Model Fleet: Section VIII: PORT-AFT

Section VIII: PORT-AFT

Posted by Matty on October 4, 2009, 20:58:45, in reply to "FLIGHT DECK-Edge PIERCINGS"
Message modified by board administrator November 16, 2009, 10:58:36

(Editor's Note: This analysis was REDONE 11/16/09, the graphics below updated with the new results, which should be much less prone to errors than presented earlier.)

For this segment of the flight deck perimeter, extending from the portside fantial forward over the last 2 hangar doors (see below), I resolved to use significantly more references - even if it meant accepting a lot of less-than-ideal shots. The idea was to improve upon results of initial work, wich seemed to suffer from insufficient pics; I now basically doubled the (minimum) required number to 16.

In addition, analysis of this Section was already to be graced by some notably improved source pics to begin with, including the following two examples of the all-important CVS/LPH fit, similar to Boxer:

Click on Image to Enlarge At left, Valley Forge in CVS fit, circa late '50s; and at right, Princeton in LPH fit almost a decade later, in January of 1967. Princeton exhibits exactly the same (ASW) aircraft, in exactly the same paint schemes, as carried by Boxer during the period of interest ('56-'57) for depiction by my current build.

Again, the great bulk of the available, (next-to) most-relevant pics are of Essexes in WWII-fit:

Click on Image to Enlarge Eleven ships were examined from these 8 refs: at top, both pics show Franklin on 2/21/44. At middle left, Yorktown-II on 7/17/44, at center Bennington on 12/13/44, and at middle-right Bunker Hill towards the end of her days (as an electronics testbed); sometime circa the '70s. Note the latter type of "boneyard" pics can be very good for our purpose, as the float-net baskets - along with innumerable other obstructing gadgets - have been removed. At bottom left is Yorktown-II on 9/3/44, at center Ticonderoga in April, 1945, and at right a real gold-mine of decommissioned Essexes - a whole "boneyard" of them, in 1948 - from which the nearest 4 were selected: Essex, Toconderoga, Yorktown and Lexington, from the foreground moving back, respectively.

Finally, I also included the following 3 (best) pics of carriers in SCB-27 fit:

Click on Image to Enlarge At top, Intrepid on 5/14/54, at bottom left, Wasp again from November, '51, and at bottom right Hancock in March of 1954.

Graphic analysis of the above 16 references resulted in the following:

The increased number of sources produced, as expected, more unique "one-off hits" (light pink) scattered over the Section - so, for clarity I omitted the total-set overlay, and went straight to comparing the three groupings: SCB-27s, WW-II fits and CVS/LPHs, as shown. Note there is a direct increase in the total scatter, which looks like "smearing out" of the features - particularly for the WWII group - with the greatly increased number of references used. However, again for each type of fit, note there are some features consistently repeated (darker reds) - many of which correspond between the groups as well. So it was fairly straightforward to interpret a "generic" layout, at middle, for this Section - weighted substantially more heavily towards the CVS/LPH pattern, per my current interest in this fit.

The only things which remain very difficult to define are the precise types of piercings to go in each spot - not only in the interpretation of most source pics, but also in the final overlays, due to "smearing" of the numerous references. However I am very satisfied that the above represents a useful - and very believable-looking - layout for this segment. (If anyone wants to see the total-set overlay, just sing out and I'll lay one up, for you.)

This work took a long time - 14 hours(!) - only because I had to do all the (one-time) setup for the port side drawings, and data sets; the next port side analyses (Sections V through -VII) should not only go much faster, but should also be much more definitive, per the above (and more) reference pics, which reveal the remaining areas significantly clearer.

Cheers,

-Matty