Well guys, October 1 is right around the corner. We've got 19 crewmates on board. So crew, sound off. What do we have to look forward to over the next year? Me, I'm building one of my favorite carriers, the Franklin in 1/700 scale. I'm looking to add an escort sailing with her, but I don't know who.
So guys, give us a sneek peek.

Kenny

Aw, Gator. . .
I'm in, mate, as we were talking earlier, but I have NO idea what I'm building yet! Heck, I just started my DDD2 entry two weeks ago!
I'll start thinking this week, my friend, and pipe in later on!
Cheers!
~Gunny

I've got my Yamato project where I'm going to try to backdate the Yamato in 350 scale. I've got 2 Yamato kits one a knock off the other the Tamiyathat Kenny so graciously contributed. Got line drawings done, got two photo extched sets and 2 sets of metal gun tubes, and lastly some evergreen styrene sheets to replace decking I cut away. Been building lots of those 1200 scale (ONE WAS THE YAMATO) to get ready for small parts work. Still that pucker factor goes way up when you start cutting big sections away. Man I sure wish I had a table jig saw right about now.

Sounds cool Steve. Man, I'm looking forward to seeing it in progress.

Kenny

Amen, Brother, I'll second that motion! Sounds like you got all your bases covered, mate, and honestly, I don't think you'll have a problem with the deck trimming! (But I can relate about the Pucker factor, Steve!. . . I just cut a HUGE hole free-hand in my DDD2 entry to make room for the missile deck of my 33G, and I still can't sit straight yet! )
Measure twice, cut once, an ole' carpenter once told me (very wise!)
~Gunny

I will scratchbuilding the IJN Hyuga BBCV in 1:144. I have some Japanese photobooks, and plans are on the way from Japan.

Most likely, it'll be balsa on frames, covered with a thin fiberglass layer so she'll take handling and the rigors of sea service (lake service?) well.

Yes, she'll be big, but still a good bit shorter than my last big'un, the HMS Vanguard (almost 6 feet). I learned a lot building Vangie, and I'm sure that'll serve me well for this campaign. First lesson is to ditch the ESC, it burned up during combat, and that was unfortunate

Man, that thing is going to be awesome! Can't wait to see it come together.

Kenny

I hope so... the ship itself will be time consuming, but not too tough (maybe a 7-8 on a 10 scale, mostly due to lack of extensive source materials). The tricky part for me will be scratching the aircraft. Not a lot of plans for those, as they never really made a whole lot of them. Got some good pictures, though. Thank God for the internet and devoted history buffs!

Sweet plans, mate, nice entry!
This is going to be an interesting run, I can see already, eh Gator?!

I’ll probably be a late starter. Should get started early next year.

I haven’t gotten a kit for it yet but I’m hoping to build the Zuikaku or possibly the Yamato.

This will be interesting. So many subjects to choose from.

Don't sweat the late start Jacob. We got a whole year!

Kenny

Clark:

144 scale on a ship Wow man !!! That is some undertaking. As to planes, before you scratch, see what is available out there. 144 Aircraft is a fairly popular scale, and while you may not get the specific plane you want, I'll bet you'll find something close enough to modify easier. If you scratch, I'm sure you do your own casting so the project should go smoothly. As for mine, I'm looking at 2 difeerent ways todo it. One is cutting away only the side sections, and the other is cutting the entire piece off and then trying to cut the superstructure piece out of that and gluing it onto the sheet styrene replacement (the most likely approach)

Hi Steve, 1:144 is a good scale for me Since my plans are still in the mail, and i have more than a few pics of the aircraft and turrets, I will probably start my project on Oct 1 working on the turret plug, airplane plugs, and the AA turret plug.
The planes get one big float centerline, and two smaller ones on the wings. The nomenclature for the floatplane fighters is E15K if anyone has suggestions on near-cousins Otherwise, I'm pouring my own. The main body of the aircraft looks awful familiar, though.

Until Oct 1, I'm working on a same-scale light cruiser escort for Hyuga, the IJN Agano Hull's almost done on her, got some crafting to do at the bow and stern.

I only know of three small Japanese float planes. One was a bi-plane, one had a single float down the center and two small ones on the wing tips, and the other had 2 large floats. The biplane, I can't help you with. The single centerline get a zero for it and scratch the float (unless you can find a Rufe which is the whole thng) the twin float near the middle, is An Aichi but you can scratch it using a kate. You can cut wing tips and fold them upward for storage. My reference book has pictures of a 13, 14, and 16 but no mention of a 15

That's my dilemma, Steve. The E15K recon aircraft, called the "Norm" by the Allies, was designed specifically for the ISe & Hyuga BBCVs, and was never built in huge numbers. Looks like a reasonably sleek aircraft, the wingtip floats retract neatly into the wings, but are still visible.

For an idea, look at these pictures (if you want

http://www.ijnafpics.com/jbwe151.htm

Hyuga's fighters were indeed the "Rufe". And as you suggested, I plan to use some of the very nice looking Sweet Aviation models of Zeroes, suitably modified. Thanks for the pointer on that, it led me to some historical sites that discussed it.

I have a feeling that that was an extremely limited run aircraft. My reference has no mention of it (Rand McNally Encyclopedia of Aircraft). It looks similatr to an AiChi E16a1. I think if you can find those in 144 you use that as a base to modify into the 15. Only use one float and put it centerline and scratch the wing pods. You might go to aircraft forum and ask for deeper references. There may even be a kit out there in 72nd you could work from.

