Great build of Yorktown!  That canvas you note on the focsl was matress splinter protection for .50 cal machine guns on the bow.  If I am not mistaken, there were similar guns and splinter pro on the fantail.  Pic of forward portside in view of Wildcat taking off at Midway, at:  http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/OnlineLibrary/photos/events/wwii-pac/midway/mid-6y2.htm

Thanks Tracy.

I did get the camo measures wrong.  It was indeed Measure 11, not 13.

Here's a quote from the Snyder & Short site:

---Faced with the phasing out of the Dark Gray, and with Sapphire Blue being unacceptable due to fading, the Pacific Fleet formally adopted Measure 11, Sea Blue, (formerly Measure 1A) in mid-September 1941, but allowed the Fleet to remain in Measure 1 Dark Gray for as long as paint stocks would allow.  Wood decks were not to he painted with 20B Deck Blue, hut were left in their natural color until tests with 20-B were conducted. Fortunately, by late 1941 the new 5-N Navy Blue had become available in the Atlantic, used there in Measure 12.  It was first applied to a Pacific ship in the first days of December.  This was the destroyer FLUSSER which was painted overall in the new color, the scheme was named Measure 1C later in 1942 formalized as Measure 21.

In the Atlantic, Admiral King (like Kimmel) was unhappy with Sea Blue, primarily because of fading, and by it not being dark enough.  He officially ended the use of  Sea Blue in early November, having formally replaced by 5-N Navy Blue, although Sea Blue continued in use on some vessels for many months until supplies of Navy Blue became available. Where Navy Blue was used in place of Sea Blue, Measure 12 became known as Measure 12A.---

I was never able to determine whether CV 5 was painted with the 5-S or 5-N paint. I assumed it was 5-S. I never saw a mention of Yorktown in "12A."  The confusion results from not really knowing when Yorktown was painted at Norfolk before returning to the Pacific.

I read somewhere that the formula changed, so that source was mistaken. Thanks for that correction.  However, there's definitely a color difference between the old MM 5-S acrylic and the Life Color 5-S, which really doesn't help ending all the confusion.  This really is a problem for Enterprise modelers.

Beautiful job on Yorkie.  Always liked her, even with her short life in the war.

Mike, several inaccuracies in your post. There was only one formula for 5-S, and the Navy also quickly decided that it was too light. Both Atlantic (where CV-5 was based until the attack on Pearl) and Pacific fleets ordered it's replacement by 5-N Navy blue by December of 1941, and I think even by November in some cases (I'm at work and don't have the time to link or look at my camouflage page). Measure 11 was the Sea Blue Scheme and Measure 13 was Light Gray. However, a lot of confusion has come about because the Navy ordered "Measure 11 with 5-N substituted for 5-S" until Measure 21 came about.

In Yorktown's case she's too light to be in 5-N Navy Blue - or rather, there's not enough contrast between the 5-O Ocean Gray and lower hull for it to be Navy Blue.I'll try and add appropriate sources later tonight.

Bill,

Here's a quick repost:

i188.photobucket.com/.../CV-5-final-a.jpg

i188.photobucket.com/.../CV-5-final-b.jpg

i188.photobucket.com/.../CV-5-final-c.jpg

i188.photobucket.com/.../CV-5-final-d.jpg

i188.photobucket.com/.../CV-5-final-e.jpg

i188.photobucket.com/.../CV-5-final-f.jpg

i188.photobucket.com/.../CV-5-final-g.jpg

i188.photobucket.com/.../CV-5-final-h.jpg

i188.photobucket.com/.../CV-5-final-i.jpg

Hope you can see these.

Phil and Marcus,

Thank-you.

I suppose I should pass on a few paint details.

I used Life Color marine acrylics for the camouflage colors and Model Master Acryl paints for the standard (red, black, etc.) colors.  The Life Color paints were Sea Blue 5-S, Ocean Gray 5-O and Haze Gray 5- H.  These of course, were the correct colors for the USN Measure 12 camo scheme.  There are some questions regarding the 5-S Sea Blue.  The original 5-S may have been somewhat lighter than shown on the model.  The paint went through a change to a slightly darker color in late 1941.  It moved much closer to the 5-N Navy Blue color.

This becomes very important with Enterprise during the same time.   Most photos of CV 6 seem to show her painted with a darker paint than the lower hull areas of Yorktown.  This has lead some to believe that Enterprise was painted in overall Navy Blue 5-N (Measure 21) in 1942 although records state she was in Measure 13, overall 5-S Sea Blue.

