The Ship Model Forum

Thanks to everyone who has replied. Al

I need some assistance. I am building HMS Illustrious and want to portray her after her 1941 refit in the USA, but I have not found any reference to where the 10 Oerlikons she received were mounted.

Can anyone help me out?

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Mike Bryant
Vicksburg, Mississippi

As far as I can determine from photographs:

2 stb & port stern sponson flight deck level
1 stb & port forward sponson flight deck level (previously searchlight position)
leaving 4 on island stb side, but I haven't got a really clear close-up photograph to confirm.

Here are my suggestions. 1-9 are pretty clear from various photos (others, not just these which are selected more for ease of labelling). 10 proved most difficult to locate. In the 4th photo I think that the barrel is horizontal and pointing to port about 20 degrees forward of broadside so that we are looking very obliquely across the front of the shields which are almost, but not quite, side on to the camera. (Formidable's 10 x Oerlikon's were in the same locations at this time.) Searchlights on bow sponsons retained at this time.

Quite right on the forward bow sponson Oerlikon's - I confused Illustrious with Indomitable.

On No.10, I'm not sure. Or is it obvious and i can't see it?

I know. It seems to be very hard to find clear photos of that location.

It was this photo of Formidable that prompted me to look closely at this location on Illustrious. The silhouette of the (shadowed) rearside of a set of 20mm shields there seems clear, and to the immediate left of them the silhouette of some box mounted on the railings at the end of that external walkway.

In your photo a similarly positioned box, the railings (particularly the third one down) and the chap standing there in a duffelcoat obscure and distort things but I believe that you can nevertheless discern the top and left edges of the left shield, and (in the dark) the right edge of the right shield.

In the 1941 USA repairs a new protected area/half tub appears there where none had been before. In the US dockyard starboard broadside photo taken 24 11 41 the back of it can be seen in silhouette with something in it of the right dimensions - but whatever it is was under a tarpaulin/canvas cover (as are other 20mm in that photo).

A detail from the extreme right edge of a photo taken during the Firebrand trials seems to show the right shield fairly clearly. It is a pity the camera was not aiming slightly more to the right!

In one of the Feb 1943 de-ammunitioning photos taken from the flight deck the dark horizontal of the 20mm barrel is fairly clear. We are side on to the shields again but I believe that you can just about make out a light sheen of their angle.

(It is perhaps also relevant that this location was clearly thought suitable for light AA as it later gained a sponson on which were mounted two twin powered Oerlikons.)

Dick,
Many thanks for your detailed reply. You've convinced me!
IG

Thanks for the great pictures and information.

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Mike Bryant
Vicksburg, Mississippi

Hi all

wondering if anyone can help with this, although it's possibly been mentioned before:

Does anyone know the whereabouts of the Builder's model for HMS Illustrious or Victorious?

Thanks

There is a model of a carrier at the Fleet Air Arm museum Yeovilton and I am sure it's Victorious

I thought that was Indomitable?

It is Indomitable. Ian Gazeley has posted pictures of it, either here or on Britmodeller.

I suspected as much. I'm pretty sure I've seen those pics.

Was hoping to locate the builder's models of either Illustrious or Victorious so I could get a butcher's hook at 'em!

While looking for pictures of a Light Fleet I ran into a number of discussions on the changes between Victorious and Indomitable. As both are in the back of my mind for future projects I decided to see if I can make sense of it. The problem seems to be adding 4.20m in hangar height while all references say the total hull height only went up by 2.03m. And most references say that Indomitable was mostly the same hull up to the original hangar deck line. So where did this 2.17m go? Thanks to the NMMs recent habit of teasing the public by publishing low quality scans of various ship drawings I think I have a handle on what happened. Printing those sections of Victorious (which was the starting point for Indomitable) and Indomitable in 1/700 and putting them on my recently finished lightbox gave me the opportunity to compare them. The funnel/bridge sections and the section with the ships’cranes show clearly that the lower hangar was not build on the original hagar deck. The lower hangar deck was ‘sunk’ one deck lower into the ships’ structure. This was made possible (despite the hull being more narrow aft) by putting it 7.3m forward and keeping it a half hangar. This lower deck would cut through the funnel uptakes had it become a full length hangar. And changing the full machinery setup would essentially have been a new ship (build as Implacable/Indefatigable). Hope this clears up some things.

Just in case i've missed something, is anyone aware of further details on the upcoming Flyhawk Victorious? I've seen that Illustrious is due to be 1940 fit, hoping Victorious will be later as i'd ideally like to model it as British Pacific Fleet with Fairey Barracuda's etc. I suppose there's still no update on release dates for any of the Illustrious class kits yet

Hello

I am currently preparing a book on fleet aircraft carriers. A few months ago I published (in Spanish) one about battleships.

You can see my work in

https: /twitter.com/ManuelPedroGon4

I am drawing the Illustrious, and then I will continue with the Indomitable, but I have few and bad plans of the latter.

Can you help me?

Flyhawk Illustrious has arrived the deluxe set ...detail looks great the camo will be a challenge for me not sure how to do the camo on sword fish ...make my own masks ?
If anyone has done this appreciate any advice on how to do the 1/700 swordfish camo.

Cheers
waz

Hi all!

This request is a bit out of desperation: I'm attempting to build a large scale model of Illustrious per 1941's Taranto raid; I have lines plan from NMM, but the bow shape is not per the hurricane bow she and her sisters were built with.

Is anyone aware of any plans that might provide accurate information on the shape of the hurricane bow?

Thanks in advance!

Hi David

the Lines plan (Body) generated in 1937 for Illustrious was also used to construct Victorious, so as it turns out, yes, I am in way already using Victorious' body plan -both were built by Vickers Armstrongs just at different yards and were laid down with a fortnight of each other, hence their apparent identicalness... (if that's a word )

no info seems to exist at the NMM on the details for the "hurricane" bow though

Unfortunately, Victorious of the 1950's was a very different ship to that built in 1937