulkhead and keep the lines aligned properly. The picture below shows this process after I have completed putting pipes on the first 3 bulkheads and am preparing to do the fourth. Note the spacing between the pieces. This was done after the pieces were completed so I could position them at right angles, as they will be when completed. This being the final piece, I needed to align it on both ends, so I removed the first one from the tape and put it at the end. And then put the pipes on the last section... Glued them together and took a couple of pictures showing the four sides. Then to see what it looks like in the ship I again put it all together (dry of course) and took pictures from all sides. The platform and elevator are skewed slightly because the only thing I could find at hand to put it on that was the approximately the right height was sloped a bit. Still, you can get the idea. I�m still thinking I will cut most of the aft section off, below the elevator platform, a task that will be more difficult to accomplish since I glued the sides together, but still shouldn�t be too difficult.

Keep up the good work.

Matt

Update 56
Hey all,
I haven�t really even touched the model since the last update; nevertheless, I got a LOT accomplished, thanks, once again to russ2146, who turned me on to a killer web site of original military records. The site is called Fold3 (http://www.fold3.com/) and I signed up for a free 7-day trial and was able to access (and save to PDF) Bennington�s Action Report for 28 May to 10 June, 1945, precisely the period that I am interested in simulating with my model.

Here are some of the important and cool things contained in the report:

On 5 June, 1945 Bennington was in a typhoon and from 0500 to 0630 was experiencing winds of 68 to 75 knots, with gusts to 85 or 90 knots,� and �rough seas, increasing to become 35 to 45 feet from trough to crest of waves, at height of storm."

"About 0528 forward 25 feet of flight deck collapsed due to heavy pounding of the seas. No personnel casualties..."

�From 0630 to 0715 ship passed through eye of storm� While passing through center winds dropped off considerably becoming as low as 12 knots at one time...�

In addition to the damage to the flight deck, both catapults were out, gas stations 1 and 2 were carried away and stations 3 and 4 were leaking. Three Hangar Deck Curtains were carried away, the number one 40mm gun mount was damaged and the forward antenna mast was missing. Even with this damage Bennington was still able to �operate aircraft on a reduced basis. Fighters were able to take off with 500 lb. bomb loads. However it was not considered safe to attempt to launch loaded VB and VT."

On 6 June Bennington launched Flyable Duds (19VMF, 5VT), damaged planes that can fly but aren�t suitable for fighting, and landed replacement planes (6VMF, 14VF, 3VB, 2VT)

On 7 June several TCAPs (Task Operations Course of Action Plan?) were launched and recovered.

The report states that. �The outstanding bright spot of this period was the Kanoya Airfield Strike on 8 June 1945.�

The report also contains the �Aircraft Action Report� from VMF (CV) 112-123 for 8 June 1945, which begins, �Marine Fighting Squadron (CV) 112 and VF-82, in company with a host of fighters with Task Groups 38.1 and 38.4, had a number of unpleasant surprises this afternoon for the Nips at Kanoya airfield, South Kyushu. The surprises were in the form of 500-pound bombs equipped with VT fuses which caused them to burst from 10 to 40 feet above the ground providing adequate angular elevation so as to reach into revetments after aircraft."

This was the first time that VT fuzes were used, which is significant.

The 11 F4U�s of VMF carried the 500-pound bombs, the 26 F6F�s (only 23 made it to the target, 3 turned back) each carried two 250-pound frags.

It should be noted that all 37 planes involved in the strike were launched in just 14 minutes (1002-1016), without catapults.

The �Aircraft Action Report� from VMF concludes, �The corsairs landed aboard with an average of 50 gallons in their tanks. As soon as the pilots entered the Ready Room the ACI officer mounted his desk and shouted, 'That was the last mission fellows - we are going home.' The shouts shook the ready room." One can only imagine the scene. Though just reading it, I could almost feel their excitement.

