CV-6, Wooden Decks and Iron Men

[sequoiaranger]

No paint or some minor fill-in-the-cracks yet, but the core of the island modifications are done! Again, this project seeks to use as many components as possible from the old kit that my dad's eyes gazed upon, and to upgrade it without going overboard on the detailing. Remember this is 1/500 (Approx), not your typical 1/700, so things are a scoshe larger to work with. That said, some parts are so dang tiny an octupus with eight tweezers might have trouble.

This first pic gives a good overall of the flightdeck side of the island. You can compare it to the "before" pic of the originally built kit. Starting from the left:

1. The kit 5" guns were just a block with a stick poking out, like the shrouds that cover the guns in port. The new 5" gun is not in its rightful place, but is "scratch-built" using Stainless Steel tubing for the gun, some old, cut-down open gun mount from some other kit (Prinz Eugen?), drilled out for the tubing, and a hole-punched .010 plastic sheet platform.

2. I added a deck below the main conning deck.  I found an old Essex kit from which I pirated and modified the deck (the original kit did not have it, but my new "build-any-one-of-three-Yorktown-class" kit had one, but I didn't use it because I discovered it AFTER I put mine on).

3. I added a bridge "wing" on the water side. [edit: carved out the thing, too, so a person could walk out and look over the side!]

4. I deleted the pre-war triangular thingy (technical term) on the flightdeck side, "plating it over".

5. I'll elaborate on the director and tripod mast later, but this pic gives a good look at the long, spindly ladder I put in---it took me thirty full minutes of trial-and-error for that one piece!

6. Aft of the ladder, I had to "plate over" a gap next to the stack, and then further back, add the gray searchlight (Prinz Eugen again?), re-site the kit searchlight lower, and lower the too-high rear director deck as well.

7. In this view you can see the insert on the stack-top rim after I took off the inaccurate "wing" of the original kit.



Here, for comparison, is the old kit before I altered it:


Next, the rear of the island from the water side:



From the left:

1. The old 40mm's (a distinct pair of paired guns) were cut down to look like the 1.1's (28mm, four evenly-spaced guns), and given a .010 circular base.

2. You might notice the "cut corner" of the rear of the island--that was for the crane to swing farther around. The crane (not shown) was moved closer to the deck edge after Midway so that wasn't necessary.

3. The scratch/modified gun director's deck was lowered (and the resultant stack gap filled in), as well as the large searchlight platform. I have two pics of the Enterprise, both say "May, 1942" but one has TWO large searchlights there, and the other has only one (and commensurate smaller platform). I went with one (though the kit instructions say that the Enterprise should have two) because all subsequent (and prior) photographs had only one there.

4. The kit had the aft stack-mast having the yardarm way high. I lowered it (the mast is now four pieces!).

5. I added the small searchlight and re-positioned the stack-rim protruding deck to just in front of the tripod (the kit didn't have anything there, but pics showed one). I also put in a "catwalk" (white line).

6. More on the radars later, but this gives you a good view of the scratch-built "bow-and-arrow" YE homing antenna.



Now we get to the "meat" of the matter: My dad's station and his responsibilities. from right to left this time:

1. The AA gun director, my dad's station aboard the Enterprise, is actually the kit director turned upside down and lots of things changed/added. The kit director was HORRIBLE. It had a huge square, blocky thingy instead of the slender, round periscopic protrusions. I  used SS tubing (hollow ends are actually solid CA, and will disappear with paint). The actual director had three rectangular hatches on top, so I found two old HO ammo boxes that I could cut down to resemble them.

One of the best stories my Dad told me was at Santa Cruz when he was looking out one of those hatches (the one on the water side) at a Japanese bomb coming straight down onto his head (the bomb shape just stays the same as the diameter increases). The Enterprise was heeling over, doing a left-hand turn to avoid torpedoes, and the island was hanging out way over the water. My dad thought he was a goner, but the Enterprise straightened out, the island straightened up, and my dad said he could have reached out and touched the bomb as it whizzed past and into the water alongside the ship!!!

2. I had to re-do all three tripod masts--the kit center post was WAAAY to thick, and the side posts had a thick, funky ladder strung between them (also going the wrong direction).

3. The yardarms were improperly cited on the lower deck of the fighting top, so I moved them up. Same for the vertical mast. I changed the mast, and made an YE homing antenna out of wire (4 pieces) and fly-fishing line (short vertical pieces--supposed to have 14 of them, but as it was I was lucky to have the ones I had--WAAYYY too much hassle).

4. The main CXAM radar was covered before, but it looks RIGHTEOUS up there!!

Anyhoo, I feel heap-plenty-good now that I have a decent island to attach to my coming-along-slowly deck. Maybe the pics don't show it well, but I also test-painted my "Measure 11" dual blue-grays on the deck. I think I am close.

I had a very emotional moment at one point, an eerie feeling of the ghost of my Dad peering over my shoulder, smiling.

I am taking what I have done into this friday's IPMS meeting.

