Calling all Essex-class (Cold War configuration) fans

[lost_texan]

WaspBrat, have you looked on the navsource website? That may have some of what you're looking for. If not Wasp, you could probably at least find sister ships as I imagine they were all similar. Hope that helps.

[Tracy White]

This needs archiving:

Once they put the hurricane bow on is there a difference between the long and short hull Essex?

Once they got the 27A or 27C mods they became more or less alike. The 27C's brought the starboard elevator to the table. After the SCB-125 mods, which was the Hurricane Bow,Angle Deck, and a few other things, there were essentially 4 flavors of them:

The Length was made the same, however, there are some subtle differences in curves on a couple of them and there is a flat nose version and round nose version.

Some had the port bow anchor moved to the stem.
Some had a rectangular forward elevator to the end, while others had the forward elevator altered to have a pointed forward edge.
A few had the aft elevator moved farther aft and the crane installed in front of the elevator.
Some have small Jet Blast deflectors, others have the newer larger ones.
Some had bridle catchers installed at the bow, some didn't.
The Flight decks also had minor shape differences.

There are as many variations as there are ships!!!

From what I have been able to find, it appears that INTREPID is the only 27C that received the 144 ASW mods, making her unique. TICONDEROGA and HANCOCK are the two closest matches and they both will need the bow stem anchor moved.

You could make pretty much any angled deck ESSEX from this kit, however, some will require more modifications than others.

Here are the major differences I have found. Remember, the ships changed a lot during their lives. This list is their final configuration. It also doesn't include Radars, weapons or aircraft.

These ships had SCB-27C
They all had Pointed forward elevators and Bridle Catchers later in life.

CV-11 INTREPID SCB-125/144
Flat Bow
Bow Anchor
Small Jet Blast Defl
Stbd Elev further aft
Stbd Crane fwd elev

CV-14 TICONDEROGA SCB-125
Flat Bow
Small Jet Blast Defl
Stbd Elev further aft
Stbd Crane fwd elev

CV-16 LEXINGTON SCB-125
Smooth Bow
Large Jet Blast Defl

CV-19 HANCOCK SCB-125
Flat Bow
Small Jet Blast Defl
Stbd Elev further aft
Stbd Crane fwd elev

CV-31 BON HOMME RICHARD SCB-125
Smooth Bow
Large Jet Blast Defl

CV-34 ORISKANY SCB-125A
Flat Bow
Large Jet Blast Defl
106� beam

CV-38 SHANGRI LA SCB-125
Smooth Bow
Small Jet Blast Defl

These ships had SCB-27A/125/144
They all have Bow Stem Anchors (Except YORKTOWN)
They all have Rectangular forward elevators.

CV-9 ESSEX Smooth Bow
CV-10 YORKTOWN Smooth Bow
CV-12 HORNET Flat Bow
CV-15 RANDOLPH Smooth Bow
CV-18 WASP Smooth Bow
CV-20 BENNINGTON Smooth Bow
CV-33 KEARSARGE Flat Bow

This list does not have every detail listed. Please point out any errors and post any additions.

Regards,
Darren

Also a resource is the CVS-12 Booklet of General Plans posted on the Historic Naval Ships Association site.

[WaspBrat]

So gallery models is bringing out a1/350 angledeck intrepid. Anyone have some info on what to expect? I was thinking this might be a solid kit to work into a wasp.... Thoughts?

[Tracy White]

There are differences between the ships - stern elevator position, forward elevator shape, and bow shape to name a few. The kit will be a good basis for Intrepid, Ticonderoga, and Hancock; all others will require modifications. It's possible if Intrepid does well that they might release other ships - they have done so with their Wasp class LHDs (at least two boxings with different parts & configurations)

[gtbred]

Check out this conversion:

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd16 ... 0012_4.jpg
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd16 ... 0_0013.jpg
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd16 ... 0010_4.jpg

The Gent who posted his pictures - Hans Pennell - on SN said that it's "made from the Trumpeter model, with parts from ISW, and a lot of scratch building, about 95% done."

I'm not much for post war ships - but that is a seriously nice piece of model art.

This is the best conversion hands down.

[Erik W]

Here's a 1/96 scale CVA-34 Oriskany build:
http://www.combatairmuseum.org/exhibits ... yhull.html

Erik

[TonyD]

Can someone suggest the best way to reduce the height of the island on the Revell Hornet? I understand it is approx 3/8" too tall.

thanks
Tony

[jpeeler]

I think I'm responsible for the 3/8" myth from some comments I made many, many years ago, but I think 3/16" is more like it. Here's where I made the cuts on my Hornet build:



There's a very slight horizontal recess where the island base meets the tapered funnel enclosure; it's where the 07 level bridge sections are added. Make your saw cuts directly along that recess. Put the funnel sections aside and then remove the extra height from the top of the island base. Here's a drawing modified by comparison to the Revell island; the dark gray indicates height to be removed.



Jodie Peeler

[maurice de saxe]

I am collecting information to build Lake Champlain as outfitted for its deployment off Korea in 1952 after SBC-27A. Two questions about the flight deck arrangements:

1. It seems that the H-8 catapults were offset - i.e. the port unit was further aft than that to starboard. Is this correct?
2. Did Lake Champlain have steel plating inserted into the wooden flight deck in the landing area like some very late SBC-27A conversions?

Any assistance much appreciated.

