Gambier Bay & Heerman

[Sakrison]

Thinking about how I'm going to position these two ships on the base, I decided I wanted to limit the size of the base to 40" by 16". I found renderings of the two ships on the internet, scaled them to the right size, and placed them on a plot in Adobe Photoshop. One could do this by printing them and cutting them out, too.

Playing around with various arrangements was easy and I settled on the one shown. The two white circles off the bow will be shell splashes. My next step is to mock up the hulls and place them on a full-sized base, to see if I still like the arrangement. Then I'll get down to the business of building.

As I mentioned elsewhere on the forum, I thought I would have to apologize to the purists for displaying together two ships that never saw action together but the gods of synchronicity have smiled on me. It turns out Heermann and Gambier Bay were together in the Battle Off Samar in October 1944 and Heermann was one of the destroyers that tried (unsuccessfully) to shield Gambier Bay from the Japanese shellfire.

I thought the carrier would dwarf the destroyer but one of the surprises brought home to me by this process was how small the CVEs (escort carriers) were compared to the fleet carriers. At 512 feet, Gambier Bay (CVE-73) was barely more than half of Lexington's (CV-16) 910-foot length, and a little more than half again as long as the Heermann (320 ft.). It's amazing what one learns in this hobby.

Sadly, no World War II CVE survives.

Merry Christmas,
--David

[herky]

watching with interest.i started building this gambier bay awhile back but never finished it.i do recall there was a lot of detail in the hangar deck

[rgmarine]

Have been sitting on Gambier Bay for some time now but have been busy on other projects. Look forward to your build.

[Draco]

Originally Posted by Sakrison

I thought the carrier would dwarf the destroyer but one of the surprises brought home to me by this process was how small the CVEs (escort carriers) were compared to the fleet carriers. At 512 feet, Gambier Bay (CVE-73) was barely more than half of Lexington's (CV-16) 910-foot length, and a little more than half again as long as the Heermann (320 ft.). It's amazing what one learns in this hobby.

Sadly, no World War II CVE survives.

Merry Christmas,
--David

David: Yes, I'm building a CV-6 Enterprise, and seen your remark decided to compare my ship with the HMS Onslow and the BB-63 Missoury. And yes, all the carriers at WWII were small. Who will know?

[alzictorini]

Sakrison

Just had a good read of those seascapes and water effects website you mentioned on page 1. They look so real. I don't know which is going to occupy your time the most, model or base. Anyhow, your model diorama is going to be big.

It will be an impressive build and a pleasure to watch.

Regards

[Sakrison]

Originally Posted by alzictorini

Sakrison

Just had a good read of those seascapes and water effects website you mentioned on page 1. They look so real. I don't know which is going to occupy your time the most, model or base. Anyhow, your model diorama is going to be big.

It will be an impressive build and a pleasure to watch.

Regards

The base will certainly be a project. I've settled on 17"x40". I have no room to display it at home. It will end up in a library or museum somewhere.

[Bernhard]

Hi David
If you want to give the destroyer a good reason to come so dangerously close to the carrier you could depict a "replenishment at sea" maneuver. Carriers often supplied their escorts with all sorts of things - from mail bags to fuel. There must be plenty of pic on the web that you could use for inspiration. If high lines and fuel hoses are too much work you could simply hoist flag "Romeo" at the signal yards of both ships to indicate the intention.
Happy new year!
Bernhard

[Sakrison]

Interesting idea.

[Don Boose]

The initial maneuver for underway replenishment seems like a logical set up for the diorama. Furthermore, there was almost always a destroyer "plane guard" close off the carrier's port quarter during flight operations to fish errant pilots out of the drink. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plane_guard

And during the Battle off Samar, it is conceivable that for a brief moment Heerman maneuvered close to Gambier Bay while trying to screen it fromt he Japanese shell fire.

In any event, there would be nothing improbable about the two ships maneuvering close enough together to provide a plausible situation for the diorama.

Don

[John Bowden]

Originally Posted by Sakrison

Sadly, no World War II CVE survives.

Got to see the USS Cabot before she was scraped, a replica of the island is now on display at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola......... not a CVE, but a CVL.