Calling all Tarawa-class (LHA) & Wasp-class (LHD) fans

[Bigdaddy Mark]

Great Job!!! I wish I would have opened up those doors.

[EJM]

In the picture below of the upper vehicle deck/bay, Can I assume the area in red might be where another ramp is that leads down to the lower vehicle deck/bay? Or am I wrong?

[Tracy White]

No, the ramp(s?) are actually inboard of that structure, which is very simplified. It's actually an overhang, as you can see in these photos:
http://www.navy.mil/view_image.asp?id=127103
http://www.navy.mil/view_image.asp?id=145084
http://www.flickr.com/photos/compacflt/9410760597/

There really isn't enough clearance for a ramp in the area; the taller trucks and tracked vehicles would not be able to pass.

I don't really have any super shots of the ramp down from this deck; there's at least one to port of that central structure. You can see it in this photo:
http://www.navy.mil/view_image.asp?id=136993

[EJM]

Tracy: That fourth link you gave, Is that ramp in the left of the pic with the yellow railing the ramp that leads down from the hangar bay to the upper vehicle deck? Or is it the ramp that leads down from the upper vehicle deck to the lower vehicle deck?
The only reason I'm concerned with the upper vehicle deck as shown in the picture from my post further above, is because I want to detail that area a bit more because for my WASP kit, I want to cut out a section of the flight deck and replace it with clear acrylic sheet so people can see down into the hangar bay, well deck, and upper vehicle deck.
Here, you can see all the ramps that lead to/from the hangar bay, well deck, and upper/lower vehicle decks:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... del/r6.jpg

These are all the pics I could find of either ramps leading to/from different decks and/or vehicle storage areas. These should all be from WASP class ships.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... el/r12.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... el/r11.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... el/r10.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... del/r8.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... del/r9.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... del/r7.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... del/r3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... del/r2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... del/r1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... del/r5.jpg

Is this one of the side entrances for the upper vehicle deck or the lower vehicle deck?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... del/r4.jpg

[Tracy White]

Tracy: That fourth link you gave, Is that ramp in the left of the pic with the yellow railing the ramp that leads down from the hangar bay to the upper vehicle deck? Or is it the ramp that leads down from the upper vehicle deck to the lower vehicle deck?

The later; the ramp down from the hangar deck is on the very left of the photo.

Here, you can see all the ramps that lead to/from the hangar bay, well deck, and upper/lower vehicle decks:

The main guy in that fourth link is standing about where the truck closest to the harrier is.

Is this one of the side entrances for the upper vehicle deck or the lower vehicle deck?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/ ... del/r4.jpg

Side entrance to the upper vehicle deck. You can see the inside of this area in your photo #3:
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/icyhusk ... 3.jpg.html
There is no hull shell entrance to the lower vehicle deck; they load in through the stern or side entrances and then drive down. I don't have any plans, but my guess based on the fact that there's only one ramp each down from the flight to the hangar and the hangar to the upper vehicle deck, is that there's just the one ramp down to the lower deck. I would think that having two would actually REALLY complicate vehicle movement

[EJM]

About the Wasp well deck lighting.......

I've been browsing various Google pics of the Wasp class amphib ship well deck. I'm guessing that white lighting is mostly for daytime operations, though maybe it can be used for at night if needed too.
http://themellowjihadi.com/wp-content/u ... ornia..jpg

And the green/blue lighting is mostly for night/combat operations.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... 9m-055.jpg

Do the Wasp LHD ships ever use any red lighting? Or is it just mostly green/blue?

Now, I'm turning my Wasp into a hospital/humanitarian relief ship. So would it make any sense to use green/blue lighting or not?

And while we're on the subject of lighting, I do like how some models look with the green/blue lighting in the well decks. Kudos to people for pulling that effect off. But........and I'm sorry to say this.......but I don't like the look of those small LED light strips.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v736/ ... ca7445.jpg
........that a lot of modelers like to use. It just doesn't look realistic/accurate enough. I'm still working on plans right now, but give me about another 3 months and I'm going to try to make my lights look more realistic like what you see in this pic:
http://www.navy.mil/features/navywarfig ... 92-059.jpg
Notice how the lights above the walkways are more rectangular? That's the effect I hope to accomplish in a few months. When my plans are finalised, I'll post pics and instructions here.

[Bigdaddy Mark]

You are right, the green lights are used at night, and white lights are used during the day.
As for the lighting affects in the well decks. . . I spent a lot of time detailing the well decks, and making them look nice. I was also worried about how the lights would look, so I ground them in, and painted the tape. I even put a few braces across them so they were not so noticeable. There isn't much you can do unless you want to light them from the top edges because the roof is the hanger bay floor

When it's all said and done, the only way your going to be able to see them is if you lay your head on the table and look up.

You can detail the well deck all you want, but unfortunately most of your hard work is going to be very difficult to see the upper well deck. I added a few clear LEDs up there, and you still can't see squat.

[Tracy White]

Do the Wasp LHD ships ever use any red lighting? Or is it just mostly green/blue?

They might have before night vision gear became more prevalent in the US military, but not now. NVG compatible lighting stays away from red as it's closer to infrared spectrums that some systems use.

Also, be careful about saving and reposting other modelers photos. You're technically breaking copyright and I know more than a couple of builders who've complained when someone else used their images without asking.