So now I know the date and time I want to model, 8 June 1945, 1002-1016, and what planes I need to include. To that end I redid my plane layout as shown below. (Whenever I do this is amazes me how they managed over 100 planes efficiently. Incredible!) The other thing I learned is that I need to scratch-build some 500 pound bombs and some 200 pound frags to put on the planes.

Since I haven�t done anything on the model, I wasn�t going to post an update today, but I had a visiting aviator alight on Benny�s flight deck I wanted to share and thought while I was at it that I would relate the cool information I discovered. Anyway, here are the pix that spawned this post. Can you say Mothra?

Update 57
I�m happy to say that Benny survived the attack of Mothra unscathed and with no casualties.

Unfortunately, I didn�t get anything done on the model itself again today, but I did get some more things finalized in my mind as to how I want to present the model when it is completed. And there is a new development I would like to get some feedback on.

First, I did some digging to determine what order they would have launched the planes, and once again russ2146 came to the rescue. When I asked about the order he replied, �Who goes first? Don't really know but i suspect it will have something to do with relative fuel capacity and fuel usage.� So, I got on the Internet and found out the following:

F4U Corsair: Range � 1,015 miles; Cruising Speed � 185 mph
F6F Hellcat: Range � 1,530 miles; Cruising Speed � 200 mph

Both of these capabilities makes me think that they launched the Corsairs first because they can�t fly as far or as fast. So, I changed the plane layout once again to move the Corsairs up front. You may have noticed that one of the corsairs has folded wings. That is because only 11 corsairs went out on the strike on Kanoya airfield. Fortunately, one wing was loose on one of the 12 I have, so I wiggled it off. The other wing was a little trickier, but by scoring the glue at the seam I was able to use fatigue to my advantage to remove it.

You probably also noticed the LARGE plane in the hanger deck. Let me explain�

I�m sure that I have mentioned that I am building this model for my dad, who not only sailed on Bennington in 1953 as a Midshipman at Annapolis, he also spent a 20 year career in the Air Force, including a tour in Vietnam in 1966, flying AC-47s (Spooky). While looking on the Internet for something else, (isn�t that the way it always goes) I discovered that L�Arsenal has a 1/350 scale Douglas DC-3 / C-47 Skytrain WWII Workhorse (AC350-98). So, I�m thinking, this model is a tribute to my dad. What if I were to hide an AC-47 in the aft end of the hanger deck? O.K., so I know it would never fit in real life and I know that AC-47s didn�t exist on June 8, 1945, but it is a model, and I doubt very seriously that they would be watching movies while launching a strike either. The ends of the hanger deck can be considered tributes to a man I admire very much. I think it would be cool! Am I off base here? Would it not be cool and just be stupid? Any thoughts?

I vote for the aircraft. Wonderful model.

Thanks PetrolGator, I appreciate the kind words and the vote.
1 For - 0 Against!

Update 58
I�m back at it�

Last week I posted pictures of the navigation lights (I called them running lights at the time) that I installed in the bow. Unfortunately, that�s not where they were. They were on the bridge, as can be seen it the picture below. It�s the L-shaped object just to the right of the scoreboard. Since I put the lights in the wrong place the first time, I had to buy new ones because I destroyed the old ones trying to get them out. They arrived earlier today (um, I mean, yesterday) so I put them where they are supposed to go on the bridge. I did the port side first, before thinking to take pictures. The installation required drilling a small (71 gauge) hole in the bulkhead immediately underneath the platform below where the light was to be attached, to pass the wires into the center of the island. Eventually the wires will pass through both the flight deck and the hanger deck and into the hull cavity. From there, they will go through the hull into the base and out to a switch and power. The light was then bent at 90 degrees, using tweezers and an Exacto knife, and glued in place. The bracket was made using 0.010� x 0.100� styrene strips that I cut in half. They were glued in place, allowed to dry, and then trimmed before being painted. Then I hooked up the lights. I�m extremely happy with the way they turned out. The lights are too bright, and need to be toned down, but using red and green enamel paint will reduce the intensity, and allow the lights to be seen when they aren�t turned on.

