The Essex Class - Basing the War Battle Winners

Their time has come, the war winning class of USN aircraft carriers which made it simply impossible for the IJN to get back into the war after Midway. Fast Carrier battlegroups dominated the 1944-45 Pacific Theatre of Operation (PTO) in TF 58 (see below, these are eight of the beauties that came crisply from teh Navwar 1/3000 moulds):  

Sadly Navwar experienced mould degradation and the remaining nine (see below) I received needed some tender loving care (TLC) in the form of the miracle Vallejo Plastic Putty. Navwar discontinued the mould shortly after I placed my order (several years ago now), but Davco still do a 1/3000 model (see below, my seventeen [of a total class of twenty four] that were commissioned during WWII (see below, it may seem slightly obsessive, but blame the appeal of the Orange Conway encyclopaedia and Avalon Hill's "Victory in teh Pacific" - and in one sense having started collecting these models some twenty seven years ago, in for a penny in for a pound):

From late 1942 onwards the USN replaced the CV fleet she had going into teh war more than twice over which is simply phenomenal. A strategic Pacific Game seems destined to follow in teh footsteps of War Plan Orange at a future Conference of Wargamers (CoW). Some sea texturing and model painting is needed before then though.