1/144 Jorge Juan (ex USS McGowan)

[Willie]

Hi there, Hank,

FYI - those two oval covers that you commented about in the front of the stack base - those are actually clean-out covers - they are removed and a worker climbs inside the stack base to do cleaning of accumulated dust, stack gas particles, soot, etc. Usually done during a shipyard overhaul, not something done at sea or when the ship is in operation.

Thanks for the tip. After my 5 1/2 years involved in this ship, I am starting to love her, so every piece of info is welcome !!!

Best regards from this side,

Willie.

[Willie]

Hi all modelers again.

Yesterday and today�s harvest is the noise maker "Fanfare" winch, that Jorge Juan also had. No mistakes this time, only physical evidence:

I have no other pics of Jorge Juan, but, as usual, quite a bit of USS The Sullivans, that had the same winch in the same position:

And a very clear one of the motor:

Once the what and the where were clear, I could start with the how. These are the basic elements, Evergreen plates, stripes and tubing:

When finished, the main block of the winch is like this:

[/size]

[Willie]

The problem with the main block will be the painting of the insides and the underneath of the reels, what makes impossible to set the motor and transmission in place, because in such a tiny thing they would block the way for the brush completely.
I decided accordingly to make it to dry fit, linking the motor with the transmission to the reels by means of two bars that were in the original winch as well, these two:

So the second block is like this:

There is a gap between the two parts of this element, exactly 0.4mm, that is the width of the bar crossing the base from side to side. This makes the block to fit into the reels block very tightly, setting it exactly in place, what will be of great help with the CA job when everything is painted.[/size]

[Willie]

When both blocks are in place, the effect is IMO excellent:

When set in place on deck, with the other elements that I have already built, the depth charge rack and the BT, the proportions are correct and the group of elements realistic. It is always difficult to make things without knowing the right measures.
After observing these macro pics and comparing them with originals, maybe the reels are 0.5 mm. too wide, but I would say this is acceptable.
Now I have to think how to make the breakwater shield all around, but I will surely find a solution.

In the meanwhile, I hope you like it, and warmest regards from this side,

Willie.[/size]

[marijn van gils]

That's a very nice looking winch!

The breakwater shield should be easy in comparison...
I guess it can be glued to the deck permanently, while leaving the winch separate for painting?

[Willie]

Hi all modelers again,

The next thing was the breakwater shield.

The breakwater shield should be easy in comparison...

Something I was not sure at all, just the oposite: I was sure it would be a real problem, as making oval or circular structures is always a nightmare for me, but this time time things came nicely in the right way.
I found this ice-cream container, with one of its corners displaying the profile that I needed in the correct curve and even thickness:

So I simply had to cut a segment and refine it to the proper dimension, to complete the process with scraps of plastic and some Evergreen profiles:

The only problem with this kind of plastic is that it is too delicate, and melts down inmediately after touching the first drop of the Tamiya ultra fine glue that I use. There is no room for mistakes because there is a very thin margin for corrections.
The decoys themselves were made again with scraps of Evergreen:

Once everything is set in place, even if dry fitting, the effect is excellent:

And at deck level, with the typical asimetrical position of this shield:

I hope you like it, and best regards from the North Atlantic,

Willie.[/size]

[BB62vet]

Willie,

Your BT winch & Shield, etc. look quite convincing - excellent job! FYI - I emailed the manufacturer of that equipment (Aggo Equipment Div., York, PA, USA) a couple days ago requesting any info they may still have on file but haven't heard back from them. Don't know if I will - some of these companies are not interested in the least with modelers requesting information/drawings about their military products from years past.
One other source of info comes from Alan Raven's book Fletcher Class Destroyers - he has some scaled drawings of this equipment that might be helpful.

Hank

[Willie]

Hi there Hank,

FYI - I emailed the manufacturer of that equipment (Aggo Equipment Div., York, PA, USA) a couple days ago requesting any info they may still have on file but haven't heard back from them. Don't know if I will - some of these companies are not interested in the least with modelers requesting information/drawings about their military products from years past.

Well, if it is of some comfort for you, I have the very same problem with museums. That a private business is not interested in wasting time to help Culture can be understood, as they are in the business for the dough, and money is; that museums are not either is for me more difficult to accept.

One other source of info comes from Alan Raven's book Fletcher Class Destroyers - he has some scaled drawings of this equipment that might be helpful.

I agree. I have this book, and I am using it non stop, along with the AOTS USS The Sullivans. Both them are a must for anybody interested in Fletchers.

Nice going from just across the pool,

Willie.

[LE BOSCO]

Hi Willie

I discover your work �.i like it you really are a talented model maker, your scratchs have result very accurate
well done
cheers
Nicolas

[Willie]

Hi there Nicolas and all,

Thanks a lot for your kind remarks. Coming from you it is no little praise.

The next thing I have involved with is the forward stack. After painting the inside of the exhaust area and setting the caps in place, I can proceed to the pipes.

