(mini project 1/144) Flugzeugträger-E: Meringen

[Spey_Phantom]

looking at the hull of the scrapped 1/400 Clemenceau (Again, previously as LNS Hadock and LNS Amanda Peet). i thought it was to valuable to throw away, so i decided to rebuild her as a 1/144 Aircraft carrier.



i know the hull is WAY to small for 1/144, but i was thinking, looking at the recent info i got on German Aircraft carriers (Graf Zeppeling and Weser (converted Seydlitz Hipper-class cruiser)), and the recent re-release of some of revells 1/144 series for warbirds (FW190, Bf109E, Ju87, Me262,...), they might just be small enough to make the carrier look big.

at first, i wanted to use an old hull of a scrapped 1/something old revell oil tanker (WW2), but since that hull is to small, that plan was abandon.
the old hull will now be converted into a 1/144 what-if German Escort carrier, witch i decided to name "Meringen" (also got the name "Wiesbaden", just in case i change my mind). i havent seen any of revell's 1/144 warbirds here yet, i hope to aquire a conciderable numer of them, as thay are very cheap, heared about 2 euro's, so its easy aquire a whole fleet of them, ideal for conversions, parts and whiff-fodder  

to help with the design and layout, i have aquired a Revell 1/720 Graf Zeppelin carrier (purely for research purposes)
im gonna measure some of the parts and scale them up in scratch.
first thing i already measured out is the catapult, witch should be 155mm long in 1/144. the carrier will have no elevators, and the elevator opening on the side (witch was originaly planned for a LHD conversion) will now be used for lifeboats.

the flightdeck will also be elevated a bit higher with a bottom construction (might use the angled flightdeck side to mount a heavy artilery turret), its also gonna be hightened in a V shape, in order to make the deck wider  

the hardest part i think will be the catapults and the island superstructure cause of the bending and round surfaces (mu recent build carriers all have straight angles).

work will start as soon as the other 1/144 carrier is finished (HMS Courageous).

a pic of the research model (witch will also become a display model, a OOB what-if is a terrible thing to waist)



the future might hold an allied escort aircraft carrier, possibly converted out of a 1/400 titanic hull or 1/144 fletcher class destroyer, that is if i can find one on the cheap nearby, might have a look at nearby rumage sales, there's always something to find there  

but thats for the further future, i have to resolve the space shortage issue first 

[NARSES2]

Looking forward to this 

[Gondor]

This should be a magic build

Gondor