USS Yorktown, CV-5 in 1/700

In theory it should be fairly easy to convert the Tamiya Enterprise to the Yorktown.  Unfortunately it isn't.

The biggest differences are in the forward part of the island and the anti-aircraft battery.  The Tamiya Enterprise represents her in mid-war configuration, with lots of 20mm guns that weren't there at the time of Midway.  That's fairly easy to fix, if you don't mind buying a Tamiya Hornet and using the catwalks from it.

The big problem with both those Tamiya kits is that the islands are too skinny.  It's the sort of mistake that becomes really obvious once  you're conscious of it.  Some years ago I started a Yorktown by cobbling together parts from the two kits, and scratchbuilding some details.  I got as far as the island before I got diverted to something else.

Widening the island is more complex than it looks at first glance.  The Floating Drydock carries a set of Navy plans for the Yorktown that show how everything ought to look.  The basic shape can be established by inserting some styrene sheet between the island halves. But they you have to contend with the funnel caps (one of which is supposed to be slightly smaller than the other - Tamiya missed that).  And the widened island will encroach on some arrestor cables and other details molded into the flightdeck.

Trumpeter recently came out with a new 1/700 Hornet - along with some aircraft sets that cover all the planes the three carriers operated in 1942.  I haven't had the opportunity to see whether Trumpetr got the island right; I hope so.

One other point that I think is interesting, but that most models miss.  The Yorktown and Enterprise both had an odd feature on their islands:  the plating around the funnel didn't go all the way around.  It's the sort of thing that rarely shows up in photos, but it's marked on the Navy "Booklet of General Plans"  drawing.  (In plan view, a nearly-square area at the front of the stack is marked simply "void."  My best guess is that the plating at the front of the stack was omitted simply to provide air circulation around the uptakes.  The Hornet didn't have that feature; her stack was plated all the way around.

Good luck.

John and I spent a bit of time last year trying to sort out the island differences and there are photos that show the open void on the island forward on Enterprise. I don't have the exact link, but checking www.cv6.org's photo gallery will turn the photo up.

You didn't say how far along you are on your Enterprise and Hornet, nor what kit brand(s) you were using.

Regardless of the skinny island problem, the Tamiya Enterprise, a wonderful kit in its day, is a mixture of the various WW2 appearances of the ship. The ship has late '43-early 44 armaments, plus a pre Midway platform on the port island and shows portholes that were welded over before Midway.

Putting an Enterprise island on a Hornet hull with the Hornet catwalks can make a decent Midway Enterprise and Yorktown. Drilling out the portholes, filling them with some plastic rod, cutting them flush and sanding smooth takes care of that. Checking a few photos for some minor detail differences between the two ships, will probably get you close enough for your needs.

I haven't seen the Trumpeter kits either, so I can't help you there.

It sounds like a fun project.

Mike