Calling all Iowa-class (BB-61) fans

[Channell]

Looks really great Jason! About the only possible area that might be in contention is as mentioned the relatively hard chine transitioning to the flat bottom. Your skegs are narrower than mine, which means nothing as I had less information when I did those twenty plus years ago. Your fine hull job make the kit rudders look clunky.

Best regards. Tom

Yea, I don't like the rudders either. I'ver got 2 sets of rudders (1 from the waterlined Missouri) so I may try rebuilding them; by my estimation they should be thinner and there shouldn't be nearly as much space between the rudder tops and hull bottom.

[BB62vet]

Gentlemen,

Both hulls look quite good, as one observing from afar...

I will agree with the comment made that Jason's hard transition from side to bottom could probably use some smoothing. Even though I've seen NEW JERSEY in drydock (1969) I would not be the one to comment as that was a LONG time ago and I think the following pictures illustrate the conditions better than I could describe.

The first photo is of NEW JERSEY in the 80's in LBeach after her stbd bilge keel was repaired (along with other hull work) - that is my acquaintance Richard Landgraff in the photo - he's worked on all the IOWA class thru the years.

The next photo is of WISCONSIN in drydock in the 80's and shows the curvature of the hull in transition.

The last is of IOWA and somewhat shows the rudder, although not really a good picture.

IOWA Class BB in drydock.jpg (10.69 KiB) Viewed 1608 times

In both cases the end products are really great jobs! I doubt I could have produced the same level of quality if I had attempted this myself. I hope these are helpful to those working on this kit.

Hank

[Fliger747]

Interesting to note what appear to be vortex generators in the aft hull near the propeller areas. Most likely not a WWII feature. Good view of the plating lines as well. The Haynes model onboard Missouri did this area well.

Cheers: T

[James M]

Here's a good stern shot from the Wisconsin.
Notice the knuckle at the very stern. It's shaped like an upside down "Y"



Here's a good shot of the stern profile showing the rudder clearance


James

[BB62vet]

I am now operating on The Admiral's laptop - my home computer (after posting early this a.m.) went to the pc hospital awaiting exploratory dissection, so this is rather labored, at best.

Thanks, James M. for the additional photos - they show the rudders better than the photos I posted. I will look for other hull photos in the meantime; my posts may not be frequent - I don't like using a laptop and it's dinky keyboard. Hopefully, I will either be back up normally next week or planning a pc burial!!!

Hank

[Fliger747]

I wonder if the why shape at the stern is just due to the dishing in of the shell plate? Note the openings at the bottom, sea chests or more likely access for maintance?

[James M]

I have stern pictures of the Missouri and New Jersey and they both have the same knuckle.
It's part of the design.

[Fliger747]

Seen any photos of the ships early in their careers. For my build "late in life" a feature worth reproducing. I remember seeing a similar knuckle at the stern of Bismarck. Interesting in the other photos to see the various plates tuck over and under.

Cheers T

[Scale Shipyard / W.L.U.]

The photo of Dick Landgraff is interesting and is only 1 of a series, I was there with him when these photo were taken, I actually did the drawings for the repair shipalt to the New Jersey's bilge keels. They were curled under on the edges while transiting the Panama canal in 1968. This was causing a bit of cavitation off of the trailing edges of the keels and this in turn was causing excessive hull erosion in the effected areas of the shell plating. The Bilge Keels were actually filled with balsa wood and a preservative coating.

[BB62vet]

W.L. Upshaw wrote:

The photo of Dick Landgraff is interesting and is only 1 of a series, I was there with him when these photo were taken, I actually did the drawings for the repair shipalt to the New Jersey's bilge keels.

Lee,

Dick sent me a couple other photos in that series but they didn't actually convey what this thread was discussing. Sorry I missed you at the Rocky Mount meet - I just spoke to Bob Hoernke a week ago about your get-together in the fall - wish I'd been there.

The current topic about the "Y" shaped knuckle at the stern of the hull - any comments about that?

