Time for the portholes (also known as scuttles). I decided to go for fidelity and would use Hatton’s book Anatomy of a Ship The Aircraft Carrier Victorious as a guide. This would entail filling some of the Heller kit portholes and drilling out new ones. So, one weekend afternoon, I did just that on the starboard side. You can see the messy process here:
and filled:
Avast ye erk!
Could I trust Hatton’s book? He shows side views of Victorious as completed in April 1941, five months after Taranto. Something in the back of my mind said that there were more portholes on the Illustrious in late 1940 than on the Victorious in spring 1941. The Indomitable builder’s model was no help (it confirmed the Victorious drawings but Indomitable was completed after Victorious). So, I assembled a timeline of photos from the 1939 launch to her arrival in Norfolk, Virginia for refit after the January 1941 bombing off Malta. The timeline:
Two shots from the launch – first is from Pathe’s web site. The second is from the Vickers web site
Uh-oh. I just filled these portholes on the model. Maybe during post-launch completion and shakedown, they removed the portholes. I could only hope for proof otherwise I would be undoing my work.
Then two unclear shots from 1940 before action at Taranto. The first from Plymouth and the second from Bermuda (via Fleet Air Arm Camouflage and Markings 1937-1941 by Stuart Lloyd, photo credited to Ian Gazeley page 88):
The Plymouth June 1940 photo, only five months before Taranto suggested that the stern portholes as launched were still present.
And lastly, the clinchers – scenes of Illustrious as she pulled into Malta in January 1941 (only two months after Taranto), then Norfolk a few months later. Both images capped from BattleFleet Royal Navy in the 20th Century Disk 1, Chapter 4.
Thus armed with photographic evidence surrounding the time period in question, I re-opened the filled portholes, re-examined the photos in detail, marked new portholes, filled in a few errant portholes, and did this for both port and starboard sides. Much work and probably not 100% accurate but considerably better than either the Heller kit or taking the easy route and applying the otherwise excellent Hatton Victorious drawings to the Illustrious ca. November 1940.
Lots more work correcting the ship to go – notably the HACS (High Angle Control System) which seems to be misshaped/misplaced all over the kit.
Coda (2013-11-10) By chance, I discovered another Heller Victorious build on the Internet that in turn referenced another supplier of 1/400 photo etch parts – North Star Models. Although they have a US distributor, the specific item I spotted were sheets of 1/400 portholes with and without ‘visors’ (also known as rainshields, eyebrows, and more formally, rigols). The US distributor did not carry these portholes. So, a quick Paypal transaction and then two weeks later, this arrived:
So, my first ever letter from Zhitomir, Ukraine. It is interesting that the package is labeled as made in Latvia (part of the EU) although shipped from Ukraine. No doubt some tax or customs issue.
Cropredy Illustrious Project 