Calling all Iowa-class (BB-61) fans

[Cliffy B]

I shall take photos and measurements today gents

[Ronald47]

I have a whole bunch of photo's of Iowa, which part do you want? Do not know exactly what you guys mean

[William Smallshaw]

If I understand the question correctly, the turret ring for the 5" mounts does extend above the wood deck. This offset is no more than a foot though. Attached is a photograph of mount 52 aboard Iowa, which I took this morning.

Bill

[Fliger747]

An interesting photo! Will have to consult my photos but I believe BB63 is different (maybe)! The question has to do with the steel deck (under the wood) and whether or not it drops down forming a trench behind the mount and the outboard top of the handling room is lower than the steel deck inboard. My impression is from BB63 (ships differ) is that if you took the wood deck away the area behind the barbett and the outboard top of the handling room would all be the same level?

Thanks for the interesting and informative photo!

Cheers: Tom

[Fliger747]

Hmmm, surprise surprise, the ships are different!

Note the smooth barbette almost to the base of the mount?

[BB62vet]

William, Tom, et al...

Interesting photos, to say the least! I do believe Tom is correct in that there are only two visible surfaces at the areas surrounding the 5" mounts - the upper teak deck and the steel armored deck below it. I haven't found in my maze of reference materials any substantial photos one way or another - I guess no one really had this detail in mind when they were documenting the ships.

Anyhow, the Pontos waterways will only add to the already incorrect deck levels at this point - I will not be using them on my model (at least not on the 02/03 levels, where provided). Once again, in my opinion (as Tom would agree) Trumpy messed up - the kit is wrong and at this point, I'm not sure I can make amends. Had I not already installed the Pontos teak deck, then I would attempt putting a single layer of sheet styrene cut to shape to fill in that recess which occurs on all the (6) upper level 5" mounts areas. I do have the correct thickness to make these parts from, but getting them cut to size to fit properly is another thing. I may simply cut a piece to fit the outside (visible) area of the recess and leave the backside as is - it won't be visible once the mount is in place.

My how this kit keeps getting better and better!!!

hank

[Channell]

My how this kit keeps getting better and better!!!

hank

I hear you there! I've been calming my frustration by working on the Bismarck instead.

[chuck]

It's only a model, it's only a model, it's only a model.........

[chuck]

William, Tom, et al...

Interesting photos, to say the least! I do believe Tom is correct in that there are only two visible surfaces at the areas surrounding the 5" mounts - the upper teak deck and the steel armored deck below it. I haven't found in my maze of reference materials any substantial photos one way or another - I guess no one really had this detail in mind when they were documenting the ships.

Anyhow, the Pontos waterways will only add to the already incorrect deck levels at this point - I will not be using them on my model (at least not on the 02/03 levels, where provided). Once again, in my opinion (as Tom would agree) Trumpy messed up - the kit is wrong and at this point, I'm not sure I can make amends. Had I not already installed the Pontos teak deck, then I would attempt putting a single layer of sheet styrene cut to shape to fill in that recess which occurs on all the (6) upper level 5" mounts areas. I do have the correct thickness to make these parts from, but getting them cut to size to fit properly is another thing. I may simply cut a piece to fit the outside (visible) area of the recess and leave the backside as is - it won't be visible once the mount is in place.

My how this kit keeps getting better and better!!!

hank

Hank:

I am planning to cut off the molded barbettes, plate over the hole, and install new barbettes made from styrene tubes.

[BB62vet]

Chuck wrote:

I am planning to cut off the molded barbettes, plate over the hole, and install new barbettes made from styrene tubes.

If by "barbette" you are referring to the round raided base for each of the 02 Level 5" gun mounts, then that would seem to be a lot of unnecessary work. Simply cutting to shape and fitting a piece of sheet styrene to raise the level of the surrounding deck would be sufficient, in my opinion.

