The Taiho was an improved Soryu type. All of the dimensions were increased slightly and a full bridge and funnel combination replaced the split units employed on previous carriers. The real life version of the Taiho was an armoured deck carrier. However I do not build the armoured Illustrious type for the Japanese to take inspiration from. So a very good carrier type has to provide the inspiration, the Japanese Soryu, which coming out of my dockyards, is a very good bit of inspiration indeed.
Besides the slight increase in dimensions the Taiho introduced the open backed 3.9" mounting to the aircraft carrier fleet. The ships were still fitted with the 25mm gun. By this time the Japanese would have had examples of the 40mm Bofors guns that would have been captured from the Dutch in the East Indies. If those had of replaced the 25mm triples with 40mm twins and 25mm twins with 40mm singles, would that have made a difference to the AA capabilities of the Japanese ships? As far as I am concerned it certainly would have. Lets see a Taiho with 40mm.
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I like the change of light AA from 25mm to 40mm, it even looks good on the ship.
