1/700 USS Yorktown CV-10 (Trumpeter)
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by Donald W Grasmick |
1/700 USS Yorktown CV-10 (Trumpeter)
My version of "The Fighting Lady" came about after a trip in June 2015 to Patriots Point in Charleston, SC where the Yorktown is now a floating museum. I enjoyed the ship so much I toured her twice in the week I was in Charleston. The build was by far the longest I've yet to undertake. I started the aircraft (all Trumpeter kits) in late June 2015 and finished them around Christmas 2015. In January 2016 I started Trumpeter kit # 05729 which depicts a late war Yorktown.Many thanks must be given to Tracy White for some helpful ideas, tips, and imparting knowledge about the Essex class aircraft carriers. In addition thanks to some very good and inspirational builds to look back at and reference some technical aspects of the the ships that I couldn't find close up pictures on Navsource.org. The builders referenced were Hubert Ortinger, Keith Hufnagel, Jeroen Zuiderduin, and Kyle Prestwood.
I attempted to model the ship in its late 1944 configuration. I used the PE set from Toms Modelworks "Essex Carrier Special" (SPL-009) to really give the model some pop to it. Its actually three sets in one for a decent price. I love Toms products but I just wish there were better instructions, otherwise his PE products are top notch!!! In addition, I used Gatorsmask to make sharp lines and accurate placement of the camo pattern for the MS 33-10a camo scheme. All the 5" open mounts, 20mm and 40mm guns are from "3D Modelparts.com". If you ever have the opportunity, please order from this company. They are very competitively priced and the parts are high quality, you cant go wrong! I know there are aircraft numbers and specific squadron marking for 1/700 aircraft by Starfighter but at this scale, the juice wasn't worth the squeeze for me as I'd need a magnifying glass to see the detail (lol). I used Eduards standard aircraft carrier figures to give the carrier flight deck a more busy look. Lastly I used Modelmasters Acrylic 5-P, 5-N, and 5-O for my measure 33-10a colors. Due to 1/700 scale effect, they just seemed to work better for me despite the actual colors of 33a being 5-L, 5-N, and 5-O. For the deck I used Humbroll Matt 144 for the equivalent to 20B deck blue. I 1st air brushed the deck in tan and then over coated the deck in the deck blue. I then lightly sanded the deck to show some slight wear from deck handling. It really doesn't come out in the pictures but prior to the 53 aircraft going on, one could see it really came out nice.
I added some gun directors in some of the 20mm galleries. For such an overall good model from Trumpeter (not without its inaccuracies and parts fit issues) I cant understand why Trumpeter couldn't make all galleries accurate. On the starboard side of the island I flew Yorktown's call sign as a unique touch and on the port side flag lines I flew the red flag indicating fight ops in progress.
Overall I'd say the Trumpeter kit parts fit well with very minor filling. There is no 100% accurate Essex class on the market, you really have to do some research and understand that no two Essex class ships were ever carbon copies of each other.. thanks again to Tracy White for setting me straight with that in reading the "Calling all Essex class fan" forum. I read all 111 pages (at present count).
I also included two pictures of the Yorktown and and a modern carrier (USS Truman) as a relative comparison of the increase in size and sophistication from WWII carriers to modern carriers. Bare in mind that the ships are in 1/700 and are basically approximations of the real ships...but either way I think the pictures are an interesting contrast of past/present carriers.
I'm satisfied that I made the "Fighting Lady" as accurate as I could while also balancing with living with certain aspects that I couldn't confirm or obtain a reasonably accurate picture. I hope you enjoy the pictures as I really enjoyed building this model.
