Calling all USS Lexington CV-2 fans

[DennisJP]

I have these plans as well and have looked at the NARA photo of Lex at Pearl in April 42. Also looking at her photo in the Coral Sea Battle magnified.
The flag bridge does not extend the full length of the flag bridge deck. There is an allowance for a covered walkway around the front of the enclosed flag bridge. That is why in the pictures of the Lexington that area looks kind of square. (To me funny looking LOL) They created a walkway in front by not extending the flag bridge to the front edge of the deck and then built bulkheads up from the front of the deck and left holes for windows and put a cover over it. I guess so the Admiral could stand out there without being hit by sea spray.

[lvsquarerigger]

I saw this book on Amazon and was wondering if anyone is familar with it? does it have any pics or plans not in Stearns book or the WP books?


US Navy Aircraft Carriers 1922-45: Prewar classes by by Mark Stille

James

[Tracy White]

Given that it's an Osprey book my guess is no, but I don't have it myself.

[Michael Vorrasi]

I saw this book on Amazon and was wondering if anyone is familar with it? does it have any pics or plans not in Stearns book or the WP books?


US Navy Aircraft Carriers 1922-45: Prewar classes by by Mark Stille

James

Negative Ghost Rider. The pattern is full.

(What you have is already far superior to the little Osprey book.)

[lvsquarerigger]

I saw this book on Amazon and was wondering if anyone is familar with it? does it have any pics or plans not in Stearns book or the WP books?


US Navy Aircraft Carriers 1922-45: Prewar classes by by Mark Stille

James

Negative Ghost Rider. The pattern is full.

(What you have is already far superior to the little Osprey book.)

Thanks Mike

James

[lvsquarerigger]

I have these plans as well and have looked at the NARA photo of Lex at Pearl in April 42. Also looking at her photo in the Coral Sea Battle magnified.
The flag bridge does not extend the full length of the flag bridge deck. There is an allowance for a covered walkway around the front of the enclosed flag bridge. That is why in the pictures of the Lexington that area looks kind of square. (To me funny looking LOL) They created a walkway in front by not extending the flag bridge to the front edge of the deck and then built bulkheads up from the front of the deck and left holes for windows and put a cover over it. I guess so the Admiral could stand out there without being hit by sea spray.

The plans are from early in Lex's life so do not show a lot of the changes made later but you can still take the bones of her, things that were not changed, and do pretty well. I know the flag bridge extension did not go all the way forward but I haven't seen a pic that clearly shows what the front actually looked like. I just got an HDMI cord so I could hook my laptop up to the bigscreen and look at pics there but they are still not clear. While looking at the Pearl photo it almost seems as if they just cut the front of the cabin off, moved it forward, and filled in the space between. I haven't seen any plans or heard of any book where they describe it in words. Can you tell me where you got your info?

James

[DennisJP]

I have these plans as well and have looked at the NARA photo of Lex at Pearl in April 42. Also looking at her photo in the Coral Sea Battle magnified.
The flag bridge does not extend the full length of the flag bridge deck. There is an allowance for a covered walkway around the front of the enclosed flag bridge. That is why in the pictures of the Lexington that area looks kind of square. (To me funny looking LOL) They created a walkway in front by not extending the flag bridge to the front edge of the deck and then built bulkheads up from the front of the deck and left holes for windows and put a cover over it. I guess so the Admiral could stand out there without being hit by sea spray.

The plans are from early in Lex's life so do not show a lot of the changes made later but you can still take the bones of her, things that were not changed, and do pretty well. I know the flag bridge extension did not go all the way forward but I haven't seen a pic that clearly shows what the front actually looked like. I just got an HDMI cord so I could hook my laptop up to the bigscreen and look at pics there but they are still not clear. While looking at the Pearl photo it almost seems as if they just cut the front of the cabin off, moved it forward, and filled in the space between. I haven't seen any plans or heard of any book where they describe it in words. Can you tell me where you got your info?

