Calling all New Mexico-class (BB-40) fans

[Dick J]

Time to split it off? CXAM series radars, perhaps?

[Ian Roberts]

Gents - looking for more detail on the stern aircraft cranes aboard the New Mexico class. I understand they're a different model than the ubiquitous type (I don't know the designation) later seen aboard the fast BBs and most of the wartime cruisers, but having trouble finding specific details. The Profile Morskie plans for Idaho show a crane that looks similar to the later type, but from examining some photos it's obvious they are similar but not the same. The drawings in the various BOGPs I've found have been pretty basic, but are at least a good starting point.

Any input from you guys? Thanks!

[Daytona675R]

Profle Morskie 71 (USS New Mexico) plans got it right. Or you can look at the Profile Morskie 45 (USS Colorado) plans. Correct as well.

[Ian Roberts]

Thanks! DavidP here actually sent some plans of the aircraft crane. I've noticed the Profile Morskie plans of Idaho get it wrong (surprise surprise...) but the New Mexico plans seem more correct. The plan book put out by Maryland Silver Company actually has the original Norfolk Navy Yard plans for the crane aboard Idaho, which is what I'm using now.

Lots of inaccuracies in the Idaho plan from Profile Morskie, as I've come to expect. The Booklet of General Plans for Idaho in the ship's 1945 appearance are actually surprisingly well done (I've noticed BOGPs are sometimes pretty generic).

[chazi]

Hello everybody

Because I will try to build USS New Mexico 1/100 scale I'm looking for every detailed drawings, skechtes etc for deck equipments on uss battleships (deck cranes, catapults etc) mainly for udd New mexico, idaho, missisipi (exclude profile morskie).
thank you for any help
best regards
chris

[Jeff Sharp]

Colorized but still very cool and very well done. If only that #2 turret top was blue it would be spot on.

[Jeff Sharp]

This is USS Mississippi enroute to Iceland between July 28 and August 6, 1941. She was part of a convoy supplying troops to Iceland. She is definitely wearing MS-1 camouflage during this trip to Iceland.


Her second trip to Iceland happened in Sept '41. This famous photo of her was taken while she was enroute to Iceland.

This photo very much appears that she is in MS-1 here as well but photos of her in Iceland in Sept and Oct. clearly show her in MS-12.

There is a second photo of her taken at the same time as this photo but I've only seen it in one publication. It is not a very good copy of the picture but it suggest that the conversion on her hull to MS-12 was there.


Here she is after she arrived in Iceland.

[Rick E Davis]

I have scanned the photo dated 26 September 1941 at NARA (80-G-463617), but remember that the 80-G photos dates are frequently WRONG.

DANFS entry;

Returning to Norfolk 16 June 1941, she prepared for patrol service in the North Atlantic. Steaming from Newport, R.I., she escorted a convoy to Hvalfjordur, Iceland. She made another trip to Iceland 28 September 1941, and spent the next 2 month there protecting shipping.

So according to DANFS (which can be wrong at times as well), USS MISSISSIPPI didn't leave for Iceland until 28 September 1941. It could be that this photo was taken during the earlier convoy run.

[Jeff Sharp]

Yeah, if that September photo is dated wrong and is actually during her July/August trip to Iceland it would explain a lot. I would like to see a much better version of that second pic that I posted to get a look at that hull and see what we are really looking at there.
On a side note, I don't see any white paint on top of her #4 turret in that Sept. photo but the angle is low and there appears to be stuff on top as well.

[SeanF]

Yeah, if that September photo is dated wrong and is actually during her July/August trip to Iceland it would explain a lot. I would like to see a much better version of that second pic that I posted to get a look at that hull and see what we are really looking at there.
On a side note, I don't see any white paint on top of her #4 turret in that Sept. photo but the angle is low and there appears to be stuff on top as well.

I don't think the Atlantic fleet was using the color coded turret tops. On the contrary, New Mexico sports a bright, freshly painted "40" on the tops of turrets 2 and 4 in January 1942 with her brand-new Ms. 12 mod camo and blue-painted decks. (Not sure if the 40s were already there in her Ms. 1 days, though; or if other ships did it too at the same period)

- Sean F.

[Jeff Sharp]

Yeah, I�m surprised that the answer of why New Mexico had those �40� on her turrets have yet to be unearthed.

[Jeff Sharp]

More New Mexico class fun.
This is probably the last photograph ever taken of USS Idaho wearing MS-12. She arrived in Norfolk on Dec.17, 1941. On Dec.30, 1941 eight tugs moved her from berth 29 to drydock #4. While in drydock her transition into MS-12 mod commenced.
In this photo dated 12/30/41 you can see her MS-12 camo on her hull and 4 of the 8 tugs assisting her to drydock #4. It appears that all four of the visible tugs were from the Wood Towing Corp. Notice also the stern of USS Mississippi can be seen in this shot.


A couple of days later she left drydock #4 and looked like this.

[Jeff Sharp]

I was able to track down two more pics of Mississippi enroute to Iceland in Aug. �41. They are not the one I was hoping to find but still very cool to see.

[bioshock73]

The Idaho's 45 refit, were the 5"/38 mk 30's single or double knuckle?

[bioshock73]

Any height differences between the two? I'm comtemplating on getting the Idaho kit from iron shipwrights. Might be a while before info, though.

[ModelMonkey]

Photos and plans indicate that three different types of 5"/38 mounts were installed, as David pointed out, a mix of double knuckle and single knuckle mounts. Notice that the gunhouses of 4 of them had the upper rear facet, similar to the kind of facets of mounts fit to destroyer escorts.

[bioshock73]

What exactly is the upper rear facets? Is it the rectangular extensions on top of the turrets? Because I see them on all the secondary turrets.

[maccrage]

What exactly is the upper rear facets? Is it the rectangular extensions on top of the turrets? Because I see them on all the secondary turrets.

Instead of the roof of the turret running straight to the back of the turret, there is another knuckle at the rear.

[Dick J]

What exactly is the upper rear facets? Is it the rectangular extensions on top of the turrets? Because I see them on all the secondary turrets.

The back of the gunhouse roof has been beveled off to provide clearance for some obstruction. The upper mount was probably for clearing the back of the bridge, and the lower mount was beveled to clear the adjacent quad 40MM tub. On the DE's, the forward mount was beveled to allow the hedgehog to have sufficient clearance to fire directly forward over the mount, and the after one was beveled for standardization to speed construction. On the Idaho, as on the DD's, the "double knuckle" on the lower mounts was to provide extra strength to withstand the blast effect from the higher, superfiring mount.

[ModelMonkey]

What exactly is the upper rear facets? Is it the rectangular extensions on top of the turrets? Because I see them on all the secondary turrets.

The rectangular extension you see on the tops of the 5" mounts is the gun captain's blast hood. Below is a photo of a blast hood on a museum ship.