One would think there would be a considerable photo archive on a ship as illustrious as the Illustrious. Working in my favor is that the Illustrious had sister ships – Victorious (famed from the ‘Sink the Bismarck’ battle), Formidable, and Indomitable.
However, one quickly realized that in order to take a photo of a ship as large as an aircraft carrier, the camera needed to be far away (like on another ship) and as such, details get lost in the archival photos (not to mention the ships were moving up and down on the waves with consequent affects on camera focus).
Worse from a research point of view, the Illustrious survived until 1956 before being broken up for scrap. So, between 1939 (when launched) and 1956, she underwent multiple refits that reshaped the hull, deck, and armaments. Thus, I could only rely on photos taken before February 1941 to be certain. But, at the same time, I recognized that some details might only be available by considering later photos or photos from sister ships (who also underwent multiple upgrades).
Here is what I ended up with:
- The Aircraft Carrier Victorious from the Anatomy of a Ship series, Ross Watton 1991. This book is vital as it includes 1/550 and 1/250 scale drawings of the hull, deck, fittings, and more. Most importantly, these drawings include Victorious ‘as completed’ in March 1941 and as best as I can tell, represent a facsimile of Illustrious as completed in 1940. Any modeler who attempts the Heller Illustrious must have this book as the kit is grossly inaccurate in many aspects.
- The Illustrious and Implacable Classes of Aircraft Carrier 1940-1969 by Neil McCart There are a few photos in this book and it is mostly an operational history of the ships in these two classes. It is most useful in helping decide when one can use photos from the Illustrious‘ sisters and when not.
- Warship Profile 10 HMS Illustrious Aircraft Carrier 1939-1956 Technical History by Lieut. D.J. Lyon RNR, MA. This pamphlet is a good complement to Watton’s book but most notable for the color scheme of Illustrious at Taranto.
- Warship Profile 11 HMS Illustrious Aircraft Carrier 1939-1956 Operational History by David Brown. This pamphlet is especially good for 1942-44 color schemes. (not relevant to me).
- Battlefleet Royal Navy in the 20th Century 2 Disc DVD. Once you get past the portentous music and plough through the World War I and inter-war years, you will come onto simply superb closeup footage (taken from the dock) of the damaged Illustrious coming into harbor in Malta in January 1941. These scenes (which you can screen cap for later reference) were eye-opening to me of port and starboard hull side detail that otherwise was masked by grainy far-away photos and not obvious from Watton’s scale drawings. Highly, highly recommended.
- Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton UK – Indomitable builder’s model. There is an exceptional model of the Indomitable filled with detail otherwise unascertainable through photos such as rigging, deck details, hull details, fittings, and more. Although the Indomitable, launched March 1940 and commissioned August 1941, was somewhat different than the Illustrious (added lower hangar, reduced side armor, larger forward lift and longer island), the builder’s model should prove to be very helpful in sorting out details or confirming suppositions from otherwise indistinct photos.
HMS Indomitable Fleet Air Arm Museum
Have other modellers wrestled with the Heller Illustrious kit?
Cropredy Illustrious Project 