1/700 USS Chicago CA-29 at Battle of Savo Island

[Dan K]

Seriously good work, Vladi.

[PetrolGator]

I didn't think I could be further impressed with your work. I was wrong.

[Vladi]

Thank you

[Vladi]

Continued on testing the superstructure. Two more levels of the forward bridge came out as expected.

The roof of the aft bridge ended up a bit smaller than needed so it will have to be slightly enlarged for the next attemp. Other than that seems to be ok

I wonder what the two triads of turning wheels seen on the aft bridge platform were for. These appear once again on the 5in platform above the hangar. Does anybody know?

[taskforce48]

Great work! The wheels control the cranes. The ones you have there are for the boat crane and the hangar ones for the plane crane.

Matt

[Vladi]

Sounds logical, they are really close to the crane. I don�t know why I haven�t thought of that!
Thanks!

[Vladi]

After some testing of my PE parts I came to a conclusion they needed a second attempt. I needed to adjust positions of holes for both tripod masts (it was not a good idea to rely on Profile Morskie plans in this very respect � although I admit they were quite fine in general). I created a simple 3D model for this purpose in the end. I also wanted to add some more details and I had some more findings in the meantime (like about hangar doors discussed in the CASF Northampton class thread).

While waiting for the second version to be etched I worked on adding portholes to the hull and hatches to the deck. I scratchbuilt two large mushroom vents on the stern and used Rainbow brass parts for the smaller ones.

Only after I modified both catapult towers with correct windows and brims above them from my PE set I realized the towers were about 1mm too short for PE catapults to be used upon them! I had to add plastic sheets on top of them to compensate for the height of the original resin parts. Unfortunately it was already too late to reposition the windows higher as appropriate so they had to stay. I also dremelled out two small recesses on the extended forecastle under front ends of both catapults to allow clearance for them.

I want to show one of the two hangars open with a SOC-3 with folded wings inside so I built some internal detail and provided for the PE folded wings.

I drilled out both funnels and readied them for adding PE dividers into them. I also realized that � contrary to the resin part � tubs for 1.1in Chicago pianos aft of #2 funnel should be lower than the upper 5in deck, so I cut them off and removed about 0.8mm height from their bases. I removed all 5in ammo boxes that will later be replaced with my PE parts in their correct positions according to photos.

When the second version of my PE sheet arrived earlier this week I turned to building the main bridge. I started with positioning the forward foremast pole that forms the centrepiece of the bridge. I kept on adding bridge levels while documenting the advance. I designed the front face of the bridge in one piece without separating it into two parts horizontally. Adding the compass bridge floor was a bit tricky but it turned out good in the end. I really like how the wind baffles look like.

[marijn van gils]

Very clean and precise work!

[harristotle]

Beautiful work, very cool to see the results of your own PE design!

[Dan K]

Precise is a good descriptor. Great hangar details.

[taskforce48]

That is some outstanding detailing! Can�t believe it�s 1/700.

Matt

[Vladi]

Thanks for all your support!

While working on details for the well deck I decided to rework the catapult towers at last. Hope to be able to post some more photos soon.

[Vladi]

First of all I forgot to add a photo of my PE sheets version 2. I separated them into three sheets: USS Chicago 1942 specific parts to the left, Miscellaneous USN Treaty Cruisers parts (early WW2) to the right and SOC-3 parts (upgrade to Trumpy) bottom right. BTW I think they might be useful for modifying the Tamiya USS Indianapolis kit into Chicago, too (provided you won�t mind the 3m difference in hull length):

Now about my latest advances. As mentioned before, I decided to replace the catapult towers in the end (my previous attempt based on the resin part turned out too short and after I repaired them to the correct height windows and brims were too low). So I cut off both towers as a whole and replaced them with 4.75mm diameter polystyrene tubes sanded down on their outer edge and equipped with my PE windows, brims and doors (ladders to come). They look much better to me now

I continued with adding PE parts to the forward and aft walls of the well deck. The forward part was a bit tricky to design as I found no photos showing the final configuration clearly but after some discussions with Mike C and more hours spent staring on photos I ended up with what I hope is a reasonable approximation.

