Calling all USS Lexington CV-2 fans

[Elvis965]

Nice catch, Marrtin!

I've seen that clip before, and never noticed that.

Bob

[Dick J]

There is also a similar length snippet in the History Channel program where "Gunny" does the Pacific War. About 20 min into the show there is a clip, again flying up Lex's port side (with the MS-12), but it is a little closer in to the ship. I copied it onto a DVD. Note the rafts on the inboard side of the funnel in this Youtube clip. (Also shows in the History Channel clip.) The History Channel clip shows an F2A on the deck. I told Ron Smith about it so perhaps Steve Wiper might find a useful frame or two for his proposed new Lexington book.

[Charles Landrum]

Check out the photos of LEX and SARA posted by Doug Wilde on Steel Navy. Doug has been at NARA going through boxes of photos and scanning them in.

[MartinJQuinn]

Check out the photos of LEX and SARA posted by Doug Wilde on Steel Navy. Doug has been at NARA going through boxes of photos and scanning them in.

Here are the links, since they'll scroll off that board sooner than later

http://dbwilde.home.comcast.net/~dbwild ... 410056.jpg
http://dbwilde.home.comcast.net/~dbwild ... 056dtl.jpg
http://dbwilde.home.comcast.net/~dbwild ... 410057.jpg
http://dbwilde.home.comcast.net/~dbwild ... 410059.jpg

And a few posted by Rick Davis as well

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p303 ... 8Apr38.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p303 ... 8Apr38.jpg

[Elvis965]

Thanks for the links, Martin.

Love Lex. She was a beautiful ship!

Bob

[ninjrk]

Apologies if this was covered before and I missed it in my review of the thread. My wife has informed me that I'll be getting the 1/350 Lexington for my birthday and I'd like to start working on fleshing out the airwing in the meantime. To put the whole airwing on the deck, how many extra sets would I need for her Coral Sea complement. Is there any info on paint schemes and markings for the planes at this time? I'm sure it's covered in the instructions but since I have to wait for the kit itself I want to get started!

Thanks for any and all help.

Matt

[MartinJQuinn]

Apologies if this was covered before and I missed it in my review of the thread. My wife has informed me that I'll be getting the 1/350 Lexington for my birthday and I'd like to start working on fleshing out the airwing in the meantime. To put the whole airwing on the deck, how many extra sets would I need for her Coral Sea complement. Is there any info on paint schemes and markings for the planes at this time? I'm sure it's covered in the instructions but since I have to wait for the kit itself I want to get started!

Thanks for any and all help.

Matt

There was an earlier thread, long since gone, where Mark Horan listed the deck spot for the strike on Shoho on May 7th. It's something like 25 SBDs, 10 F4Fs and 14 TBDs. Fortunately, I printed it, and have it at home. If I remember, I'll dig it out and re-post it here. Going out for adult beverages with some former co-workers tonight, and I have to go to a wake tomorrow night, so I won't be able to post it until over the weekend.

If you look at the first page of this thread, it will give you an overview of how the planes were painted at Coral Sea - Non Specular Blue-Gray over Non-Specular Light Gray. I recommend using the decals from Starfighter - he makes a set for that time frame. Toss the decals that come with the kit.

[ninjrk]

Cool, thank you. That's exactly what I needed. Out of curiosity, has anyone actually used the WEM interior sets for the Trumpeter planes? Does it actually add much to their appearance?

Matt

[ArizonaBB39]

Cool, thank you. That's exactly what I needed. Out of curiosity, has anyone actually used the WEM interior sets for the Trumpeter planes? Does it actually add much to their appearance?

Matt

Tried it once. You have to cut up the canopy that comes with the plane (which isn't easy, considering its small size and shape). You also have to hollow out the top of the plane. Once inside it might complicate the fit of the fuselage halves, and it�s so small you can't really tell unless you are extremely close to it. Well done right (and with patience) it might look good, IMO it is a bit extravagant.