James

The book I mentioned above has a copy of the April 1942 plans of the refit. There are drawings of what they wanted to do at a future date but then there is also drawings of what they did as far as the 28mm mountings and as well there is a small drawing up on top of the page of the Admirals flag bridge. If you take these drawings and compare it to the NARA Photo that has been posted earlier in this thread you can see the construction of the flag bridge and what they did. Also comparing it to the 1941 blue prints of the Lexington for the overall shape of that deck.
Really all they did was remove the director and extend he flag bridge forward but not all the way forward, to leave a walkway in front of the flag bridge like there is in front of the Captains bridge bellow. Instead of leaving it open to the weather like in the Captains bridge they inclosed it and put windows. Plus they removing the shielding that was bent forward and put in a new non bent piece. Then mounted the director on top of the newly extended Flag Bridge.

[DennisJP]

Also earlier on this thread I posted two pictures of the Alabama BB-60 that also has the inclosed walkway in front of the navigation bridge as an example. Tried to post again but could not.

[DennisJP]

I have these plans as well and have looked at the NARA photo of Lex at Pearl in April 42. Also looking at her photo in the Coral Sea Battle magnified.
The flag bridge does not extend the full length of the flag bridge deck. There is an allowance for a covered walkway around the front of the enclosed flag bridge. That is why in the pictures of the Lexington that area looks kind of square. (To me funny looking LOL) They created a walkway in front by not extending the flag bridge to the front edge of the deck and then built bulkheads up from the front of the deck and left holes for windows and put a cover over it. I guess so the Admiral could stand out there without being hit by sea spray.

The plans are from early in Lex's life so do not show a lot of the changes made later but you can still take the bones of her, things that were not changed, and do pretty well. I know the flag bridge extension did not go all the way forward but I haven't seen a pic that clearly shows what the front actually looked like. I just got an HDMI cord so I could hook my laptop up to the bigscreen and look at pics there but they are still not clear. While looking at the Pearl photo it almost seems as if they just cut the front of the cabin off, moved it forward, and filled in the space between. I haven't seen any plans or heard of any book where they describe it in words. Can you tell me where you got your info?

James

http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/020202.jpg

Here is a picture that can help you. If you magnify this picture that is from Navsourse.com and one of Lexington's most famous pictures, you can clearly see the Flag Bridge.
Me I studied in the past how to read blue prints and worked construction. So, I have the same blue prints you do of the Lexington in 1941 and in the book I told about PICTORIAL #33 of the Lexington (Not Lexington Class) That one is discontinued I think. In that book is a copy of a section of the blue prints used in April 42 refit. So if your other books don't have the copy of the April 42 refit section of the plans you should get the book. Also there are some magnified and close up pictures of Lexington. Also I did have the Lexington Class Carriers book I believe by STERN a long time ago but sold it. Will get it again soon. From what I remember an excellent book but mostly covered Saratoga and her PSNS refits.
Well I make sure that I say in no way am I a expert but through looking at several pictures and plans of Lex as well as I have a 1944 plans of Saratoga for comparison I have come up with the structural description I gave. Hopefully it will help out.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/016056.jpg

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/016009.jpg

Here is also a couple of pictures from Navsourse.com of the Alabama BB-60 to show you what I'm talking about, to help you.

[lvsquarerigger]

Thanks Dennis

[DennisJP]

Your welcome. I hope I helped you in some way. When you look at the NARA Pearl Harbor photo you can see that they have already constructed the roof of the covered walk way and are in the process of installing the framing for the windows.

[lvsquarerigger]

I've been looking forever as I build and have now found Maryland Silver plans. When looking at the listing on their website they show both the '41 refit and '45. They're a little pricey at $75 and I wondered if anyone has had any experience with them or this particular set of plans?

[Tracy White]

1945 Lexington is most likely CV-16 and not CV-2.
Their plan books are copied from the National Archives. Good stuff, but sometimes a bit rough depending on how good the NARA copies are. Some, for example, are microfilm and were wrinkled when copied, so there's no easy way to get that wrinkling out short of a lot of photoshop work. I should say that I have their APD plans book and have leafed through the CV-8 Hornet book and don't remember any heavily wrinkled plans, that's just what I've seen from my own time at NARA. For a ship of that length I would expect the full length sheets (as opposed to any detail sheets such as island or stack) to be split into 3-5 separate pages. That's what I observed in the NARA microfilm for battleships and carriers.

Given the cost it takes to go through all of the plans and have them reproduced they're fairly priced, but sometimes they might not have as much as you hope - $75 doesn't equal hundreds and hundreds of plans.

