(Editor's Note: This analysis was performed using a method now greatly improved-upon, and is scheduled TO BE REDONE)

Beginning (arbitrarily) with the starboard side, proceeding left-to-right, Section I is defined as the stretch of flight deck-edge extending from the aft round-down forward to the point above the very beginning of the aft hangar doors (see below). To characterize the piercings here, I first analyzed the following 5 best of my pics showing WWII-fit Essexes:






Click on Image to Enlarge At top-left, Essex herself is shown after launching, 7/31/42; at top-right, Ticonderoga on 5/30/44; at middle left- and right, Bon Homme Richard on 1/9/45 and 2/2/52, respectively; and at bottom, Bunker Hill in July, 1973. Note 3 of these 5 do not view the ships from particularly astern; nevertheless these are the ones (for various reasons) showing this Section to best advantage.

To the above I added my 3 best pics of SCB-27-fit Essexes:




Click on Image to Enlarge Again, note only one of the above was actually shot from astern; an indication of how unsuitable are all other reference pics, most of which suffer from too-low resolution. This was the case for virtually all pics covering Section I on the "WWII/CVS" type carriers - Boxer, Tarawa, Princeton, Valley Forge and Leyte - or in their LPH fits, which they subsequently acquired. Too bad - particularly for their CVS fits - so if you have any good photo-refs from these (mid- to late '50s), in particular, definitely let me know.

Meantime, at present the following is the best I have been able to produce:


A line points to the box indicating Section I, on the full profile, at bottom. At the other end the line points to a closeup on which are overlaid, in partially transparent red, the types and locations of all piercings I was able to interpret from all the references, above. "Floating" above this total-overlay are the partial subsets from just the WWII and SCB-27 references, as indicated. Wherever two or more features agree, the red color is reinforced (darkened) accordingly.

Despite the high degree of disagreement, we can nevertheless clearly observe in the above a couple significant trends. First, while mismatches are very common, they are not spread randomly throughout the Section, but clearly do concentrate in certain areas, particularly for the WWII-fit group. Secondly, these areas of concentration clearly differ for the SCB-27 group (fainter because fewer pics to begin with) compared to the WWII-fit group. At middle, taking into account all the above, I made my best stab at a compromise, "generic" layout, which should at least look reasonable for Section I on "any" (straight-decked) Essex carrier.

Much of the observed disagreement undoubtedly came from (my) registration errors; the source pics all being either very oblique, fuzzy or both, over Section I. Still, the above argues pretty convincingly that layouts differed more between the different fits than for individual ships within each - again, a strong argument to analyze the WWII/CVS-fit ships, for my Boxer build in particular. Meantime, I guess Section I would be a particularly good area in which to lay on the float-net baskets pretty heavily!

Seriously though, an Essex class model with piercings detailed as above, or similar to it, in this area is going to look pretty believable, IMHO.


Cheers,

-Matty