Calling all Essex-class (WWII configuration) fans

[DennisJP]

Well, thanks to grayson72, who was kind enough to send pictures of an Essex dual stern gun mount, I know what I need to build. Now I just have to figure out how to do it. Anyone have any ideas on how to do this?

I think the flat piece would be easy enough to build, and the shields(?) I think could be made out of a spare piece of PE. The support is the tough part. It doesn't seem like plastic is an option because I don't know how you would bend it to the correct shape. All comments and suggestions will be appreciated!!!

Seen allot of builders just use a block of balsa wood for things like that (Bow, Stern etc.) and carefully sand it to shape.

[Rdutnell]

I�ve been looking at a lot of pictures, and you are right Tracy, the Hancock would have been a better place to start as far as the island goes. To my eyes, Hancock has an island that is essentially the same as Bennington�s.

Using every picture I could feast my eyes on I used AutoCad to draw in the changes that I could see on the island between Essex and Bennington. The figure below shows what I have to change. The red is where the new bridge bulkhead (I think that�s the correct term) will be, and the yellow is where I would have to modify the (I don�t know what you call them) blast shields(?).

If you compare this to the plans from the Hancock kit in the following figure, you can see that they agree pretty well.

Comparing parts between the Hancock and Essex kits, it doesn�t look like it would be terribly hard to modify it. Essex kit Part F8 needs to be modified as shown with interior �walls� removed to resemble Hancock kit Part F6, Essex kit Part F7 needs to be extended with the interior �wall� removed, as shown to resemble Hancock kit Part H16, and the bulkhead between F8 and F7 needs to be built forward to the same level as the bulkhead below F8.

None of this sounds too difficult. Although I do have a good part of the island assembled already, I still think I can make the changes needed. It might be more difficult, but I still think it�s doable. I guess I will find out.

Anyone have any recommendations on what size styrene I should use for the new "walls"? I looked at Free Time Hobbies and there are so many choices and I'm not sure what size I really need to get.

[Rdutnell]

Seen allot of builders just use a block of balsa wood for things like that (Bow, Stern etc.) and carefully sand it to shape.

Ooooh, I like it!

[Dick J]

Intrepid was one of (if not the.. I'd have to check my notes to be sure) the first ships to get the three starboard Quad 40mms underneath the island. But, unlike the other ships that had this added on, she didn't get the double quad 4omm stern mounts initially, so there's a time period where a modeler needs to start with one of the later kits (Yorktown or Franklin) and come up with a single stern mount (either in trade, scratch-building, etc).

I believe that Lexington was first with the "outboard" mounts. When she was modified, she also had the single mounting at the stern. But unlike Intrepid, Lex was the only ship of the class to have the outboard quads while retaining the quad at the front of the bridge structure. Intrepid had her flag-bridge expanded when modified. Lexington had her bridge-front quad relocated to the stern during her '45 refit.

[Rdutnell]

Anyone have any recommendations on what size styrene I should use for the new "walls"? I looked at Free Time Hobbies and there are so many choices and I'm not sure what size I really need to get.

Well I ordered some Evergreen Styrene, including the following:

.030 x .030 Strips (10pk) - (This is to support the catwalks as suggested in the GMM instructions)
.010 x .100 Strips (10pk) - (For the shields, walls, bulkheads or whatever they are called)
Rod & Tube Assortment - (Just to have, may be helpful for rigging/antenae mod.'s)
White Sheet Assortment - (For stern gun mount platform and possibly the extended bulkhead)

Hopefully this will provide the material I need to do the scratch building I have to do, but I'm still open for suggestions.

[Tracy White]

Oops.. I'd forgotten to answer those. I generally vary between .030" and .020" depending on application.

The vertical bulkheads at the edge of platforms are referred to as splinter shields; they served to block light fragments from exploding bombs or shells and perhaps the odd bullet here and there (even the metal bulkheads would let .50 cal through from straight on) as well as wind and spray.

You will sometimes see "double" bulkheads at the front of some ships, with a bulkhead built standing out forward, at the top, about a foot to 18" tall. These were venturis, which formed a bit of a wind shield extending from the top of the splinter shield by directing a blast of air upwards that deflected some of the air blowing back.

[Rdutnell]

Oops.. I'd forgotten to answer those. I generally vary between .030" and .020" depending on application.

