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CVA-34 Oriskany help


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I have a couple of questions regarding the Oriskany about the time line and squadrons aboard the Oriskany around the 1955 WESTPAC area. First off I am building a project for a Korea Veteran and need to know what squadrons and type of aircraft on board this ship during the 1955 WESTPAC but also airframes they would have been operating during this time frame. From what I have heard from the guy I am building this project for says he remembers the TH-13, AD-1s and possibly Vampires.

I have been looking all over and have been directed to a site that contains a bunch of info on what I am doing but it doesn't give me specifics on what I need as far as the WESTPAC 1955 cruise. I am not sure if he will remember squadrons of aircraft he worked on or much less what airframe they were during this period I am building after because he is aging rapidly and I do not want to invoke ill feelings towards his enlistment by asking questions he has already answered 100 times and me not paying attention paying attention.

Also I am curious what color the flight deck would have been painted. The Model is for the most part complete and I will only have to change a few things up to and including the deck and island numbers to correlate with what I am building and maybe aircraft on the carrier to depict what I need. Would the flight deck have been gray with lots of weathering, Or would it have the black look to it that modern ships have.

The era I am going to depict the ship in still has the straight flight deck and from what looks to me like a wooden flight deck. Even if it were wood would it have still been painted in order to preserve it. If so what color. I have seen conflicting pictures that show it as a possible gray or even black because the pictures are in black and white.

Any and all help is much appreciated as always thanks guys JOSH

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The flight decks of the time appear to be a dark gray color. Possibly a non-skid coating on the deck, or a dark gray stain on the wood. May even be a deck blue stain like that used during WWII.

Google is your friend re. the 1955 Oriskany cruise:

http://navysite.de/cruisebooks/cv34-55/index.html

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Actually What you said above is correct in every way including personalization with his picture. But I can't tell what colors anything is because of the black and white pictures. I Have id'ed the squadrons I was looking for with markings as well. Color references as well as what type of aircraft on board are vague at best and I was just looking for some help with that alone. I don't know much about that era and would like to be as accurate as possible. I watched the videos of her intentional sinking for the reef but do not know if colors and deck arrangement would be the same as 50 years before. I know it had the angled flight deck when sunk and it didn't have it during the era I am going to build but would the colors still be correct.

Another thing I am curious about is how many aircraft per squadron would have been on board her during that period. Above I said Vampires and I think I meant Panthers. Again like I said I do not know much from the era lol. Is there any way to determine FS colors for that ship and time line on another website that any of you may now about. I am doing research but am just coming up empty handed. Thanks for the help guys.

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Everything that you need should be available and will probably come from different members--I don't know the numbers per squadron, ship colors for example but can find out.

Did you notice that the cruise book has color photos at the start of the book and occasionally later?

They clearly show the natural metal finish of some of the planes plus their color markings.

They won't be reliable for shade but show the basic color and then you can do research to get the right shade.

I had to stop looking at the cruise book 'cause of other obligations but your project is interesting and fits in with mine.

What kit are you using?

I've thought that it would be easier to modify a straight deck Intrepid/Ticonderoga into a 27/27A/27C than an angled deck model into a 27.

There are differences between the WWII configurations and the 27s and also between the 27s and 125s.

So a ship finished during WWII had mods to the island, bow, guns, elevators, and other areas. Then, if the same ship was modified to a 125, some of those changes were changed again. An example is rear elevator to side.

I have a Trumpeter Hancock. For 1/350 that or Tico would be my choice for Big-O (as the cruise book calls her).

Helicopter: H-13s would not normally be operated from a CVA. The book shows the HUP (later post October '62 designation UH-25).

I prefer modelwarships.com to get info from ship modellers. This site, ARC, is easier to use and keeps your thread distinct. Others, including modelwarships, have multiple topics in a single thread, for example many questions, builds, comments on different projects all under "aircraft carriers". So the site search is best. Note that their thread Essex "fans" threads are best.

Ease of use gives ARC an edge and I recommend keeping your build on ARC.

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Rich the ship is coming to me pre built. I have never built a ship before. I build Model aircraft though. I appreciate the link and am in the process of getting signed up for it. The ship is built as a CVA-9 instead of the CVA-34 that I want it for the time period. I took a look at the modelwarships and there are a bunch of pages 107 to be correct. I'm sure all of my questions lie within the thread but good god who wants to look through that many pages. Like a needle in a hay stack I guess. I just really want to get this right the first time so it's not going to be problematic if I notice something wrong and need to change it.

It is the 1/350th scale Trumpeter Tico kit that I am working with. If there is any other changes that should be made to this model that come to mind please let me know. As far as i have gotten on research of the model being shipped to me it has nothing but F-9F Panthers on board with 2 helicopters. still not sure what they are but care less right now because I have to locate the other aircraft for this thing that I am looking for.

I also noticed that the Tico kit and the Oriskany are different as far as posts that i read on the warship site but haven't looked into it enough to nail them down yet. Any and all help you can give me is very much appreciated. I'm sure I will have more questions when the big O arrives but these are the ones that come to mind right away. Thank you again for your help. JOSH

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  • 3 months later...

Please drop me a line at jrobinsonusaf at aol dot com. I am doing a Tico/Oriskany conversion to honor my uncle, who served on her during Korea. I have a TON of pics and a document detailing the changes to be made. The biggest slowdown for me is the island. If I could wrangle a Gallery Intrepid island and cast a copy of it, that would solve a of of issues.

Here's a thumbnail of changes:

Designated SCB-27A, the modernization was very extensive, requiring some two years for each carrier. To handle much heavier, faster aircraft, flight deck structure was massively reinforced. Stronger elevators, much more powerful catapults, and new arresting gear was installed. The original four twin 5"/38 gun mounts (turrets) were removed from the flight deck fore and aft of the island. New five-inch gun batteries, consisting consisted of eight weapons, two on each quarter beside the flight deck (open 5-inch mounts along the edge of the flight deck fore and aft of the island- a considerable amount of work was done to the hull on the forward mounts to fair these in). These guns were controlled by Mk37 directors fitted with Mk 25 antennas (these are already part of the kit). The directors were mounted high on the island, one above the bridge, the other aft of the funnel. Twin 3"/50 gun mounts replaced the 40mm guns (bow and stern tubs under the flight deck as well as in tubs along the flight deck sides – once again, a considerable amount of reinforcing was done to support these larger tubs. These guns were controlled by Mk63 gun directors mounted between the fore and aft gun tubs and on each side of the hull just forward or aft of the 5” mounts.) A distinctive new feature was a taller, shorter island with a large escalator on the starboard side amidships to move airmen up to the flight deck. Weight: displacement increased by some twenty percent. Removal of the side belt armor and replacing it with a hull blister which increased the beam at the waterline from 93 feet to 101 feet (approx .137 inch or 1/8 inch on each side in 1/350). The ships also sat lower in the water, and maximum speed was slightly diminished.

JR

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