I am looking into making the carriers involved in the Battle of Coral Sea, 1942. Both the USS Enterprise and the USS Hornet were involved in the action. I was wondering if there was a big difference in the two carriers at the time. Trumpeter has the 1/350 scale Hornet and I thought with a little info, I could make the Enterprise from the same kit? Suggestions and any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks.

Tankertom_99[:::]

The Trumpeter Hornet kit is a popular subject for a converstion to The Big 'E' but you have to know the version of Enterprise you plan to convert to.

I suggest this site to start with getting an idea of what the 'Coral Sea Enerprise' looked like.

Tom,

You have come to the right place for getting the answers your looking for.

These guys definitely know their business...

Along with Michael's suggestion I would suggest getting plans for both ships. You can check Floating Dry Dock, Kagero 3D books are a good reference, and also Profile Morskie has plan books as well.

All three are great references.

Dave

Didn't Enterprise and Hornet miss the Coral Sea battle?

Good catch. I meant the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands. That is the battle where the Hornet was sunk.

Dave,
I will definately get these referances to see how they compare. Already have some research started and hopefully the changes are small for the kits to make the change.
Thanks again.
Tom

Thanks Aurora-7.
Great start. Guess I had the battle wrong for the Enterprise and the Hornet. I meant the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands, where the Hornet was sunk. The link is really great for the research start point.
Tha nks again.
Tom

Oy, I feel so stupid for not knowing this, especially since I'm such a CV-6 fan!

I too would like to build a 1/350 WW2 Enterprise and display it with Tamiya kit someday. I'm bit shock that we don't have one OOB kit of such an Iconic ship. It sure would solve a lot of problems. Still hoping that we'll see one in near future

Trumpeter does indeed do a 1/350th scale kit of the Hornet CV-8. The problem with it is that the hull is grossly inaccurate. The Yorktown class ships are my favorite of all time, but I ended up selling my Hornet kit because it's just too far off the mark.

The good news is that Merit is doing the Yorktown class now. The Midway version of Yorktown CV-5 is already out and you can see an in the box review here: http://cv5yorktown.com/?page_id=546

A Santa Cruz era CV-6 Enterprise is next from them, it should be out sometime this year.

There unfortunately is no plan for a CV-8 Hornet from Merit as of yet, but converting one of the Enterprise or Yorktown kits would likely be a better starting point than fixing the hull problems on the Trumpeter Hornet kit.

That's what I've heard about the Trumpeter kit. Is is usable as a waterline display or is even the above waterline shape off?

Even above the waterline is off. Basically the hangar deck itself is the right shape, so above there is mostly correct, but then you get into the height of the hangar deck is too high, the 5" gun tubs and bow are incorrectly placed and/or shaped, etc.

In that review I linked there are photos of the Trumpeter and Merit hull next to each other. The difference is dramatic.