Looking for tips on making a USS Hornet 1/48 Diorama Base

For the right colors, look no further than

http://www.shipcamouflage.com/

I think the best 1/48 B-25 Doolittle planes were sold by Accurate Miniatures.

As far as an elevator the rear one figures, the forward one is in the takeoff area.

One big thing would be the tie downs.

http://www.tomsmodelworks.com/catalog/product_reviews.php?cPath=22_28&products_id=51

It's a great idea but a big one. At 1/48 the beam of the ship is easily two feet or more.

The wingspan of the a/c is what, 14 inches?

Sounds good, needs figures.

 

 

 

Thanks for the tips! I'm building the Academy version of the B-25 (which is a re-boxing of the Accurate Miniatures model). I'll check out the websites. Right now I'm just in the phase of planning it out and figuring out materials, costs, etc. Seems like if you have the chance to build a light bomber sitting on a carrier deck, you should probably jump at it!

Kind of one chance for that.

It's a wonderful idea. I suspect it's a rare idea because it's going to be a big model.

Please do Ruptured Duck.

I have studied the raid in some detail. My Cv-8 sits half done on the shelf of doom because AMS (Advanced Modelers Syndrome) has paralyzed me.

Nevertheless, the raid is fascinating for the aircraft. Hornet had her airwing, in abbreviated fashion, below on the hangar deck. There was the catapault down there.

The bombers were tarped, many had their propellers removed and they were tied down in complicated ways.

On April 18th, they were substantially rearranged just prior to take off.

I'm working on a this very diorama as we speak! Finished the AM B-25B "Ruptured Duck" last month (awesome kit!) and picked up a cast resin 1:48 deck base from a vendor at the S.E. Reqionals 2 weeks ago.

So far, I have fabricated the hemp rope mooring tie-downs by twisting strands of fine copper wire together to make each rope, and soldering three "ropes" together at the top to go through a "mooring point" shackle scratched from everegreen plastic. YES, apparently they weren't steel cables, but hemp rope! I always assumed they were cables, until I did further research. I drilled a hole in the underside of each wing to push these shackles into. The holes are already started on the kit. They're just outboard of the engine nacelles.

I figured that copper wire would remain rigid, and kind of stand up on its own--instead of actually trying to "lash-down" a model to a deck base with tensioned line, string, etc. The 3 lower points will be fastened into the photo-etched tie-down strips that came with the base.

So under each wing, there will be a 3-point mooring harness, a 2-point under the tail, and a few lashings around the nose gear. Trying to make it as accurate as possible, based on the pics I've seen.

While the B-25 was still in primer, I used a heat gun to shrink a scrap of ziploc bag plastic over the upper turret bubble to form the "tarp" used to cover the upper turret while underway on the Hornet. The "strap" that went under the belly to hold the tarp on will be made from thin lead tape.

I don't want to tarp over the engines, because they're so pretty LOL.

I'll post pics when I'm done in a week or so...and yes, I plan on adding a fire bottle and at least 2 figures.

 

The other tricky part, beyond the 24" dimension GM wisely notes, is that the flight deck does not just stop. It has a series of cat walks, gun positions and the like. These will be between 3/4" and 7/8" lower than the flightdeck So, making just a portion of the flightdeck is likely a better idea. Now, those flightdeck planks were pretty stout--5-6" IIRC, call it 1/8" at 1/48 scale. When Hornet sortied, it's possible her decks were still in "mahogany" stain; or she could have had the new Deck 20B blue stain--you'll want to find somebody with more flat top knowledge than an old tin can guy like me.

USAFASME7 - Wow, please link to some pictures of your project as you go along - I would love to see your work (as well as get some ideas and inspiration).  This will easily be the most advanced modeling I've done so far and I'd love to watch your progress as you go along.  Thanks a ton for the advice/tips.

CapnMac82

The other tricky part, beyond the 24" dimension GM wisely notes, is that the flight deck does not just stop. It has a series of cat walks, gun positions and the like. These will be between 3/4" and 7/8" lower than the flightdeck So, making just a portion of the flightdeck is likely a better idea. Now, those flightdeck planks were pretty stout--5-6" IIRC, call it 1/8" at 1/48 scale. When Hornet sortied, it's possible her decks were still in "mahogany" stain; or she could have had the new Deck 20B blue stain--you'll want to find somebody with more flat top knowledge than an old tin can guy like me.

 

I'm definitely doing a subsection of the deck.  Building catwalks, etc. is definitely beyond my skill level.  Thanks so much for the info/tips.  I truly appreciate all the help you guys are offering already!!

For my 1/72 Academy Wildcat, I purchased a plastic 1/48th base that's prepainted to look like a USN WW2 aircraft deck with a portion of an elevator, scaled it down on a copier and "stitched" several pieces together on to the back of a thick plastic piece that was placed inside of a cookie tin. The sides of the cookie tin was primed and painted to look like a USN Carrier, I'd like to weather it at some point but it looks convincing. I wanted to build the deck from scratch but was just too time consuming. I'll post some pics but hopefully my description is okay. 

 

 

According to a link the GM posted on my CV6 color question, one of the articles in the link said the concensus was the CV8 flight deck was in Deck Blue stain during workup and sortie.

One of the SBD pilots (Richard Best of Bombing 6) stated that all the Pacific carriers were in blue flight deck trim prior to Dec. '41.

goldhammer

According to a link the GM posted on my CV6 color question, one of the articles in the link said the concensus was the CV8 flight deck was in Deck Blue stain during workup and sortie.

One of the SBD pilots (Richard Best of Bombing 6) stated that all the Pacific carriers were in blue flight deck trim prior to Dec. '41.