This is, pictorically speaking, the closest I had ever been to this stack a week ago:

Not very useful.
Mr. Rick Davis and Mr. Hank Strub provided me with some other closer pics, much more useful, dating back from a short time before the transfer of this US Navy unit to the Spanish Navy:

(487).JPG (41.8 KiB) Viewed 1318 times

(488).JPG (22.91 KiB) Viewed 1318 times

Being of USS MacGowan herself, these two pics are way better than anything I had seen before, but were not accurate enough. Purely by chance I came across this other web site:

http://www.omnia.ie/index.php?navigatio ... obcnt=4900

I spent some hours here, opening my eyes wider and wider, as I could find further pics of USS MacGowan dating from her WWII time that I had never seen before:

The pipes seem to be too thin, but as the ship is clearly under refit or construction, it is also clear these pipes had not been isolated yet, as it can be observed in the following two pictures, without and with isolation:

I am afraid the upper part of these pipes will need some elaboration:

[/size]

[Willie]

As for the section of the lower pipes going up the stack, I could find nothing of USS MacGowan, not even in the superb website mentioned, but assuming that the lower pipes were more or less the same all along the Fletcher line, I have studied other ships, here USS Badger, DD657:

Here USS Uhlmann, DD687:

And here USS Porter DD800:

What the Revell kit offers for this section of the ship is this:

It is not too bad, and I was considering to modify and use some parts of it, but after studying the last three pictures I realized that the pipes are not straight at all, that to use Revell�s part was out of the question and I decided accordingly to make it from scratch again.
This is what I was able to produce :

I think that more or less I was able to achieve the curves in the main pipe, keeping the whole lot realistic:

To be continued immediately. In the meanwhile, I hope you like it.

Warmest regards from this side,

Willie.[/size]

[Willie]

The next step was to make the fixing elements for the upper part of the lower pipes, something that has to be solved before anything else upwards. With the help of the excellent pics before it was not too difficult to make them :

And together with the pipes:

Now, I can try making the upper pipes and platforms.

Rgds from this side,

Willie.[/size]

[Rick E Davis]

Willie,

I don't know if you are aware, but the USN converted from "steam whistles" on the forward stack to an electrical powered whistles. This changed dramatically the "plumbing/conduits" required running up the stack. This would explain some of the difference you see in photos. I don't know exactly when this mod was started and done on all FLETCHER class units. I had not been tracking that mod, I just know it happened.

USS McGOWAN (DD-678) during her last overhaul in 1958-59 ... I think you already posted this image. It isn't very good at showing the detail of the whistle.



Here is an image of the electric whistle on USS UHLMANN (DD-689) in 1969 while she was serving as a NRT training ship. As you can see, the "plumbing" running up the stack has been much reduced.



For completeness sake, here is a group of images showing the forward stack "plumbing" arrangement. At that time they had a whistle and horn up there. Finding photos of this part of the forward stack in WWII is pretty rare.

[LE BOSCO]

Hi Willie
the new work is just superb and always as precis
cheers
Nicolas

[Willie]

Hi there Mr. Davis, Nicolas and all,

Nicolas, thanks a lot for your kind remark, and Mr. Davis thanks for the new pictures, as they are much better than mine. They are too late for helping with the first part of the work, but they are also a confirmation that I have done things the right way. No little relief.

(...)The USN converted from "steam whistles" on the forward stack to an electrical powered whistles. This changed dramatically the "plumbing/conduits" required running up the stack. This would explain some of the difference you see in photos. I don't know exactly when this mod was started and done on all FLETCHER class units. I had not been tracking that mod, I just know it happened.

Mr. Davis, yes I know that, but I think MacGowan had still a steam whistle when she was transferred to the Spanish Navy to become Jorge Juan, and that she retained it in the mid 1960�s...

...and well into the 1970�s:

On the other hand, USS MacGowan didn�t seem to have the small platform on the top, and nor seemed Jorge Juan either for the rest of her career. Too bad, I would have loved to build it.

Again thanks a lot for your attention, and very best regards from this side,

Willie.[/size]

[marijn van gils]

I have to admit I have no idea what the real thing looked like, but the model version certainly looks great!

[gscott]

Amazing scratch-building skills, sir! Looks like museum-quality work; can't wait to see the completed ship.

[Willie]

Hi there Marijn Greg and all,

Thanks for your always kind remarks, folks.

A further advance on the fwd. stack was to fix the lower steam piping and to complete the upper one.
The first element is the whistle platform, to be fixed on the upper part of the stack cap:

The little square platform on the very top was somehow tricky, but more or less I have it.[/size]

[Willie]

I was able to find a single pic of the platform from above, this one:

This pic confirms that what I have produced is more or less OK, and can be approved for service:

The grey whistle is made with stretched sprue, refined with X-Acto blade and hollowed with three drills in sequence to not ruin the piece by mistake.
The forward stack is now 80% complete. The two small holes under the whistles are for attaching a PE handle, when I can find one:

I hope you like it, and very best regards from this side,

Willie.[/size]

[BB62vet]

Willie,

That looks excellent! You've really done a great job on the stack, whistle, & piping. I'll be watching to see what occurs next in your construction.

Hank