Update 59
I had a pretty busy day today, so I didn�t get much done on the modeling front. I did spend some time making the decals (Nose numbers and tail markings) in AutoCad for the new planes that are on the way. I also painted the lights I installed yesterday, giving them both two coats, red on the port side, green on the starboard side.

The first benefit of having painted them is that they are clearly visible even without the lights on. The first three pictures were taken with the lights off using Auto Flash on the camera.

Port Side Starboard Side Overhead view I think t looks good with the lights off, but the biggest advantage of having painted them is that it was effective at reducing the intensity of the lights, which I thought was needed, especially the green light. The next set of pictures was taken with the lights on, my bench light on and the camera flash turned off. This set of pictures is probably more representative of what it looks like with the lights on than the set that follows.

Port side Starboard side Overhead view The final set of pictures was taken with the lights on under normal house lighting, again with the camera flash turned off.

Port side Starboard side Overhead view View from front looking aft If you compare these pictures with the ones from my previous post (Post 58) you can see that the intensity of the lights was diminished considerably. I think that the green light still seems a little bright, so I�m going to give it one more coat of paint.

It�s the weekend, so I�m sure you will be hearing more from me in the not too distant future.

CHEERS!!!

Update 60
�The best laid plans of mice and men.� My modeling plans for the weekend pretty much went out the window this weekend. My scanner and printer, which I purchased over 10 years ago, have both been giving me fits and needed to be replaced, so I bought a brother MFC-J6710DW (because it scans and prints up to 11�x17�), and spent most of the blasted weekend getting it hooked up and working. The fact that I couldn�t remember my Wi-Fi password didn�t help matters. After getting it working, I had to break it in. Right? So, I finished the decal sheet I had started working on and printed it on Testor�s white decal paper. Several of the decals on the sheet are to be a surprise for my dad, so I debated about posting them, but even though he has the URL for this site, I am fairly confident that he doesn�t look at it and won�t see these. (If you are reading this dad, SURPRISE!)

The decal sheet contains; 1) decals for the extra 12 Hellcats that don�t come with the kit, including nose numbers, tail and wing markings, and the insignias; 2) signal flags for a not so hidden message I want to send him; 3) Benny�s scoreboard in July 1945; and 4) decals for the hangar deck (I owe the correct spelling to, guess who? Yep, Tracy).

I used white decal paper instead of clear (which I would prefer) because printers don�t print white. You will notice therefore, that the decals going on the ship have dark blue or gray borders around them. This is so that when I cut around the decal, the fringe matches the paint, or at least closer than white would. Air groups on Bennington had numbers on their noses and �Christmas trees� on their tail and wings for identification. The Trumpeter Essex and plane kits do not have nose numbers, and obviously don�t have the Christmas trees, which was initially the reason I decided to make decals. To make the nose numbers, I found a font on the NET called �US Navy Markings� and downloaded it. Unfortunately, since I couldn�t print white, making the numbers was somewhat complicated. In AutoCad, I typed in the numbers individually using the US Navy Markings font, traced them and then deleted the text. This allowed me to then draw a border around the numbers and fill the space between the number and the border leaving a blank space that since printed on white paper is white when printed. A similar process was used to make the Christmas Trees. I used pictures to draw the shape and a border and filled the space between them. I�ve learned, thanks to many of you on this Forum, either directly or indirectly, that flags messages are basically read starboard side first, inboard out. Thus for the message I am sending, �USNA CRUISE 1955 � I LOVE YOU DAD RUSS� the flags on the starboard side will look pretty much as they do on the decal sheet (folded in half of course), but the �columns� of flags on the Port side will be reversed from the sheet, i.e., I LOVE YOU will be on the inside Port halyard, RUSS will be on the outside.
The scoreboard was made using a picture you have seen before if you have been following this thread, taken in 1945. The flags and ships were figures clipped from the Net, the ships actually being lifted from the MadelWarships.com �Calling All Ship Fans� page. They�re all battleships, which obviously they wouldn�t have been, but since I don�t have a picture with enough detail to see what they were and they are barely visible anyway, I didn�t try to use different ships types.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have decided to make the hangar deck a tribute to my dad. I also, recently decided to include a memorial to those who gave their lives or were lost while serving on Bennington during World War II. I�m still thinking about including this on the frame, but if that doesn�t work out these brave lads will still be honored.
I made two decals to honor my dad. The first one is to thank him for the sacrifices he made going to Vietnam where he flew an AC-47 and received the Distinguished Flying Cross, among many others, which thankfully does not include the Purple Heart. It will look good behind the plane I decide to include.