The vertical bulkheads at the edge of platforms are referred to as splinter shields; they served to block light fragments from exploding bombs or shells and perhaps the odd bullet here and there (even the metal bulkheads would let .50 cal through from straight on) as well as wind and spray.

You will sometimes see "double" bulkheads at the front of some ships, with a bulkhead built standing out forward, at the top, about a foot to 18" tall. These were venturis, which formed a bit of a wind shield extending from the top of the splinter shield by directing a blast of air upwards that deflected some of the air blowing back.

Oh man! Awesome!
Thanks for the education. I really appreciate it!

[Tracy White]

Half the fun, in my opinion. ALways good to learn something new

[Tracy White]

OK, I've been coaching an artist as well on some details for Bennington, and finally made time to look through the site enough to find the picture you posted following the damage. I wanted to speak a bit about that because when I have before people have gone a little silent, and I want to get this out there in a way that people listen to and believe.

Now, we know from photos that Bennington was in a beat-to-snot dazzle when she went through the June '45 typhoon and had the flight deck collapse. We know from one of my finds that she was ordered into Measure 12 (1945 version) and that this photo shows evidence of a graded scheme. The thing I think people have been going "Yeah, right" on is my statement that when she was repaired following the typhoon, all they really did was cut the flight deck back, leaving her with a SHORT flight deck similar to the early long hulls (Only Hancock went to war this way though).

So, let's examine this photo again. Note the amount of "open air" over the forward Quad 40mm tub. Note that in this photo of the collapsed deck, the "break" is essentially right at the forward bulkhead to the port 20mm gallery, and that this is about where the new round-down starts on the repaired deck. About three sections of wood/tie down have been removed. Starboard side has some more proof as well. Note that before the damage, she had a large positionable antenna truss right at the forward starboard corner of the flight deck, but it's missing from the post repair photo.

So, this is just yet another variation that makes each ship a little different and unique and an interesting tale in itself.

[Rdutnell]

The thing I think people have been going "Yeah, right" on is my statement that when she was repaired following the typhoon, all they really did was cut the flight deck back, leaving her with a SHORT flight deck similar to the early long hulls (Only Hancock went to war this way though).

GREAT STUFF TRACY!

I think you are right about the flight deck. I read somewhere during my research, it might have been in some of the personal writings on the Bennington.org site, that chopping the deck was the solution.

And look, in the photo you referred to in "Now, we know from photos that Bennington..." you can see that the splinter shield on the bough mount is smashed a little too. I just had to use that term. Too bad there's no venturis, but then being an engineer, I've used that term a lot.

CHEERS!!!

[Michael Vorrasi]

OK, I've been coaching an artist as well on some details for Bennington, and finally made time to look through the site enough to find the picture you posted following the damage. I wanted to speak a bit about that because when I have before people have gone a little silent, and I want to get this out there in a way that people listen to and believe.

Now, we know from photos that Bennington was in a beat-to-snot dazzle when she went through the June '45 typhoon and had the flight deck collapse. We know from one of my finds that she was ordered into Measure 12 (1945 version) and that this photo shows evidence of a graded scheme. The thing I think people have been going "Yeah, right" on is my statement that when she was repaired following the typhoon, all they really did was cut the flight deck back, leaving her with a SHORT flight deck similar to the early long hulls (Only Hancock went to war this way though).

So, let's examine this photo again. Note the amount of "open air" over the forward Quad 40mm tub. Note that in this photo of the collapsed deck, the "break" is essentially right at the forward bulkhead to the port 20mm gallery, and that this is about where the new round-down starts on the repaired deck. About three sections of wood/tie down have been removed. Starboard side has some more proof as well. Note that before the damage, she had a large positionable antenna truss right at the forward starboard corner of the flight deck, but it's missing from the post repair photo.

So, this is just yet another variation that makes each ship a little different and unique and an interesting tale in itself.

Tracy, great deduction! They definitely cut the deck back a bit. Not sure if they restored some of the damaged deck area, but at least one cross deck girder in front of the one showing in the post repair shot was eliminated there. Pre-damage, the ramp ends directly over the 40mm tub, but post repair, it is wide open above it. Probably the motivation for doing so, as well as gaining better arcs of fire, was to avoid further heavy seaway damage. I wonder if they did the same to Hornet CV-12? When the Yorktown CV-5 and Enterprise CV-6 were building, the aviators wanted more flight deck and succeeded in getting the aft deck extended 15 feet beyond the fantail (the now famous confusion over the true OA length of the Yorktowns). They were turned down on extending the deck forward due to concerns over vulnerability of the deck in heavy seas. Buships later lost that fight on the short hull Essexes. They were right, as Hornet and Bennington later proved.