The other end of well deck was a similarly an open question as I found no definitive answer on the version of the hangar door for the time of the Battle of Savo Island (see CASF Northampton class thread). I designed all three versions in PE and I decided to use the horizontal jalousie version (�B�) in the end that seems to have been common on class units at the given timeframe as witnessed by 1942 photos of Northampton from the LIFE magazine discussed in the CASF thread. The centerline structure was designed according to the same photo series. It is quite a complicated piece to fold from PE for its miniature dimensions in 1/700 so I decided that the outmost parts will be done from a styrene square rod instead of PE (not in the photo, will be added later).

Next came the aft bridge. While dry-fitting PE parts onto the resin hull I realized the bottom part (molded on the resin hull) was approx. 1.6 mm too tall. This was apparently noticeable when viewed from the side � the bridge overhang aft should be just above the aft main gun turret according to photos but there was a large gap there. So I had to cut the upmost layer of the resin part. I continued by gluing the aft mast pole into its place and constructing the aft bridge.

While designing the second version of my PE parts I noticed one interesting detail � contrary to pre-war photos Chicago had a new position for flag bags aft extending out of the crane platform as on the photo below. So my part is now hopefully another step closer to the original.

Flag bags themselves are not shown on the photo yet, will be added after rigging is finished. Also supports under the extended "wings" will be added.

[maxim]

A really dramatic improvement!

[Vladi]

Thank you, Lars! I thought you might like it

I managed to finish the outstanding levels on both masts today (well, nearly - just noticed I forgot to add the small searchlight platforms to the foremast). It went smoother than anticipated. By now I�ve used majority of PE parts from my Chicago-specific sheet. Most smaller general details are still left on the miscellaneous treaty cruiser sheet. These will be used later along with some generic items to further detail my build.

[Dan K]

Excellent.

[marijn van gils]

Those masts and bridges look flawless! Great work!

[Mike C]

I don't know how this is affected by your brass, but the reason for the height of the catapult pedestals is due to the catapults themselves. They were designed to allow for etched catapults that were available at the time on the resin base, and how either end of the catapults related to the forward superstructure and the hangar platform.

Regarding the two sets of hand wheels. Just on speculation and since there are two sets, I'm guessing they control the rotation of the catapults and not the crane.

Nice work with your etch so far. I hope you don't get too far ahead of yourself so you have trouble painting inside the compartments.

[MartinJQuinn]

Impressive work. These were some good looking cruisers.

[Vladi]

Thanks a lot, gentlemen!

I don't know how this is affected by your brass, but the reason for the height of the catapult pedestals is due to the catapults themselves. They were designed to allow for etched catapults that were available at the time on the resin base, and how either end of the catapults related to the forward superstructure and the hangar platform.

Mike, I think the cat pedestals worked just fine with the original resin catapult train rings. With PE (0.1mm thin in my case) their height should match the forward superstructure (less that small recess), that�s why I had to increase them.

Regarding the two sets of hand wheels. Just on speculation and since there are two sets, I'm guessing they control the rotation of the catapults and not the crane.

I don�t think this was the case as these wheels were definitely present also near the boat crane aft:

Interestingly enough, the 1942 LIFE photos of Northampton show the wheels present near the aircraft crane:

... in case of Chicago they were definitely missing there in 1942, see below:

Perhaps they were removed when this crane was refitted? The aircraft crane on Chicago in 1942 appears different than on pre-war photos. On the other hand, I can�t see them on pre-war photos of Chicago either (haven�t checked Northampton pre-war though).

Nice work with your etch so far. I hope you don't get too far ahead of yourself so you have trouble painting inside the compartments.

Thank you
You are probably right in case of floor of the lowest level of the forward bridge, hopefully it will not be much visible in the shade of the bridge and thanks to the small difference between 5-N and 20-B. I left the third level of the main bridge unglued so that it can be rotated and I can still access the compass bridge and paint it inside and put some sailors into it. I forgot to do the same with the aft bridge so I will have to rely on spraying the paint inside through the windows.