Another repost of something I put on the SN site reference what can be built from the new San Fran kits. Some repetition from previous posts.
"There were enough differences in these ships that, once you know what to look for, you can easily tell one from another. Differences were found in the turret shapes, gun types, bridge configs, searchlight towers, 5" gun arrangements, and later, the placement of the medium and light AA guns.
Guns: The originally designed turret was the flat-faced type found in the San Fran, Tuscaloosa, Quincy and Vincennes. They had a lighter gun, as well. The New Orleans, Astoria, and Minneapolis were originally ordered as sisterships to the Portland and Indianapolis. But, being built by Navy Yards, they could be switched to the later design after the contract was issued, without adding massively to the cost. However, the guns and some of the gun-support structures had already been started. Therefore, the turret was redesigned to take the older guns. That led to New Orleans, Astoria, and Minnie having the curved-faced turrets with larger openings in the turret face to allow the larger (external diameter) guns. Quincy and Vincennes had turret 1 moved 8' further aft to shorten the main armor belt, saving weight.
Bridge: New Orleans, Astoria, Minnie, Tuscaloosa and San Fran all completed with essentially the same bridge. The comm-bridge level was 1 1/2 levels in height to allow the conning tower to be high enough to see over turret 2. Originally the comm-bridge was open in all 5. Tuscaloosa was first to plate-in the comm bridge, which was done at the original level, causing the extra 1/2 level to be between the top of the windows and the nav-bridge deck, and blocking the view forward (turret 2 in the way). Astoria, Minnie, and San Fran had a new deck installed 1/2 level above the original comm-bridge deck, and the bridges were plated in at that level. That put the new windows immediately below the nav-bridge deck. New Orleans never plated that bridge level in, and eventually raised the flag-bags up to the nav-bridge level. Quincy and Vincennes had the comm-bridge wings trimmed way back (in the design stage) to save weight. This required some additional supports to hold up the nav-bridge. They always had the flag-bags at the nav-bridge level.
Searchlight towers: Between the stacks, all 7 ships had a large intake vent. On New Orleans, Astoria, Minnie, and San Fran, the searchlight tower overhung the vent, forward and aft, and rested on the main deck. On Tuscaloosa, Quincy, and Vincennes, the tower was narrower (fore and aft), resting entirely on the top of the vent.
5" guns: All 7 ships had 8 5" mounts, with the forward 2 (abeam the bridge structures) raised one level above the main deck. The remaining 6 guns were immediately aft on the main deck. These 6 guns varried slightly in arrangement from one ship to another. New Orleans, Astoria, Minnie, and San Fran all had the same arrangement with the middle gun on each side inset somewhat closer to the centerline than the other 4 guns. Quincy and Vincennes were similar, but the middle guns were not inset as far as on the other 4 ships. Tuscaloosa was unique in having the aftermost gun on each side as the inset one, and the middle gun even with the forward one.
Medium/light AA: As built, the ships carried 8 .50's. In 1940/41, (usually at the same time the 5" guns received splinter-shields) tubs were added for the 1.1" guns. Some ships got the 1.1's initially, but some temporarily carried 3". The ships were in this state when the camo paint started being applied. Late in '41 through the first half of '42, the ships went into the yards and received 20MM guns. (Often, the radar was added during this refit) Therefore, you find photos of Tuscaloosa and Quincy wearing MS-12R, but still lacking the 20MM. The 20MM arrangements varied, depending on whether the ships refitted in Atlantic coast or Pacific coast yards, and the available gun locations due to bridge configs, etc. On Quincy and Vincennes, the 1.1 tubs on the bridge structure were slightly further forward due to the lack of comm-bridge wings, which resulted in differing support structures for the tubs.
What you can convert the San Fran kit to depends on the balancing act between scratch-building the differences, and living with the inaccuracies. That is a choice only you can make. Of course, this only covers the differences through 1942. Wartime modernizaton led to a further round of differences among the 4 surviving ships. "
Last edited by Dick J on Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:55 am, edited 2 times in total.
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