Dear all,
I managed to lay my paws on a Heller 1:400 Illustrious/Victorious kit, and spent a fair bit of time (3 evenings) searching for references, in English and Japanese, on the WWW. Unfortunately, such details as light AA armament, camouflage, and even photographs are scarce and hard to pin down to an exact period. So I suspect that I will have to fork out for a book. I did not see many books on the class either, the most promising appears to be the title "Illustrious and Implacable class carriers" (I may have gotten the title wrong here, my search results are at home). However, I am not sure if that book will give me the information most suited to modelling the Illustrious at some point in her WW2 career.
After-market parts are another area I looked at. WEM's 2-fret set and a corrected bridge set appear to be the only dedicated sets for the ship, and may need to be supplemented by sets including some USN weaponry (quad and twin and maybe single 40mm Bofors).
I know that AOS used to print a book on the Victorious, which would be ideal for her, is there any similarly detailed information available on the WWW or in print on Illustrious?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Respectfully, Gernot Hassenpflug (returning to modeling after 2.5 year absence)