The Ship Model Forum

Hi everyone,

Here is my first go with crafting ship silhouettes -- and one airplane. I've always worked with the ground war in this subject area before. And the B-24 was supposed to go with that effort from eight years back, but I never could get around to it then. I'm just glad to get back into this sort of thing again--which began about two months ago.

I've been kind of heart sick from just looking at new board games out there (excluding Avalanche Press and GMT Games) on the Pacific War from World War II. Most of them have just abandoned Avalon Hill's style of artwork with the neat and recognizable ship silhouettes to represent the ships in these tabletop strategy wargames. So I finally decided myself to get involved and help bring back Avalon Hill's old art form. (It's hard work, and is not as easy as it looks; but I battled through these nine line drawings to convert them to silhouettes.)

I'll try and add the remaining three large Japanese carriers from 1941 -- and also attempt to work in three US carrier class ships (Essex, Independence, and Bogue) silhouettes to capture all of the ship types for WWII up and through 1942. My long term goal is to take Grandmother's game, "Flat Top," and try and revamp the surface ships to give all notable surface ships (light cruisers and up) the larger PANZER LEADER sized 5/8-inch counters (so the counter art will show up better). Still to this day, that was Grandmother Dorothy's finest gift she ever gave me. I love my Grandmother.

Brother Dan Kaplan encouraged me to share these silhouettes here on the ModelWarships.com website, and so here they are. He really helped me out tremendously. And to that, I am so grateful. I can't thank him enough!

Anyway, thanks to everybody here with ModelWarships.com. I hope you all like these silhouettes/avatars that I have here to display. I'll attempt to work on more as time permits. Thanks.

~ Rod

Nicely done, Rod.

Thanks Dan. I know I have said that this is an effort to show World War II through 1942, but I am actually taking the date to very early 1943 to allow for America's ship building speed. And then, this collection can show off about three or four Essex class carriers.

Thanks for your encouraging words.

~ Rod

Hi everyone. I am including a few more drawings. Included with this post is Japan's carrier Soryu and America's 500 foot carrier Copahee. I'm going to attempt a couple more series that includes a Japanese and an American aircraft carrier in the upcoming weeks. I love the history behind all of this. And I'm just trying to add a few more ships from that same time period.

Here is the latest -- keeping this rolling along. These silhouettes depict the Japanese carrier Akagi and a U.S. Independence Class (Independence, CVL-22) carrier. I have a few more left to cover now.

These are really great. I've always been a fan of this style of silhouettes. Many years ago I gave a go of making some of Yorktown (CV-5) and her escorts, but never got very far with them.

Thanks Devin. Again, this all started after I had made this strange discovery. In fact, I was really looking into trying to find a Pacific War carrier sim on a PC or something, and I thought that my Avalance Press game of "Midway" was all the board game that I needed (and Avalanche Press uses these same artistic style silhouettes...which is great, very good indeed.)

But then I found out that the Avalanche Press game was not in the mold or style of Avalon Hill's FLAT TOP when I quizzed some fellows off Consimworld. That sent me into seek and search mode as I hit the web looking for newer board games.

And what I found really caught me off guard. The current games had dropped the older artistic format that you so fondly describe, Devin. You took my own words right out of my mouth when you described how much you appreciate the classic black silhouette for these naval ships. Games that have left this format are those like Lock 'n Load's "The Pacific War (2016)," Kokusai-Tsushin Co., Ltd's "Victory at Midway (1992)," and Dr. Benjamin Richter's "Kido Butai (2016)" -- which the guys off Consimworld are so high on for its fabulous game play.

But I'm a FLAT TOP fan. And I also am an artist -- getting my BFA degree in Art at the Univ. of Georgia many moons ago. And so I realized back in June that I needed to do something about this. Like we say in the game of football, I needed "to make a play." And I've been trying to complete this ever since then. And so I am doing my best to cover the old school style Avalon Hill-like silhouettes.

Funny you mention the CV-5 Yorktown. I walked through CV-10 Yorktown a few years ago when my family took a vacation trip out to Edisto Island. Charleston, S.C. was right down the road. I love that carrier.

I'm working on her right now, Devin. I mean -- it's the Essex Class carrier that I am covering, and CV-10 Yorktown is this as she was an early production Essex Class carrier indeed.

I am working on her and Hiryu right now, and I'm trying to work in small 600 feet Japanese carrier escorts to add a sense of completeness to this. This effort could use the Japanese carrier Unyo I feel.

