Yes, Robert. Lots of detail differences in these ships. You need to really pay attention to the 40 mm mounts. It seems the ships commissioned after WW2 had a drastically reduced number of them.

I decided to brush paint the deck markings. It worked out pretty good and will provide a nice base when I weather the deck. I also removed the infamous aztec stairs leading down into the port gun sponsons. Tom’s PE will provide the replacements.
And I just realized I missed a hash mark next to the #2 5” turret mount……..Simple enough to add.

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Finally some more progress. I didn’t have a lot of modeling time over the last week between family visiting and home renovation work. The deck piece just needs the dark gray applied to the catwalks and empty 20mm galleries. Then the weathering can begin. This project has been an enjoyable return to brush painting. I will however have to airbrush the PE prior to applying it.

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Great progress indeed, my friend @j-healy!

I painted that catwalks and assembled most of the island today. I also practiced cutting and repositioning the wings on one of the kit’s Helldivers as practice. I’ll rob some Corsairs from other carrier kits and fold their wings to supplement the aftermarket plane sets.

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Progressing nicely John, looking good so far.

Looking super, my friend @j-healy!

John Healy (@j-healy)
Hello John. I'm sorry that I'm late to the party here, and have only now made a comment. We have had a lot of full scale "life" things getting in our way recently. These things have severely hampered my bench time. I had full intentions of knocking out a few shelf queens that could fit into this group, the M-26 Pershing being one of them.

Boy oh boy, you sure have been busy !

It really looks good too. I don't know how you guys can build stuff so tiny, but I'm glad that you do. My eyesight doesn't allow me to build anything small anymore, so I have gravitated towards 1/48 and larger aircraft, along with 1/35 armor stuff.

Whenever I see a model of a US Navy carrier from this era, complete with aircraft on the deck, I immediately think of the deck scenes when they were maneuvering the carrier into the dock, as a scene from the movie "Bridges of Toko-Ri".
They were using the thrust from the propellers of the aircraft secured on deck to "push" the carrier sideways.

I have read somewhere how this put a strain on the aircraft engines since they were not being operated at normal flying speeds, and because of this, they didn't have the same airflow over the engine's air cooled cylinders.

Now I'm getting the urge to build up a Korean War Skyraider... dang it man. I need to quit looking at stuff on the 'net. 😉