[sgtryan13]

With regard to the hangar lighting on models, I think you are going to be very hard pressed to beat out the LED strip lights. I have lit a good # of CVN hangars as well as the LPD welldeck with different lighting methods, and the LED strips are BY FAR the best option I have found. What you can do, just as mark mentioned, is grind them in. By that I mean remove teh section of roof bracing that thhe strip is stuck to in the picture you linked of a model above. That modeler appears to have just stuck the strip of lights to the existing roof structure, and therefore you see the actual strip. If you click on the link in my signature line, take a look at my USS New York. It has teh same strip lights attached to a similar roof structure, but I carved out the bracing and painted the actual strip. It is almost impossible to tell there is anything but light fixtures up there.

[jasonfreeland]

Has anyone ever looked at what the hulls could do as a pure carrier? Basically removing all marine areas and building aviation only, what would the air wing capacity be? STOVL vs CATOBAR? I know the America class gets rid of the well deck, but it still carries marines and their vehicles.

[navydavesof]

Has anyone ever looked at what the hulls could do as a pure carrier? Basically removing all marine areas and building aviation only, what would the air wing capacity be? STOVL vs CATOBAR? I know the America class gets rid of the well deck, but it still carries marines and their vehicles.

Yes! That is one of the options of the America-class. They could make it a full bore F-35 carrier. I don't know about catapults and all of that business, but at least the design would require little redesign to make it a proper VSTOL aircraft carrier. It probably would not be able to make the speed typical carriers have. Its hull shape and power plant cannot make 30+ knots.

[jasonfreeland]

Has anyone ever looked at what the hulls could do as a pure carrier? Basically removing all marine areas and building aviation only, what would the air wing capacity be? STOVL vs CATOBAR? I know the America class gets rid of the well deck, but it still carries marines and their vehicles.

Yes! That is one of the options of the America-class. They could make it a full bore F-35 carrier. I don't know about catapults and all of that business, but at least the design would require little redesign to make it a proper VSTOL aircraft carrier. It probably would not be able to make the speed typical carriers have. Its hull shape and power plant cannot make 30+ knots.

I know its loadout for sea control, but do you have anything on complete hull purposing? I'm wondering about cost comparison vs Ford class and just having more hulls available. I've thought about the speed issue and wonder if it would need more than two shafts?

[EJM]

Wasn't sure where to post this, but I guess here will be fine till I start my own Picture Post thread later in the future.
Anyway........I've been doing some work on my LHD Wasp ship converted to a WHIF hospital/humanitarian relief ship. I just finished cutting out portions of the hangar deck floor and the main flight deck so that I can install clear acrylic sheet so people can look inside. The cutouts were accomplished with the new Dremel EZ Lock plastic cutting discs.
http://www.dremel.com/en-us/Accessories ... ?pid=EZ476
I'm not sure if it's the new cutting discs themselves or my lack of experience using a rotary tool, but the cuts/edges of the plastic sections need a lot of grinding and sanding cleanup. I probably blame myself. I haven't worked with a Dremel in a long time. Anyway, I wanted to hopefully get the most maximum view as possible that a person can have when looking into the hangar bay as well as down into the well deck, and this is what I have come up with so far. I might still add some lighting to the well deck, but am unsure.

[Tracy White]

Dremel's aren't meant to do ultra-clean, they're meant to be compact and quick. You'll need to follow it up with some other medium (sanding sticks, files) to clean it up.

You really should do a WIP, otherwise you post is going to get cut out if they clean this thread when it gets too long.

[EJM]

You really should do a WIP, otherwise you post is going to get cut out if they clean this thread when it gets too long.

Eventually, I will make a WIP thread in the future. But right now, I was just looking/asking for any quick comments about the progress I made. Even though I've made the larger openings, I'm still uncertain on adding lights.

[dlewis]

Howdy Shipmates,
This is my first posting to this forum.
I am the former Ship's Surgeon of Iwo, and the former Phibron (Amphibious Squadron) 6 Surgeon as well.
I am building Iwo from scratch in 1:200, based on BuShips plans.

BTW, my first ship was USS Savannah (AOR-4). "Haze grey and under way". My last view of her was on Modern Marvels as I watched her scrapped in time-motion photography.

Any other Gators out there?
Don Lewis
fmr CDR, MC, USN
fmr HM2 (AC/FMF) Vietnam

[veliko_pile]

hey,

about the airwing that is provided with the USS Iwo Jima, any information on how many A/C there are usually used?

I know it depends on the mission, but any information might be useful.

Do you know maybe which year the model depict?

Thanks

[Bigdaddy Mark]

hey,

about the airwing that is provided with the USS Iwo Jima, any information on how many A/C there are usually used?

I know it depends on the mission, but any information might be useful.

Do you know maybe which year the model depict?

Thanks

You will end up using most all of the AC supplied. The amount on the ship changes about every time she pulls out. If you are going modern you'r going to have to replace the Chinooks with Osprey. They are easy to come by now, I think I ended up with 9 of them on the deck, and one in the hanger.

[veliko_pile]

So from the kit I can make a modern version also?

I like the look of this deck, the position and the fact that there are a lot of CH53. In this configuration is it possible to have somewhere a CH53 with opened rotors? Maybe preparing to lift off?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... Supply.jpg

Also how many A/C there are in the hangar at a given time? I'd like to put a Harrier in deep maintenance (i saw some photos where they lift the engine for servicing), where it would be in the hangar? Supposedly somewhere where it would not obstruct regular elevator operation.

Thanks

[Tracy White]

There's an overhead crane between the two doors, but in a recess in the overhead:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... _crane.jpg
http://www.navy.mil/view_image.asp?id=96673