hi all,

i need some help...

i want to build a ships catapult in 1/48 for either a hurricane or walrus to sit on.

were these catapults a standard length or were they made to fit a particular aircraft also does anyone have any dimensions for the catapults? if not does anyone have a clearish side on picture showing a full catapult with an aircraft on top? as i should be able to work out the dimensions from that.

thanks in advance

paul

HI Paul!

It all depends on what kind of ship the rig you have in mind was installed upon. For example, KGV battleships in WWII had fixed cats that ran the breadth of the deck while cruisers often had rotating rigs. CAM merchant ships had a truss design on the bow.

It comes down to which ship you want to represent.

--Karl

You probably want to do the merchant ship version. The BB's and cruisers generally had Walrus type seaplanes that had floats and were meant to be recovered. The merchant ships had Spits or Hurricanes that would be launched to fightUboots and then would head for shore to land (or ditch at sea)

thanks guys,it gives me a starting direction.

earlier i stumbled across a picture of HMS belfast with its supermarine walrus next to it but i cant find a picture of its catapult.

not sure how many HMS belfast's there have been but its sitting about 5 miles away on the river Thames in london...i might contact them and see if they have any pictures.

paul

You might also try looking at pictures of the King George V, Prince of Wales, Howe, or Anson. They all had catapaults and launched walrus as did the repulse if you check some of the websites you might find some basic pix or drawings of one, then you can extrapolate from there. Lots of pulleys and cables running through the middle of those things

thanks steve,will have a look at those as well.

paul

White Ensign does a photo etch set for the HMS Belfast. If you can find a review of it on the net that has a pic of the fret, you can see the general design of the catapult,if that helps..

thanks jim,they have some good stuff on their site inc. some 1/72 catapults in photo etch.
thats what i like about these sites,loads of people with great info.

cheers paul