The Ship Model Forum

Another part of the report

Well no denying that, can't find mention of when it was installed. I did notice that Terzibaschitsch has her having one there in his Cruiser book, Profile Morskie also has one there but I generally question their accuracy. I have a slightly higher resolution copy of the distance shot of the Portland and included a crop. You see something there, what it is is not definite but evidence would lead us to believe it would be an SG. I felt it would interfere with the SA in that location, but that is where the Indy got hers installed in December of 42 and looking at Fletcher's installation we see a similar set up. I think the Cockatoo picture shows the platform but the radar was probably removed as it is not clear to me there. Good catch! Never noticed that info and I am slowly working on my 1/350 Sweet Pea, was about to call the mast done but now have to go back and add an SG. You always hear about Helena and Fletcher's SG use during the Bar Room Brawl, but never heard about Portland.


Profile Morskie


Indianapolis 12/42 from CW Pictorial


Crop of Tulagi

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In the yards right now:
1/350 USS Portland CA-33 1942
1/350 Trumpeter Texas with a twist

One of the ironies of the Nov 13th battle was that the two flagships were the only two cruisers in the US formation that lacked the SG radar. Portland had accompanied Enterprise back to Pearl after Eastern Solomons. That was when the SG was installed on the foremast and the FD sets (the starboard one of which was noted in the linked action report as not working properly since installation) on the MK-33 directors. Perhaps the lack of reference to her SG contacts was related to the lack of experience with it on the part of the crew. The SG set is still visible in the Cockatoo drydock photo. As a post script, the air search set she carried then was in the SC series rather than SA. Some action reports list it as an SC-1.

This is CA35 Indianapolis in prewar configuration. It is a done by 3d-printing in 1/1250 scale.

Is there a source for this and/or others in this or other scales?

Actually I produce and sell 3d printed models only in 1250 scale.
This is first test print of PORTLAND.
If you interested just send me email: joerg{a}Schroeder-niehage.de
Jörg

Probably her best configuration! Nice model!





Bob Pink.

Hello all....

Please bear with me for a moment with my question.....has it been determined what color of deck the Indy had at the time of her sinking by IJN I-58 ? I have not found any sort of a definitive answer if there is one. I am creating a display of "Atomic Technology Development" showing the vehicles involved , Gadget, the devices, Enola Gay, Bock's Car, USS Indianapolis CA35 among others. Thanks in advance....

Bob

Yippee and FINALLY !!!! I have received my 1/350 Academy 1945 USS Indianapolis kit after a long wait...now on to construction....

Bob

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Currently on the bench: 1/350 USS Indianapolis (1945)
Future builds: 1/350 USS New Jersey Modern, 1/350 USS Missouri WW2, 1/350 USS Hornet CV-8 Doolittle, 1/350 USS Pennsylvania BB-38, 1/350 USS Arizona PH, 1/350 USS Hornet Apollo Recovery

You can't go wrong painting her in Navy Blue and Haze Grey, with Deck Blue decks, turrets tops, etc. She "may" have been painted in the newer neutral greys, but unless Tracy White has stumbled upon evidence of that at the National Archives, I'd go with the blues.

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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

Is this publication (Warship Pictorial No. 1 - USS Indianapolis CA-35) helpful in building the Indy or does the Number 11 cover the same material ? I have the Number 11 on the Portland & Indianapolis but have not seen the other Vol 1. Book collectors seem to want ridiculous prices from that I have seen.

Thanks,

Bob 1/350 Academy kit on the workbench

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Currently on the bench: 1/350 USS Indianapolis (1945)
Future builds: 1/350 USS New Jersey Modern, 1/350 USS Missouri WW2, 1/350 USS Hornet CV-8 Doolittle, 1/350 USS Pennsylvania BB-38, 1/350 USS Arizona PH, 1/350 USS Hornet Apollo Recovery

The Indy pictorial #1 has line drawings also so IMHO it can be more useful. I you watch on eBay or other sites you ca find some for reasonable prices. But don’t expect them to be real cheap.

