Weird Sisters Redux

Hood

Posted: November 1st, 2012, 1:58 pm

Posts: 7233
Joined: July 31st, 2010, 10:07 am

These have been done by me several years ago, but several errors in scaling and detailing are obvious and when Bombhead asked permission to do top views of the Furious, Courageous and Glorious as carriers I felt only a total fresh start could produce worthy vessels.

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HMS Courageous in spring 1917 with minerails for up to 222 mines, but she was never, in fact, used as a minelayer.

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HMS Courageous later in 1917 with extra torpedo tubes fitted and minerails removed.

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HMS Glorious in 1918 with turret platforms added for Sopwith Pups and anti-splinter matting over her bridge spaces.

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HMS Furious as she appeared on completion in 1917.

HMS Furious was the third of the Courageous Class light battlecruisers/ large light cruisers and was intended to be armed with two 18in guns, which were meant to scare the German Army back to Berlin when supporting a Russian landing in Pomerania! During construction she was modified into an aircraft carrier for the Grand Fleet, retaining one 18in gun aft. Furious has the distinction to be the only carrier that saw active service in both world wars.

The small scale of the Sopwith Pup compared to this giant ships fills me with nothing but admiration for the bravery of Squadron Commander Edwin Dunning. On 2 August 1917 he successfully landed a Sopwith Pup aboard Furious, becoming the first person to land an aircraft on a moving ship. On 7 August, he made another successful landing, but on his third attempt the engine choked and the aircraft crashed off the starboard bow with fatal results. After these trials their Lordships decided to convert Furious into a carrier with a dedicated landing-on deck aft.

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HMS Furious in 1918 as converted with a landing deck and also fitted with two elevators and her 5.5in guns were re-arranged and some extra torpedo tubes added. Furious recommissioned on 15 March 1918, undertaking anti-Zeppelin patrols in the North Sea. In July 1918, she participated in the Tondern raid, flying off seven Sopwith Camels.

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HMS Furious as she appeared in 1932 in her original flush-decked configuration since the late 1920s. Her armament is a mix of 4.7in DP and 4in HA guns with the two quadruple 2pdr pom-poms added during 1932.

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HMS Furious as she appeared in 1943 with the island, 4in DP armament and increased AA weapons and radars added to her since 1939.

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Furious in her 1943 camouflage.

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HMS Glorious in 1935. Her airgroup comprises the Hawker Nimrods and Ospreys of 802 Sqn, the Blackburn Baffins of 812 Sqn and the Fairey Seals of 823 Sqn. In 1925 Glorious began her conversion to a carrier. After problems with turbulence around the stern in 1935 a longer and more pronounced round-down was fitted. At the same time the qaurterdeck was raised, catapults fitted and three octuple pom-poms fitted. No further modifications were made before her loss in 1940. Glorious operated off Spain during the Civil War in 1938 and was sunk after a series of successful raids off Norway by Scharnhost and Gneisenau on 18 June 1940 during the evacuation of Norway with a deckload of Hurricanes and Gladiators.

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HMS Courageous in 1935. Courageous began her conversion in June 1924 and was very similar to her sister but the higher quarterdeck and longer flight deck of Glorious' 1935 conversion were planned to be fitted in 1937 but never were. Her career in the Second World War was short, on 17 September 1939 she was sunk by two torpedoes from U-20 in the South West Approaches.

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