Calling all New Orleans-class (CA-32) fans

[taskforce48]

I have some in my archive, I can post them a little later.

Matt

[Rick E Davis]

Bob,

USS NEW ORLEANS aft deck is wet. You can see that the deck is drying in an uneven pattern. During aerial visibility detection tests in mid-1941, it was noted that the decks appeared dark when wet and it was "recommended" by some CO's, that instead of painting that they could just keep the decks wet. Rejected.

I'm not sure which NEW ORLEANS images that Dick is talking about. I don't have in yard images (unless NEW ORLEANS is in the background), but I do have these "in stream" views that I came across in 80-G, not 19-LCM (BuShips yard photos).

[DavidK]

Thanks. Those are excellent photos that I hadn't seen before.
DavidK

[Quincy]

Thank you Rick!!





Bob Pink

[taskforce48]

In addition to Rick's great shots, here a a few detailed ones including the freshly primed bulwarks Dick was referencing.-





Hope they are of help,

Matt

[DavidK]

In addition to Rick's great shots, here a a few detailed ones including the freshly primed bulwarks Dick was referencing.-
Hope they are of help,

Matt

Thanks a bunch. I wish one of those ship photo history authors would pull some of these photos together (maybe redo a book on the entire New Orleans class) and publish a new book.

DavidK

[Quincy]

Thank you Matt!!





Bob Pink

[Mike W]

Has anyone built the Combrig 1/700 Astoria? I'm having issues with the shields for the 5 inch guns. If I line the outer ones up with the small round deck overhangs, they are very asymmetric and look odd. It's almost like they're all right hand or left hand shields and not half and half. Is it supposed to be like that? The instructions are garbage btw and don't really help.

thanks
Mike

[Dick J]

Has anyone built the Combrig 1/700 Astoria? I'm having issues with the shields for the 5 inch guns. If I line the outer ones up with the small round deck overhangs, they are very asymmetric and look odd. It's almost like they're all right hand or left hand shields and not half and half. Is it supposed to be like that? The instructions are garbage btw and don't really help.

thanks
Mike

The tubs were not symmetrical because the guns were not really symmetrical. US 5" mounts usually had the bank of fuse setters (for AA use) on the left side of the rotating platform, and so needed a little more room on that side to operate. Even the fully enclosed mounts (like on the Benson's, Fletcher's and others) were slightly wider on the left side for this reason. The open-backed shields on the earlier Farragut and Mahan classes had a protrusion on the left side of the shield to accommodate the fuse setters.

[DavidK]

Has anyone built the Combrig 1/700 Astoria? I'm having issues with the shields for the 5 inch guns. If I line the outer ones up with the small round deck overhangs, they are very asymmetric and look odd. It's almost like they're all right hand or left hand shields and not half and half. Is it supposed to be like that? The instructions are garbage btw and don't really help.

thanks
Mike

This photo shows the general situation with the 5" guns before the splinter shields were added.

[DavidK]

Has anyone built the Combrig 1/700 Astoria? I'm having issues with the shields for the 5 inch guns. If I line the outer ones up with the small round deck overhangs, they are very asymmetric and look odd. It's almost like they're all right hand or left hand shields and not half and half. Is it supposed to be like that? The instructions are garbage btw and don't really help.

thanks
Mike

This photo shows the splinter shields fairly clearly - if you zoom it.

[MartinJQuinn]

Here are some shots Roger Torgeson shared with me. These are from the National Archives, NARA II in College Park, the 19 LCM collection. These are from November 1941, when Astoria was just out of refit.

[Mike W]

Thanks for the photos. They don't however show one of the issues I'm having, which is that the portside rear shield overhangs the deck, leaving a hole. The shields are still asymmetric too in the kit

thanks
Mike

[MartinJQuinn]

Thanks for the photos. They don't however show one of the issues I'm having, which is that the portside rear shield overhangs the deck, leaving a hole. The shields are still asymmetric too in the kit

thanks
Mike

AFAIK, there's a plate under the hole that extends the deck from the hull.

[DavidK]

AFAIK, there's a plate under the hole that extends the deck from the hull.

Does this plan drawing help?

[Mike W]

Thanks guys. I sorted it. I came up with the cunning plan of putting together the decks and hull of my Trumpeter Minneapolis kit. That way I had something in full 3d, that I could pick up and look at, I wish I had thought of that before!

thanks
Mike

[Jeff Sharp]

AFAIK, there's a plate under the hole that extends the deck from the hull.

Does this plan drawing help?

Notice on the gun shields that the exact same shaped shield was used directly across from the shield on the other side of the ship. There are only 3 different shaped shields for 6 guns. You can see that they simply rotated the shield to fit on the other side of the ship. This is a unique feature that eliminates the "mirror image" effect port to starboard.
This exact same example of shield rotation can be found on USS Arizona.

[Tu11iy]

Hello, everyone.

Got a fairly simple question for which I for some reason couldn't find an answer. Do the outluned areas need to have doors when factory stock or were they built door less?

Thanks in advance.

[Timmy C]

Sheet 6 of the Astoria plans show no doors in that area, which are for something "Fire" related (shelter? hoses?): https://www.hnsa.org/wp-content/uploads ... 8/ca34.pdf

[bwross11]

You're looking at the Fire Room Blower vent area. No doors.