Calling all Essex-class (WWII configuration) fans

[Capt652]

I said it before - and I have to say it once more - Learning about the operations of an Essex class carrier IS more fun, well maybe equally as much fun as, building the model. This paravane information is just another part of a bigger puzzle. Tracy again comes through with a cropped down picture and an explanation of what is in the picture ie, paravane channel, and poof! the light bulb comes on!! I swear I looked at those pictures, both here and Navsource a million times but unless one know what they are looking at, it's just another picture of a ship. I go back and look again at those same pictures and there it is!! Of course I have to go back and change my model- I thought I was looking at some kind of piping against the side of that bulkhead, but that just makes it better...

Thanks to everyone

[jgrease]

Steve - you guys couldn't have been more right about the fit of the bulkheads on either side of the hangar deck. I am currently doing the "cut doors open, attach section to hull, putty, sand. etc" on each successive section of bulkhead on my Essex build. Every section has required me to stop the building process to putty and sand these huge gaps between the hull and the bulkheads. I haven't had a solitary piece go on without breaking out the white putty for a gap-filling session. I am enjoying the build overall but the puttying is eating up all of my modelling time! I have been banging away at these sections for over a week now and I still have 2 pieces left before I reach the stern. I can't wait to prime to see how badly my puttying has gone to date - not a single section of hull or bulkhead has gone into place properly.

[Devin]

I notice that everyone keeps mentioning the bad fit of the hangar deck sides of the ship. I got around having to do a LOT of putty and sanding work on those areas by removing the locater pins/lines on the hangar deck. If you sand those locater portions off of the hangar deck and then simply glue on the bulkheads so they are flush with the side of the hull you save yourself a lot of headache.

-Devin

[Tracy White]

I did the same as Devin but also with the lines for the forward elevator bulkheads.

Capt... the supports for the elevator are wrong as cast. and I suspect Steve's going to redo them so they more closely match the actual thing.

[Anonymous]

Capt... the supports for the elevator are wrong as cast. and I suspect Steve's going to redo them so they more closely match the actual thing.

Exactly.

Regarding the hangar deck bulkheads fit, like Tracy and Devin, I removed the locator pins and lines as well (you have to if you add the transverse bulkheads) but had failed to thin the hangar deck parts before installing them. The hangar deck itself is too thick; the deck sits above the hull by about a millimeter if not thinned along the edges where it meets the hull.

When it came time to install the bulkheads they did in fact sit perfectly on the deck. But since the deck sits above the hull by about a millimeter there was a large gap between the outer edge of the bulkheads and the hull. Rather than pull off the deck to thin it (and possibly break or distort it in the process as happened on my Duke of York build), I decided to use putty to fill the gap.

Hope that makes some sense.

[jgrease]

My problem was the same one Steve mentions - the hangar deck sits almost a millimeter higher than then top of the hull. Even in places where I sanded, I still had gaps to fill. It is what it is. I still am enjoying this build much more than any of the others listed in my sig.

[jgrease]

Quick question - were hangar deck cats removed on a ship by ship basis? Any time frames? Thanks.

[Tracy White]

Yes. Wasp appears to have had hers the longest but I haven't been able to find a date for removal; it looks like it was partially done or at least started "in the field" but was done by July of 1945. First ones I know that were removed were Franklin and Bunker Hill in mid 1943 time frame.

[jgrease]

Well, I've all but decided to do Essex in her 1943 Measure 21 and be done with it. Maybe another one will be done in dazzle, but not right now - I'd like to finish this kit before the next millenium. Then I don't have to think about paint, galleries, cats, or anything. Just go with what I have and do it. That's a big problem with this hobby as I see it - lots of planning and preparing, then the model winds up on the workbench half finished with the builder bored of it.

[jgrease]

Ok Tracy, I am sorry to keep abusing your knowledge base, but I have yet another question. I have the Tom's Modelworks PE set, and I'm looking at the section of PE calling for the LSO platform. Let's just say Tom's instructions aren't always the clearest... Where does this platform go and what does it look like when it is in place? I gather from the material provided and from the descriptio that there are two of them at opposite ends of the deck. Your help, as always, is highly appreciated. I will buy your book just on principal!