Hank

[Fliger747]

Ah, always my place to kibbutz as I don't have the kit. Possibly easy to cut out the mount base, add a new spacer to bring things up to the new height and then add a mount base (I used the term barbett as it is splinter protected). The mount base can be easily fabricated from say plexiglass cut to an approximate circle and then turned in a drill etc as the old mount base will likely be too short. I used a slightly different if not totally correct method on my ship, attaching the mount base to the mount with a steel screw protruding from the bottom fitting into a hole and retained by a magnet below.

Cheers: Tom

[ModelMonkey]

Great discussion, gents!

I'll be putting to use some of the fine points made here as I make some minor repairs and complete my 1/192nd build.

Keep up the good work! It's very helpful.

[Fliger747]

Steve:

Your 1:192 Missouri is a fine build. Great to see casting of so many great parts. There is always a terrific ownership feel to a scratch project. It does seem as if they are never done. Always more info or new materials coming to the fore.

Regards: Tom

[Harquebus]

Does anyone have construction details and clearer views of the enhanced and heightened twin director (Mark 57 GFCS) platform abaft the forward Mk. 37 director on the USS New Jersey, circa 1945-50? This is a feature that appears unique to the New Jersey as I've found no other Iowa with a platform and director tubs of this size. The top of the tubs are about even with the roof of the Mk. 37 director... Not sure if my nomenclature is correct. Thanks for the help.

See area outlined in red. Image stolen from Navsource.

[BB62vet]

Harq,

I sent you an email re. the Mk. 57 directors.

Hank

[CPL_Wiggles]

Does anyone know what is behind the fire hose on the port side of the Iowa/NJ where the curve of the Citadel meets the rest of the bridge superstructure? On the starboard side there is a hatch. The port side does not have a mirrored hatch, but it has something on hinges there. A firefighting station, perhaps? All of the pictures I've seen haven't really shown detail.

[BB62vet]

CPL Wiggles wrote:

Does anyone know what is behind the fire hose on the port side of the Iowa/NJ where the curve of the Citadel meets the rest of the bridge superstructure? On the starboard side there is a hatch. The port side does not have a mirrored hatch, but it has something on hinges there. A firefighting station, perhaps? All of the pictures I've seen haven't really shown detail.

You'll have to be a bit more specific - what photo(s) are you looking at? Date, etc. I noticed a small oval hatch on both NJ & IA on both sides of the rounded citadel at the base from NavSource photos from both ship's round bridge period (pre-45).

[CPL_Wiggles]

Can be seen center of photo below 16" gun to the right of the three men. The photo posted by Harquebus a few posts above on late-war New Jersey also shows a view of this area. Close to the oval hatch on the citadel you mentioned.

From Navsource:
http://navsource.org/archives/01/062/016251.jpg

[Fliger747]

On Missouri there are screened vent covers here and the one up and to the left is at a later date also a screened vent covered by a shield open top and bottom.

T

[Cliffy B]

Above the guys is an air intake. Level with them are what appears to be two panels. There is a stateroom on the other side of the bulkhead and that's it. So no vent plenum or anything like that so an intake is out of the question. They "look" like intake covers but there's no intake there best I can tell.

A "box" shows up on early plans of the ships in the same location but it is sadly unlabeled. There is another on the starboard side though, same location. They appear to be standalone IE they don't access the interior of the ship, so best guess would be gear lockers of some sort for those.

I can say that Wisconsin has weld lines in those locations currently that match the same size and shape so maybe they were welded to the bulkhead or at least some brackets were.

This shot of New Jersey with her rounded bridge shows the "items" are not there on the port side.

http://navsource.org/archives/01/062/016293a.jpg

Here's a bigger shot of New Jersey getting her new bridge and you can see the "items" are now gone as they remodeled the area. Now there's what looks like a shrouded air intake/supply vent.

http://navsource.org/archives/01/062/016293.jpg

The "items" look an awful lot like vent covers but where they go beats me.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/016332c.jpg

See what I mean?