Board Thread:Game Updates/@comment-25730832-20151013050733/@comment-26574811-20151015010153

Ar-cen-ciel wrote: ...except that Shinano was constructed too far along (nearly halfway) to be converted into a fleet carrier, so she can only operate 40 planes or so as her own air group. The rest are reserved for airfields or other carriers (she can't bring their avgas and ammo to reach that number), meaning she might as well become Kaga's laughingstock. Not to mention that she has the speed of "Slow", meaning you can't PL her at 5-4 boss run. Also, Shinano's armor was planned to be slightly thinner and she was sunk from just one torpedo salvo compared to Yamato and Musashi who took plenty of those from torpedo bombers, so at Kai her armor would be at around 100-114 at most.

That being said, perhaps she might be able to become a true fleet carrier if you fed her with two blueprints and one prototype catapult at Kai Ni... hopefully... but frankly even Taihou is more likely to get her Kai Ni than Shinano. I'm not saying this because there is Hakuryū already in World of Warships

Fun fact: Shinano is planned to be a Tier IX converted aircraft carrier in World of Warships. Seems like her sister ship on paper is going to outclass her a good deal. I think Shinano would be like Taiho, pre-Kai featuring very few planes, Kai giving a more useful air wing.

Hakuryu is G14 (planned successor of Taiho), I think Taiho K2 will be based on the planned configuration of Taiho herself, as in featuring 2 deck catapults.

Shinano shouldn't require a catapult, not just because she (as kanmusu) was completed waaaay before the introduction of catapults, but also because she was never planned to have one historically.