The Ship Model Forum

Here's Auguest of '42, those might be 20mm's...


gun3 by JTninja, on Flickr

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"Also we will never see a 1/350 late war Enterprise from Dragon due to a paralyzing fear of success...." - Heavy Melder

Lots of unfinished model ships + attention issues = A busy slipway where nothing gets done!

JTninja,

I don't know the one in rear but I believe forward is this:

Ah, that would make sense. Looks like a long range lense to scan the horizon. So the adventure continues

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"Also we will never see a 1/350 late war Enterprise from Dragon due to a paralyzing fear of success...." - Heavy Melder

Lots of unfinished model ships + attention issues = A busy slipway where nothing gets done!

Since we are on the topic, does anyone know what those object in red circles are?

Open hatches for the bomb elevators.

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Mike

They are not guns. See next photo in thread. All of CV-6's AA batteries are well documented for August 1942.

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Mike

I have the chance to get the Yankee 1/350 CV-6 but I am struggling to find any builds or inbox reviews of it.

Can anyone help or does anyone have 1st hand knowledge of building it and finally is it worth it ?


Thanks

Keith Bender built one recently, you can see his take on it here

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Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Ship Model Gallery

Hi everybody,

I've been reading this thread over and over again but I can't seem to figger it out
I'm working on a Midway version of the Enterprise and I want to put the AA weapons in the correct position.
There are some photos of the CV6, dated in May 1942, but they are different. For example:



I believe the first photo contains .50 cal machineguns...



and the second one has the 20mm machineguns. There's also one extra 20mm machingun position, probably on the other side aswell. The reason I think these are the 20mm is that they contain shields, although I have read somewhere that the barrels are to thick for 20mm weapons, could this be because of a canvas cover? And are there any photos of .50 cal machineguns that actualy have shields.








The 'Yorktown Class Aircraft Carriers' book contains a page:



why is there a questionmark (32?) Could this be that it is not clear how many 20mm there were.






I believe in the photo above there are two .50 cal machineguns next to the flightdek, but which AA configuration is the correct one. Any help or pointers in the right direction would be hugely appreciated.

Cheers
Jeroen

Joreon, if you are doing a Midway version, the second set of photos do not apply. CV-6 had additional 20mm added around her sterrn ramp after Midway. For Midway, you have correctly noted a single 50 cal at each corner of the flight deck catwalks. The 20MM at Midway are as follows, 5x20mm port forward catwalk just aft of the 5 inch battery. 5x20mm aft port catwalk in front of aft 5 inch battery, 5x20mm stbd side forward catwalk between the 5 inch battery and the fwd 1.1 inch mounts. 3x20mm in the catwalk aft of the island and two more single 20mm tubs in the catwalk bracketing the top of the stbd side hangar deck boat crane. Additionally, there were 2x20mm in the bow tub on the foc'sle and there were two single 20mm's on the fantail at hangar deck level. There were 8 x 20mm's along the starboard side of the island on the former boat deck. Total at Midway was 32 plus at least the 4x50cals.on the corners. Might have been a few more ad hoc 50's mounted in odd locations, but they were strictly lashups. The corner units were "official" ones and had plumbing for the cooling jackets. None of the 50's had shields. The forward units lasted a lot longer, showing up in photos into 1943. I think structural /weight/size concerns at the forward catwalk corners may have been an issue. Some say these were upgraded to 20mm as well, but I have yet to find a photo that confirmed that. The fwd positions remained as you see them in these shots and these are too small for a 20mm. The photo that has you guessing, with the 20mm at the stern ramp, was taken several months after Midway, on the return from Eastern Solomons. CV-6 had armament upgrades at almost every visit to Pearl Harbor (except, curiously, the three day quickie before she sailed for Midway, when CV-5 had the yard's full attention). It is critical to understand the proper dates and timeframes of the photos you are looking at.

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Mike

Mike, I owe you a very big 'thank you' for helping me out. It's all very clear to me now, except for the phrase: 'and there were two single 20mm's on the fantail at hangar deck level'. I am embarrassed now because I don't know where the fantail at hangar deck level is located

I have tried searching the web, books and my digital archive but to no avail, so hopefully there's someone out there who can - again - help an ignorant modeller.

Cheers
Jeroen

The "fantail" is the very back of the hull at the hangar deck level. A photo that clearly shows one of these 20MM is the top post on page 12 of this same thread. A couple of posts down is an identification of what might be the other fantail 20MM. Our speculation is that both Yorktown and Enterprise received 20MM in this location as a temporary measure. The final location for these two guns was probably the cutouts in the after flightdeck rounddown, but Yorktown was lost before that could happen. Enterprise did not get the mod until after Midway.

Dick, thank you so much for the help. Studying the pictures on page 12, at first I could not really see the weapons. Then I started looking at the Yorktown just a few hours ago on the photo-cd an found this...



Can't get any clearer than this. Again many thanks

Cheers
Jeroen

I had originally thought they might have used the Mk10 tripod mount based on that fuzzy shot Dick refers to, but they were in fact Mk 4 pedestals. My thanks to CDR Pete Clayton, USN (Ret) for this photo. This should firmly clear things up:

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Mike

Yes, indeed firmly clear! Very nice and sharp photo. Thanks again Mike.

Cheers
Jeroen

Jeroen, don't worry about the terminology thing. Ships have their own special vocabulary. Just takes a little time to pick it up.

So, my friend, now you are tackling Enterprise at Midway? I can't wait to see what you do with her. From your other work I've seen I know she'll be impressive.

Bob

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Give me a fast ship, for I would like to get out of harm's way!

Hey Bob, how are you? Everything on a ship has a weird name for a rookie but I'll learn eventually. Anyway, the Enterprise is going slow but steady. Working on the planes and figures. I finally received the ModelMaster 20mm Oerlikons and they look exceptional! I need to try to put one together this week.

Cheers
Jeroen

I Have a question for anybody that might be able to help out. Is it possible to convert a 1/485 scale
U.S.S Yorktown CV/5 into a U.S.S. Enterprise CV-6 model

Some of the "masters" have turned those kits into masterpieces. The basic shape is very good, and if the details are improved upon, it makes for a nice Yorktown. Early in their careers, Yorktown and Enterprise were very close in appearance. Yorktown had her bridge altered first, so the kit is actually closer to Enterprise for more of her years than it matches Yorktown. You just need to pick the specific timeframe for the correct details. (Significant alterations done to Enterprise in 1943 would make depictions after that time more of an effort from this kit.)

Agreed. The hull is very good, but much of the kit is very basic and lacks details. It depends on the time period you're looking to build and how accurate. This kit has also been sold as the Enterprise and as the Hornet, so much of the kit is the same (all are inaccurate in certain areas).

If you're going for accurate, the island needs some work, all the guns need to be replaced ('5 need to be sratched built). GMM built a really good (but expensive) p/e kit thats recommended (http://www.goldmm.com/ships/gms4usac.htm)

Some good examples of this kit becoming the Enterprise...

http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery ... index.html

viewtopic.php?f=60&t=54540&hilit=Enterprise

_________________
"Also we will never see a 1/350 late war Enterprise from Dragon due to a paralyzing fear of success...." - Heavy Melder

Lots of unfinished model ships + attention issues = A busy slipway where nothing gets done!