Yes. I have some interior photos that I can't share (author shared them with me on the priviso they stay private) that show the exact location, but there are some on CVL-22.com that show that there were two colors used at least:

http://www.cvl-22.com/43.jpg (note light/dark switch overhead the Hellcat)
http://www.cvl-22.com/75.jpg (forward elevator)
http://www.cvl-22.com/78.jpg Note wing on the bulkhead... this is essentially just after the color break.
http://www.cvl-22.com/107.jpg (Forward elevator down)
http://www.cvl-22.com/119.jpg (note elevator well matches island paint)

One thing I'm not sure about with Independence and those photos is the exact tiem frame and if she was painted any different when she was officially a "night carrier" starting in August of 1944. It's fairly obvious that a lot of the photos above are following her torpedoing in 1943, but other than that I can't date them. One thing that's pretty clear is that after the Battle of Midway at least the white bulkheads around elevator wells were gone on all US Carriers... they stood out too much. I wasn't sure at first if they were painted Navy Blue or Deck Blue, but a good photo of Saratoga in dazzle with her forward elevator down shows the bulkheads painted to match the dazzle (no pattern, but one of the lighter colors is extended down into the elevator well).

So, to add a caveat to my earlier post, the actual start / stop point of the Navy Blue is based on photos that were probably shot when she was a night carrier and might not be 100% accurate, but the lack of white bulkheads is not.

Nice progress Stefan,
The Independence is a very pleasingly lined carrier and the radar array looks beautiful. Also plenty of room to make the hangar suitably busy.
Keep the photos coming
Julian

Good work stef, following with interest.

Thanks for posting the pics tracy, good stuff for all of us with lady in our stash.

Si

She is coming along beautifully. I like what I am seeing.....Cheers mark

Awesome work,needless to say I will make a copy of this whenyounare done and save it for my future build,very helpful that you are laying it out so nice.

Thanks for the comments guys! Tracy, thanks again vor your very useful research. Unfirtunately no progress since the last post...




Anthony, I will turn this into a feature once I'm done, n luding all of Tracy'w info, so it will be a bit better to access and won't disappear in the forums...

Cheers!
Stefan

Glad you're having fun with the kit Stefan; when I started working with Dragon on it I figured I was "on the hook" to help people with it for a couple of years afterwards.

So, time for another update. Has it really been almost 2 months since the last one?!?

Again, progress was slow, but I'm finally getting close to finishing. But let's take it one by one.

First was finishing the conning tower:



Painting was the next point on the agenda. After painting all the gangways abd the flight deck separately, I glued evereything together and fitted all the remaining small parts, such as ladders and some rainling I'd missed the first time around. Here's an overview of the result:








Here are a few more bloopers I found in the instructions:
In the conning tower assembly parts H29 and H27 are the wrong way around:



The elevator shafts are F31, not E 31:



PE part 10 is actually no. 12:



And this is what she looked after that:



Then I started with the deck decals, which - with lots of decal solution - fit quite well (on a base of future, as always). The most important thin is getting them straight. Of course, once I fitted the bow "22" I noticed that it was actually upside down, but too late to change... Grrr!





And now for the airwing. I decided not to have any SBDs as they did not serve in active duty on the Indy. Instead it's Hellcats and Avengers. I fitted the main parts including the cockpit windows, which I hope to be able to scratch free of paint once I'm done. Fit was okay, except for the wing on the Hellcats which needed quite a bit of sanding to fit. Always dryfit...




And the whole airwing ready for painting:



And after paiting and some already ready for the next coat:



Now it's time to fit the deck onto the hull and I have my doubts that everything will go problem free... Stay tuned! I'm on vacation for the next two weeks so I hope to finish her by mid June!

Cheers and thanks for checking in!
Stefan

Stefan,I don't even want to think about painting and masking those little P.I.A planes great patience and work there.

Very nice work on the A/C Stefan. Great to see you back into it.....Cheers Mark

Very nice work on ship and airwing Stefan. Beautiful build you have coming in on finals now
cheers,
Julian

nice work.

Thanks for all the comments guys!

Meanwhile I've fitted the flight deck and unfortunately not everything was so good there, just as I feared. There were some fit issues especially at the bow, that one definitely because of my obviously not too careful build work in fitting the front wall. In other places the side walls were too close together which made the use of some force necessery to pry the deck into position. Now the deck is fitted, but still not 100% straight. Hopefully no one will notice... The deck is not glued on.

What I would suggest to do here is to fit the deck before you fit all the catwalks as it is almost impossible to correct, file, press, etc. without destroying some of the detail on the catwalks...

Then I tried to fit the conning tower. Again, with a little force it fit well in between the cat walks. However, the attachment points of the struts don't align with the side walls... Now this is either due to poor engineering or to my poor building (more likely...) which would mean the whole deck is about 1,5 - 2mm to far aft... Unfortunately not something I can correct now...



The struts neede some adjusting, aparently the whole deck is also about 1mm too high, so a little shim was necessary. Also the middle strut needed a small corner filede out to fit around the gangway...



So this is what I will have to work with for now. Hope the problems will not be too noticeable...

Meanwhile, the airwing is progressing steadily...



That's it for now.

Would anyone have a rigging plan for the conning tower?

Cheers!
Stefan

Time for another update. Progress still slow, even though I have now passed my Diploma... Smmer time?

Here are some general overviews of the Indy:




The aircraft got their bellies attached:



Then the white:


And the result, which was unfortunately less than perfect...



Some work done (scratching off the paint from the "glass")



To be continued...

Cheers!
Stefan

Very nice aircraft Stefan ! They will look fantastic on the flight deck
Cheers,
Julian

I agree with Julien. They will look fantastic when onboard Stefan.....Cheers mark

Well gentlemen, believe it or not, I'm calling this one done! I'm going to submit this build log as a feature today, so here's a sneak preview of the final product...

But first... Almost forgot to mention these:


No issues here, apart from the fact that the instructions tell you to add a PE steering wheel to the Jeep when there actually isn't one...

And now...





Thanks everyone for your support and tips! It was a long but enjoyable journey and I'm satisfied with how it turned out. Now on to new horizons...

Cheers!
Stefan

Just outstanding work stefan,looking forward to your feature which I will file away.

thanks for sharing

Stefan - glad to see another one done! Looks great!

Wow that looks great! I have been following this closely as i have one in my stash and have been wanting to build it. Thanks for all the corrections to the instructions and tips for assembly. I am sure it will save me a lot of headaches during the build. Congratulations on a awesome looking carrier!

Thanks for the kind comments guys! Much appreciated. The Feature will have a list of all the mistakes in the instructions for easy reference (I call it Blooper Reel... )

Cheers!
Stefan