I lightened the lower hull on my Yorktown for the weathered look as the ship obviously appeared, but I believe the Life Color 5-S is the darker shade.  It is definitely darker than the old Model Master Acryl 5-S that I used on other projects and is no longer available in MM Acryl acrylic.  (I don't know if the new MM enamel 5-S is the same as the former acrylic or not.)

Of course, judging such stuff is difficult now due to variations in photo printing, films, contrast filters, etc., that were in use by Navy Photographers in 1942.

I painted the model using as many photo references I could find.  The most critical for this ship is where the break between the 5-O Ocean Gray and the 5-H Haze Gray occurred on the masts.  Most photos agree that the CXAM radar antenna was Haze Gray and everything below that point was still Ocean Gray.  That leaves everything above the "fighting top" in Haze Gray.  Regarding the mast aft the stacks, I cannot say whether its ever painted Haze Gray or not.  Obviously exhaust from the stacks would have blackened everything anyway, so I painted it black.  I cannot say for certain that Yorktown's after mast were painted black, but my best somewhat educated guess would say it was.  Photo evidence seems to bear this out.

All things said, it was a fun experience.  Perhaps I'm the first to complete this kit and post photos on line.  I haven't seen any other completed shots in other forums.  Phil and Steve have asked questions about the build.  Thanks to everyone on the positive comments.

Since it is such a new kit, I certainly encourage more questions and comments that any others may have concerning the build.  And best of luck to all who give it a shot.

Mike,

I can't open the photos.  I would love to see your Yorktown.  Can you repost them?

Thanks!

Bill

Very, very nice work.  I really like the weathering on the hull, she looks like she really put on some miles.

Mike-

  Excellent!  That looks really great, nicely done!   A very impressive model display.

Thanks for taking the time to post your in-progress photos.  I can't tell you how many times so far I have referred to your build photos to check how various parts go together for my build. I've learned a lot of details and issues to watch out for.  It's not easy to be the first one to build this kit on these forums, but I wanted you to know that it is appreciated.

Thanks,

Phil

G.

Thank-you.

There were no deck numbers at the time.  Flight deck numbers didn't begin until the fall of '43.

Yorktown and Hornet carried hull numbers, Enterprise never did.

Perhaps the three Yorktown-class ships didn't need deck numbers since, in the Pacific, they were each in different paint schemes and could be distinguished from each other.  By summer '43, there were several Essex-class ships in the Pacific and all painted Navy Blue and therefore they needed numbers.  Enterprise returned with the "6" on her deck after her '43 refit and overhaul.

One of the "fun" things about USN CVs in WW II is how rapidly they changed schemes and antenna rigs, forever keeping model builders scrambling.

That's a very fine model. Prompting me to get Hornet back down off of the shelf of death and finish her.

A question- were there really no deck numbers? I couldn't find any war time aerial views that showed a "5", although quite a few of Enterprise have two black "6"'s later in the war.

This build is complete and in the case.  Here's some completed build shots.

If I had it to do over, I'd test fit the flight deck more often to avoid the problems I had, but otherwise I'm fairly satisfied with the finished ship.

The research was fun and with the few exceptions I've mentioned, the kit is an enjoyable build.

I came across a photo of the forward flight deck of the ship and painted out the flight deck stripes to port and starboard that went to the deck edge and blended the weathering.  The center line needs to continue forward of the elevator, but I'd used up all the kit's decals and couldn't find matching ones.  It is a discrepancy I need to fix, but I needed to case the model with all the fragile bits as I try to track down some deck stripes.  I'll live with it for now.

The a/c deck spot shows the six Wildcats launched at dawn for the CAP and the ten Dauntless bombers launched for the dawn search.

You can see the largest gap of missing railings I had to fill with foil representing canvas.  Other builders of this kit should perhaps use foil around the island to save some PE rails to fill this gap.

The two light pieces of foil-canvas on the port bow comes from one of the Midway photos.  They were a light color so I used pale gray, but they may have been another shade.

Looking great. The only thing is I dullcoat at the end which makes the little brass spots less bright and shiny. Mask bridge window3s of course.

Waiting on case.

OK here's a few views of F4F Wildcats.

The kit Wildcats are smaller than the Dauntless a/c of course, but come with folding wings which may or may not fit well together.  The landing gear though just don't look correct as built.  F4F landing gear folded into the fuselage in a scissor-like motion.  The landing gear has parts that fit between the gear.  Showing just two posts and wheels looked strange to me.