[sequoiaranger]

This Enterprise kit (Revell 1/480) comes with a couple of open boats (and no detail inside), but does NOT come with a typical covered "Captain's gig". Every American aircraft carrier had one, especially if it had an admiral on board. Admirals do NOT ride in open boats. The 1/700 Enterprise, Hornet, and Antietam kits all have captain's gigs, but they are too small for the 1/480 scale. What to do?

Make my own.

I hit upon a relatively simple fix: I took an open boat, found a sprue that would drop into the boat, shaped a covered cabin, filed out slots for the entry portals and/or separations, then filled the boat with super-glue until it reached the gunwales and made a deck!



This Enterprise Phoenix build is stretching my model imagineering skills. I like it! I have had to innovate and try to figure out HOW to make the existing kit more accurate and representative without adding many "outside" or aftermarket parts. One such modification is the "shelf supports" under the "pri-fly" wing of the bridge.



You might note that one of them is longer than the four others, but they were all made the same way--cut a strip of .010 sheet, make "squares" out of them, then take a circular single-hole punch of the appropriate diameter (this one was lucky in that a "normal"-sized hole punch worked perfectly. I have several sizes, though, from making my game pieces from "To Victory Through Seapower") and almost connecting the ends. Holding them in a fine tweezers, apply liquid glue on the edges, then cram in the corner under the abutment. It worked!! [edit: I have since sanded down the slight "toes" to the lower parts of the "shelf supports"]

[Taiidantomcat]

That is some superior detail work 

[Brian da Basher]

This is an outstanding project and I'm enjoying your running chronicle of it immensely, SR!

Brian da Basher

[sequoiaranger]

Fits and starts of progress:

I had to LABORIOUSLY snip two railings from a four-railing PE brass part to put around the lift well. On carriers, the railing pops up as soon as the lift (elevator) starts to descend, and retracts once the lift is back flush with the flight deck. WHAT A PAIN! But it is there now (or half of it anyway--I was "testing the concept").



Next, more work on the aircraft.

I wanted to have all three types (F4F fighter, TBD torpedo bomber, and SBD dive bomber) included in the project (original CV-6 model had only SBD's). The time frame represented in the project is at the time of the launch of the strike against the Hiryu late on June 4th, 1942. Only F4F's and SBD's took part. So two aftermarket F4F's will be seen taking off (one actually just out in front of the finished carrier on a wire, the other rolling down the deck, and all the other F4F's in the strike presumably already off),  many SBD's on the deck with props spinning, one SBD coming up on the aft elevator with a still prop, and the TBD's will be visible on the hangar deck with wings folded. (No TBD's participated in the attack on the Hiryu--only four made it back from the morning's attack). I may put both wing-folded TBD's up front on the hangar deck, and "readying" SBD's being rolled back to the aft elevator.

I sculpted a torpedo (painted the three colors as at Midway) for the TBD's, and purloined the three-bladed props and main landing gear from a set of 1/700 B-25's. The prop tips are painted yellow. Notice the central red dot for the underside cocades. I added "tailwheels" by building up dots of white glue. The canopies are cut, painted and "framed", but those will be seen in another picture when I clip the wings and have them folded.

The F4F's have "spinning props", and cut-down B-25 nosewheels for LG. I had thought of having the one in the air with "wheels up", but the F4F's landing gear had to be cranked up slowly by hand, so the gear would not even START to come up until well clear of the carrier. I even put four ink dots in the leading edges of the wings for "gunports".

Putting micro-landing-gear, props, and canopy frames on stuff this scale is just CRAZY, but since I found I CAN do it, I did!



BdB and Taiid--thanks for the comments and encouragement. This project is DEFINITELY stretching my modeling skills and patience.

[PR19_Kit]

Jeepers but that's seriously impressive work!

I keep having to tell myself 'That's 1/700 scale!' The aircraft are wonderful, you'd think they were 1/144 at least, and the little railings mounted on a piece of the REAL SHIP'S deck is awesome.

[sequoiaranger]

Here are all the ship's aircraft I have done so far: 2 F4F's, 2 TBD's (now with folded wings), and the SBD. There will be heap plenty more SBD's later. On the model, the aft elevator piece will be at hangar deck level, or slightly above, bringing the SBD up to the flightdeck.



And in the close-up, you can just see the F4F's "gunports", and the TBD's cutaway canopy.



Next is a close-up of a TBD. This one has the "cut" canopy and torpedo. I just noticed, though, that the lack of wing-top cocade is evident in this side-view (I thought it would not be, with the wings "folded", so left them off.) Hmmmm! I may have to put them back on, as that view will be the one the plane is seen from on the model (looking in from outside the large roll-up doors at hangar deck level).



PR-19Kit---Thanks, but the planes and ship are approx 1/500 scale. Small enough, but I really don't think I could do the same at 1/700 scale. The 1/700 scale B-25 parts (landing gear and props) were about right for these smaller aircraft. I HAVE SEEN super-anal-retentive types similarly detail 1/700 aircraft and am incredulous.

