SS Roma (1926) and MS Augustus (1927) have an interesting history prior to conversion to aircraft carriers Aquila and Sparviero.

Aquila sure got in shape fast to become a carrier.

Sooner or later someone will need to point out that she's a scary Frankenstein with parts of aborted German carriers and Italian light cruisers.

Hyper_Shinchan said:

Sooner or later someone will need to point out that she's a scary Frankenstein with parts of aborted German carriers and Italian light cruisers.

If I'm not mistaken, it was some gear for flight operations from the former, and the machinery from the seconds... Not that much of a patchy job.

Iowa's youngest sister ship's (USS Illinois and USS Kentucky) engines wound up in a class of four fast combat support ships (Sacramento-class)

I love Sakazaki Freddy's historical stuff, and want to see them translated, but these handwritten kanji are just black blobs in places, so take this translation with a grain of salt large enough you could land an Italian fighter on it.

I have NO idea what "baruji" is supposed to be, but it seems like some sort of exercise by context.

Hyper_Shinchan said:

Sooner or later someone will need to point out that she's a scary Frankenstein with parts of aborted German carriers and Italian light cruisers.

Apparently, that was all aerobics. Even the part where she had 60cm of concrete added to her chest. Aerobics are a terrifying thing.

NWSiaCB said:

I love Sakazaki Freddy's historical stuff, and want to see them translated, but these handwritten kanji are just black blobs in places, so take this translation with a grain of salt large enough you could land an Italian fighter on it.

I have NO idea what "baruji" is supposed to be, but it seems like some sort of exercise by context.

Tried some. Please fix if it sounds nonsense :)

That one is probably concrete bulge, although comparing with Wiki, Freddy might be mistaking 60mm with 60cm

Well, "bulge" might be it, but it doesn't fit with the "exercise program" motif. (Funny, "torpedo bulge" is used as a joke for adding some pounds to the belly/ass for most artists...)

Losing over 9000 tons, or 1/3rd total displacement while quintupling horsepower and increasing speed by nearly 50% is a pretty serious makeover, though... That'd be like a diet/exercise program where you lose over 100 pounds in human terms, and that's before you consider that she grew in height and "cup size" while doing it. Yeah, it really does sound more like a "Frankenstein" surgery than something achievable through aerobics.

Translations/formatting fixed. 古家華 is actually 豪華, by the way - I've made similar mistakes before doing Freddy's work. バルジ is definitely bulge, and Freddy does seem to have mixed up mm and cm there (just the thought of 0.6m of concrete bulge terrifies me).

LuceatEis said:

Freddy does seem to have mixed up mm and cm there (just the thought of 0.6m of concrete bulge terrifies me).

No, that's right. Her bulges were really filled with 0.6m = 60cm = 600mm of concrete.

Ink20 said:

No, that's right. Her bulges were really filled with 0.6m = 60cm = 600mm of concrete.

Seems you may be right, I am not sure if the Wikipedia article has a typo or if its cited source actually asserts 6cm. On the plus side, I learned during my research that the Aquila was able to carry 51 aircraft by suspending some from the hangar roof. A bizarre ship indeed.

LuceatEis said:

On the plus side, I learned during my research that the Aquila was able to carry 51 aircraft by suspending some from the hangar roof. A bizarre ship indeed.

That is really not that strange at all, basically every full fleet carrier in WW2 held aircraft in reserve that way.
The USS Lexington managed to get her full airwing of 120 aircraft in the air by having aircraft stored away in pieces fastened basically all over the place (engines were tied to the ceilings) that her hanger crews would rapidly assemble while the already assembled aircraft were taking off.
Somehow, they managed to get those aircraft in the air within 45 minutes of starting.

I imagine that breaking down aircraft that landed to have room to store the flights already in the air coming in was a nightmare and a half.

kibehisa said:

That is really not that strange at all, basically every full fleet carrier in WW2 held aircraft in reserve that way.

The Japanese and British did not strap reserves to the ceiling. You are right that suspending assembled aircraft was not as unusual as I thought, as the Americans had done it since the USS Ranger (CV-4).

As for assembly during the flight deck cycle, I don't think it would even have been conceivable for the Japanese. At Midway, Tomonaga's strike force of 108 aircraft launched in seven minutes - even a 45 minute delay would have been too long.

EDIT (3/16): This topic was touched upon in Chapter 156 of the Fubuki Ganbarimasu 4koma.