[Dick J]

It was my understanding that the reason for the short deck was that it could be done in the forward area without going stateside for a big refit. Hornet might have done the same if she hadn't already been overdue for refitting and AA upgrading.

[Tracy White]

Dick's correct; Bennington was repaired in a forward area and returned for Service. Hornet was the last "original" configurations (quad 40mm gun on the forward island, hangar cat gear, etc) at that point and needed fixin'.

[Tracy White]

Tracy, great deduction! They definitely cut the deck back a bit..

The "fun" thing about this to me has been discovering that there were a broad array of deck configurations. Conventional wisdom was that the long hulls had the short decks at first, or at least at launch, but that Randolph had hers lengthened before her war cruises. We've come to find that Ticonderoga had her forward flight deck "restored" for her first war cruise but lacked the time to have her aft flight deck lengthened until her repair in early 1945. So each of the long hulls had a different configuration, and now we know that one of the short hulls did as well!

[Michael Vorrasi]

Tracy, great deduction! They definitely cut the deck back a bit..

The "fun" thing about this to me has been discovering that there were a broad array of deck configurations. Conventional wisdom was that the long hulls had the short decks at first, or at least at launch, but that Randolph had hers lengthened before her war cruises. We've come to find that Ticonderoga had her forward flight deck "restored" for her first war cruise but lacked the time to have her aft flight deck lengthened until her repair in early 1945. So each of the long hulls had a different configuration, and now we know that one of the short hulls did as well!

This is why I stick to the Yorktowns. Too much to keep track of with Essexes!

[Tracy White]

I had to go to the Essexes because you & Dick were already all over the Yorktowns!

Actually, it was just circumstance... I had the Franklin kit, wanted to make it better, and found out my local archives had a lot of paperwork on the ship and class.

[Rdutnell]

Splinter shield.... hmmm... I'm kind of slow some times, but duh! Originally the boats were wood, and in WW2 the decks were still wood. OK, the Brits were just getting steel and I read that they didn't have the issue of the bombs going through the flight deck and exploding in the hanger, but for the most part they were wood. When hit by bombs splinters would go everywhere. A shield would stop them. Hence Splinter Shield, an apt name. I guess if named more recently they would be shrapnel shields or simply shrap shields.

[Tracy White]

Different type of splinter... or rather, material. Shrapnel is technically overused; it is a type of shell that has steel balls inside with a bursting charge designed to spray the balls about. Splinters are the metal fragments from metal casings and parts of the ship that may get tossed around as part of an explosion.

http://www.history.army.mil/faq/shrapnel.htm

Shrapnel is anti-personnel and not really all that effective against an armored ship, so you can probably safely assume that 99% of the time that you hear "shrapnel" damage to a ship, the term is being miss-used.

[Rdutnell]

Different type of splinter... or rather, material. Shrapnel is technically overused; it is a type of shell that has steel balls inside with a bursting charge designed to spray the balls about. Splinters are the metal fragments from metal casings and parts of the ship that may get tossed around as part of an explosion.

http://www.history.army.mil/faq/shrapnel.htm

Shrapnel is anti-personnel and not really all that effective against an armored ship, so you can probably safely assume that 99% of the time that you hear "shrapnel" damage to a ship, the term is being miss-used.

Veddy interestink! (spoken like Sgt. Schultz from Hogan's Heroes)
I learn something new regularly on this site. I had no idea that is where the term shrapnel comes from. It is so commonly used to refer to all of the fragments from whatever source that are scattered in an explosion, I had no idea that it really was a specific type of ordinance, and the inventor's name. Thanks once again for the info!!!!

I still seems like the term splinters must have derived from when ships were wood and the fragments scattered by an explosion would have really been splinters.

[Rdutnell]

Semi good news...

Raven's book has a photo, that oo me is priceless. It shows the mast of Bennington although the caption says that this configuration lasted "only a few weeks before the SK-2 was moved to a position outboard of the funnel and the SC put in it's place." Now I just have to figure out just where that was. Looks like it's time to pore through some more pictures!