IOWA battleship to aircraft carrier conversion.

[seadude]

You guys are forgetting something. While that Wiki link to dazzle schemes is nice, it's mostly about dazzle schemes to "battleships".
What I plan to build/finish is an "aircraft carrier". So, I need an appropriate aircraft carrier camouflage. Not battleship camouflage.

[jcf]

Dazzle was used on all ship types. Look at the various schemes and create yer own, or do a search for 'aircraft carrier dazzle'.

Voila,Yorktown:


You can also go here:
http://www.shipcamouflage.com/usn_cv.htm

Click on the Measure 32, Measure 33 links.

[PR19_Kit]

You guys are forgetting something. While that Wiki link to dazzle schemes is nice, it's mostly about dazzle schemes to "battleships".
What I plan to build/finish is an "aircraft carrier". So, I need an appropriate aircraft carrier camouflage. Not battleship camouflage.

I didn't forget it, I just know that page, and there are links on it to the appropriate carrier page, which is here :-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_US_Navy_dazzle_camouflage_measures_31,_32_and_33:_aircraft_carriers

[seadude]

You guys are forgetting something. While that Wiki link to dazzle schemes is nice, it's mostly about dazzle schemes to "battleships".
What I plan to build/finish is an "aircraft carrier". So, I need an appropriate aircraft carrier camouflage. Not battleship camouflage.

I didn't forget it, I just know that page, and there are links on it to the appropriate carrier page, which is here :-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_US_Navy_dazzle_camouflage_measures_31,_32_and_33:_aircraft_carriers

The more I look at that dazzle camouflage carrier link, the more I hate dazzle camouflage patterns. Period. Main problem I can see myself with is trying to use masking tape to get straight lines in all sorts of nooks, crannies, etc. to get all the edges of paint shapes straight. Especially if it's on/around the island superstructure with all the radars, searchlights, gun tubs, etc. Just seems like too much work to me to try and get all the "lines, edges, and shapes" straight. Especially in hard to reach areas and corners all over the ship. I think I'd rather go with a much simpler "non-dazzle" camouflage measure.

[seadude]

You can also go here:
http://www.shipcamouflage.com/usn_cv.htm

Going by that link, I'll probably use either the MS21 or MS22 measures as used on Essex class carriers in 1945, which is the same timeframe I'll base my Iowa carrier in. It also appears more Essex class carriers wore the MS21 measure in 1945 than they did the MS22 measure.

[NARSES2]

Was the disruptive aka "dazzle" scheme still being used then?

I didn't it was. But looking at Google perhaps it was after all ? There are some fantastic schemes on there

Yep, dazzle was used in WWII.

I knew that Jon, I just didn't realise it had gone on so late in the war, particularly in the USN. Some of those carrier schemes are amazing, but paint them in 1/350 let alone 1/700 ? 

[NARSES2]

On brushes - I was more interested in the material/straw. I find pony tail close to useless, but some of the better options are.. umm.. less than politically correct to buy, it seems..

Right, apologies.

Sable, pricey or a good quality synthetic brush. Get the best you can afford and then make sure you clean them properly and they will last for ever. DeLuxe Materials Brush Magic will save almost any brush, regardless of its state.

[kerick]

Dazzle was used on all ship types. Look at the various schemes and create yer own, or do a search for 'aircraft carrier dazzle'.

Voila,Yorktown:


You can also go here:
http://www.shipcamouflage.com/usn_cv.htm

Click on the Measure 32, Measure 33 links.

Now make it look "digital" just to screw with people.....

[seadude]

I don't have a backstory figured out yet, but I do have a few things figured out for my CVB project.

I'm going to use the USS Kentucky as my basepoint. Keel laid on March 7, 1942 and supposedly commissioned sometime in early or mid 1945 as a converted aircraft carrier. This assumes that it takes roughly 3 to 3 1/2 years to make an IOWA class battleship from keel laid to commissioning based on all the dates I've read for all the Iowa class ships.

Name will be the USS Santa Cruz.
Not sure what designation and number to use: CV-44, CVB-44, CVBB-44, CV-66, CVB-66, CVBB-66
Camouflage measure: Either MS21 or MS22. Though most Essex class carriers (Which an Iowa carrier conversion is based on) tended to use MS21 in 1945 more than MS22, the MS21 makes the ship look like a "blue brick". I may end up going with the MS22 instead.

I think the toughest part will be building and adding the various radars atop the superstructure. Radars tended to change about as fast as a person changed their socks. And not all Essex class carriers were the same from one ship to another.

[NARSES2]

I think the toughest part will be building and adding the various radars atop the superstructure. Radars tended to change about as fast as a person changed their socks. And not all Essex class carriers were the same from one ship to another.

Absolutely, by the end of the War they are a veritable forest and as you say no ship was the same

[JoeP]

I don't have a backstory figured out yet, but I do have a few things figured out for my CVB project.

I'm going to use the USS Kentucky as my basepoint. Keel laid on March 7, 1942 and supposedly commissioned sometime in early or mid 1945 as a converted aircraft carrier. This assumes that it takes roughly 3 to 3 1/2 years to make an IOWA class battleship from keel laid to commissioning based on all the dates I've read for all the Iowa class ships.

Name will be the USS Santa Cruz.
Not sure what designation and number to use: CV-44, CVB-44, CVBB-44, CV-66, CVB-66, CVBB-66
Camouflage measure: Either MS21 or MS22. Though most Essex class carriers (Which an Iowa carrier conversion is based on) tended to use MS21 in 1945 more than MS22, the MS21 makes the ship look like a "blue brick". I may end up going with the MS22 instead.

I think the toughest part will be building and adding the various radars atop the superstructure. Radars tended to change about as fast as a person changed their socks. And not all Essex class carriers were the same from one ship to another.

Unless you plan to leave some of the big weapons in place she would be a CV, or maybe a CVB like the Midways.

[James W.]

That design seems a bit curious - in that the flight deck is significantly shorter than the hull.
Previously, the USN used ex-battlecruiser hulls for the extemporised carriers Lexington & Saratoga - with full length flight decks.

What with the value of flight deck space upfront for parking aircraft, its an apparently odd omission.
Unless its a sea-keeping thing, & it was figured the bow would be dipping through wave crests - in heavy weather?

[wuzak]

I was wondering if it would be feasible to have a twin hull battleship/aircraft carrier, sort of like Tophe does many of his  twin boomers.

Have two Iowa class battleships, complete with 9 x 16" guns, as the two hulls of a catamaran, with a flight deck and hangars between them.

[James W.]

Not withstanding the structural complexities ( articulated cross-members?) required to emulate the large sea-going double-hulled 'waka' of the Maori,
wasn't the beam of these big bruisers already dictated - by the width of the Panama canal?

[NARSES2]

wasn't the beam of these big bruisers already dictated - by the width of the Panama canal?

Quite probably, and having been through the Canal I can tell you it's narrow. Our cruise ship was relatively small and we were almost scrapping the sides.