This project will owe a big debt to two master modellers who built the Heller kit and posted their results on the web to inspire me to their high standards:
I want to take a minute to quote a paragraph from Allen’s build:
While okay in outline and form, comparison against plans of Victorious showed that almost all of the hull openings, except for the quarter deck, required modification to either resize them, resite them at correct locations, or remove them. A basic error of the kit is that almost all of the detail, with the exception of the sponsoned island support and hawsepipes, is incorrectly mirror-imaged port and starboard. In reality the hull openings and scuttles, and other details were quite different and distinct on each side of the ship.
This sounds ominous and I quickly placed an order for more Xacto #11 blades.
Carrabott (who lives in Malta no less) built his Illustrious in September 1943 guise during the landings at Salerno. I was especially impressed with his scratch-built quarterdeck and fo’c’sle (see picture below) – the kit only pretends to capture these interior decks. Admittedly they will be hard to see through the hull openings.
Louis Carrabott’s fo’c’sle
So, how can I make my Illustrious distinctive aside from the Taranto point-in-time depiction? Here are some ideas I had. I wonder if I’ll be able to execute on them?
- Build the quarterdeck and fo’c’sle but add LED lights so guests can admire the detail
- Cut out the elevator (aircraft lift) and show it coming up to the deck with a folded-wing Swordfish
- Show a Swordfish in the act of take off, winging away to the attack (this will be hard as I don’t know of any 1/400 anti-gravity machine).
But first, we chop the kit down to size.
Cropredy Illustrious Project 