Maurice

[James Hood]

Gallery's long-awaited 1/350 USS Intrepid arrived at minimally two Chicago burb homes Friday, July 18.

First impressions, THIS OPINION ONLY:

Sturdy micro-flute corrugated box

Box art "suitable-ish for framing"

Nice, meaty 1-piece flight deck, no seams

CVA-11 from Vietnam days fit

4 F-8s, 4 A-4s, 4 A-1s, 4 UH-2, 2 E-1, molded in grey, not clear. Desperate need for aftermarket PE and resin/plastic landing gear doors, bomb racks, drop tanks (ordnance?)

Hull is thick, slide-molded, may not need any transverse strengthening spreaders (none included)

Mast and radars look good, both plastic and PE parts

No Tilley or deck tractors

4-5"/38 are the only guns

Usable instructions

Questionable painting instructions

Nasty stand

Sparse hangar deck

No gallery deck (but a "Gallery" kit)

Okay-looking decals including air wing; due to some pieces looking uber-delicate, a spare sheet would have been nice

Propellers neither super nor truly awful

Slide mold island and funnel, look okay

Okay-plus Mk 37 directors

No crew figures

5 frets of PE, 2 are rather small and identical

Was it worth the $199.95 plus $8.95 shipping preorder from Free Time Hobbies? Yup, it's an angled deck Essex (have tossed off more $$$ and gotten less on many occasions in this life)

Far-back #3 elevator, only 3 ships had this config, but Intrepid is a walk-on museum ship, so....

This kit is a howling, beckoning, desperate, money-promising call for cottage industries to send more etch, different airwing choices (probably 20+ different types served aboard angled Essexes), other decals, space capsules for prime recovery ships, other gun / director / sponson choices, because modelers WILL send money.

This could be one of THE most popular 1/350 ship subjects of all times, there were a bunch of angled-deck Essexes and they served for decades after conversions in gobs of roles and configurations and fleets and air wings.

Planes? Possible aircraft? There are more, but...
A-D /A-1 Skyraider all variants
A-3, KA-3 Skywarrior
F2H Banshee
FJ Fury
F4U or AU-1 Corsair (well-known pic of CV-9 coming out of rebuild with 1 on deck)
AJ Savage
F7U Cutlass
F9F Panther
F9F Cougar
HUP
S-3 Sea King
F3H Demon
T-28
TF-9 Cougar
TA-4 Skyhawk
S-2 Tracker
C-1 Trader
Mercury, Gemini, Apollo capsules

Let the games (and cutting and gluing and painting) begin!

[Mark McKinnis]

So I am very pleased by what I have seen with the gallery Intrepid. It appears that there are a few of us who want to convert her to a Ticonderoga or Hancock. I thought that it might be nice if we can combine our collective observations into a thread to help with the work.

I bought Ray Bean's Intrepid CD to help and it is very good. Ticonderoga and Ticonderoga seem to be very similar.

Some of the areas that are different I have found so far are the mainmast, remove the aft gun tubs, and the Bow arrangement for the anchors. I am planning on a Ticonderoga 1967 with CVW-19 so I think some of the deck edge antenna's are different.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Mark

[Tracy White]

Thoughts?

This is precisely what the "Calling all Ship Fans" section was created for - if we discuss it here, eventually this will get auto-pruned and lost. CASF Cold War Essex is the best place, since others will have the same questions in the future.

Suggest either a merge or re-post.

Hancock is my main area of interest. I pulled some Tico photos due to brain fart on my last NARA trip that have since been sent to Navsource. I can post larger crops if desired:

[Mark McKinnis]

Good Point Tracy!

Perhaps we can get it merged then.

Thanks,

Mark

[Jon C Ryckert]

I just got the new Gallery 1/350 Intrepid kit and I have two questions about what paints to use, First, should the wood portions of the flight deck be painted the same color as the hull, island etc..? It's hard to tell from what few color pics I can find on Navsource. Second, would Tamiya's Dark grey work for the metal portions of the flight deck and Model Master 4757 Neutral Gray work for the ship itself? Thanks, Jon

[Mark McKinnis]

If you can find it, I would use Flight Deck Stain 21 for the wood and gunship gray for the non skid (metal deck) areas. Then add a thin black wash over the wood to give it a little weathering.

[WaspBrat]

New gallery models intrepid 1:350. I want to alter this to the wasp. A lot i can do myself, but i was wondering if anyone has heard of any aftermarket kits coming out for the set?

[Mark McKinnis]

Nautilus used to make wood deck replacements and advertised that they did 1/350 scale SCB-125 decks for converting the Trumpeter Essex Class WWII ships for the ambitious modeler. They did an SCB-27C deck in 700 scale for me to convert the Iron Shipwright Essex into a Hancock and it was quite good.

Intrepid into Wasp will be quite a project. I am thinking about turning the Intrepid into a Bon Homme Richard some day. The first one will be the Tico though.


Good Luck!

Mark

[jpeeler]

IIRC, a few weeks ago James announced four conversion sets for the Gallery kit are in the works. Hornet and Yorktown were two of the four listed. The Yorktown set would be a good starting point for a Wasp project.

Jodie Peeler

[WaspBrat]

Looking for any web page or links? Sounds really cool.
Ps - IIRC would be a cool name for an after market company.

[Tracy White]

James is the owner of Nautilus Models so I'd check there for announcements and pricing.