Probably possible with enough money spent on it. I’d assume two variants, one based off the GR.1B and one based off the F3. One variant to replace the Buccaneers and the other to replace the phantoms.

Would it be feasable with late 1980s avionics and radars to produce a new version that combined both GR and F variants. It could be the FRS5. Also what would have to be done to navalise a Tornado, whats the shopping list of things?

I’m just curious. Does anyone know how CVA-01’s flight deck would have been divided up for spotting purposes? Ie Fly 1, Fly 2 etc.
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Here are my latest efforts. I also included the ship and the little jets which I hope are to scale though I did have to cheat and made the s’board cat’ shorter so that the jets didn’t touch.

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If you are going to all the trouble of moving the fore elevator to the port deck-edge, I can’t see why you would keep that starboard boat crane where it is… you can’t really park any aircraft anywhere along the starboard deck aft of the island during landing ops.

Try moving it aft a bit, to allow a couple-3 aircraft to be parked there:

I left the crane there for visual purposes only to be truithful. It looked bland and boring otherwise. As for the deck edge lift, I liked the look of it on Hermes and although Victorious lacked sufficient freeboard for one I thought it a good place to put it if I was going to extend the cats. The changes I acknowledge re the lift aren’t necessarily practical, I’m not sure how the lift would work in relation to the Hanger deck below.

I’ve checked the Navy News website and, well see for yourself but I think both February and March issues are of the ship in the same period. One has an exploded view of the island as well as the hull with different things on the flight deck, whilst the other just has the hull as a cutaway. Does that mean that there’ll be yet another one in the April issue? Also I can no longer find Navy News in WH Smith in Cardiff. I’ll try Newport on the weekend.

Update I popped into Wh Smith on my way home from work today and there was a stack of March editions in stock. I’ll get one on the weekend, but it is of the 1950s Ark not 1970s. Maybe April will feature Ark later in her career?

I think Navy News will bedoing another cutaway of Ark in her later years in the next issue…

I only have paint, not photoshop. It is somewhat limiting, but if you choose the pic carefully you can still manage quite a lot. I’m still on my first computer, a laptop I bought four years ago and the hard drive is getting a bit full (only about 5 Gb left) so I’m waiting until I can afford a new computer before I start adding fancy programs like photoshop!:D

If you are Phantomising Victorious, you may need a sqn of these: (see below) I reckon Victorious would be large enough for a sqn of 12 FG1s, plus 8 Buccs, four Gannets and six Wessex/ Sea King. The RN at the time tended to favour fighters over strike aircraft if it had to reduce from ideal sqn size (ie Eagle’s air group was the benchmark) due to limited space aboard ship. Hermes for example had a full sized fighter sqn (12 Vixens) embarked during the sixties but only 8 Scimitar/ six Buccs. Eagle had the ‘standard’ 14 Buccs (in the 60s Ark had 16 Scimitars, and in the 70s 14 Buccs). The thinking was probably for strike missions the Buccs would be strike leaders and could be augmented by Vixens/Phantoms as ‘bomb trucks’ to add numbers.

Re: Navy News, I’ll definately try to get my hands on that issue. When is it out?
Re: Victorious’ airgroup, I envisage 10 F4s, 12 Buccaneers, 4 Gannets and 6-8 helos but we shall see.

Thanks for the Compliment Obi Wan. I’ll have to alter the date and try and do another one with different colours if I can find an appropriate pallet. I love the new set of images you posted and I too think that the markings sported by Ark Royal in the late 70s are the best. If our CVFs ever go CTOL, those are the markings to use.

Well This is my first attempt. I thought I’d start with something simple. Victorious as she first appeared following her refit, complete with the old markings, before she was ‘Buccaneered’. Hopefully there’ll be more to follow. Looking at these flight deck plans, its amazing how little flight deck space there was. I would have landed all Victorious’ guns and plated over increasing the number of planes on deck.