Paddle-wheel aircraft carriers

[Pat]

For somebody who wants to built a model that will instantly become a conversation started, you might want to consider a paddle-wheeled aircraft carrier.

There were two, USS Wolverine and USS Sable.  Both served on the Great Lakes during WWII.  (That in itself is a bit of an oddity)

http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/46/094606403.jpg

If you look on the left edge of the picture, you can make out the supports and the protective covering around the stb paddle-wheel.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/46/094606406.jpg

Another shot showing the port paddlewheel a little more clearly

http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/46/46064.htm

Of course, you'll have to be good at scratchbuilding as I doubt there's a kit for these unusual ships.

[wildspear]

That is too cool. If I could get some plans I would take a stab at it. I'll have to look in to that.

[Rokket]

Wow, thanks Pat, that is waaay cool! I can imagine Sopwith Tripes flying off that puppy...

[Pat]

Except that it was WWII.  If you look into them, you find out they were flying Dauntless dive bombers, TBM Avengers and F4 Corsairs off the decks of these paddle-wheelers.

I don't know if there's any plans available (perhaps the Museum of tech in Chicago where they have U-505?) but there was a spread on them in 'Scale Modeler' a couple of years ago where somebody had built a model of USS Wolverine.  There were some really good pix of the build and the finished model, you could clearly see the paddle wheels and the entire structure supporting them.

[42rocker]

That's a big Wow for me. Thanks for the info share. 
 
Later Tim