The Ship Model Forum

Maxim - Thanks for posting the very nice photos of my state's Showboat!!! I'll take some time to go over them - you must have had a nice visit aboard in spite of the cloudy weather.

Sean F - Re. the placement of small (.50 cal MG) AA batteries upon completion:

You've obviously not seen the main deck layout of the ship "as built", so I've PM'd you regarding this plan. They show (2) .50 cal mounts on each side of the fwd. main deck (just in front of the fwd. deck house) and (4) .50 cal mounts on each side of the after main deck on either side of Turret 3, parallel to the after deckhouse bulkhead. The .50 cal MG's were installed in 1941 and remained until being replaced with 20mm AA mounts in 1942 (Tech. Ref. #1, R.S. Shoker). She had a total of (26) .50 cal batteries as of June '42. All were removed by Nov. '42. As for the upper levels having those batteries, a plan of the ship from Feb. '42 shows the location of the (26) .50 cal. batteries (pg. 43, Tech. Ref. #1).

Hank

Here, some photos (458 in total) of USS North Carolina in Wilmington:


USS North Carolina in Wilmington, part 1



USS North Carolina in Wilmington, part 2

Photos clearly indicate that both sisters were missing a lot of parts when they were commissioned, so we'll call this an "as completed" or maybe an "as intended" question:
The prescribed standard USN battleship package of the time seems to have been four 1.1" quad mounts and eight .50 cal water-cooled mounts. Not that they all received their quads in a timely manner (as the Dec. 7 lineup can attest), but the intended locations of all these quads is pretty obvious on all the ships.
On the other hand, there was no shortage of .50s, and as far as I can tell every ship that was supposed to have a certain quantity of them did, in fact, receive them. But they also tended to migrate around a bit on any given ship from one refit to the next - even before the wartime additions start in earnest.
I scanned through this entire thread over the last couple days and see there's been a lot of discussion about the light gun positions at almost all phases of the North Carolinas' WWII service, with many dubious periods and lots of photo interpretation, and definitive drawings often lacking. But in this case, I hope there might be a definitive answer to a question I don't see asked anywhere: What were the intended positions of the .50 cal water-cooled guns at completion? I assume there would be eight of them and they'd be somewhere up in the superstructure, but nothing strikes me as obvious - no birdbath tub on top of a spotting top, for example. Has anyone seen a deck plan with the as-intended positions of the .50 cals?

- Sean F.

Thank you both.

Reading vertically from outboard to inboard on the starboard yardarm:

1. ILMC (All flags)
2. BB55 (This is two Flag Bravos followed by two No 5 pennants)
3. NIBK (All flags)

Reading vertically from outboard to inboard on the port yardarm

1. VJDAY (All flags)
2. 1945 (All numeral pennants)
3. 1995 (All numeral pennants)

The significance appears to be predominantly American; which I am not, however, I think that this answers your question.

81542

The third from the left is the ships radio call sign November, India, Bravo, Kilo.

Does anybody know, please, what do mean these signal flags at North Carolina?
https://www.battleshipnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Stern-Shot.jpg
I tried to decode it, IMHO I found 1945, 1995 and BB55. But the rest?
Thank you in advance.

Correct, Emergency Diesel Generator.

thanks!

EDG - Emergency Diesel Generator?

You mean these I suppose? Thanks Propmeup1!
But what exactly is an EDG???

EDG exhaust deflectors.

Does anyone know the protrusions on North Carolina Hull are
near the rear armor belt Trumpeter has them on side oh hull ?

Hi,
Kraken Hobbies produces parts to convert the Trumpeter North Carolina into the Washington. The "Washboard" is not listed on the site yet but is a completed design, just drop us an email if interested.

Matt

Hi, I probably missed it but does anyone do a 350 Washington conversion, mainly the anchor wash area?
Thanks, just looking to do as built, no camo.

FWIW, I went with 5L on the roof of #3 turret. I used Wiper's book, Shoker's book and Doyle's book (the latter had the most accurate depiction of the pattern, IMO), but I mostly used archival photos from NARA II to get the pattern to where I thought it should be. In my opinion, the pattern changed slightly after she left Puget Sound, which photos seem to confirm.

I don't remember specifically about the gun barrels. I counter-shaded them on my build, but I could have missed that they weren't, while focusing on other parts of the pattern.

Bob,

This reply may seem either totally ridiculous or quite apropos -

Why not get in touch with the USS NORTH CAROLINA Battleship Museum staff in Wilmington, NC and see what they have in the way of camo info?? I mean, the ship is there, it's camouflaged (although that isn't working as it's visible plain & simple ), so it would seem to me that those folks SHOULD have the proper information re. her paint scheme in 1944 at PSNSYD. I haven't been on the ship in quite a few years, but I understand they do have one of the better documentation libraries on board of all the museum ships.

Hope this helps (and doesn't appear to be a total knee jerk response )

Hank

I've read all 25 pages of this topic and hope I haven't skipped over the answers to these questions. If so, please bear with me.

I have about 30 books on the North Carolina and have hit a roadblock on camouflage. Ron Smith has done an exemplary job as a researcher and I have his article that appeared in the Nautical Research Journal, but some books give one explanation, others give something different.

I'm looking for information on certain aspects of the ship's paint after her September 1944 refit at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Measure 32/18D.

Questions:
1. Do the 16" main gun barrels on turrets #1 & #2 have a counter-shaded paint scheme? Or are they Ocean Gray 5-O top and bottom?

2. Some books (Steve Wiper, Randy Shoker, David Doyle) say turret #3 was Ocean Gray 5-O on top, not Weather Deck Blue 20B like the forward turrets. Photos seem to indicate the turret roof was Light Gray 5-L, along with the gun barrels. One color photo appears to show the aft turret top as Ocean Gray 5-O, with the stacks of life rafts, gun director tub, and 40mm gun tub painted Light Gray 5-L. Any opinions out there?

3. Last, the second edition of Kagero's book on the NC purports to show her in Measure 32/18D, and shows the aft turret roof as Ocean Gray 5-O, with the life raft stacks and both gun tubs as Light Gray 5-L. The gun barrels are also depicted as 5-L. Any opinions as to the accuracy of this publication?

Cheers!
--Bob Steinbrunn
IPMS/USA 3345
NRG 3569

One might note that UNREP photos show that the fueling is conducted in this aft area. It appeared that the oilers hoses were used for these operations, the Battleship's hoses would be used when she refueled escorts etc.

Too bad we don't have access to the original photos of the era, which were often very detailed, especially the yard photos taken with 4x5 press type cameras.

Cheers: Tom

I believe Hank is correct on the Port Side, it's an accommodation latter probably started being stored there in late 1942/43. Starboard appears to me as refueling hoses.










HTH

Matt