HMS Illustrious

It seems to me that British aircraft carriers form one of the most conspicuous gaps in the range of 1/700 and 1/350 plastic kits available.  All sorts of ships would be worth doing, but I'd suggest that the Ark Royal would be the one to start with.  To my knowledge she's only been the subject of two plastic kits:  the workable but very old Revell 1/720 version and the even older Airfix one in 1/600. (The postwar period is served a bit better - but not much.

Imagine an up-to-date Ark Royal, with photo-etched parts and Swordfish and Fulmers and Skuas.

Trumpeter, Dragon, et al, are you listening? Dragon - you've already got molds for 1/700 Swordfish.  How about a ship to carry them?

I am looking forward to this project of yours... Illustrious was, in my mind, the Royal Navy's equivelant of the Big E for that war. Quite the battle history.

There is also a third plastic kit by Airfix in 1/1200. By the way, WEM also produces a resin conversion to build the Heller kit as HMS Victorious as built.

Bill

Aoshima  Fijumi makes a Post war HMS Ark Royal and HMS Eagle. They are in 1950s trim with a 1950s air wing. The Revell HMS Ark Royal of WW2 is in 1/720. Its very old but can detailed with some effort.

Here is my attempt to kitbash the Aoshima Fijumi HMS Eagle in to the HMS Ark Royal of the 1970s I made a lot of mistakes but it was my first attempt to seriously kitbash a model (I would probably botch it again if I tried):

I can't keep up with the travels of ship model molds - or which kits are reissues of old ones and which are genuinely new.  I can remember a 1/700 Aoshima WWII Illustrious and, I believe, a sister ship; they were pretty crude, as most of the early Aoshima Waterline Series kits were.  And I know Fujimi did a 1/700 postwar Eagle and Ark Royal.  As I recall, they came with Seafires, Fireflies, and Wessexes - but I don't trust my memory.

Anyway, British WWII carriers form a big gap in the currently available ranges - in all scales.

I watched 'Sink the Bismark' again recently. It still really holds up. The model ships seemed to be pretty accurate. There were a few inaccuracies, from what I know of the true story, but still..

Maybe you guys already know this, but here goes : 

with the Heller kit Arromanches you can easily build the HMS Colossus (in 1/400 scale)

Good point J the equivalent of USN CVL carriers.

One even made it as far as the Falkland/ Malvinas war.

Argentine...

Heller once released the same kit as HMS Colossus. Anyway, I agree with John. The Royal Navy's WWII carriers are sadly ignored and would be welcome additions to the 1/350 and 1/700 ranges of available kits.

Bill

The model is in the shop.

I've also got the Raven Vol. 1 book.

Boy what I don't know about British ship camouflage.

It would seem that our "Lusty" Lady was in "Alexandria Type" camouflage in late 1940, acc'd to Mr. Raven.

But as all of you who follow fleet orders can attest, an order to paint the ships in a particular scheme in "late 1940" does not mean a ship in a battle on November 11, 1940 would be so.

Yet it seems to be the more generally accepted thought. And I like it, so there!

I'm also researching the 1st wave aircraft. 815 Squadron certainly, but also others. I want to put the first twelve on the deck (one in the lift).

1/400 Stringbags are neat little models. It was a big aircraft, so doing each up right seems like a good goal. Call signs correct, probably not.

Black underside vs. white, sure.

Shadow effect on the lower wing, Hmmm.

Now just need that care packet from WEM, but meanwhile putting the hull together. The only mod so far, replace the bilge keels.

Pictures please sir!!!!

Now you're talking ;-)

Molded on bilge keels are always a bug.

I could not find a drawing of the hull below the waterline. That's fairly typical. But I just put together a set of four, to be safe and follow common practice in the 1930's.

Here's the first two, plus ancillary other fittings below the waterline.

And the kit has a deep recess down the flight deck, so you don't get the position of the centerline stripe wrong. Sheesh!

I will watch this thread with intense interest! I have the same kit, but the port side hull half is badly warped. I am slowly bending it back into shape using hot water immersion.

Bill

I just noticed that there is a beautiful build of the Illustrious over on www.steelnavy.com. The builder shares what he did to detail the ship. Check it out; It might help.

Bill

Thanks Bill.

I copped to a new build board ($ 1.95) as my trusted old Bondoshipyard plank still holds a 3/4 completed Potemkin. Funny that; Heller on 1:400 the same scale as this creature.

Those who need direction on mounting- here's a good example.

I went down to the lumberyard and paid monies as above for a 24"  piece of pine 1x6.

I looked hard and long at the completed hull of the "Lusty" and made a decision about where the pedestals might be. I picked 1/2 hull length between; i.e. 1/4, 1/2, 1/4.

As the hull is 22"; went with 5 1/2", 11", 5 1/2".