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Our CO prior to flying to the boomer: “Our goals on this patrol is to shoot missiles and torpedoes.”
Junior Nuke Officer (me) : “Captain, don’t we really want to be like Monty Python and ‘Not be seen’?”
CO “You seem to be missing the big picture”
“Oh”

So far I haven't really found anything with regards to how fast the Pacific switched colors. It's something I've mulled over for my next trip, but there's a couple areas I could look and one is about 30 boxes long..... Thousand bucks a trip, give or take.... each box can take an hour even if you don't find anything to scan or photograph, that's a project to cut up over a couple of visits.

BuShips camouflage for 1945 isn't that large, but the file code for camouflage is a subset of paint, which has its own code as it was considered a preservative coating. The basic paint code, which could cover stocks, etc., is what is 30 boxes long.

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Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

Well a new year is with us and progress is being made on the kit. Currently working on dry fitting and cleaning up the hull and deck pieces in preparation for gluing....any particular tips in applying the adhesive ? I have puttied up some minor push marks which left an indent in the hull pieces. Another step completed is the mounts for the display pedestals have been installed. I am also studying photos intensely and reviewing the multitude of parts from not only the kit, but the resin and PE from the Pontos add ons.. fun fun

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Currently on the bench: 1/350 USS Indianapolis (1945)
Future builds: 1/350 USS New Jersey Modern, 1/350 USS Missouri WW2, 1/350 USS Hornet CV-8 Doolittle, 1/350 USS Pennsylvania BB-38, 1/350 USS Arizona PH, 1/350 USS Hornet Apollo Recovery

Per conversation over in the Northampton Thread, here a a few pics of the Portland upper gun deck in 1940 and 1941 to show wooden decks.


Thought due to color it was possible linoleum but we see the crew is washing the deck do it's wet.


Late 1941 we clearly see the planking on the upper deck.

Matt

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In the yards right now:
1/350 USS Portland CA-33 1942
1/350 Trumpeter Texas with a twist

Color photo is matting (?), not planking, I suspect.

Nope, let me rescind that.

I'm wondering about the color photo. Is it colorized? The maroon deck color in the photo looks an awful lot like the color of USN wooden aircraft carrier flight decks before they switched to the weathered deck blue color. If that's a faithful colorization, then I'd say there's wood planking underneath (that's not to say wood planking wasn't ripped up and tossed overboard shortly after Pearl Harbor for the fire hazard it was though). I also have some photos of a large USS Portland model that resembles a builder's model, and those gun decks are all the same as the main deck on that model, and they're all maroon colored.

Dave

Colorized? Not sure what that means, but the teak was stained in a mahogany color, I think. Perhaps that's what you're seeing? I own a piece of teak removed from CA-30 in one of her 1930's refits on the West Coast (~1" x 1.5" x 4.5") , and it is definitely stained in a mahogany tone.

The B&W pic is more interesting as it does show planking on the "flight deck"...next to the 5" ready ammo box they're loading up.
Wonder what they were thinking in building her that way? Seems an odd decision.

The deck was not stained - Mahogany deck stain was for carriers, which had a lot of wear and tear and oils, etc.

The deck in the color photo is wet, as Matt noted, which changed the appearance.

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Tracy White -Researcher@Large

"Let the evidence guide the research. Do not have a preconceived agenda which will only distort the result."
-Barbara Tuchman

See this Idaho photo for the most excellent example of dry teak, wet teak, and red non-skid you could ever ask for and which illustrates Tracy's statement wonderfully:
http://navsource.org/archives/01/042/014200a.jpg

G-Opt's comment does get me thinking though... why did the USN pick a mahogany color for their flight deck stain? (best guess: As a darkening to cover up the grime while still being able to call it a "natural" wood tone in the days where anything cruiser or larger is expected to show off their wood decks as a sign of pride? Awfully garish for that, though. And it does raise the question of how the IJN managed to keep their unstained wood flight decks relatively clean.)

Oh, and do note: carrier decks were not teak (someone, correct me if there was an outlier to this statement. Graf Zeppelin's wood overlay above her armored flight deck maybe?)
Battleships and cruisers (and not all of them) were the ones that got the teak (when a country had access to it and/or was willing to pay for it), and they typically didn't stain it. Paint during wartime, yes, so it could be hollystoned off afterwards. Stain, no - though I'm sure there were some rare exceptions.

- Sean F.