leverancier Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Hi all, My latest: a little diorama of the flight deck of the USS Essex in 1943 during the Rabaul strike. For this attack, the 3 carriers essex, bunker hill and independence used all of their aircraft so they had to rely on land based F4U-1's, like the Ondonga based VF-17, to provide CAP. This was the first time that corsairs landed and took off from carriers in a real wartime scenario. I'm not 100% sure that they were on deck at the same time as the carriers air wing, but I really wanted some corsairs in my dio. For the avengers I used 1 italeri kit and 1 Hobby boss kit, both are very nice. The corsairs came from Tamiya, fantastic little kits, and the hellcats are allso hobby boss. For the figure I used a mix of verlinden, cmk and eduard. The deck was made with balsa strips and tie downs from tom's modelworks, and I cut up a base from eduard for the lift. The pictures: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
leverancier Posted December 8, 2009 Author Share Posted December 8, 2009 Final 2: Thanks for looking, and feel free to post comments. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Greenghost Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Great diorama!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
phantom Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Thats awesome!!!!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mkimages Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Sweet! You nailed it I really like the dramatic lighting in your photos, too. It's a nice change from the standard "catalog" shots normally seen. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
CorsairMan Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 What an excellent idea!! You have inspired me to do something like that someday. Wow -cool stuff. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ST21 Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Stunning ! ;) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dpwatson Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Wow that is great!!! Lovely stuff. The rest of your models look great too!! David Quote Link to post Share on other sites
marine4 ever Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 It's O.K............................ ;) :D Well done!!!!!1 Semper fi Dan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rampage55 Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 Awesome display!!!...Beautiful models and a superbly done diorama really brings the whole scene to life. Very cool indeed. Mark Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GretarBill Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 That's a great dio!! Grétar W. G. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
xavi84 Posted December 8, 2009 Share Posted December 8, 2009 job well done! and kudos on the lighting in the pics as well. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
moeggo Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Awesome :blink: ! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cook7997 Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Very nice! Good job on the weathering as well. You nailed it right on. Cameron Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kurnass77 Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 :wacko: :blink: Impressive! Cheers,Gianni Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Paulo Jose Simas Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Awesome !!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Wildcat Posted December 10, 2009 Share Posted December 10, 2009 That is just fantastic!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rraab Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 This is really cool, and so was you're last "mini-dio" (70's phantom on the deck :wacko: ) - I love the way the pic's turned out for this one, but some "sun-lit" shots could do this feat of model building even more justice (when weather permits, of course...)! Rob P.S. If you should run out of space for all this magnificent stuff, I just might have room for a couple extras! Noooooice work B) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sebastijan Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Beautiful dio! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Aggressor Supporter Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 That looks awesome! Big Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Tomcat Fan Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 AWSOME work on this dio... great stuff.. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ken Middleton Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 very nice, and very creative. I like the dark photography - gives it a surreal feeling. Well done! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Darren Roberts Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 NOICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fuji Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 The dio is excellent. Really well done. As for the question of VF-17's aircraft being on Essex alongside its own aircraft, the answer would be no. VF-17 and shore based Hellcat unit VF-33 were to provide cover prior to and after the raid the three carriers were staging on Rabaul's anchorage. The two squadrons arrived overhead the task force prior to dawn and VF-17's CO even scored a kill on a snooper, a Ki-61, just prior to the the flat tops launching all their aircraft. After which, VF-33's Hellcats landed aboard the Independence, while Blackburn took 12 of his flock to Bunker Hill, the carrier to which the Jolly Rogers was initially assigned to prior to being sidelined to the Solomons. Rog Hendrick, VF-17's XO took 12 other Jolly Roger U-Birds to Essex. While these fighters were being refueled, and in Blackburn's case, rearmed, Two shorebased Marine Corsair squadrons, VMF-212 ans 221 provided cover. After several hours VF-17 and 33 were launched at 1030 hrs to greet the returning strike and confront any unfriendlies tailing them home. The Marines at this time were sent home. First to arrive were the task force Hellcats which were landed, rearmed, refueled and kept in a state of readiness should the need arise. It did. On the heels of the returning strike aircraft was a Japanese counter attack. The three carriers began launching Hellcats and Essex's VF-9, Bunker Hill's VF-18 and Indi's VF-22 joined the fight. The combine totals for the task group and land based fighters was 111 kills, including 18.5 by VF-17. The only land based fighter to return to a carrier after the air battle was 17's Ike Kepford who landed aboard Bunker Hill to refuel. As you can see, it was quite the intricate and well choreographed ballet that kept all these forces from being in one place at the same time in advance of the battle, joining only in the air to defend the task group, all except the Marines who missed the party entirely. This though does not detract from your achievement, which is outstanding. As you said, you wanted to show some Corsairs and it does give you the opportunity to educate any aviation ignorant viewer on who and what was going on. Bravo Zulu Quote Link to post Share on other sites
leverancier Posted December 17, 2009 Author Share Posted December 17, 2009 Thanks all for the kind comments, and Fuji, thank you for the history lesson, I allways enjoy stories like that. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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