I am getting set to start my build of the Trumpeter 1:350 Langley. I have pretty much completed my research and read the instructions. I am left with one unanswered question. There are masts in the center of the flight deck. I am assuming these are taken down before flight ops and stowed somewhere. I see no place to stow them on the deck. I assume there is a place for them somewhere on the hanger deck. Or- are they just stored willy-nilly wherever they can find a place? I know not many of you would have served on her, but does anyone know where they stowed those masts?
I would like an opinion. I want to display it during flight operations. Ordinarily I prefer to build full-hull. On my 1:700 Saratoga I showed flight ops and made it waterline, but in that scale I didn’t mind not showing full hull. But in 1:350 I’d like full hull. Do people think it would look funny full hulled with flight ops?
I am going to be using the Trumpeter PE set. I was surprised when I got the mail the day it arrived. The package was heavy- several ounces- much heavier than I expected. Turns out there are eight large sheets of PE. This thing will weigh a ton, especially with a wood base, whether full hull or waterline.
Granted, it was a bit before my time . . . but it appears that the masts retract into the deck, periscope style. There is an obvious opening / hatch at the bottom of the mast. Similarly, the aircraft ‘cageing’ does the same per these shots;
And I thought that the Wolverine was going to be a problem.
When flying, how did they control teh aircraft? I don’t see anything the even remotely looks like a island. Did they just stand somewhere with a cart carrying a radio?
They would have an LSO, Landing Signal Officer, guiding the pilot in with hand held flags. Common all the way through WWII and probably through Korea. Think it’s still a backup to today’s light system.
Like all straight deck carriers, she could only conduct one type of flight ops at a time. The deck would be spotted for launching or recovery. Conning the ship and signalling are more important from an island due to height. Flight control ops was only a small portion of the island structure on later carriers. The yellow jerseys directors on deck controlled the movement, launching, and recovery. Radios were minimally involved. It was loudspeakers for the deck crew and hand & arm along with flag and paddle signals to direct the aircraft .
Okay, guys, I finally agree. And I found pictures of models that were full hull with lots of planes on deck. Engines not running but that was a little thing. I think having a few engines running and one even moving will not shange the ascetics much. I need to decide before I do much as I make a “build base” before I close up hull. I use that when ship is done to match drill the display base. Full hull- first step will be drilling holes for display pedestals.
Keep in mind that if you are going to model the ship during her short career in WWII she was no longer an aircraft carrer. She was AV3 a seaplane tender and only had a flight deck only over the aft half of the ship.
Before the “yellow wing” era; a/c radios were hghly uncommon. Voice radios were not terribly common in the yellow-wing era either.
Aviators came frst, so there was a cadre of expereinced fully-fledged aviators to be LSO, when that notion appeared as a way to get less-experienced fliers aboard.
Signal flags were likely used to communicated to groups of a/c while flying (whch likely explains why there’s a mast through the deck).
LSO are stll in use today. And are in place for every landing. Holding a “pickle” which can over-ride the landing approace light system. Every landing is also graded, and the futures of the aviators and their standings in the squadrons are based on those grades. Which are publicly posted. IIRC you have to have 2000 hours to even be considered for LSO school.
Yesterday I drilled holes through the hull for the mounting pedestals. I cut two pedestels from 1/4 " acrylic rod. I then glued wood with 17/64 into holes on the bottom of the hull to reinforce the rods. I then match drilled down through the hull into an MDF building base. The rods are a nice press fit into both the hull and the base, so I will not glue them into place in the hull until later. They will of course not be drilled into the working base. As soon as I get the oak board for the display base I will match drill though those holes into the display base. I also glued little wood tabs over the wood support blocks, so when I do insert the pedestals I will know when they are fully inserted, to make the pedestals equal length from the hull.
Got the hull painted now. Bottom is a Rustoleum satin red (not flat enough- thin coat of dullcoat over it). Boot topping is Testors semi-gloss black, upper hull is the Tamiya primer.
All decks now in place. Notice masking tape squares where girders will be glued to deck. Will save a lot of scraping. Still some details to quarterdeck needed before painting decks.
