CVE-9 USS Bogue – Tamiya 1/700

The original

The USS Bogue is the lead ship of 45 escort carriers built by the US Navy during World War II. The basis are trading ships of the type C3-S-A1, which were equipped with a closed hangar, 2 elevators and a wooden flight deck in the period 1942 - 1947. With up to 28 Wildcat and Avenger carrier aircraft, they were used for convoy security and submarine hunting. After the war they were partly used as merchant ships.

My model

The CVE-9 USS Bogue was commissioned on September 26, 1942 and was scrapped in 1960. During the war, she and her escort were the most successful escort carriers, sinking a total of 13 submarines. My model depicts her while she was deployed in the Atlantic and was painted Measure 22 at the time.

The carrier is my first ship that I built, painted and put into the water. With the best will in the world, I can't count the ships from my wild youth. The requirements were very different back then. The kit comes from Tamyia and has its origins from Pit-Road in the 80s. These parts are probably no longer quite up to date, but you can still get a very respectable model from it. For accessories I used the extensive etched parts set from Fivestar, turned cannons from Master, sailors from Eduard and airplanes from Trumpeter. I started building it in 2016, but after a long break I found the muse to finish the model in 2021. While the plastic parts came together fairly well, attaching the etched parts was a real puzzle, as the Fivestar assembly instructions that came with it were pretty sparse. With the help of original pictures, most of the parts could get their place. As a special highlight, I expanded the hangar deck, equipped it with parked aircraft and illuminated it with 2 SMD. Power comes from a button cell on the underside of the mini display case.

On the deck I depicted the return of the Avengers after a mission. While a machine that has just landed was parked at the bow with the engine still running, the next one is already approaching to land. The safety ropes have already been set up. I cannot judge whether the front elevator has already been lowered in such a situation, but I also wanted to show this. The landing Avenger was attached to the wall of the showcase hood using white glue.

The paintwork

After priming with Surface Primer from Valljo i painted it with Model Air. Unfortunately, I can no longer understand which numbers I used here. The white stripes on the deck were also painted using masking tape. After that, all the ropes and wires were created using Infiniti Ultra Fine Rigging.

The Dio/Showcase

The display case comes from Trumpeter/Mastertools and is intended to protect my carrier from dust. For the creation of the Dios I took over the water design from Frank Spahr. Here I formed the waves directly on the showcase floor along the carrier body with spatula from the tube and an artist's spatula. The entire floor was covered with emulsion paint by stippling. Then the painting was done with Valljo colors according to the colors in the Atlantic. Several layers of clear coat from the spray can create the water effect and protect the colors. The connection to the hull and the crests of the waves are shown with white acrylic gel. It was my first attempt and I think it worked.

23 additional images. Click to enlarge.