Hi Rick,
Your information really helps a lot. I checked Buchanan's and Pringle's war diaries, which may have revealed the actual date.
On 13 July 1943, Pringle detached from Task Group 36.2 and arrived at Tulagi 1600 that afternoon. She left there with desron 22 the next day, at 1605... On the other hand, Buchanan entered Tulagi at 1617, 13 July, about a quarter later than Pringle. Buchanan left there the next morning, escorted the damaged cruisers en route Espiritu Santo and arrived on 16 July. She proceeded again on 17 July, this time headed for Noumea with Woodworth... and made it on 21 July. On 26 July, Buchanan finally entered dry dock ARD-2, where she finished reparation on 31 July. Another point is, on 24 August, Buchanan was also at Noumea.
According to the info above, I believe that the three images could only be taken on 13 or 14 July. As you pointed out, NARA's dates should be when higher command received the photos. Finally my doubts go to an answer.
And the "mystery" markings... unless we discover new images, it may be very hard to reach a conclusion... Well, I've decided to make things simple. It's more practical to build my Buchanan honestly with Ms12 mod camouflage, as she looked like during Battle of Cape Esperance.
Rick E Davis wrote:
Pan,
I still think the "mystery" markings are more likely to be a scoreboard based on the shape and that the scoreboard was "expanded" at MINY during 1944 in that same location. But, who knows. There was no "standard" placement of scoreboards. In 1/700 scale, this "marking(s)" would be no more than a couple of "dots" anyway.
Dates on USN photos, especially taken in the forward areas and filed in the 80-G collection, should always be considered suspect without additional knowledge/research. The three images I have scanned at NARA that appear to have been taken at the same time and place, however they have two different dates ... 31 July 1943 and 24 August 1943. The dates on 80-G photos are more likely the date received by the USN Photo Collection Office or as turned in by the ship to higher command, unless the true date was written on the back of the original print. Checking Deck Logs and/or War Diaries would provide a better idea of when these photos were taken. I didn't note what ship the cameraman was onboard when he took the photo, which I normally provide unless the ship is unknown, which would narrow down the true date even tighter by cross checking when that ship (and USS PRINGLE in the background) was also at Tulagi. Her 13 July 1943 collision damage was repaired locally.
I neglected to comment about small cartoons applied on particularly 5-in mounts, this practice was fairly common, especially late in the war.