Here are 3 A7M2 Reppu ('Sam') fighters. They did not make it onto carrier decks before the war ended, but assuming it went on long enough for the Ibuki to be completed and commissioned they would have been a likely choice for Ibuki's koku sentai (air group).
Curt, Unfortunately none of Ibuki's planes would have been on Nagato or Yamato. There are some 1/144 models available of a Zero seaplane fighter with a single float but I don't know which ships they were assigned to (possibly Yamato, Mushashi and the Ise and Hyuga after conversion to hybrids). The Zero seaplane is made by Takara and there are several available in ebay stores. Bob
The Japanese carrier flight deck and elevator kits made by Sweet arrived from Japan yesterday and have been test fitted on the Ibuki's hangar. The kits are each about 1/8" longer than stated in their descriptions and by chance the elevators are almost exactly the right distance apart instead of being 1/2" too close together as expected. This bow shot shows the 6" wide flight deck on top of the hangar but the deck will be up to 3/4" wider when the 'steel' walkways along the edges are added. The kit components are too tall at 1/4" vs scale thickness of 1/8" but will be considerably modified when the flight deck is built. Note the forecastle deck with remnants of balsa sheet. As previously posted 1/32" balsa was painted with gelcoat and held in place with some light weight ojects until the gelcoat set. Two more coats of gelcoat were painted on the underside of the deck. At this point no fiberglass has been added. To do that properly I'll have to cut out the forward hull 'windows'.
Starboard side view of the flight deck with torpedo bombers on deck. The black areas on the grey hangar are where gelcoat was added to fill defects. Not all of those have been sanded smooth yet.
Another view of torpedo bombers on deck from a slightly different angle. The kits used are 2 elevator kits, each with a 4 panel deck extension, plus a separate extension kit of 4 deck panels and 3 of 4 panels from a second extension kit. These are enough to deck all but 1/4" of the hangar. I have enough addtional kits to extend the 'wooden' flight deck almost to bow and stern but I'm undecided to do that or make the deck areas overhanging the bow and stern represent steel plating. Given that steel was in short supply it might be more accurate to represent the overhangs as wooden decked. Opinions??
Top view over the aft elevator. I'll start modifying the Sweet kits and building the styrene flight deck tomorrow. More photos to follow.
Method of Flight Deck Construction: This photo shows the unmodified flight deck kit components to the right on the flight deck. To get a scale thickness (1/8") flight deck the 1/4" high sides of the deck components were trimmed with a razor saw and file, removing raised lettering on the underside in the process. This left 0.040"/1.0mm thick deck sections. 0.080"/2.0mm thick sheet styrene made by Evergreen is the main flight deck component/subdeck. To get an almost scale flight deck width strip styrene 0.040" thick and 1/4" wide was added on each side of the deck kit components, representing the steel margin around the flight deck. The fist 1/4" wide strip was glued to the 0.080" thick subdeck sheet, taking care to have the edges and ends of both flush. Once the glue had set the trimmed down flight deck components were glued to the subdeck with ends against the first 1/4" wide strip. Then the 1/4" wide strip on the other side of the deck was added. (All of these components are visible in the photo.) A hole was cut in the subdeck to allow the elevator to be installed. The photo shows one half of the elevator kit in position. On the workbench is the elevator itself. When the glue had set the 0.080" thick subdeck was carefully trimmed to match the outer edge of the second 1/4" strip. The flight deck is now within 1mm of the correct scale width (166mm). Vertical styrene strips 1.0mm thick and 3.2mm/1/8" wide will be glued along the outer edges, giving a total width of 167mm.
This photo shows the same section of flight deck with the complete elevator kit installed. Part of a hangar 'crossbeam' just under the flight deck was recessed to allow the elevator (which extends below the subdeck) to be moved forward 2.0mm into it, giving the correct distance from the end of the hangar. The overhanging stern section of the flight deck will extend partly over the hangar, filling the gap that you see now.
Thanks Curt, The two sections of flight deck that cover most of the hangar will be finished this week. The next section forward has the starboard extension that supports the island and some AA guns and starts to become narrower toward the bow. I plan to have the flight deck completed, detailed and professionally painted by airbrush before the Shearwater Model Show. Bob
Bryan, I haven't forgotten about sending you the Ibuki plan and cross-sections for the hangar. I reduced the plan size by 1% yesterday and got an exact match to Ralph's Mogami hull length. I have a copy for you and have to find a tube to mail it in. Flight deck assembly is proceeding well with both main sections over the hangar complete. The 0.080"/2mm subdeck for the overhanging bow section of flight deck has been cut out and the stern overhang will be started tonight. To get the elevators the correct distance apart put 12 of the Sweet kit's deck extension panels between them. This will put them within 2mm of the scale distance apart. The aft flight deck section over the hangar has 2 deck extensions behind the elevator and 6 in front. The forward section over the hangar has 6 extensions aft of the elevator and 1 ahead of it. From there forward is the bow section of the flight deck which on my model overlaps the hangar. The taper toward the bow starts just aft of the forward elevator and the flight deck width goes from 165mm there to 98mm at the bow. You will have used 15 of your 20 deck extension pieces for the 2 sections of deck over the hangar. You'll need 3 more (2 aft of the rear hangar section and 1 forward) to completely cover the hangar. Like the bow section the stern section of the flight deck also overlaps the hangar. With the remaining 2 deck extensions you can make about half of the stern section of the flight deck 'planked' and the rest of the flight deck (the bow section) would be 'steel' unless you get another extension kit. I bought 4 extension kits to your 3 so have enough to make the flight deck entirely planked except for the usual steel sections at each end, with a longer steel section at the aft 'round-down'. (More photos of the flight deck construction will be posted tonight.) I've done more research on the aircraft and have found that the B7A2 Ryusei/Grace torpedo bombers (also used as dive bombers) would more likely have been assigned to the larger carriers of the Unryu Class. The Ibuki would have had the older and slightly lighter B6N2 Tenzan/Jill torpedo bombers. (The flight deck length on Ibuki with all of it's strike aircraft on deck was marginal for the B7A2's take off run of 130m at 27 knot ship speed.) Depending on it's planned role the Ibuki might have carried Val dive bombers and B6N2s or just the torpedo bombers. Fighters could have been Reppus but most likely Zeros. Bob
Progress on the flight deck: the second large section that covers the hangar and acts as an access hatch to the interior is almost complete and the subdeck of the flight deck overhanging bow is ready to be 'planked'.
A closer view of the flight deck under construction. The platform sticking out to starboard is the location of the carrier's island and two AA guns on platforms at either end of it according to the one good drawing found on the internet. The island sticks out surprisingly far to starboard. Looks too far to me but I've found 3 plans that when scaled up to 1/144 all give an island width of 34 mm outboard of the flight deck for a total width of 50 mm from the hangar side at main deck level. The hangar is 50 mm tall so that makes the angle of the sponson from main deck to outer edge of the island 45 degrees. That seems a lot. However, the only photo I've found showing the bridge and its sponson (from off the starboard bow) is good enough to allow the angle of the sponson side to be measured and it's exactly 45 degrees!
