Calling all USS Enterprise CV-6 fans

[Dick J]

The secondary air search radar antenna on Enterprise at Santa Cruz was discussed in Oct of 2016, on page 30 of this thread.

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=4759&start=580#p704078

[MartinJQuinn]

Thanks guys. Using the kit supplied PE. I'll have to try and make something out of plastic card and rod...

[MartinJQuinn]

Getting ready to decal the Big E. Doesn't appear she carried numbers on the hull at the time of Santa Cruz. Anyone have info that suggests otherwise?

[Nino]

Can't see any number on the deck in any pics I have of Enterprise at Santa Cruz.
Nor do I see a hull number on the bow when checking from early April 1942 thru Nov '42.

Edit: I might have thought she would have hull Numbers after being painted in July 42.

Did she have them during the Marshall Islands raid in Feb '42?

Nino

[MartinJQuinn]

Can't see any number on the deck in any pics I have of Enterprise at Santa Cruz.
Nor do I see a hull number on the bow when checking from early April 1942 thru Nov '42.

Edit: I might have thought she would have hull Numbers after being painted in July 42.

Did she have them during the Marshall Islands raid in Feb '42?

Nino

I know she didn't get numbers on the flight deck until sometime in 1943. I haven't been able to find pics of numbers on the hull in October '42, so I'm going to go without them.

Not sure if she had them for the Marshall Islands raid.

[Ian Roberts]

Does anyone know if Maryland Silver Company is still around? Their website is long dead. I'm looking for plans of CV-6 in 1944 to supplement my Floating Drydock "TFW" plans. If anyone has an idea, or knows where to get the MD Silver plans of CV-6, would be grateful. Thx!

[MartinJQuinn]

Does anyone know if Maryland Silver Company is still around? Their website is long dead. I'm looking for plans of CV-6 in 1944 to supplement my Floating Drydock "TFW" plans. If anyone has an idea, or knows where to get the MD Silver plans of CV-6, would be grateful. Thx!

My understanding is the owner died and the company is no more.

[Richard Durham]

Hi All,

Getting ready to apply some paint to a Battle of Santa Cruz 1/700 USS Enterprise (early in build). Had thought the ship was in Measure 11, 5-S and 20-B, at Santa Cruz. But read an old thread on FSM from Jeff Herne that Enterprise was in 5-N and 20-B by the time of Santa Cruz, and that even if the scheme was still called Measure 11, 5-N had replaced 5-S due to the poor at-sea performance of 5-S. Seems reasonable to me, is there a consensus among those knowledgeable in the life of CV-6 on the color of vertical surfaces at Santa Cruz, 5-N or 5-S?

Thanks, Rich

[Dick J]

5-S was pretty much a dead issue for the whole of 1942. Go with the 5-N.

[Daytona675R]

Five Star released the 1/700 CV-6 upgrade set. While being described as "1943", it is actually covering the period between the Aug 1942 repairs and the mid-1943 refit. The set is missing the backup SC-1 radar antenna and I think the front side of the foretop should be solid-shielded, instead of the rails (or were the rails just covered by canvas?). Apart from that, a very nice set as usual.

[MartinJQuinn]

USS Enterprise at Norfolk Navy Yard, November 1938. Note Yorktown in the background. Photo from National Archives NARA II, RG 71-CA (Yards and Docks), courtesy of Roger Torgeson.

[drdoom1337]

The 1/350 Merit Enterprise seems to be out of stock in the Con. US and very expensive on the evil auction site. Between the Academy and Trumpeter kits, regardless of era, which two is the better "kit?" I've given up hope of a '43-45 Enterprise happening so I think I'm going to choose between these two.

[Devin]

I have the Academy Enterprise and the Trumpeter Yorktown. Both seem to be very nice kits, and from a little testing several of the parts, such as lower hull, islands, etc, swap easily between the two boxings. The E has a simplified feel to it, with one piece 20mm and other AA guns. With its large locator pins, it's nearly snap-fit in several places. I did a quick out of box review of it here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=165639

The Trumpeter Yorktown kit is essentially the same as their Enterprise kit, so what I have should be a good indication. It looks to be more detailed out of the box, and its stated 400+ parts, opposed to the Academy 240-ish parts, is a good indication of how much more detail it has. I need to do a detailed review of the kit, but from what I see in the boxes, the Trumpeter kit appears the better one as far as detail goes.