Hank

[Fliger747]

Looking at a pre launch photo of Iowa, the several items I thought might be a vortex generator ar present and are padeyes, one would guess from the location to assist in mounting and dismounting the propellers.

Not sure if the stern knuckle is best added with putty or sanded down. The slight centerline knuckle at the sternpost is visible in waterline photos as carrying somewhat above that point. For me I will probably add it, though the hull is already painted, boot top and all...

T

[Cliffy B]

I noticed similar plates (not as many though) around the screws on a shot of BB-55 under construction as well if that helps. Its in the WP book for that class.

[BB62vet]

Tom, Cliffy B -

The plates you refer to (I think) are cathodic corrosion coupons if I'm not mistaken. The row on the centerline of the inboard shaft on the WISCONSIN photo was installed in the 80's. The diagonal row above the shafts I'm not sure about, may be coupons, as well.

Hank

If I'm wrong, I'm sure I'll be corrected

[Fliger747]

Not talking about the anti corrosion plates attached as pads, but the protruding plates at right angles to the hull. Inspection of a closer photo shows these to be padeyes, which are located just above the propellers, and might be use in hoisting the props for maintenance.

Cheers. T

[BB62vet]

I would agree that the small protrusions at 90 deg. above the shafts are padeyes used for install/removal of props/shafts, etc.

My special order PontosModel decking set arrived today - so far, it looks great! Haven't gotten into detail checking yet, but on initial overview looks like what I expected. Hope to post pix in a week or so. Still operating on a dinky laptop.

Hank

[Fliger747]

Hank!

Pleased that the long awaited deck arrived. Wartime she might have had to go into commission with steel decks! Amazing that one of these models can take almost as long to construct as the real thing! Of course if we had a subcontractor for instance delivering a train load of 40 and 20 mm it might speed things.

Will be interesting to see how Jason's in-letting of the brass will turn out.

Cheers: T

[bigjimslade]

Here's a good stern shot from the Wisconsin.
Notice the knuckle at the very stern. It's shaped like an upside down "Y"

That's half siding. It runs from the tunnel all the way to the top of the hull at the stern.

[Scale Shipyard / W.L.U.]

There are several padeyes welded to the hull for assisting with the removal of the props and shafts for their periodic maintenance. It should also be noted that the lifting padeyes were welded in place where the heavy internal stringers were located inside the hull. The shell plating by itself was not heavy enough to withstand the loading that was put on these padeyes.

The Plate under these ships sterns are for 2 things. One being hydrodynamics for the flow of water from the twin keels and rudders and also as a building feature, these plates were fabricated and placed on the shipways and then the plates above were erected and riveted in place. This made construction a bit easier. However this plate did not extend to the main deck, it ends at the 'Y' and the stern plates intersects at this point.

The configuration of the sacrificial cathodic protection anodes changed several time over the life of these ships and also differed from ship to ship in this class. 3 of the 4 ships of this class had impressed current cathodic protection systems installed. The design of this system was tested on hulls that I provided to Naval Research Labs. The interesting thing on this project is that the ship that we collected our data from was the New Jersey BB-62 which did not get the system installed in her before she was inactivated.

[Fliger747]

In one of the photos of the ship on the building ways it is apparent that the plate areas are supported by the blocking structure and it would be logical that the ships structure was built up from the base support. Interesting that they remain as external "hard points?". Will have to look at my photos to see if John Haynes got these on his BB63 model.

T

[bigjimslade]

The Plate under these ships sterns are for 2 things. One being hydrodynamics for the flow of water from the twin keels and rudders and also as a building feature, these plates were fabricated and placed on the shipways and then the plates above were erected and riveted in place. This made construction a bit easier. However this plate did not extend to the main deck, it ends at the 'Y' and the stern plates intersects at this point.

The Iowa and NJ construction plans show the half siding going all the way to the main deck with a width of 1-1/4" on either side of the centerline.