Tom's Modelworks provides a PE set that solves the problem and at least fills the gap.  There's sets from White Ensign Models that are more elaborate and even include tiny cockpit layouts.  They would be a fun challenge, but once mounting a carrier in a case would render all the work the cockpits require moot in my view.  The viewer could never get close enough to see them.

While I don't mind flat props in 1/700th scale, I chose to use the molded kit props instead of the PE props.  Wildcats had cuffed Curtis electric props which require painting the aluminum cuffs on the generic kit props.  The PE set included antenna masts, very tiny things, that I believe are as necessary as those on the SBDs.

Once the a/c are mounted on the flight deck, I'm basically finished.  There're a couple of tweaks and touch-ups on the ship yet to do.  (Does anyone ever eliminate all those little shiny brass missed paint spots on PE parts?)

The original trumpeter aircraft sets were done in the three colors (these were for their Hornet and Essex class releases) but the newer Merit releases using the Trumpeter molds, have all of the same sprues molded totally in clear. So the three-color sets are the older ones, but the new all-clear ones are the same molds with no new features.

Mike F6F

Yes, the kit includes Trumpeter aircraft molded in clear, which I must admit I'm not very fond of.  Painting the clear parts makes it easier to assemble them, but you are still dealing with that brittle, clear plastic.

As mentioned, the extra a/c I purchased were molded in three separate colors.  There's a sprue of gray containing the wings, empennage and fuselage halves.  The three landing gear pieces and prop are molded in black plastic and the canopy is clear.  Each of the sprues are connected at joints so that all the parts for a single a/c are together.  Not using the clear for everything makes them much easier to assemble and less fragile. (I had one clear F4F shatter as I tried clamping the two fuselage halves together with a pair of interlocking tweezers.)...

Thanks, Mike!  I haven't been keeping up with Trumpeter's development of the aircraft sets.  I only knew about those in clear styrene but haven't seen the sets with parts in three colors.  I've been using Trumpeter sets to replace the solid aircraft in kits by Hasegawa, Tamiya, etc

Yours look great, and they look like little kits in their own right.

Yes, the kit includes Trumpeter aircraft molded in clear, which I must admit I'm not very fond of.  Painting the clear parts makes it easier to assemble them, but you are still dealing with that brittle, clear plastic.

As mentioned, the extra a/c I purchased were molded in three separate colors.  There's a sprue of gray containing the wings, empennage and fuselage halves.  The three landing gear pieces and prop are molded in black plastic and the canopy is clear.  Each of the sprues are connected at joints so that all the parts for a single a/c are together.  Not using the clear for everything makes them much easier to assemble and less fragile. (I had one clear F4F shatter as I tried clamping the two fuselage halves together with a pair of interlocking tweezers.)

The Starfighter decal set contains lots of roundels, in four sizes, so wing and fuselage markings can be the correct different sizes.  There are sets of numbers separately for each squadron.

The six Wildcats will display their correct numbers as the list was provided in Lundstrom's "The First Team."  The six a/c launched for the dawn CAP was VF-3's second division aircraft numbers 7-12.  I looked long and hard to try and find the numbers for the ten SBD scouts launched after the CAP, but couldn't find the info.  So, I numbered those a/c arbitrarily.  It doesn't really matter all that much because even at 1/350th viewing distances, the numbers aren't that visible.

But it is nice when you can get the history right.  

Merit is using Trumpeter aircraft, so they're the same.

Awesome work so far, keep posting the great pics!

Wow!  I've missed following your project, you've got some excellent detail here in your Yorktown. 

You're using Trumpeter's aircraft sets--did Merit include any aircraft in the kit, and if so, how did they stack up?  Apologies if you mentioned that and I missed it as I browsed through the thread.

I look forward to seeing your continued progress!

Best regards,

Brad

Here's a few shots of my attempt at a 1/350th SBD Dauntless.

This is a Trumpeter SBD as mentioned in the last post.  The antenna mast in front of the canopy is a PE 1/700th prop blade.  The kit makes no provision for this part, but in this scale I believe something has to be there.  Those masts were very obvious.

The decals, again as mentioned above, are from the Starfighter Yorktown at Midway set.  While the vertical tail is blocked in the clamp, some of the ten SBDs I'll mount to the flight deck will have a "S" on the tail, some won't.  The Yorktown's bombing squadron VB-5 was changed to a scouting squadron during the rushed mash-up of squadrons fit together to make an air group for the ship at Midway.  A large "S" wasn't standard, but was included on some of the aircraft.  Apparently all the aircraft received an "S" after the battle.  The aircraft retained the unusual marking until the squadron was relieved later in 1942.  The wing walkways are stripes from my spares box.  The faded reddish prop spinner was on all VB/S-5 aircraft, if a spinner was on the a/c.  Many SBDs lost or removed the spinner from their props.

