Calling all Iowa-class (BB-61) fans

[Fliger747]

Great photos and explanation! As to cramped, people were smaller then, depression era kids!

Thanks!

[BB62vet]

Jim,

Thanks for the very interesting entries/photos regarding the ammunition hoists, etc. And to think this was all figured out on slide rules and measuring tapes! No calculators, computers, or smart phone apps!!

[chuck]

The sad state of the peeling paint is concerning.

[BB62vet]

Chuck wrote:

The sad state of the peeling paint is concerning.

You don't know the half of it. TEXAS is a disaster waiting to sink - oh, right, she just about has sunk. OLYMPIA is about there also. I don't know of a museum ship that isn't in some form of disrepair due to lack of maintenance. These "museum" groups would rather spend $$$ on advertising for an overnight on board than a bucket of primer, some wire brushes, and a few gallons of paint. LAFFEY, DID sink and it took that event to open a few eyes - but for how long?

[DougC]

The reason why most museum ships are so poorly maintained is the lack of manpower. For example, when the Texas was in active service, it had crew of over 1200 to do the maintenance, i.e., scrapping, painting, polishing, washing, etc. A museum ship usually have a crew of a few dozen part time volunteers to do the same work.

[bigjimslade]

The sad state of the peeling paint is concerning.

The photo showing the point peeling is in a relatively inaccessible area. To get there, I had to pull myself upwards through openings using just my arms. It would be tough just to get a can of paint in there.

In contrast, the paint job below that where you can enter without doing pull-ups is quite beautiful and well-maintained.

I took this picture in the upper projectile flat. This level is not on the tour. You have to climb a ladder to reach it but it is an easy climb. The floor is covered with grease from the projectile sliding days but the paint is still in good shape.

I think they are spending $5M redoing the deck on the NJ. When the navy redid the deck in the 80's the saved money by laminating about 1/8" of teak over 2-7/8" of douglas fir. The teak layer survived but the douglas fir rotted underneath, destroying the deck.

[bigjimslade]

To the right is the circular gear that rings the turret support. The turret motors drive gears against this to rotate the turret. To the left is one of the turret clips.These keep the turret from lifting upwards.

Although not visible, the bolts connect the lower roller track to the lip shown. This is the point where the turret rests on the ship (it does not rest on the barbette, contrary to appearances otherwise).

This is the turret buffer. It is attached to the rotating part of the turret. The projection cuts off the turret motor when it is pushed in. There is one on either side of the buffer.

This is one of the two turret stops that the buffer can run into. It does not look like the turret was rammed into the stops very frequently.

[William Smallshaw]

I was aboard New Jersey last month. Having volunteered on Iowa for three years, I was impressed by the efforts of the New Jersey volunteers, Bravo Zulu guys! The sorry state of the USS Texas and USS Olympia has been attributed to poor executive management. Sad that the Board of Directors of these memorials cannot seem to find management that are interested in the ship and not the opulent parties they want to have.

[IModel_215]

Sorry for the newby first message. I am building the 1/200 Missouri, what is the TFD plan book and where can i find it? The super drawings 3D is crazy expensive.

[BB62vet]

IModel_215 -

If expense is a factor, then the 1/200 MISSOURI kit is out of your league. In order to build this kit with any sense of accuracy, you are going to spend some money. That is, of course, MY opinion and I've already completed a build using this kit as a starter base.

TFD - The Floating Drydock. They publish and sell the USS MISSOURI E-Plan Book which is only available electronically now. You will need to print it out full size in order to make proper use of it.

The 3D book is nice, but not necessary to build this kit.

Hope this helps,

[lgmccauley]

Sorry for the newby first message. I am building the 1/200 Missouri, what is the TFD plan book and where can i find it? The super drawings 3D is crazy expensive.

I have both the plan book and the 3D book for sale on the Trading Post thread.

Larry

[bigjimslade]

Sorry for the newby first message. I am building the 1/200 Missouri, what is the TFD plan book and where can i find it? The super drawings 3D is crazy expensive.

I would be leery of using 3D drawings a reference source. There are so many details in something the size of a battleship that it would take two lifetimes for someone to get them all into a 3D model. Whenever I see 3D photograph simulations of the Iowa class I find many errors and omissions. That is why I never bought the specific book you ask about. I was going through another book that relied on heavily on 3D photographic simulation over the weekend and found many thing were off. If you're just a causal reader trying to get a general overview, that's no problem. But, if you're a modeler trying to match the details of the ship, it's a big problem.

