The Ship Model Forum

I've been looking to land one of these old New Mexico kits for quite a few years now. I was shocked that of all the places that I searched for one of these kits, my local hobby shop less than 30 miles from me posted one up for sale on their website.
I know this kit doesn't live up to today's standards and that I will have to add a bunch of after market stuff to her and probably fix and scratch build some things on her but it's been awhile that I've been this excited to purchase a kit.
I wish now I could get the other two sisters as well to add to my collection. I know that Orange Hobbies now sells a 1944 New Mexico but my favorite year to model is 1941 so I'd prefer to get the Classic/Midship/Blueridge versions before resorting to backdating the Orange Hobbies kit.



Now I have to decide how I want to paint her.
I have three options to choose from:

January-June Standard Navy Gray


June-August Measure 1


August-December Measure 12


It's gonna be a long cold winter so hopefully this one keeps me busy until spring. Assuming that I can get my hands on all the necessary aftermarket stuff for her.

To be continued...

Nice find! Good looking ships - look forward to seeing your progress.

_________________
Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Ship Model Gallery

This ought to make for a beautiful model!

Personally, I'm a bit partial to Measure 12.

_________________
Sean Nash, ACG (aircraft camo gestapo)

On the ways:
1/200 Trumpeter HMS Nelson
1/700 Tamiya USS Yorktown CV-5

In the stash:
1/35 Italiari PT-109
1/35 Tamiya "Pibber" Patrol Boat
1/350 Trumpeter USS Yorktown CV-10

Thanks guys. MS-12 is very intriguing to me but there are so many uncertainties with this measure for me right now.
Admiral King ordered MS-12 on July 19, 1941 and stated until 5-S and 5-H were available, use 5-D, 5-O, 5-L in the interim and that a directive for staining the decks will come at a later date.
http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Ships/ ... tCamo.html

There are plenty of examples of MS-12 ships in the 5-D, 5-O, 5-L with unpainted decks that I can show you.
This photo of USS New York in Aug. '41 shows us exactly this scenario with 5-D hull outline and 5-O gun turret barrels and unpainted decks.


USS Augusta at the Atlantic Charter in Aug. '41 shows a very dark lower hull and unpainted decks.


Here is Churchill boarding her at the hanger deck. This is the level of the lowest sheer line where the transition to 5-O happens. Notice the two contrasting colors in the lower left of this photo. Is that bottom color 5-S or 5-D?


Here is a good look at her unpainted decks. Notice also how dark that hull edge is.


So, that is my struggle with painting Mississippi into MS-12. When was 5-S and 5-H available to the Atlantic fleet? When was a deck stain or paint available to the fleet? When and where exactly did Mississippi paint into MS-12 and what version did she wear? We know that her first trip to Iceland in August she was still wearing MS-1 and that on her second trip to Iceland at the end of September she was now wearing some version of MS-12 and she didn't return to the States until mid December.

Close up pics of her hull in October show a very clean and fresh looking 5-O above a very worn color below. Question is...is this a worn 5-S or 5-D?

Great project.

Std. Navy Gray isn't seen often enough. And less documentation issues.

Will be following this with interest. Never seen a model of the NM class till now!

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Under construction: KMS Bismarck 1/350

Matt

_________________
In the yards right now:
USS Utah AG-16
On Hold
1/350 USS Portland CA-33 1942
1/350 Trumpeter Texas with a twist

I feel your pain, Jeff, but in cases like this, I go with one of either two things:

My gut, or artistic license.

We're both fans of historical paint schemes, whether on ships or aircraft, and strive for as close to accuracy as we're ever likely to get. But when there's gaps in our knowledge, and we're looking to impress (goodness knows this was the case when I was creating skins for the IL-2 Sturmovik sims), we just have to hold our nose and take the plunge.