Sometimes the parts on the small kits fit well sometimes they don't.  I've had to sand the locating pins off all the fuselage parts to help them fit plus there's some nasty flash inside the fuselage halves.  All the SBDs left a gap between wing and fuselage, and while it looks huge in these close-ups, it isn't noticeable with the aircraft on the flight deck.  The lumps on the trailing edges of the wings are the sprue attachment points for the part.  Its a compromise between sanding the small part to remove them and also removing the tell-tale SBD dive flaps.  I decided to leave well enough alone.

All ten aircraft needed a bomb so I made them from stock rod and two pieces of angled pieces glued together to represent the fins.  I thought of buying some aftermarket scale bombs, but I'd have to buy a lot of sets of different sizes just to get the ten bombs I needed.  I believe this works well enough since the bombs aren't really seen all that much when viewing the entire carrier model.  I tried to make some kind of bomb swing from wire, but couldn't get it to conform as I wanted and look right.  I believe flat PE parts wouldn't really work either.

I thought hard about getting some detail sets for the SBDs and decided I didn't need to include landing gear doors or other enhancements.  The six Wildcats though are another story.  The F4F landing gear was rather unique and the Trumpeter gear, in my view, doesn't get it done.  In fact, it looks a little bizarre.  I've ordered some PE stuff for Wildcats and will post photos as I work on them.

Steve,

The photos I've seen of the available Merit aircraft have incorrect markings on them for the Midway battle.  Those I've seen show the red circle in the center of the star and red and white stripes on the rudders.

That would be correct for the Coral Sea battle, but all red markings were ordered removed from US aircraft by mid-May.  USN aircraft at Midway had plain rudders and no red circle in the stars.

My kit aircraft were Trumpeter's, molded in clear plastic.  I used them for birds on the hanger deck.  I ordered more Trumpeter Wildcat and Dauntless aircraft and they came molded in light gray and black with clear canopies.  The three different colors were all cleverly joined together with interlocking sprues so that each sprue contained the parts for one aircraft.

Starfighter decals has released a set of Yorktown air group markings for the Midway battle and I've used those for my project.  The correct roundel should have each star point touching the edge of the blue circle.  The kit's decals and the Trumpeter decals all show a considerable amount of blue circle surrounding each star, so I didn't want to use them.  The Starfighter set shows a slight border of blue around the stars, but it is more acceptable than the others.

If Merit has released some with the correct Midway markings, I imagine they work very well.  Of course, painting the rudders and mounting the correct roundels isn't a hard adjustment either.

When I started this project, I'd hoped I wouldn't need to go wild with purchasing lots of AM stuff to complete it.  I knew I'd need a case which would equal the kit's cost, but with the included PE and a/c,  I thought I wouldn't need to purchase much beyond the kit.  It hasn't turned out that way but I still, just for the sake of being true to the original project concept, have tried to keep it that way.

I plan to post some aircraft stuff soon.

Mike,

I only use Martin strings on my acoustic guitar, so I have a supply when needed. Thanks again for explaining how you use them.

Since you are working on the planes at this time, have you seen the Merit 1/350 ready made planes for the Yorktown? And if so, what is your opinion of them. I purchased the Devastors last week and they are not really that bad. They can use some weathering but compared to the Trumpeter 1/350 supplied planes they are equal if not better. I have not really looked at the Merit planes in my Yorktown kit yet, so I would like your opinion.

Steve

Thanks, G.

Sorry, no photos here.  Just working on aircraft.

Looking really good.

Steve,

Thanks.

As for the strings, I'm a Martin acoustic man.   The .08 string comes from a 12-string set of extra lights.  Most of the others are Gs, Bs and Es from a standard set of acoustic light strings.  They go from .10-.11-.12.

I've used the wrapped base strings when I've needed the texture.  I've also used them to represent antenna.

I find the guitar strings to be very useful.  One, they are already stretched.  So having them straight usually isn't a problem. Therefore, there's no tension to pull a plastic mast, etc., out of line.  I've also found that I can often get a pretty good sag to them, when I hang them correctly.

Mike,

Dang you did a great job on her. I like the idea of using guitar strings for rigging. What did you use High E .009 Ernie Ball Super Slinky?

Steve

This model is beautiful!  I would take the little time and go for a wooden base.

Groot