Used 8-32 x 1 1/2" screws as that added up from some depth on the keel; 3/4 " pedestal and 3/4" board with a slight amount of countersink for the bolts.

Bolts from the top; CA applied.

The top of the Rustoleum Red is approximate. Next I'll mask the bottom edge of the the boot stripe and go with black above,  The Heller model has decals for the boot stripe, but they go into the ever not enough basic black decal stock supply, and I will spray on this.

I wondered whatever happened to that Potemkin! You should revive it!

Bill

John,

You are forgetting the Airfix 1/1200 HMS Ark Royal (newly revived), and the old 1/1200 Pyro/Eaglewall HMS Victorious.

Bill

Mea culpa, Bill.  That Airfix 1/1200 "Sink the Bismarck set actually does look rather nice.  I never got my hands on any of the old Eaglewall kits in their original incarnations, but I did (many years ago) build some of them in Pyro boxes.  I don't remember an Ark Royal, but I think I bought the KGV class, the Warspite, the Town-class cruisers, the Bismarck, the Prinz Eugen, and maybe a couple of others.

The Eaglewall kits seem to be scarce as hen's teeth nowadays.  Oldmodelkits.com doesn't even list the company - and the only Pyro 1/1200 kits it ever seems to have are the later ones (North Carolina, Essex. Yamato, and Shokaku classes.  I'd jump at the chance to get a genuine Eaglewall - though I suspect the price would be out of my reach.

John,

They are actually on eBay occasionally. I have a search set up on that site. I recently bought the Eaglewall HMS Ajax and Achilles for $35.00.  Eaglewall actually had a more extensive line than the Pyro versions, although I don't know if they ever had the Ark Royal. I'll send you one of the two if you like; they are actually the same plastic.

That said, we old fogey's (at least me) look at these kits fondly. But, many of them were quite undetailed. But, they were affordable and fun!

Bill

Bill, by describing them as "quite undetailed" you're being generous. All the ones I can remember were even by the standards of the late fifties, downright crude. But you and I aren't the only ones who wax nostalgic about them. I understand that they were issued in sets: the Battle of the River Plata, the Pursuit of the Bismarck, etc. Plastic scale modeling has come a long, long way since those days, but they sure were fun. And I doubt that any kid who built an Eaglewall set thought there had been eleven world wars.

John,

I know that none of my history students believe there were eleven world wars! But, I have given many of them model kits.

Bill

I wish I could be confident that my students were RETAINING what they've been TAUGHT. But every college teacher has a collection of horror stories. One of my favorites (which I saw with my own eyes): the student who, on a final exam in U.S. history to 1877, wrote "Treaty of Paris, 1763: the treaty that ended the War of 1812."

Must have been up all night cramming for that test ;-)

More likely he/she spent most of that night in one of the many "supper clubs" near the campus, and/or entwined with a member of the opposite gender. Just about everything in the typical college freshman's existence is more important than a history exam.

But my gripes about the wretched backgrounds and more wretched attitudes of freshmen pale beside what my wife has to endure as a high school world history teacher. As I tell the students in my museum studies course every year, the typical high school kid is interested in precisely six subjects. In ascending order: automobiles, rock music, beer, marijuana, sex, and sex.

Having worked myself into woeful depression (my normal state), I suggest  we return to H.M.S. Illustrious. GMorrison's model is shaping up most impressively.

Perhaps in the future, we will be able to open their heads and pour in knowledge. Until then . . .

Anyway, as for the HMS Illustrious . . .

Bill

Thanks, guys!

My WEM set came in last Friday. A couple of sheets of PE plus 10 little resin and brass Swordfish. Not a bad thing at about $ 2.00 each as they will be the focal point of the model.

It's been interesting to read about the RN carriers and the operational differences and design of the three major carrier navies in the war. Like the IJN the RN kept a clear deck.

One other interesting bit- the several RN carriers that had two levels of hangar decks had two story elevators. That meant three moves to get a plane from the bottom to the top.

I came across such a design many years ago working on a remodel of what was then called the Sears tower and no I did not design those glass balconies.

The trick was to get folks sorted on the several lowest floors off the street into either even or odd levels of the cars.

As far as educational anecdotes, never lose sight that we parents really need teachers like you. My one and only graduates this June and off into the world.

One story, she was in HS 20th C history class and the question came up

"Describe the importance of Sigmund Freud".

Hands goes up in front of her,

"Those are the guys in Vegas with the tigers".

The setting will be the set up for the first wave attack on Taranto. I am going to put 11 Swordfish on the deck, plus one on the elevator (folded wings). One on the deck just ahead of the elevator will still have folded wings.

I cut out the rear elevator.

I scratched up a well and will put the platform down in there when I paint the deck.