This use of 3D as substitute for photographs seems to me to be a fad. This is particularly so in cases where the subject is well documented in photographs.

An 80-page book selling for over $700 in "acceptable" condition? Wow.

The Floating Drydock plan book is clearly based upon original sources and is highly accurate.

[steinerman]

Greetings Imodel_215, and welcome to the forums!

I'm delighted to see another modeller tackle this beast. It is a monster and will consume tons of both time and money! Hank (BB62vet) is right when he says it will end up being very expensive. By the time you end up buying all the necessary PE and reference materials you can figure spending well over a grand. But, when you take a look at the few that actually completed this kit, it's well worth it. It's a beautiful ship that will give you great satisfaction, both in building it and displaying it (which I HOPE to be able to do SOMEDAY!)

Bigjimslade is also correct in that you really have to take the Kagero 3D book with a grain of salt. There is quite a bit of detail in it but not all of it is accurate. You need to check other sources as well. (Sideline: I don't understand why you say it's expensive unless it's out of print. I bought it from Amazon back in 2016 for $30.)

If you plan on doing any detailing on this ship other than an Out-of-box build, I would suggest you at least explore these resources:

1. Start at page 1 and read this thread all the way through - all 200 pages. I have a good screen grab program (Snagit, from Techsmith) and when I see a tip or picture that shows me some detail or bit of information, I save it in a separate folder. There is a ton of information here.

2. Read the build logs of the other modellers who have built this ship or are in the process. While there are probably more, the ones that come to mind right now are Hank (BB62vet), who converted the kit into a modern New Jersey, Kelly Quirk, and Wojtek, who populated his ship with sailors and depicted the Japanese surrender. And also, my own build log of my still-in-process build.

3. By all means get the BB63 e-book from The Floating Drydock. It isn't expensive - $20 or $25, but there is a ton of detail in it,especially if you plan on adding any extra detail. Tom sold the business to Randy Fagan and he is still in the process of getting things organized and straightened around, so he may be a bit slow in responding, but he's honest and reliable and willing to help.

4. If you can possibly afford it, buy a set of plans from TFD for this ship. According to Randy, the best ones are the ones by Tom Walkowiak, the TFW series. They show detail that doesn't appear even in the e-book drawings. The 1:192 scale plans are only $29 and are well worth the money. They depict the ship as she was in September of 1945. I also have the 1:96 scale plans which I find even better because I'm 76 years old and my eyesight isn't what it used to be. These are $55, but with the shipping and the extra to have them sent rolled instead of folded, they're closer to $70.

I'm sure there are other resources, but these are the ones I use primarily. Also, all of us here are available to answer questions and offer help and give advice. We're actually a pretty friendly bunch.

So, good luck, have fun and enjoy your new toy! Just be patient and stock up on your favorite wine! You'll need both!

[IModel_215]

IModel_215 -

If expense is a factor, then the 1/200 MISSOURI kit is out of your league. In order to build this kit with any sense of accuracy, you are going to spend some money. That is, of course, MY opinion and I've already completed a build using this kit as a starter base.

TFD - The Floating Drydock. They publish and sell the USS MISSOURI E-Plan Book which is only available electronically now. You will need to print it out full size in order to make proper use of it.

The 3D book is nice, but not necessary to build this kit.

Hope this helps,

Money isn�t quite the issue. There is plenty of horsepower there. It�s more the principle of spending over 700 bucks on a book that, once i am complete with the model, i will probably never open again. Where as the model, i will get to enjoy looking at it for years and years (hopefully). The biggest hurdles will be inexperience, too much ambition, not enough time lol.

So far I have acquired the model (for the second time, the first kit met a very tragic ending......) the teak blue deck w/PE, PE screws and barrels, and an enormous amount of paint....which took absolutely forever to decide on. There seem to be many conflicting opinions of the correct paint shades as she sat in Tokyo Bay.

[IModel_215]

Greetings Imodel_215, and welcome to the forums!

I'm delighted to see another modeller tackle this beast. It is a monster and will consume tons of both time and money! Hank (BB62vet) is right when he says it will end up being very expensive. By the time you end up buying all the necessary PE and reference materials you can figure spending well over a grand. But, when you take a look at the few that actually completed this kit, it's well worth it. It's a beautiful ship that will give you great satisfaction, both in building it and displaying it (which I HOPE to be able to do SOMEDAY!)