[Elvis965]

Cool, thank you. That's exactly what I needed. Out of curiosity, has anyone actually used the WEM interior sets for the Trumpeter planes? Does it actually add much to their appearance?

Unless you're planning on opening up the canopies so you can see the inside, I'd have to agree with Abram.

For my Lex build, I just painted the canopy area green zinc chromate for the SBD's and aluminum for the TBD's. You can't really see the aluminum on the TBD's, but the green stands out on the SBD's.

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

Bob

[MartinJQuinn]

This was taken from a post on April 15, 2006.

The Lexington Strike Group, 7 May 1942:
Lexington ranged 50 aircraft for the Air Group strike force on 7 May: 10 F4Fs (VF-2) 28 SBDs (10 VS-2, 3 CLAG, 15 VB-2) & 12 TBDs (VT-2) with aircraft arranged in that order. Doctrine called for the squadron aircraft to be spotted in, and thus take off, in reverse order (rear of formation first, leaders last). For the SBDs & TBDs, the numbers in parenthesis are division organization (division # - aircraft #). Unfortunately, no record exists for the individual plane numbers in VF-2. Remember, only the TBDs had folding wings, and they would be tightly packed as far aft as possible. Given that the aircraft were spotted correctly, the order was as following, forward to aft:

VF-2, 10 F4Fs: CLAG escort (2 a/c), VB-2 escort (4 a/c), VT-2 escort (4 a/c)

VS-2, 12 SBDs w/1x500# & 2 100# bombs: S-17 (2-5), S-16 (2-4), S-8 (2-3), S-9 (2-2), S-10 (3-1), S-12 (1-5), S-13 (1-4), S-3 (1-3), S-2 (1-2), S-1 (1-1), S-4 (Ault-3), CLAG (Ault).

[CLAG section (Ault) has been included with VS-2 (2) & VB-2 (1)]

VB-2, 16 SBDs w/1x1000# bomb: B-12 (Ault-2), B-5 (3-5), B-16 (3-4), B-18 (3-3), B-14 (3-2), B-13 (3-1), B-11 (2-5), B-10 (2-4), B-9 (2-3), B-8 (2-2), B-7 (2-1), B-6 (1-5), B-4 (1-4), B-3 (1-3), B-17 (1-2), B-1 (1-1).

VT-2, 12 TBDs w/1xMkXIII torpedo: T-12 (2-6), T-11 (2-5), T-10 (2-4), T-9 (2-3), T-8 (2-2), T-7 (2-1), T-6 (1-6), T-5 (1-5), T-4 (1-4), T-3 (1-3), T-2 (1-2), T-1 (1-1).

In addition to the above, the air group had 19 more aircraft, 11 F4Fs and 8 SBDs. Of these, 10 were in the air: 4 F4Fs (VF-2) on CAP and 6 SBDs (2 VB-2, 4 VS-2) on IAP (inner air patrol). The 4 F4Fs (VF-2) of the relief CAP were likely spotted forward of the island on the starboard deck edge where they did not interfere with the launching of a strike group - the ship routinely spotted four relief fighters here. The remaining 3 F4Fs (VF-2: 1 spare, 2 unserviceable) and 2 SBDs (VS-2 - unserviceable [S-7 was lost on 4/30]) were spotted below

Hope this helps. Also, thanks for all the nice comment made on the prior pages

Mark E. Horan

The above was reposted verbatim from a print out, with the correction of one typo and the inclusion of an explanation of IAP (Inner Air Patrol), for those who might not know what that meant. Any new typos above are my fault and not the fault of the original poster.

[CharlesRollinsWare]

Gentkeman;

I haven't been here in a while, and I didn't realize these posts had disappeared. Since Martin was kind enough to repost the Lexington spot for 7 May, I thought I'd repost the equivalent spot for 8 May for anyone that wants to do her last day's strike.

