IJN Aircraft Carrier Kaga

Modeling Subjects Ships
1

There is a Japanese newsreel and individual pictures from it showing the IJN Kaga on its way to Pearl Harbor. The pictures show the Kaga having something on the stern of its flight deck. It looks like a gantry crane having two uprights with a bar between them that is above the height of the aircraft. Is this a crane used for moving aircraft? Are there other, better pictures of this piece of equipment? Did the US Navy have a similar piece of shipboard equipment in WW2?

I saw a 1/700 Hasagawa model of the IJN Kaga with the stern elevator raised. The WW2 newsreel/photos seem to show the item in question having only two uprights and those too far apart to be elevator supports.

2

That is the elevator. The configuration in IJN deck elevators is unlike USN elevators

3

Thank you Ed.

Do you know of any pictures of the elevator in the raised position? I can find only one on the internet and that is of a 1/700 Hasegawa model kit. I have New Vanguard’s “Imperial Japanese Navy Aircraft Carriers 1921-45” but it only shows the picture which prompted the original query.

4

Just an FYI, there’s a new 1/700 scale kit of the Kaga scheduled to come out sometime in April.

http://www.hlj.com/product/fuj43030?utm_medium=itemblock&utm_campaign=NAV_page&utm_content=ibfuj43030.png