That said, we're not entirely without options here. Using black-and-white photos compared and contrasted with a series of experimental shades and grayscale in-sim screenshots, I was able to prove to a reasonable degree that the blue used by the 356th Fighter Squadron (354th Fighter Group) to paint the distinctive cowling pattern on the P-47s they flew in late 1944 was the same color used for the national insignia. Or, at least, close enough for government work.

So yeah, here's a golden opportunity to play amateur sleuth. Get out your paints, some scrap paperboard (or whatever material is handy), paint test samples of the various colors in question and take some pictures under similar lighting conditions. Grayscale those images, and compare them to the photos you've posted (and others, as necessary) and see what happens. Might make for an interesting little science experiment...

Good luck!

_________________
Sean Nash, ACG (aircraft camo gestapo)

On the ways:
1/200 Trumpeter HMS Nelson
1/700 Tamiya USS Yorktown CV-5

In the stash:
1/35 Italiari PT-109
1/35 Tamiya "Pibber" Patrol Boat
1/350 Trumpeter USS Yorktown CV-10

OK, time to jump into this one. I've decided to paint her into MS-12 with the theory that she was painted sometime in August '41 just after she got back from her first trip to Iceland. At that time 5-S, 5-H, and a suitable deck stain or paint were not available to the fleet yet. I don't know her exact whereabout between her first trip to Iceland at the beginning of August and her second trip at the end of September so my theory is mainly based on my interpretation of black and white photos.

Upon initial inspection of the kit, it's NOT a bad kit at all! It will definitely build into a nice kit. It surprises me and bums me out that these kits are no longer in production. What I'm seeing for the most part is that there is a lack of detail which is not necessarily a bad thing.

I started out by roughing in the hull. I really appreciate that the casemate bulkheads and the boat deck are not already attached to the hull. I will have to do some corrections on both before they get attached.



As far as the hull goes, besides adding detail, there are only a couple of corrections I will need to do.
First, Mississippi started her transition into her 1941 look when she was at Puget Sound in October '40 to receive her King Board upgrades which included her splinter shielding around her 5" 25 cal guns on the boat deck. During this refit she also lost her center wildcat, anchor chain, and anchor.
In this photo of her in drydock Oct. '40 you can see that her center wildcat is now gone but the anchor is still in place.




The next thing to fix is the shape of the two vents around the #3 barbette. These vents were completely different on each of the three ships of the class. Finding a decent detailed picture of Mississippi's vents has been a challenge for me so far.


Here is a glimpse of how hers looked during that same dry-docking.


That's it for now. More to come hopefully soon.






Thanks for checking in!

Off to a good start!

_________________
Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Ship Model Gallery

Ditto!

What's up with the second casemate from the bow? Is there an angle there or did someone just decide that a wedge shape looked cool?

Matt

_________________
In the yards right now:
USS Utah AG-16
On Hold
1/350 USS Portland CA-33 1942
1/350 Trumpeter Texas with a twist

Hi Matt, yeah, the casemates are less than desirable. I may have to completely scratch build new casemates all around.

I've also switched gears and decided to go a different direction with her. I like trying to model photographs and the more drama there is in that photograph the better. So, I've decided to challenge myself and try to replicate this photo of her.


I have never done a heavy sea diorama before so this will be a new experience for me.

I've repainted her hull into MS-1 and darkened her decks to show them water soaked. I want her decks to look like USS New York's in the pic I posted above. I've also eliminated her center anchor and reshaped the vents around #3 turret. Next, I will tackle those casemates.

Back at this one for a bit. Took a couple of quick pics of her so far. Sorry about the pic quality. All major parts added. Many things above the hull had to be corrected to make more accurate. Once you get above the hull, this kit really shows its age and accuracy issues. Have a bunch of things to add still on the main deck. I will have to scratch build her lattice aircraft cranes that were on the main deck.

Nice progress. She is already evocative of your chosen photo.

Nice to see an update! She looks good.

_________________
Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

Ship Model Gallery

very cool to see this ship build in this fit!

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- @Shipific on IG
my gallery