[Tracy White]

It was a platform for the Landing Signals officer to stand on off the side of the deck to help guide pilots in. Early war they were bow and stern (bow for when they would steam in reverse) but the bow ones were removed during the war so depending on which ship and what time frame.....

It was a platform with a vertical wind break on the forward end on the stern platform and separate nets below in case the LSO had to dive off or was blown off. I'll look later to see if I can find a photo online for you.

[Tracy White]

You can see the wind shield in Photo NS021265 of Navsource's CV-12 Hornet page...it's just above the left wingtip of the Hellcat that's landed and is taxiing forward. The white spot in the upper left corner is a window so they could look forward if necessary without having to lean around the thing.

It's visible also from above in this shot of Randolph and you can see a hint of the nets around the catwalks below it.

[Capt652]

Here is a picture from the gallery showing the rear platform on Pierre Marchal's great CV-17 model. The screen is in the dropped position.


And one from Harvey Wagner's awesome 1/96 scale CV-17

[jgrease]

Great pics - thanks for the shots! I am really at a loss as to when I am placing some of the PE on the ship. I did most of the stern rails and the starboard side since I just can't imagine doing all those rails later on. I am happy with their appearance, and I think I'm better at touch-ups rather than placing the rails later. On the Sovremenny it was a little easier to wait until later in the build. Here I think the more I get done, the better - I'd rather just be careful during painting with the airbrush. Still, the paravane rails are going to be a pain - adding them now almost guarantees they will get bent up prior to finishing. The latest they can be applied (at least in my mind) is just prior to adding the flight deck.
I have two more questions and I will give it a break for a while:
1. Were there railings at the roll-up doors on the port side? When are they used, or are they always there? (This question also applies to the doors on the starboard side aft of the hangar deck catapault doors).
2. At the elevator, did the braces between roll-ups come out to move planes? I am assuming they did, otherwise that is a tight squeeze.
As always, your help is more appreciated than you know.

[Tracy White]

1. Were there railings at the roll-up doors on the port side? When are they used, or are they always there? (This question also applies to the doors on the starboard side aft of the hangar deck catapault doors).

Not railings but clip-on chains with a stanchion midpoint (for some) at the deck-edge roller doors... doors with deck outside them did not have these chains and you would have a similar arrangement (chains & stanchions) outboard these doors at the deck edge when the hangar cats weren't in use.

2. At the elevator, did the braces between roll-ups come out to move planes? I am assuming they did, otherwise that is a tight squeeze.

They were mounted to the overhead and could be swung up and out of the way. Same-same for the openings around the hangar deck cats on the earlier short hulls.

[Anonymous]

Looking for some advice here. Any thoughts on a good way to install lowered elevators after the hangar deck is installed?

At first I was going to model them raised. But now I am reconsidering.

Great pics, Capt! And to all, please keep asking questions. It helps us all.

[Tracy White]

The deck is already glued on? What about the elevators?

[ModelMonkey]

Hangar deck is glued on, but not flight deck yet.

As you know, the elevators are planked and include tie-down strips. The hangar deck parts where lowered elevators would lie is not. So that area of the hangar deck parts must be removed to show the elevators in the lowered position. Then the elevator parts must be installed in the openings flush with the deck.

But just how to do that without tearing up the model too much and getting the elevator parts to lie flush with the hangar deck will be a bit tricky.

Thoughts?

[Tracy White]

Half-n-half? You could paint the elevator pit area black and position the elevator as it it's just leaving or arriving...

[MartinJQuinn]

Hubert Ortinger posted more pictures of his WIP 1/350 Yorktown over on HyperScale's Picture Post fourm. Page back to May 23rd for more...

http://www.network54.com/Realm/Yorktown/220.jpg
http://www.network54.com/Realm/Yorktown/215.jpg

The level of detail he has put into this model is incredible!