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I am looking to model CVW5

Currently assigned to the CVN76 USS Ronald Reagan. I am looking to model their deployment during 2016. Previously CVW5 was assigned to the CVN73 USS George Washington. Most decals I find are for CVW5 before they were on the Reagan. So the question I have is. When a CVW changes ships, dose the squadrons paint scheme change? Or do the just change the name of the carrier on the side of the planes?

Thanks in advance for any help. 

Erik

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1 hour ago, Erik C said:

I am looking to model CVW5

Currently assigned to the CVN76 USS Ronald Reagan. I am looking to model their deployment during 2016. Previously CVW5 was assigned to the CVN73 USS George Washington. Most decals I find are for CVW5 before they were on the Reagan. So the question I have is. When a CVW changes ships, dose the squadrons paint scheme change? Or do the just change the name of the carrier on the side of the planes?

Thanks in advance for any help. 

Erik


The schemes should largely be the same, as those are tied more to the squadron. With that said, there are often some “upgrades”. Slightly different style on the tails, new CAG birds, etc. So a CVW5 from Washington would probably look the same in 1/700, but not quite right in an aircraft scale. 

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Short answer: it depends.

 

Generally speaking, any given air wing's composition is not fixed indefinitely: as squadrons and aircraft types are added or retired, the makeup of the air wing may change (type conversion training cycles, crisis deployment needs, and force reductions are just some contributing factors).  Assuming a short enough timeframe that the same squadrons are operating the same types within the same air wing over multiple deployments, the chances of at least one of those squadrons making at least minor changes to their markings are high, but from a modeling standpoint sometimes close enough that you can at least use the "wrong deployment" decals as a starting point.

 

If you're planning to model the entire air wing, there are two sites that will be good resources:

http://www.gonavy.jp/CVWf.html

Is a great site to verify which squadrons and aircraft types were assigned to which CVWs and which carriers at any given time - so you can make sure all the assignments match up, or confirm what timeframes a given squadron was operating the type/air wing that you need.

 

Verifying the markings from one era to another is much trickier, but your best single point to start from is

 https://www.seaforces.org/usnair/first.htm

This site has photos grouped by squadron type (role) and shows images for individual squadrons in chronological order (usually dated, at least approximately) so you can track the markings changes by era, at least to the extent the photo archives are complete. 

 

A couple of notes: first, the archive is not comprehensive, so quite a few squadrons have no images available. Second, if you're looking for anything other than a present-day squadron you may have to check multiple categories because of changes in the official role - e.g. a current Super Hornet squadron would be a VFA (fighter-attack) but for those that are converted Tomcat squadrons their historic info may be under the (now obsolete) VF designation (fighter only).

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9 hours ago, Erik C said:

I am looking to model CVW5

Currently assigned to the CVN76 USS Ronald Reagan. I am looking to model their deployment during 2016. Previously CVW5 was assigned to the CVN73 USS George Washington. Most decals I find are for CVW5 before they were on the Reagan. So the question I have is. When a CVW changes ships, dose the squadrons paint scheme change? Or do the just change the name of the carrier on the side of the planes?

Thanks in advance for any help. 

Erik

When we went from CV-62 to CV-63, besides gaining VFA-27 and the Batmobile…we all stayed the same…just painted Kitty Hawk in place of Independence. 
 

Cheers

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