Lexington ranged 37 aircraft for the Air Group strike force on 8 May: 10 F4Fs (VF-2) 15 SBDs (4 VS-2, 11 VB-2) & 12 TBDs (VT-2) with aircraft arranged in that order. Doctrine called for the squadron aircraft to be spotted in, and thus take off in, reverse order (rear of the formation first, leaders last). For the SBDs & TBDs, the numbers in parenthesis are division organization (division #- aircraft #). Unfortunately, no record exists for the individual plane numbers in VF-2. Remember, only the TBDs had folding wings, and they would be tightly packed as far aft as possible. Given that the aircraft were spotted correctly, the following was the order, forward to aft:

VF-2, 10 F4Fs: CLAG escort (2 ac), VB-2 escort (4 ac), VT-2 escort (4 ac). Aircraft spotting by numbers as followed for May 8.

CLAG, 4 SBDs w/1x1,000# bomb: S-17(4), S-5(3), S-4(2), S-11(1-Ault).

VB-2, 11 SBDs w/1x1,000# bomb: B-17(2-5), B-10(2-4),B-18(2-3), B-14(2-2),B-12(2-1), B-9(1-6), B-8(1-5), B-7(1-4), B-11(1-3), B-2(1-2), B-3(1-1).

VT-2, 12 TBDs w/1xMKXIII torpedo: T-12(2-6), T-11(2-5), T-10(2-4), T-9(2-3), T-8(2-2), T-7(2-1), T-6(1-6), T-5(1-5), T-4(1-4), T-3(1-3), T-2(1-2) T-1(1-1).

In addition to the above, the air group had 29 more aircraft, 10 F4Fs & 19 SBDs. Of these, 18 SBDs (12 VS-2, 6 VB-2) were in the air on the dawn search. 4 F4Fs (VF-2) of the relief CAP were spotted forward of the island on the starboard deck edge where they did not interfere with the launching of a strike group - the ship routinely spotted four relief fighters there. The remaining 6 F4Fs (VF-2: 4 relief CAP, 2 unserviceable) and 1 SBD (VB-2 - unserviceable) were below.

Another note worth adding is the way the MK-XIII torpedo with a live warhead appeared. The warhead itself was navy gray while the body was highly polished and oiled steel that, in the bright sun, shined so britely that it appeared to be bronze in color.

For the gentleman that is planning to build his Lex as she appeared before or after the 8 May attack, I can supply spot for the last launch of the CAP (Combat Air Patrol) and the ATTP (Anti-Torpedo Plane Patrol) prior to the Japanese attack on TF-17 or the aircraft that were recovered and which ones were on deck in the temporary respot and which had been taken below as they were "hors de combat" from damage.

Hope this helps.

Mark E. Horan

[ninjrk]

Thank you, everyone. This has been very useful.

Matt

[PeteM]

Not sure if this has been covered before as I only skimmed through the thread. My question is whether there were any intervening paint jobs put down on the Lexington's flight deck by the time the flight deck stain was applied, or was the FDS-21 stain applied directly over the pre-war mahogany stain? I'm currently working on the Trump 1/700 kit.

[MartinJQuinn]

Not sure if this has been covered before as I only skimmed through the thread. My question is whether there were any intervening paint jobs put down on the Lexington's flight deck by the time the flight deck stain was applied, or was the FDS-21 stain applied directly over the pre-war mahogany stain? I'm currently working on the Trump 1/700 kit.

I believe it was applied right over the mahogany stain.

[PeteM]

Thanks Martin

[christopher.smithers@bt.com]

Test

[Chris Smithers]

I've recently completed my build of the CV2 from the Trumpeter 1:350 kit. It took me two years. I did a lot of research in my determination to make it as accurate a representation as possible. Ultimately, a lot of the detail in the kit was discarded and a lot of scratchbuilding done. I've published a step-by-step build guide at: http://www.modelshipwrights.com/modules ... artid=2191

I hope you all find it useful.

[Jerry Phillips]

WOW, Chris...............

I am stunned, brilliant!!! You have incorporated many of the "fixes" talked about here, and that I have only dreamed about! Best Lex. model I have personally seen!

Jerry Phillips

[Elvis965]

That is some seriously nice work...well done!

Bob