Thanks for your interest. More are to come. The speed to this and all -- I can't promise. (I got to attend my first high school football game in two years tonight, so I'm trying remain flexible as you can get yourself lost in these little tasks and whatnot.)

Hi everyone. The effort continues. Here is the latest in my Pacific Ocean Theater for 1942 and World War II. Of course, the Japanese fleet carrier Hiryu is present. Also, here is an American aircraft carrier, the USS Essex, that was commissioned on the last day (12/31/42) of 1942.

I'm trying to accomplish something along the lines similar to what Ward McBurney was able to capture back when he set his "Imaginative Strategist" website up to enhance Avalon Hill's game of PANZERBLITZ. And I'm trying to do something similar for Avalon Hill's game of FLAT TOP.

The "Baby Flat Tops" will be next ... for both sides. I'll get on to those as soon as I can.

All right. I'm adding another.

This is America's light carrier Sangamon. The other "baby flat tops" that I promised are still in progress. This was another dynamic aircraft carrier that served at World War II.

I had almost left the Sangamon Class out of this artistic task. She had company in others like the USS Santee, USS Suwannee, and the USS Chenango. I'm glad I didn't miss this one.

Again, in continuing with the aircraft carrier theme here, I will continue to present these "baby flat tops."

This silhouette is of the CVE-30 USS Charger. She had a sister ship, the USS Long Island. And my effort on the USS Long Island is in progress along with some Japanese carrier escorts as well.

All right. Here comes a trio of "baby flat tops" --- one from the United States, and the other two from Japan. They all three served in the same time period---the U.S.'s Long Island, at Guadalcanal.

Provided here is also some support for Japan's Shokaku and Zuikaku. And Taiyo and Unyo provide just that.

Will work to add their remaining sister ship in the Chuyo here pretty soon.

All right. Here is the last of the Taiyo Class vessels. This is Chuyo. She was a carrier escort. I counted only three carrier escorts by Japan during 1942. They do purchase the Kaiyo by December, but that would lead to a conversion process later on.

Okay. I'm returning to add an aircraft carrier that is already present in this study, but this is a revision ... and for good reason.

Here, I revised the Japanese fleet carrier Zuiho, their 674 foot light carrier. I added her missing mast antenna---the large antenna near the front (bow) of the vessel. I would have got to this a lot sooner, but I had a decent sized selection that I was interested in fully covering.

My cutoff date for this World War II South Pacific Ocean study is somewhere in between January and March of 1943. I think FLAT TOP's inventory of ships reached out to December 1941 (but the Hiyo was an available Japanese carrier in S. Craig Taylor/Rodger MacGowan's board game). And I'm trying to take that out to the end of 1942/beginning of '43.

Anyway, here is a revised Zuiho - with her mast antenna inserted.

Nice work!

Thanks Devin. It's been a rewarding experience. I didn't dive into the AFV and tank drawings like I did here recently with the ships. I spread my work with the World War II AFVs over a five, six year period though there was one summer where I put together a very difficult silhouette of a Sturmgeschuetz III Ausf. F. But with the ships, I was able to set aside time better. (It was tough; it wasn't easy.)

Again, thanks.

Hi Devin.....if you're still there... I'm finally about to return to this thread... Neat that you mentioned CV-5 Yorktown a few posts above back in 2019...

I'm targeting the Enterprise CV-6 class carriers that'll include Yorktown CV-5... This won't include the Wasp though as we already have the Wasp via a different artist... presumably a Petticoat Officer's Wasp drawn back in 1941 or '42... And it's a thorough effort by that artist...

I'll add these soon... Give me some months to organize my work....

~ Rod H

Rod, yes, still here, and looking forward to whatever you come up with!

Thanks for the quick response brother... I'll be hunting for the books and resources for the three famous Yorktown CV-5 class carriers and also for resources on an early-war Ryuho...1941 or '42...

The drawing that is listed as Shoho/Ryuho earlier in this lengthy thread is wrong... It should be listed as just the Shoho... It could read as Shoho/Zuiho since the two were sister ships. (I just edited the lead post of this thread naming the file as just "Shoho".)

An actual Ryuho will be added in to the upcoming task that'll include the Yorktown CV-5 class carriers. The Dave Doyle books might be of value with the US carriers... I'll figure it out...

should edit the title so is states American & Japanese aircraft carriers from start of Pacific War to early 1943
the Bogue, Charger & Sangamon Classes were escort carriers not light carriers which were the Independence class using Cleveland class hulls.
don't forget the 2 ships of the Lexington class & USS Robin.

Lovely! is there a chance we add those to our avatar profiles?