My 1:1200 IJNSs Shoho & Zuiho light aircraft carriers

[LouCoatney]

Having designed a WW2 Japanese Shiratsuyu class destroyer, the Kongo class fast battleships, and the Tone and Mikuma classes of heavy cruisers for my Imperial Japanese Navy task force set, I next turn to a suitable aircraft carrier class, and that would have to be the Shohos, since Shokaku&Zuikaku are available in Pyro and now Lindberg plastic kits.

Here is what I have done ... and discovered ... so far. The wingspan of a Japanese Nakajima Kate torpedo bomber was a whopping 51', and the Shohos' flight deck was only 75 wide! And the beam of the hull was only 59, so lots of overhangs. (Well, our Avenger had a wingspan of 54', so ....)

Apparently, after Shoho was sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, Zuiho's flight deck was lengthened ... to give a longer takeoff runway for newer, heavier aircraft?

The Japanese carrier could lower to horizontal their radio and main masts, and having the flag flying horizontally was quite rakish, so I'm going to design a perpendicular sleeve with slots for them either to be vertical (when not operating aircraft) or horizontal when ... in battle.

Doing Zuiho's green shades camouflage will be ... time-consuming ... but here is what I have done so far for Shoho's deck.

And you can see a/my Kate torpedo bomber (Doug ). Supposedly, they could carry up to 30 aircraft, but the most I've seen so far is 12 Zeroes and 12 Kates at Santa Cruz.

Have yet to make the insets for the twin 4.7" AA gun mounts, etc., but it's a fascinating yet fairly simple model to design.

I thought I had a couple of the 1:700 plastic models of Japanese submarines to study for doing them, but they seem to have disappeared somewhere between Macomb Illinois and Norway.

[Texman]

Hmmm. This could be and interesting project at 1/700. What program are you designing with?

[LouCoatney]

Paint.net, Texman. As I said, I do these pixel-by-pixel.

Decades ago now, my older son taught me to use (inexpensive but excellent Model)CAD, and I had been transferring/exporting my CAD drawings into jpg/png, but the pixels had to be made more faithful to the CAD and/or regularized anyway, so now I design direct in PNG.

And at the (granted, grainy) pixel density I use, I can make progressive curves as I please.

I am not designing these models for detail, but for the essence of the ships for wargaming with the level of detail no better than our old 1:1200 lead ID models and the Wiking 1:1250 plastic models.

Lead models are too heavy and mutually destructive when being moved, I discovered in my moves from Alaska back down to Illinois in 1989 and then my move over here to Norway in 2009.

Thanks for asking.

[Texman]

Thank you for the explanation!

[georgerutherford1861]

Very good Lou!

Though, I must say, I am starting to break out into a sweat already over aircraft, even when I size them up to 1/700. I've got to get back to my floatplanes - I need to go in and draw a bottom side of the wing on my floatplanes, that way one of them can be in stored position with the wings folded up so we can see the markings underneath. Just have to find the time.

I knew these days would come, however. One of my favorite childhood memories was sending off a deckload of strike planes off an unpainted plastic model of USS Intrepid. Even at that time I wished I had a Japanese counterpart ship for it to spar with. Now I have a paper USS Enterprise in digital format from Bruno that I need to finish scaling up for printing and building, and of course there will have to be planes for it too...

Doug

[LouCoatney]

So I had a work sprint, and it's 5:31 AM over here in Norway, and I think I've finished my draft of Shoho&Zuiho.
With all those tack-on side decks and fixtures ... and their sponsons ... there are many more pieces than I expected for a carrier.

And - Doug - I've got 15 Zeros and 15 Kates for each. (I always resented plastic kit manufacturers not providing enough carrier aircraft - a possible exception the early Lindberg Essex kit, but they were all F6F Hellcats and seemed to small for the scale. Anyway, ...)

Here is my version of the Rising Sun flag at such a small pixel level ... and a Zero.

Can't wait to start assembly of this CARRIER.

[RyanShort1]

Good work!

[wireandpaper]

Thank you Lou, looking forward to your build!

[georgerutherford1861]

This will put me further behind on projects I need to do, but that's not a bad problem to have.

Doug

[LouCoatney]

Well, I obviously didn't get as far as I wanted or should have, this evening - politics online - but here she is waiting for me to do her hull all at once.
Very fast, although scissoring out, around crowded little parts, was not easy.
Note also how, to fold down and under the thin edge of the flight deck, I use the whole pieces it is attached to, before I scissor them off, to help avoid warping.

You can see all the side decks ... and little sponsons ... but there are also the stanchions to hold up the flight deck at its extremes.
(Just love these (naval) architecture terms. )

BIG disappointment, though: No BIG RED MEATBALL on the flight deck.

After she and Mikuma/Mogami are assembled, I figure 6 Kates and 3 Zeros should be enough for photos. Then there is that 1 Jake floatplane that Tone and Mikuma have to share ... Doug.