[Weaver]

Outstanding detail work. I don't know how you have the patience; I certainly wouldn't. 

[sequoiaranger]

Everything aboard ship has to be hauled up, generally by cranes aboard the ship. The Enterprise had one huge one just behind the island, and three others.

My Revell kit curiously contains only three of the four cranes.

In the picture far below, the two cranes at the top of the photo are the same crane, but from 1/700 and 1/500 models, respectively (you can get an idea of the scale difference between 1/700 and 1/500 here). The "missing" crane on the model, which will be on the water side of the island, forward, was a smaller clone of the big one, so the 1/700 Hornet main crane was fortuitously ideal for this!!

The main crane of the model has been enhanced. The model crane was too skinny, so I combined the old and new model extensions side-by-side to get the proper proportions. I tried to drill out the holes, but...they are just too small, and the surrounding plastic is just too weak. So black paint will have to do. I added a small platform midway up (easy--a  hole-punched .010 disc), and eliminated the top plastic "rod" holding up the crane and used two fly-fishing lines instead (the real thing had two rods). As I was finishing my rail around the flightdeck elevator well, I had a short piece of four-rail railing left over. The "crown" railing on the top of the crane is a prominent visual feature when seen in real pictures,



but I thought it would be too much hassle for the model, until I gave it a try. My modeling muse whispered in my ear, and I wrapped the short piece of railing around a tiny file handle, and it formed a proper "crown" for the model crane top.  A few such SIMPLE enhancements will find their way onto the model, but not many.

One can get an idea of the size of the main crane--if an American penny were on the large hook in that configuration, the bottom of the penny would just scrape the deck.



The two alike ones had recesses where the open spaces are now. I drilled and Moto-tooled them out, VERY CAREFULLY.

[anthonyp]

...  frack.  Dang that airwing is nice.  Would try my patience to the point of going (more) insane, but dang!

[sequoiaranger]

>...  frack.  Dang that airwing is nice.  Would try my patience to the point of going (more) insane, but dang!<

Thanks.

The hardest part was decaling the planes and making sure the alignment of the stars, etc. was "correct". The surface tension of the water, at this scale, is tremendous, so the decals slide all over the place. Also, the tiny decals are "stiff" relative to their size, and especially the fuselage roundels on the Wildcat were insanely hard to position and press down over the contours. The red dot in the middle of the TBD underwing roundels is a separate decal!!     I got three out of the four perfectly centered in the white star, but literally a QUARTER OF A MILLIMETER off is obvious to the eye on the one not perfect!!

Besides, insanity is relative. How MUCH more insane do I have to get before they put me away???  

[proditor]

That is amazing work!  I'll echo everyone and flat out state I just don't have that level of patience.   

[anthonyp]

>...  frack.  Dang that airwing is nice.  Would try my patience to the point of going (more) insane, but dang!<
Besides, insanity is relative. How MUCH more insane do I have to get before they put me away???  

Well, if it's anything like me, you'll realize you've lost your marbles and one day you'll stop looking for them.  That's pretty much the point you should be locked away, but they still allow me free run.

[Brian da Basher]

Those wee little airplanes are an amazing feat of modeling, SR!

Thanks for putting on an incredibly impressive show of your skill!

Brian da Basher

[sequoiaranger]

I have been back to the Enterprise's island, working on sealing up some cracks, adding a top on the the pri-fly (from an Essex kit I found), and painting a few things. A few rooms away, while vacuuming the floor, I found a small, plastic "cross" that I immediately recognized as belonging to the mast at the rear of the stack of CV-6 (WHAT WAS IT DOING HERE??). I put it on my workbench and proceeded to vacuum the floor of the "craft room". That was two days ago. Just this morning I was looking at the details on the island and noticed that the crossbar on the mast emanating from the "fighting top" seemed a little low, so was trying to find a way to cure that, when.....I just realized that there was no "bow-and-arrow-thingy" on the top of the mast!! That thingy (an YE homing antenna) I had painstakingly scratch-built and worked on for an intense hour of mind-numbing intricacy had VANISHED. I looked all over the workbench (an "intelligent" mess, but none the less a mess), the floor, other spots--NOTHING! Then it came to me.

I wear a fluffy terry bathrobe in the morning when I work on the model. It has large cuffs. I can only surmise that when I had the island on the workbench and reached across for something beyond the island, that the cuff lopped off the IFF, and maybe even the rear antenna. I go back and forth from the modeling desk to the computer in the other room, so most likely the cuff transported the IFF antenna to some unknown dimension of time and space. I AM NOT going to go through the vacuum bag---that is a dusty, dirty "haystack" in which I will never find the "needle" of an antenna. I may pass a magnet over the crud in hopes of just dumb-lucking it, but it seems the antenna is lost. GRRRR

Of course I will end up making a new one. GOTTA have it! But I think I will paint and detail everything else about the island FIRST, do the YE antenna, then set the whole thing aside SOMEWHERE SAFE while I catch up with the rest of the project.