The Ship Model Forum

My eyes are crap, my collection of 1/700 ships have to live with my lack of fine detail. I have a 1/700 Lexington that I'm thinking, "what if" Japanese forces captured it before it sank and salvaged her to serve the empire? I'm picturing a shortened island, a shortened stack, and a sand bagged bridge. Not sure what AAA to add but any idea on 1/700 IJN aircraft kits to add?

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So many models... So little time...

Other than scrap metal she would have little use to the IJN. She was heavily damaged and had turbo-electric drive. I'm not sure the IJN could reliably operate the electric motors to meet IJN standards. Had she been captured and survived attempts by the allies to sink her in IJN custody she would have been towed to Rabul, then Truk lagoon, and then probably Kure. By that time the disastrous loses at Midway would have resulted in her being salvaged and scrapped for material to complete new carriers. Her armor and steel would be good for repairing IJN ships.

Upon arriving in Japan she would have some propaganda value. External damage would be repaired and she would be painted to look operational for news reels. Then towed tied up at a naval shipyard where she could be examined and then raided for material. I'd imagine you would model her for the news reel footage. Put her in either IJN colors or faux USN colors. Remember that the 8"/55 twin guns were removed some time before the battle and quad 1.1" were fit in their place. Replace the 1.1" with IJN weapons to make it look fearsome. IIRC the IJN 8 cm high angle AA gun had already been pulled from surface forces because of its slow rate of fire, however it looks mean. A gaudy fake radar installation would be a nice touch. And for the faux USN scenario pre-war IJN and IJA aircraft in USN marking on the flight deck would be nice for propaganda purposes.

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I was thinking the IJN had a bigger chance of actually capturing the damaged USS Hornet (CV-8)after the October 1942 Battle of Santa Cruz.

And in that case, the IJN fleet actually sighted the abandoned Hornet; this led to the the destroyers Makigumo and Akigumo launching torpedoes to sink her.

IMHO, the US task force just abandoned this carrier with minimal effort to try to save her when the cruiser Northampton attempted to tow her earlier on, and a hurried attempt to scuttle her before the IJN fleet arrived.

I thought the IJN decision to sink her on sight was a mistake- I was thinking the Japanese could have towed her back to Japan as a war prize.

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"Haijun" means "navy" in Mandarin Chinese.

"You have enemies? Good. It means you stood up for something in your life."- Winston Churchill

The USN fired a bunch of dud torpedoes in to it then the DD's fired lots of 5" in to it, before running.

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║ Seasick║
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