Britain's bergship: A 1/350 scale HMS Habakkuk "ice" aircraft carrier.

[seadude]

My personal opinion is to paint the Essex as she was, as even that level of detail will add to the impression of Habakkuk's scale.

I could paint the Essex as it normally looks in WW2 colors. But as spectators (and/or contest judges) are looking at the whole Habakkuk display, is their eyesight geared more toward the Habakkuk or the Essex?

From the wording used, Pyke & Churchill were talking about floating "airfields", what the Habakkuk proposal ended up being was a huge aircraft carrier, which is not quite the same thing.

I would probably have to concur with that. Pyke and Churchill's early initial thoughts and memorandums were just them "imagining/fantasizing" about what could have been before any real hardcore research into the feasibility and practicality of a real Habakkuk vessel was ever done.
To be honest, the thought of a much larger 3,000-5,000 foot long floating ice airfield, ship, etc. is just plain ludicrous. The costs to create such a thing would be horrendous. And the technical challenges would almost certainly be insurmountable. Yet this is what some people and references think Habakkuk was supposed to be. 

[Old Wombat]

My personal opinion is to paint the Essex as she was, as even that level of detail will add to the impression of Habakkuk's scale.

I could paint the Essex as it normally looks in WW2 colors. But as spectators (and/or contest judges) are looking at the whole Habakkuk display, is their eyesight geared more toward the Habakkuk or the Essex?

Without doubt the huge size of the Habakkuk will dominate the display, against which the Essex is at least big enough to see & offer a comparison, even if she is camouflaged, only the very keen eyed will ever notice the U-boat,.

[seadude]

Spent last night building a tiny 1/350 scale Habakkuk "prototype". You can read more information about the real prototype back at the top of Page 5 of this thread.
I figured I would add a small, and I do mean SMALL, scale model of the prototype houseboat for inclusion on my entire display.
The real prototype was about 60 feet long x 30 feet wide x 20 feet high, and weighed about 1,000 tons.
In 1/350 scale, the dimensions would be about 2 inches long x 1 inch wide x almost 3/4 inch high.
I think I did pretty good with my small scale model as shown in the pics below. It was entirely built with thin styrene sheet.
It will eventually be painted a wood color.

[Old Wombat]

Well, it's a start!

[NARSES2]

Well, it's a start!

It is indeed and a neat one 

[seadude]

With the main hull on indefinate hiatus, I have started on a few smaller objects to display next to the larger Habakkuk vessel on the display base.
For starters, I bought and am continuing to build a 1/350 scale Revell German WW2 Type VII C uboat to display next to the main Habakkuk ship for scale comparison.
Added on the sub display base will be an extra 1/350 scale Type G7e torpedo I had for scale comparison also.
I am also almost finished painting the small 1/350 scale Habakkuk "houseboat" prototype that I mentioned in earlier posts.
In other pictures below, I am also preparing to work on a small cross section of the Habakkuk hull to display on the main display base next to the main Habakkuk model. Eventually, it will be painted and probably the interior detailed with letter or number callouts for different systems and such.
I only have some of the main inner and outer wall sections cut. I haven't made any wall or decks yet for the center crew and machinery areas as I am still researching that portion.
All my measurements in the below drawing are approximate. More information to be posted tomorrow or Sunday.

[NARSES2]

  

[Old Wombat]

"Ambitious" is quite likely something of an understatement in relation to this build.

Carry on!

[kerick]

It would have been fascinating to actually see one of these in the North Atlantic. Would it have been flying Wildcats and Avengers? It would never fit at any dock, it would have to have a dock of its own for unloading supplies from ships.

[Rheged]

It would have been fascinating to actually see one of these in the North Atlantic. Would it have been flying Wildcats and Avengers? It would never fit at any dock, it would have to have a dock of its own for unloading supplies from ships.

The BBC  pic attached seems to suggest aircraft up to and including Avro Lancasters.     https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180323-a-giant-aircraft-carrier-built-of-ice

[seadude]

It would have been fascinating to actually see one of these in the North Atlantic. Would it have been flying Wildcats and Avengers? It would never fit at any dock, it would have to have a dock of its own for unloading supplies from ships.

The Habakkuk would have been way to big to fit at any port in the world during WW2 if it had been built. Supplies being sent to the Habakkuk would have to be delivered by transport aircraft and/or transport ships would probably dock alongside the Habakkuk and the Habakkuk would use cranes (If it had any) to load/unload supplies from the transport ships.

It would have been fascinating to actually see one of these in the North Atlantic. Would it have been flying Wildcats and Avengers? It would never fit at any dock, it would have to have a dock of its own for unloading supplies from ships.

The BBC  pic attached seems to suggest aircraft up to and including Avro Lancasters.     https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180323-a-giant-aircraft-carrier-built-of-ice

I would not put much, if any, trust in that pic (Shown below) from that BBC article. I've seen a TON of websites use that pic for discussing Project Habakkuk. All it is is nothing more than "eye candy". Just an artists's fanciful (and totally inaccurate) design for what they think Habakkuk could have or would have looked like, and using a drawing like that to sensationalise an article and lure people into reading about it.
At the risk of repeating myself.............Lancasters or any other similar sized large aircraft won't work on the Habakkuk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Lancaster
The Lancaster is way too large both in length and especially width (wingspan). It would never be able to fit in the interior hangar bays. And even "IF" the Lancaster could be used on the Habakkuk, it would have to have some strong arresting gear to get it to stop when landing on a runway only 2,000 feet long. And it would probably need rocket assisted takeoff as well. And lastly, it's a craft not well suited in my opinion for hunting down and destroying German sub wolfpacks.

[kerick]

Yeah that pic is a load of hoo ha! I really love the battleship turrets along the sides. All the aircraft would have to be hangered anytime the guns were fired. The four engine bombers would be quite a challenge.

[PR19_Kit]

And lastly, it's a craft not well suited in my opinion for hunting down and destroying German sub wolfpacks.

Avro developed it into the Shackleton which was designed to do just that, for Soviet wolfpacks anyway.

[zenrat]

Trials were carried out catapult launching Lancs on land so they would have been able to take the strain.
Possibly not when carrying a Tallboy though.

[seadude]

Yeah that pic is a load of hoo ha! I really love the battleship turrets along the sides. All the aircraft would have to be hangered anytime the guns were fired. The four engine bombers would be quite a challenge.

And that leads me to another interesting tidbit of information concerning the Habakkuk and that "fanciful" picture I posted above.
Large calibre guns (Anything above 5" or greater.) on the Habakkuk might seem and look nice, but they'll most likely never work.
The larger the guns/weapon systems, the more internal space they take up as far as shell/powder handling spaces and so force.
Also, the larger gun systems you have, the heavier they are. Would the Habakkuk's internal steel/pykrete/concrete/etc. structures be able to support all the weight?
And would the recoil/blast from larger guns have any impact on the pykrete hull or other structures?
This is why from all available sources I have read that the Habakkuk was to have nothing larger than 4.5" to 5" calibre guns and/or smaller/lighter AA (anti-aircraft) armament.
How much armament and exactly what types the Habakkuk was to officially have is unknown as no specifics exist. Most references I've read tend to suggest at least forty 4.5" to 5" dual purpose (Anti-ship and anti-aircraft) twin gun turrets. 40 turrets = 80 guns total. Two guns per turret.

Trials were carried out catapult launching Lancs on land so they would have been able to take the strain.
Possibly not when carrying a Tallboy though.

Got any good website links or book titles with more information on that? I'd be curious to read.