USS SARATOGA CV-3, angled deck, jets. Finsished

[sandiego89]

1/700 USS SARATOGA, post war with angled deck, catapults, etc, operating jets.

The early SARATOGA (CV-3) Not the much later Forrestal class SARATOGA.

Brief backstory:  The USS SARATOGA survived World War II, and after being briefly considered as a target ship for Operations Crossroads atomic tests, she was retained for Operation High Jump near Antarctica. Due to her unique electric main propulsion and armored beltline she was deemed superior over steam turbine carriers for operations in light to moderate ice conditions.  Fearing potential conflicts with the emerging Soviet Union in higher latitudes the Department of the Navy decided to retain at least one carrier with main electric drive.  Despite her growing age the desire to retain her was further re-affirmed during the Korea conflict. In the late 1950's the ship entered an extensive modernization similar to the SCB-125 modifications to the Essex carriers with an angled deck, improved catapults, arresting gear, mirrored landing systems and other upgrades.  
   
The Kit:  1/700 Seaway SARATOGA.  New deck from sheet stryrene.  Lots of updates with catapults, jet blast deflectors, repositioned elevators etc.  Will leave the distinctive island/stack largely as is.

Air Wing will be a mix of Trumpeter, Skywave, and scratch/modified aircraft.   Similar to what we saw on Essex class ships (so sorry no Tomcats).
   
Era: Surprise, but within reason for an old hull.
     
The Why: because I think a later air wing of second generation jets, props and rotors would look interesting next to the distinct shape and island of the SARATOGA.

The kit


Next to a 1/700 Essex.  Essex on bottom with tan deck.  Skyhawk and Avenger on SARATOGA deck for scale


Side shot of the hulls. quite similar. Essex is the dark hull on top.    

[NARSES2]

Interesting project. Never realised she used electric main propulsion, had to look that up. So that's my fact learned for the day 

[sandiego89]

New deck from scratch styrene made.  Roughed out elevator positions on deck.  Kept the funky main deck shape forward- kind of an hour glass figure.  New starboard side deck edge lift aft.  Need to trim down the angled deck a bit, too wide and would require too massive sponson support.

overhead shot.  A-7's, A-4' and A-3 Sky Warrior on deck for scale.
 

Carving out new starboard deck edge lift aft the island.  Scratch hangar deck.


View from forward.  Chunky bridle catchers forward will be trimmed down. 

[Thorvic]

Nice Idea and the Angled deck looks good  , however as your going with Corsairs i would go with a bow and waist catapults of full length as per the British Eagle or Ark Royal with their 50's rebuild and loose the starboard fwd short Catapult giving more deck park space. You can probably then get away with Phantoms too as the longer angled deck and long cats should allow their use especially if you go with the F-4K or better yet the F-4HL as the USN envisaged using those off the none super carriers to replace the Crusaders

[sandiego89]

Nearing completion.

Thorvic, great idea- went with port bow and and waist cats.  

New deck complete. Cut forward elevator.  Installed scratch hanger deck.  Heavily weathered the flight deck.  

Working on the air wing.  A-1 Skyraiders, A-4 skyhawks, A-3 Skywarriors, F-8 Crusaders, helos.  Skyraiders are modified TBM Avengers.



Tiny air wing.  

[reddfoxx]

Cool idea, and looks great!

[Army of One]

Some great work there sir.......lovely job 

[pyro-manic]

Angled-deck Saratoga!?? SEXY!

Looking forward to seeing what you do for the electronics and weapons fit...

[Captain Canada]

Awesome ! Keep up the great work

[sandiego89]

Finished.  USS SARATOGA CV-3, rushed to Vietnam shortly after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.  Air wing includes F-8 Crusaders, A-4 Sky Hawks, A-3 Sky Warrior, A-1 Skyraiders and Uh-34 Sea Bats for plane guard. 

The Saratoga was primarily retained for Arctic/Antarctic ops and made several high lattitude patrols post war. She was briefly layed up in the mid 1950's but was modified with an angled deck, two steam catapults, improved arresting gear, a new deck edge elevator and an senor/electronic upgrades similar to most of the upgraded Essex class carriers.

Based on the west coast she was rushed to Vietnam after the Gulf of Tonkin incident, and ended up making two deployments to Yankee Station as an attack carrier.  She was later retired and sunk as a target ship in a major Seventh Fleet exercise.     

[Father Ennis]

WOW !!!!!!

[nönöbär]

Cool 

It has a lot of the original Saratoga look and the angled deck fits to it quite good.
How did you get the structure on the flight deck surface?

[sandiego89]

Thank you Father Ennis and Nonobar.  Nonobar the main flight deck is made from scratch- a sheet of styrene cut to shape, called "clapboard" and could be used for siding on a railroad freight car in HO scale.  This is the smallest clapboard style I could find and I chose this to simulate wood decking.   

If you are referring to the two island structures (bridge and funnel stack) they are just placed on the flight deck- they were already flat on the bottom so no fit issues.  The kit flight deck had raised postioning tabs so you knew exactly where to place the island structures, so I used the distance from the center elevator to determine measurements for placing the island. A drop of crazy glue keeps them in place.   

I added the large air search radar on the starboard side of the funnel island (similar to the air search radar on most post-war Essex class class ships), and a "pri-fly" observation deck hanging over the flight deck.  This is where the air-boss and his team would sit directing flight operations.       

[NARSES2]

Oh love it 

[Dizzyfugu]

Lovely. Looks "natural", and I really like the converted aircraft.