[lvsquarerigger]

1945 Lexington is most likely CV-16 and not CV-2.
Their plan books are copied from the National Archives. Good stuff, but sometimes a bit rough depending on how good the NARA copies are. Some, for example, are microfilm and were wrinkled when copied, so there's no easy way to get that wrinkling out short of a lot of photoshop work. I should say that I have their APD plans book and have leafed through the CV-8 Hornet book and don't remember any heavily wrinkled plans, that's just what I've seen from my own time at NARA. For a ship of that length I would expect the full length sheets (as opposed to any detail sheets such as island or stack) to be split into 3-5 separate pages. That's what I observed in the NARA microfilm for battleships and carriers.

Given the cost it takes to go through all of the plans and have them reproduced they're fairly priced, but sometimes they might not have as much as you hope - $75 doesn't equal hundreds and hundreds of plans.

Sorry to be so long in replying but the Maryland Silver website was down for quite some time. I looked this morning and saw where I had misread the plans book. It shows the Puget Sound refit and says updated to May '41 which I misconstrued as May '42. Sorry about that.

[Tracy White]

I went through the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard L9-3 (alterations) files for CVs this last week at NARA San Bruno. No new photos, but I did find an interesting tidbit on Lexington's flag bridge. There was correspondence from the Yard Commandant to the ship captain with regards to a request evidently made a few days previously. The Yard Commander denied a request with regards to construction of the flag plot, saying:

Enclosure of the flag bridge with STS and windows of shatter-proof glass would interfere with the work to be done at a later date. It is regretted that the work requested cannot be accomplished. If time permits, however, a temporary sheet metal shelter will be provided for the Staff Watch Officer as requested by the Division Commander.

So we don't know any more about what the flag plot really looked like, but it was apparently of fairly light construction. It's possible that splinter mattresses were part of the design. Since the work was meant to be temporary and the ship was lost, any photos of this area are likely to be rare and not part of any official paperwork.

[Michael Riddell]

Hi everyone,

I've come across a new (to me anyway!) image Lexington on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N ... hotostream

Rather blurry, but gives a view of the rear face of the island.

I wonder how many photos of her were taken from the RAN ships before Fletcher detached the cruisers? That's the second I'm aware of.

Mike.

[lvsquarerigger]

In my search for detail on my Lex kit I have tried to get some of the PE suppliers to do a smaller set to correct the many deficiencies and missing detail in the kit. I contacted John at Scale Models and he replied very nicely. Gave me details of how a set is made and made a very generous offer. The big cost is the time to research all the details. He also gave me his minimum costs in materials for a one off run. If I do the research then his time to translate that into CAD becomes minutes and would be possible. From the minimum materials he could probably get a run of 8 to 12 sets and could then offer these to any who would be interested.

My question then is anyone interested in both helping me get the information together and also buying a PE set?

James

[Tracy White]

Possibly - what details and deficiencies were you thinking of?
In general terms.
I'd like to redo some of the boat pocket / 20mm gallery details as well as the island splinter shields, for example. Those are items that are at least possible to start in PE.

[lvsquarerigger]

Possibly - what details and deficiencies were you thinking of?
In general terms.
I'd like to redo some of the boat pocket / 20mm gallery details as well as the island splinter shields, for example. Those are items that are at least possible to start in PE.

I was thinking of the missing or incorrect parts such as all the underbracing, not sure of the technical term, such as under the 8" director platform, the missing upper portion of the same, perhaps the correct splintershielding, perhaps the FC radar so as not to have to get it from another set, and anything else that we can figure out to make a correct model. I figure the more people who contribute the bigger the market for whatever comes up would be which is why I posted here.

As a side note one of the main persons there also has this kit, I don't know how much he has done, and is also very anal about getting it right.

James

[Elvis965]

Not that I'll be building a second one, but a few things I can think of:

1) Yardarms. Only the YKM set had yardarms, and they are out of business. Neither GMM or Tom's has them.

2) Corrected shape 8" fire control platform (not just the upper part).

3) The fairings (for lack of a better term) between the top of the 8" FC platform and the bottom of the spotting top.

4) Corrected radar shack for the front of the funnel.

5) The aircraft handling crane. Neither GMM or Tom's has that, either.

All I can think of at the moment.

Bob