A couple of differences: the flight decks of the two kits are slightly different, not sure which one is the most correct, but the difference is a mere millimeter or two. The Academy kit's flight deck is better detailed, but the Trumpeter kit isn't incorrect, just lacks some items such as bomb elevators and the like. The Academy kit has a lower hull, the Trumpeter kit does not.

Not sure if that helps at all.

[tomcat Fanatic]

What about Merit Enterprise and Yorktown� ?

[drdoom1337]

The merit kits seem to have disappeared from the continental us market. Probably due to a lack of shipments from the orient.

I may pick the trumpeter kit but I�m leaning more towards just ordering the toms 1944 version. I like working in resin and the 44 fit is the only time I can find evidence where Enterprise and NJ were in the same battle group

[tomcat Fanatic]

I'm from EU, and was able to get Merit York in 1/350 for 110�.... was wandering what was the issue, but as it looks there is none...

[Wedgie01]

Picked up the Merit 1/350 kit just a couple of weeks ago here in Australia. Still seems readily available. Paid a bit much at AUD$270, but it's a life in lockdown project, so just wore the hurt.

Got build log running in the Picture Post area if anyone is interested.

[JMAC]

Hi all, new poster here.

I�m starting an Academy 1/700 CV6 build (my first ship) and while the kit itself seems pretty straightforward, I�ve gone down a rabbit hole regarding how to depict her reasonably accurately at Midway (for which this thread had been probably the best of the resources I�ve come across!). I�m not chasing extreme accuracy but rather a reasonable level.

My main question is about the AA armament at Midway, which has come up a few times; I�ve been convinced that I need to add two Oerlikons to the fantail, change the weapons at each corner of flight deck to Brownings as well as add two more of these in to the port and starboard sides right aft... however I�m tearing my hair out trying to figure out if there were 4x20mm on the island itself or not As opinions seem to differ and I can�t find a picture that confirms one way or the other. Can anyone help on this point??

[Dick J]

A brief bit of history may help. When built, the Yorktown class aft rounddown ran the full width of the aft flightdeck. 4 brownings were mounted on the foretop. Those brownings were displaced by the CXAM-1 radar installation and were relocated, one at each corner of the flightdeck fore and aft. When 20MM were first installed, it was a rushed job on both Yorktown and Enterprise. 2 20MM intended to be cut into the aft rounddown were temporarily mounted on the fantail. Hornet had them cut into the rounddown since her refit was done at Norfolk. After Midway, Pearl was able to complete the job on Enterprise and relocate the two 20MM from the fantail into cut outs on either side of the rounddown. The brownings on the outer sides of the rounddown were removed at that time, but one 20MM was added to each side slightly forward of the location of the .50's. Between Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz, the rounddown cutouts were enlarged to fit 2 20MM on each side. So at Midway, Enterprise had 2 20MM on the fantail, brownings on either side of the aft rounddown and NO cutouts in that rounddown. As for the .50's on the island, they were later removed but were not replaced with 20MM. She appears to have still had the brownings at Midway.

[Dick J]

Just a word of caution on your sources, even those dedicated to the ship.

http://www.cv6.org/ship/big_e.htm

The statistic for the overall length "as commissioned" perpetuates an all too often repeated error. The ship as designed was 809' 6". That was the hull length. (And accepting this mistaken value is why the Tamiya 1/700 kit came up short.) The original aft end of the flightdeck would have been similar to that on the Ranger with the flightdeck rounddown almost immediately aft of the 5" guns. But a contingency was invoked during construction which added the overhanging deck aft. The ships commissioned at 824' 9" - all three. The late-war overall length of 827' 5" was achieved in 1942 when the 20MM tubs were cut into the rounddown and extended a bit aft of the original extreme projection of the rounddown. The length of Yorktown and Enterprise had been published prior to commissioning, and nobody corrected the error. But the length of Hornet was correctly stated from the beginning because she was built to the plans after the deck-lengthening contingency was incorporated.