The last is to honor his achievement, as starting center and middle line backer for Navy when they beat Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl 21-0, in 1955.

A very fitting tribute, besides it would be funny to find a C-47 in the hangar and have everyone scratching their heads on how the heck it got in there!

Matt

Update 61
I received the 1/350 scale Douglas DC3 (or in my case AC-47) from L�Arsenal, and since I have to complete everything in the hangar before the flight deck can be attached, I decided to build it. This was my first experience with resin and I think I like it. Assembly of the main structure consisted of 4 parts; the fuselage, the wings and two vertical stabilizers. With a little trimming, it all went together nicely. The paint schedule I found for �Puff� called for Dark Green (FS 34079), Light Green (FS 34102), Tan (FS 30219) and Gloss Black (FS 17038). I didn�t want to go out and buy a whole set of paints for such a small piece that is going to be in the hangar, so I mixed and matched paints that I already had. For the Dark Green I used Testor�s Flat Olive Enamel, for the light green I used Testor�s Flat Green Enamel lightened with about an equal amount of Testor�s White Enamel and a smidge of the Flat Olive. For the Tan I used Testor�s light Tan Enamel that I made even lighter with probably about a third as much white. For the Gloss Black I used Model Master�s Flat Black Acrylic. I painted all windows and an open door with the same Flat Black. All in all I like the way it came out.
Here are some pix of Puff for your viewing pleasure. OK, it�s not a ship, it�s not even Navy, and if an AC-47 was ever on a carrier, it would be getting ferried on the flight deck. Nevertheless, one is going in my model as a tribute to my dad, so I�m posting them. The first 5 pix were taken with the flash on, the last 4 with it off. My research helper can�t help me today so there is a good chance that I will get to work on the model some more. YEAH!!!

HI Rdutnell

Nice C47
Nicolas

Your a very busy man Rdutnell matey

Like what your up to and I see your having fun doing it, Well done

Looking good there On ship and aircraft.

Watching with Interest

Update 62
And the journey continues�

Thanks for the nice words Nicolas and Captain pugwash. I appreciate it. And yes Captain I stay pretty busy, but my work is cyclical and since things are slow, and we�re in a drought so I can�t collect data. to keep from going crazy, I�ve been doing a lot of modeling recently. Of course, some would say that that ship has sailed and the fact that I�m modeling as much as I am proves it. Well, good for them. )

In the last post I failed to show the paint job on the underneath side, but I did paint it. I started the day with an outside inspection as an arachnid of some sort (we always called them wolf spiders, but definitely harmless) who gave Puff quite the looking over. She (probably) also helped and once when I was cutting decals a small piece shot off and she went after it. When I shooed her off she raised up on her hind legs ready to stand her ground. Too big for her breaches I would say. But I digress and as you will see I have finished building Puff, and this little unexpected side project turned into a lot of fun. The little model was a joy to build and once again I learned many things I did not know previously in the process. Before getting to the model itself, I�m going to give a brief glimpse of history. Some of what follows, I knew, some was new to me.

As I�ve said in previous posts, My dad flew AC-47�s in Vietnam. He was with the 4th Air Command Squadron and was there from Jan. '66 to Oct. '66, when the Red Cross brought him home early because my mom was in the hospital with a collapsed lung. Here's a brief chronology of his tour, as best I can tell:

January, '66 � Bien Hoa - Very short stay
Binh Thuy - He was co-pilot for Major Waller's crew.