Bigjimslade is also correct in that you really have to take the Kagero 3D book with a grain of salt. There is quite a bit of detail in it but not all of it is accurate. You need to check other sources as well. (Sideline: I don't understand why you say it's expensive unless it's out of print. I bought it from Amazon back in 2016 for $30.)

If you plan on doing any detailing on this ship other than an Out-of-box build, I would suggest you at least explore these resources:

1. Start at page 1 and read this thread all the way through - all 200 pages. I have a good screen grab program (Snagit, from Techsmith) and when I see a tip or picture that shows me some detail or bit of information, I save it in a separate folder. There is a ton of information here.

2. Read the build logs of the other modellers who have built this ship or are in the process. While there are probably more, the ones that come to mind right now are Hank (BB62vet), who converted the kit into a modern New Jersey, Kelly Quirk, and Wojtek, who populated his ship with sailors and depicted the Japanese surrender. And also, my own build log of my still-in-process build.

3. By all means get the BB63 e-book from The Floating Drydock. It isn't expensive - $20 or $25, but there is a ton of detail in it,especially if you plan on adding any extra detail. Tom sold the business to Randy Fagan and he is still in the process of getting things organized and straightened around, so he may be a bit slow in responding, but he's honest and reliable and willing to help.

4. If you can possibly afford it, buy a set of plans from TFD for this ship. According to Randy, the best ones are the ones by Tom Walkowiak, the TFW series. They show detail that doesn't appear even in the e-book drawings. The 1:192 scale plans are only $29 and are well worth the money. They depict the ship as she was in September of 1945. I also have the 1:96 scale plans which I find even better because I'm 76 years old and my eyesight isn't what it used to be. These are $55, but with the shipping and the extra to have them sent rolled instead of folded, they're closer to $70.

I'm sure there are other resources, but these are the ones I use primarily. Also, all of us here are available to answer questions and offer help and give advice. We're actually a pretty friendly bunch.

So, good luck, have fun and enjoy your new toy! Just be patient and stock up on your favorite wine! You'll need both!

I will look into that book. Thank you for the advice.

Ive been following multiple build threads from a bunch of you guys on this particular thread. You guys are extremely talented, keep it up!

[lgmccauley]

Sorry for the newby first message. I am building the 1/200 Missouri, what is the TFD plan book and where can i find it? The super drawings 3D is crazy expensive.

I would be leery of using 3D drawings a reference source. There are so many details in something the size of a battleship that it would take two lifetimes for someone to get them all into a 3D model. Whenever I see 3D photograph simulations of the Iowa class I find many errors and omissions. That is why I never bought the specific book you ask about. I was going through another book that relied on heavily on 3D photographic simulation over the weekend and found many thing were off. If you're just a causal reader trying to get a general overview, that's no problem. But, if you're a modeler trying to match the details of the ship, it's a big problem.

This use of 3D as substitute for photographs seems to me to be a fad. This is particularly so in cases where the subject is well documented in photographs.

An 80-page book selling for over $700 in "acceptable" condition? Wow.

The Floating Drydock plan book is clearly based upon original sources and is highly accurate.

I don't know where the $700 figure came from, but I'm selling mine for $20 and the 3D book for $15. I agree there are some errors in book, but in general it was quite useful when I built my Missouri.

Larry

[bigjimslade]

I don't know where the $700 figure came from, but I'm selling mine for $20 and the 3D book for $15.

That's the lowest priced copy on Amazon, ALIBRIS, ABEBOOKS and its for a copy in "acceptable" condition. From there, the price goes up.

[wojtekp90]

I have a question about Floating Drydock's plans?
Which one to choose for building the model?
Which series is the best?

[BB62vet]

I have a question about Floating Drydock's plans?
Which one to choose for building the model?
Which series is the best?

Assuming that you are interested in an IOWA class ship, well, that depends on a few factors:
1) What particular ship are you going to model
2) Which time period are you interested in - WWII, Korea, Vietnam, 80s? (If Vietnam, you only have one choice - NEW JERSEY and Tom Walkowiak's drawings of her are very well done).
3) The scale and level of details may also affect which plans you purchase.

I haven't scanned the new owner's website for TFD so I'm not sure what's currently available. Keep in mind there are also detailed parts that have individual drawings associated with them and they (may) still be available.

Hope this helps,

[chuck]

Some photos of the Missouri in 1944 seems to show the inside face of all the gun tubs, splinter shields and superstructure bulwarks were painted a dark color, probably either deck blue of camouflage color consistent with nearby deck. Does anyone know of any photos that would show whether this practice continued after the ship was repainted in measure 22 in 1945?