Calling all USS Pennsylvania BB-38 fans

[harristotle]

this is March 1946 of her. http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/013809.jpg
June 1946. http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/013863.jpg
http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/38a.htm
so suck it up & paint her for 1945, early 1946.

Fair enough!

[chuck]

Does anyone know of a good photo of the aircraft storage car used by the Pennsylvania during late war?

The car seems to be a fairly large thing that keeps the aircraft high above the deck level, at the same height as if the aircraft was sitting in the catapult.

This is different from the storage cars used on new battleships, which is small dolly like thing that is the same size as the catapult launch cars which carries the aircraft when it is being launched from the catapult.

Thanks in advance.

[Tracy White]

I don't know off the top of my head, but that sounds an awful lot like the same height as the pre-war units. Do you know that they were different?

[chuck]

No, I would think it is the same cars that were used pre-war on other old battleships with stern catapults.

[Tracy White]

If you have Stillwell's Arizona book look at the bottom right of the photo on page 168.

[chuck]

No, unfortunately I do not.

[Nino]

If you have Stillwell's Arizona book look at the bottom right of the photo on page 168.

Thanks Tracy. I would never have found it and even if I did I would not have realized what I was looking at.

Stillwell's book is a great reference. I was advised to get it from a well-known member over on FineScale.
Worth every penny!

Nino

[chuck]

The booklet of general plans for the Pennsylvania in 1945 shows Mk-21 antenna on top of the director cabin on top of the fore tripod mast. Does anyone kno3 what Mk-21 antenna does and/or have a good picture of it?

Thanks

[chuck]

Does anyone know whether USS Pennsylvania carries her ship�s bells during late WWII? If so, where?

[chuck]

Another question, does anyone have an image of the stand compass on an US WWI era battleship? I assume the same stand compass would be carried through WWII on older battleships.

[chuck]

During 1942 Refit Pennsylvania�s prominent Midship boat cranes were removed and replaced by a pair of simple booms stepped behind the new aft superstructure to handle the remaining 26 foot whalers. Unlike the crane it replaced, it looks like the booms had no integral machinery whatsoever. It was simply a long tube pivoted on the deck at one end, and handed by tackles affixed to the other end. There seems to be tackles for raising and lowering the boom, swinging the boom, and raising the lowering the hoisting hook.

The tackles seems to not be permanently attached to any machinery either. They seem to normally be belayed somewhere. When they are used, they are either pulled by hand or are wrapped around a new Drum winch Installed ahead of the 40mm bofor tub.

Does anyone have photos of where these tackles are belayed to when stowed?

Also, I suspect the arrangement of tackles on the boom is largely standard. Is there any diagrams showing how such booms are typically rigged aboard WWII era USN ships?

[chuck]

During 1942 Refit Pennsylvania�s prominent Midship boat cranes were removed and replaced by a pair of simple booms stepped behind the new aft superstructure to handle the remaining 26 foot whalers. Unlike the crane it replaced, it looks like the booms had no integral machinery whatsoever. It was simply a long tube pivoted on the deck at one end, and handed by tackles affixed to the other end. There seems to be tackles for raising and lowering the boom, swinging the boom, and raising the lowering the hoisting hook.

The tackles seems to not be permanently attached to any machinery either. They seem to normally be belayed somewhere. When they are used, they are either pulled by hand or are wrapped around a new Drum winch Installed ahead of the 40mm bofor tub.

Does anyone have photos of where these tackles are belayed to when stowed?

Also, I suspect the arrangement of tackles on the boom is largely standard. Is there any diagrams showing how such booms are typically rigged aboard WWII era USN ships?

I quoted my own message because in the original post, for some reason parts of the message I posed did not show up.

[Ian Roberts]

FYI - this may have already been posted, but it seems NARA has digitized the microfilm rolls for BB-38 and BB-39 hull plans and made them available on the Archives.gov website:

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/124057820
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/124057238

Even more available here: https://catalog.archives.gov/search?q=* ... ype=online

[chuck]

what other refit did she have in 1942 as both cranes still there in March 1942.
http://navsource.org/archives/01/038/013803i.jpg
http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/38a.htm

she had another much larger refit at Mare Island sometime between Midway and august 1942. the aft tripod was removed and replaced with a new stub superstructure. the aft director was removed from the tripp�s and set atop the new stub superstructure. the open single mount 5�/25 were replaced by twin 5�/38 turrets. the 5�/57 casemates were replaced by handling rooms for the new 5�/38, and the twin cranes were removed, their role taken by the afore mentioned booms.

[BB62vet]

Ian Roberts said:

FYI - this may have already been posted, but it seems NARA has digitized the microfilm rolls for BB-38 and BB-39 hull plans and made them available on the Archives.gov website:

Thanks Ian!! These links (to the plans) compliment the ones I found at NARA in 2016 which show her 1935 rebuild and will come in handy when I begin my PENNSY build in the near future!

[MartinJQuinn]

Some photos from NARA II, courtesy of James Noblin, of Pennsy after her late 1942/early Jan 43 refit/rebuild. I've cropped most of them down to highlight the area you are interested in.

This photos is actually taken early 1946

[chuck]

thanks, Martin!

[Mike W]

Can anyone tell me what the accuracy issues are with Dragon's 1/700 Pennsylvania are? I've scanned through all the posts here and I've not seen anything about it. I've heard the fighting top is wrong but I'm sure there were other issues?

thanks
Mike

[Mike W]

have you read this? http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... eview.html
model is what the ship looked like before her last refit in June 1945.

Yes but it doesn't answer my question - I've got the kit so an in box review telling me what's in the box isn't what I'm looking for. I know there's accuracy issues with the kit but I can't remember what they are and where I saw them.

thanks
Mike

[chuck]

Just by looking at the pictures of the sprue and instructions, the kit has a fair number of accuracy issues:

1. The barbettes of the B and X turrets are not stepped as depicted. They are perfectly cylindrical. What dragon attempted to depict with step and vertical bars are actually foot rails that protrudes from the sides of the barbettes.

2. The prominent air vents on the former boat deck between the funnel and aft superstructure are completely omitted.

3. There are two boat boom cranes behind the aft superstructure, not one, depicted in the kit as parts A14 and A37

4. Parts A36, k-7, and A67, K-9 And K-6 depict the mast and radar configuration after the June 1945 refit. The rest of the kit depicts the ship before June 1945.

5. There is much wrong with the shape of aft superstructure A43 and A42.