Hey Clark,

Check out this site. Combined Fleet

These guys have some awesome references and if you email them, they will help you out.

Kenny

btw...I've switched to this callsign because of problems with subhunter.

Hi Subhunter/Gator,

My entry is HMS Ariadne a Cruiser minelayer that was asigned to the US pacific fleet for the Leyte Gulf as a Fast Assault transport (34Knots). This ship was the only Royal Navy participent in the campaign.

After waiting for a very long time for a resin kit to arrive from WEM I stumbelled across the old Matchbox 1/700 kit at a show last week, said kit is now waiting for the keel to be laid on the slipway. I have a set of plans but will need to order replacement guns both main and AA as the kit ones are a bit poor to say the least.

Ciao
Luciano

Aoshima's 1/700 IJN MAYA and Hasegawas's 1/700 IJN NACHI. Rich

Sounds great guys. I've been out of action this weekend. I got a nasty scratch on my eye and I've been barely able to see.

Kenny

Great site, Gator, thanks mate. . .went straight to the reference bookmarks! Too bad about yer eye, Bro, be careful, man! He gave ya only one set, and they ain't replaceable!
Take care!
~Gunny

Ok. Calling all armchair admirals! I've got Dragon's Lexington that I'm going to build as the Hornet. Sailing with her will be Dragon's new premier grade San Diego.
Question...how many of each aircraft would sortie on a strike? I've done some research through NavSource, but the numbers don't sound right for a major raid. 16 F6Fs, 5 TBFs and 7 SB2Cs. I know I've seen deck loads of aircraft warming up. Does have any info that can help? The only action reports I can find are for the Enterprise CV-6.

Thanks....Gator

I think the answer is "it depends". Specifically, on what the immediate and follow on taskings are for each ship in the task force.

For example, keeping some the "strike" aircraft (TBMs and SBCs) in any air group aboard on any given carrier might make sense if the intent is to launch a follow up strike against the initial target at a slightly later time (to keep planes over the target constantly) OR to keep them ready for a separate target, perhaps one not yet known or perhaps anticipated. But by the time of the Leyte Gulf battles, Task Forces and Task Groups had enough carriers, that this tasking could also be done by launching a full group from ONE carrier (which had worked together) and keeping another full carrier "on-call" and still send the same number of aircraft to conduct the strike. The trade off would be that you can launch 80 planes twice as fast if you send them off two decks.

As far as the fighters on board, the two major jobs they had were escorting the strike and air patrol over the fleet, and again the air plan would dictate how to do that. I would think that the flexibility of having multiple decks conducting the same tasks (partials from each group for both strike and CAP) would make more sense. It's faster to launch and recover, and mimimizes the risk if one deck becomes non available due to damage from an enemy attack.

I'm not sure if there was an established "doctrine" about full group or partial group strikes or not. I DO know that several carriers, like Enterprise as she became less of a "first line" carrier, WERE devoted to specific missions, such as having night fighters to cover the fleet at night. This allows each ship and its crew to have a cycle which allows for "down time" and not have to operate the air group 24 hours a day.

Tom

So Tom, what I need to do is find out what was the Hornet's strike packages were. I did find this photo of the Hornet from 1944.



Kenny

edit...It seems the only action reports from WW2 that have been declassified has been those from the Enterprise. After reading the report from Leyte Gulf, the Big E launched 16 F6F, 9 SB2C and 7 TBF. So, what you see in the photo is a "normal" strike package. Go figure.

Seems strange that operations reports from that far back would still be classified. I don't have "biographies" of any of the WW II carriers hanging around the house, so I don't have any quick way to look for any details about specific carriers and what the composition of a typical package would be, but seems to me that over the course of the reading I've done, something must have been mentioned about it.

I know that the Air Operations Officer's job is to work with the mission requirements and figure out just exactly how to accomplish it and while you always have "doctrine" to guide you, there's a lot of ways a mission could be planned and I'm not really sure if every ship and air group did things the same way.

I have a lot of back issues of "The Hook", which is the magazine published by the Tailhook Association. (Yes THAT Tailhook association, and yes, I'm a card carrying member) Over the years they've had some terriffic articles about ships and battles from WW II, and I'm going to dig through the files and see what I can find.

One doctrinal thing I do know from that period is that normal practice was to work from the flight deck rather than from the hanger deck. Planes were generally refueled and rearmed topside rather than being struck below for that. So carriers typically carried what they planned to use on the flight deck.

When you look at the photo of the Hornet, you can immediately see that as she currently is, she can only launch planes and not recover them. If those planes spotted on the fantail aren't going to be launched, then they'll have to be moved to the bow in front of the crash barrier before any planes can be recovered. And with only one deck edge elevator, it's hard to cycle planes between decks if you're doing flight ops, because taking time to use the elevator to move a plane takes away from the interval to either launch or recover because the deck isn't ready.

Modern carriers with angled decks and all deck edge elevators offer a whole lot more flexibility. Not to mention the fact that unlike the old straight deck carriers, if you miss a wire (or your hook breaks), you at LEAST get the chance to go around again.

Look at the old photos of planes recovering. Most of the time you'll see the entire front half of the flight deck packed with planes. Any missed wire and you went into the barrier, because you had no place else to go.

Anyone who flies planes off boats isn't like the rest of us!

Tom