Liberty ship Airplane Transport

"But, I got to thinking and see that about 2400 of 3200 survived the war, and 800 or so went into civilian service. "

Alaska Steam Navigation Company actually converted some Liberty ships to carry containers. The idea of a 10 knot containership with a steam reciprocating engine was not a success. 

A couple of this class can still be seen up in Alaska as hulks used for fish processing. The one in Kodiak is the Albert M Moe. The one in Dutch Harbor is now called the UNISEA. I haven't been up there in ten years. If I had realized this when I was in Kodiak and Dutch regularly I could have taken some pictures.

Fred

It turns out I had to move the other 20mm positions too. There is a section of the superstructure I had to add. The after gun positions near the 5 in will also require modifications.

One more pic before I start shooting paint. This highlights all the modifications. I still have to make 12 electric winches and the booms. I don't know why the decks look tan, nothing is painted yet.

Most of the ship is built with most of the PE done. I sprayed the whole thing with rattlecan primer. The final color will be a lighter gray.

Very very cool, Fred.

And what's that lurking in the background?

Nice build on an interesting subject.

Found this link which shows assembly of P-47s in the field - this gives good reference to how aircraft were packed for shipping overseas. Also interesting idea for a diorama. LOL

http://youtu.be/V2D3k0sJ8HM

That's great !  I'm supposing the outer wings of P-38s would be in cases much the same, with the propellers included. Thanks.

By the way, this is the second time I've used the Tom's PE set for the JOB/Brown and some issues to note:

The wires that are supposed to span between lifeboat davits that hold the coiled man ropes and falls are too short. I added a very short length on each end. When you cut a PE railing and you have little lengths of brass scrap? That is enough. Just touch the scrap with CA and stick it on the span wire on both ends. You really only need less than a mm more on both ends.

As noted before, the idea of putting little pulley wheels in the cargo blocks, using slices of plastic rod, just doesn't work. At least for me.

That short railing that runs in a circle around the 5 in gun mount seems impossible to get attached. Maybe it takes more talent than I have, but i skipped it. I'm not sure it is authentic for wartime anyway.

Fred

The stumbling block I've run up against now is, a P-38 even with the outer wings removed does not fit in the hatch. No way no how. I thought it could be tilted somehow to get it in there, but when I put in the upper 'tween deck, there is not room to tilt it enough. At the IPMS Seattle meeting somebody told me that they were crated with the engine/tail boom assembly separate. I've been looking for a picture of that, so far without any luck. I did find in 'Army Air Forces in WWII, Vol 6' a lot of interesting information on how planes were carried. It says these modified Liberty ships could carry 42 planes crated below deck, as opposed to 56 for an escort carrier. But they didn't say what planes. Obviously, a carrier is way more expensive to run, even if the Navy can spare one. The hatches on these ships are just long enough to take a P-38 engine/tail boom with a few inches to spare.

So now I may just cover the hatches. It doesn't seem very interesting to look into the holds just to see a bunch of crates!

Fred