February, '66 - Tan Sun Nhut AFB, Saigon
Still co-pilot with Major Waller, but he was checked out as AC and flew and shot on some missions.

March 1-14, '66? - Tan Sun Nhut AFB, Saigon
On the 14th, he was serving as OIC and was notified that one of the planes in Da Nang didn�t return. The co-pilot Bob Passekoff was with dad at CCT in Ft. Walton Beach and ate Thanksgiving dinner with my family (I was in school, so I stayed with my grandparents in McAllen, Texas, where we lived when dad was gone) and he, my brother and my dad went red snapper fishing the next day.

March 15 � October, 66 - Da Nang AB
Elevated to Aircraft Commander to replace the lost pilots (another crew had been lost on March 9). His co-pilot was Ron Haren. While there, dad�s detachment commander, Lt. Col. Carter, had him design and fabricate plaques for the whole squadron. According to dad�s memoirs of his time in Viet Nam, the natives often referred to the AC-47�s as dragons because of the tracers that looked like a fire breathing dragon. The Air Force Times even called them Dragonships, so the guys called her �Puff� after the kidsTV show �Puff the Magic Dragon�, and were hoping that their call sign would be �Puff�, but for some reason SEA came up with Spooky. The nose of my model has Puff, as shown above, rather than the Spooky ghost seen on some AC-47s.

Mid tour dad was asked to investigate the loss of an AC-47 from Udon (Either S/N 43-49546, Spooky 10 or S/N 43-48925, call sign unknown?). It�s a long story, but in short the Commander of that particular aircraft was an industrious sort of guy that wanted more punch than the mini-guns offered so he put a 50-cal in the aircraft and was testing it. When the plane didn�t come back from a mission, there was speculation that perhaps fatigue stress was more than the air frame could handle. Dad and engineers at Douglas Aircraft both calculated that the stress would be too much, but we will never know if that played any role in their disappearance.

October, '66 � HOME!

January 8, �67 � His crew, in the plane he flew, only with a different pilot, was shot down. If mom�s lung wouldn�t have collapsed, I might not have a dad. The Serial Number of that plane was 43-49124, and since AC-47s had the last three numbers of the S/N on their tail, 124 was added to the tail of my model, both to honor those who perished with her and because it was the plane dad flew.

In looking at numerous photographs of AC-47s, I noticed that many had two letter codes on their tail as well as the number, but in my brief search I have been unable to determine if 124 (the call sign is unknown) had letters and if so, what they were. So, falling back to the tribute theme, I decided to put RD on the tail as it is both of our initials.

All decals were generated in AutoCad and printed on Testor�s white decal paper (since I can�t find white ink), except for the numbers, that came with the Trumpy kit. I also added mini-guns using cut up gun barrels I had left over from the Missouri kit, and antennas. The straight one (it�s supposed to be askew) is stripped 38 gauge wire, the horse shoe shaped one was made from the extra landing gear strut provided with the little model kit. I also ran the wire that runs from the tail forward to the fuselage. I took David Griffith�s advice on this one and found some cheep nylon rope from, in this case the OU IT store and took it apart, to get a single thread, I drilled a tiny hole in the fuselage, glued the thread in place and when it dried, I put a dab of glue on the tail and pulled the thread fairly taught and held it the glue briefly and TADA, it was up. I trimmed it and stll had a smidge sticking out of the glue on the tail side, so I just flicked a lighter at it and it burned flush. SWEET! Last was the incense to tighten the line and some small touch up painting. I�m really happy with the results. Okay, I am more than happy. I am thrilled with the way it turned out. The problem is that I put it in the hangar to see what it looks like� �And I think it looks cool, but now I don�t know that I want to hide it in the hangar. As of 22 minutes ago (as I�m typing this) my dad is 80. I was going to surprise him with it in the hangar, but now I�m thinking maybe I should just give him the little model and get another one for the hangar or just jettison the plan. One thing�s for sure, I don�t have long to decide.
Any thoughts?