by Andy Bradshaw
1/700 USS Franklin CV-13 in trouble (Tamiya)
This is why one shouldn't number a major fleet asset, "13". The Big Ben , in 1/700 scale, with CL Santa Fe alongside. I went all out for the effects here. Both are plastic 1/700 scale kits with full photoetch and Evergreen "water effects". Thin wires reinforce the "water streams" from USS Santa Fe.
One snooper (A "Judy" dive bomber), in the middle of a fleet air launch, did all that damage. The TBS chatter from Yorktown went something like "Bogies inbound", to which Franklin answered "friendlies". Yorktown screamed "BOGIES IDENT IDENT"("dude, I can see the meatballs on them") by that time it was too late. Â Franklin made it home, but had low priority repairs, and was mothballed, never to go to sea again. She was scrapped in the sixties.
