Can someone tell me what material was used for the flight deck of the U.S.S. Enterprise, CV-6? Thanks.

HI Cary!

Like other U. S. carriers of her day, the Enterprise's flight deck had an under layment of sheet steel surmounted by pressed pine planks that were weather-treated. The aircraft tie down system back then was a metal strip that ran athwart the deck with C-shaped cutouts for inserting the securing lines.

Narrow steel plates with a pressed diamond pattern served as strike pads for arresting gear cables and were found both fore and aft since early carriers had full arresting gear sets at both ends.

Hope this helps.

--Karl

Thank you Karl. Were the pine boards stained a certain color or were they just sealed with a shellac or varnish?

By the way, the reason for these questions is that I want to make a base for an F6F-5 Hellcat that flew off the Enterprise.

Mostly they were douglas fir, not pine, and there was no diamond tread... just wood planks and tie-downs. Sometimes the board just aft of the tie-down was mahogany .. I've got a document somewhere that mentions it and will post it if I can find it. Not that it would be noticeable in any scale. Pine was used when Fir was in short supply, but I've never noticed it in any of the photos I've seen. CV-6 might have used SOME pine in later time repairs, but she would have been predominantly fir during the war.

Decks were stained throughout the war, but the colors changed depending on year. Additionally, they took a lot of abuse from aircraft rolling over them, dripping oil on them, etc. So it's not abnormal to see more blue on the edges and a darker wood tone in the heavy use areas of a flight deck.

If you want to figure the colors out I would recommend the Development of Naval Camouflage by Alan Raven on ShipCamouflage.Com, particularly page 5-4.

OK, correction, the single-plank thing I mentioned above is from a 1949 document... here's an excerpt:

Thanks Tracy. Can you recommend a paint mfg. for the 250N Blue Flight Deck color? From what I've read about naval colors, WEM seems to be the way to go. But not being a naval modeler I'd like to get the opinions from those that are. Thanks.

Ron Smith did a little digging last night after I brought it up... it turns out there were some strips with diamond tread, but only around expansion joints. Diamond tread would not be used around arresting gear as it would cause wear on the arresting wires, which the Navy otherwise spent a lot of effort to keep in good condition. So Karl and I were both wrong and both right.

In regards to paint... I use the WEM paints for my USN subjects fairly exclusively, but they actually do more than just ship colors. If you go to their site you will see aircraft and armor paints as well under the catalog.

They paint well, the biggest caveat is that the pigment is incredibly fine and settles into a packed mass at the bottom that cannot be fully mixed by shaking... you MUST stir for consistent color and sheen!

Believe me, I am loathe to flog a dead horse, but, with sincere respect to everyone...

In examining wartime photos of the flight deck on the Yorktown (Enterprise's sister), one can see that directly beneath the arresting gear cables and their supporting fiddle-bridges, a strip of textured (diamond pattern) steel lies. In the famed photo of Marines manning a 20mm mount on the catwalk where the bow cuts sharply inboard about a foot, an arresting gear sheave is visible and extending away from it athwart the flight deck is that metal chafing plate (see "That Gallant Ship" page 72).

In another photo taken from the island, a wounded SBD gunner is being carried away on a wire litter. The flight deck details show at least three arresting cables with the metal plates under each. ("That Gallant Ship" page 137).

Furthermore, such chafing plates were also used beneath the stowed positions on the wire barriers.

What this all really means is, independent research is vital to pull off a true representation in our hobby. This is especially true for those of us who weren't there.

Kudos, Tracy, on being more specific on the type of wood used, though I understand botanists will debate whether Douglas firs aren't a type of pine after all!


--Karl

I looked over my copy of "USS Enterprise: the Most Decorated Ship of WWII, A pictorial History" by Steve Ewing, and I can see evidence of those plates there as well. Page 58 has a very clear image.

Don't know what to say, I've mostly studied the Essex class and haven't seen them there at all. Obviously the Yorktown class had them... or at least, the first two.

The trouble is, the archives aren't exactly overflowing with photos of flight deck details.

BTW, the excellent Anatomy of the Ship volume on the Intrepid covers the details of U. S. wooden flight deck structures quite well.

--Karl

Hornets flight deck, at the time of the Doolittle raid.


Yorktown


USS Long Island

As noted, Enterprise's flight deck was stained with Norfolk 250-N Flight Deck Stain through about the end of 1942. After that it was stained with Flight Deck Stain 21, which was itself revised late in the war to a darker shade. Metal elements on the flight deck such as the tie-down strips, expansion joints, etc., were painted 20-B Deck Blue. All these are available in our Colourcoats enamels, shipped worldwide:

US 27, Norfolk 250-N;
US 11, Flight Deck Stain 21;
US 10, 20-B Deck Blue (use this also for late-war revised Flight Deck Stain 21)

John, PM sent.

Very interesting tutorial guys. Thank you Tracy and Karl.