1/700 USS Yorktown (CV-5) – Battle of Midway – post 1

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I have wanted to model the carrier Yorktown (CV-5) as it appeared at Midway for a long, long time.  My DSC_0201first Yorktown was a 1/700 Tamiya Enterprise kit from high school days (at left), which I still have, albeit the worse for wear from 30+ years in attic and boxes.  I also repainted a 1/600 Aurora Enterprise as a Yorktown (shown at right with my new CV-6 from the same kit).  The "Y" on the stack was not a camouflage error, by the way 6a00d83451ccc469e201bb09a04af0970d– I was convinced that the black "Y" would "bleed through" the wartime camouflage, so I did a subtle "Y" of my own.  Of course I was wrong, but there was a reason behind it.

During law school I bought a Revell 1/480 Yorktown kit, but never got very far on it – but I remember it being in the model closet in Waco, and it's still on the storage shelf in the current workshop 27 years later.

DSC_0205After law school when I came up with a pretty good Tamiya Enterprise backdated to its Midway appearance and had completed a Tamiya Hornet I bought another Enterprise kit to build a December 1940 Yorktown in its prewar paint scheme, also shown at left.

I put in a hangar deck, a full hangar load of 1/700 aircraft, and a number of small figures.  I also DSC_0202backdated the AA outfit to its prewar .50 cal. armament with Hasegawa Essex 20mms representing 50 cals with canvas covers, and included a full set of photoetch railing.  I never quite finished it, but it's pretty close – every time I try to figure out what I had not done, I can't find anything other than the top deck of the island, which is missing railings and some other small details. DSC_0203

I bought another Tamiya Enterprise to build a June 1942 Yorktown, but other than starting on closing up a couple of openings DSC_0206on the flight deck ramp, I never started on it.

In the last couple of years I began to read that the Tamiya kit was significantly underscaled (compare Tamiya and Trumpeter flight decks belowDSC_0207), as well as inaccurate in numerous details, both large and small. There are now at least three new Yorktown-class kits available in 1/700, and I decided to try out the Trumpeter as a June 1942 CV-5. DSC_0208

 

  It appears to be a pretty good kit – I have already started assembling and working on the two-tone Measure 12 (okay, it's three, but just barely) camouflage.  Navy Blue straight out of the bottle is way too dark for a faded Sea Blue (5-S) so that'll be replaced in coming days, and a black waterline plate added.  DSC_0209But Parker and I are having fun – while I'm working on a legit Yorktown, he's working on one of his little adorables – a Meng Lexington (CV-2). DSC_0211

 

 

About Post Author

Michael C. Smith

Marshall, Texas lawyer. I post on things that attract my interest while puttering in my study. Mostly family, books, home, history, World War II and scale modeling.
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