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

[lobohowler]

Earlier in this thread, Frank R. mentioned that he had obtained hull drawings and was building a 1/96 New Mexico. Sure would like to see progress photos. Also, I wonder if anyone has obtained the Profile Morskie drawings in PDF. Is there enough detail to scratch-build using these?

[Timmy C]

Lobohowler, have you checked out today's review of the Profile Morskie PDF NewMex44 download?
http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/bo ... eview.html

[Cliffy B]

Hey guys, I'm going to do a painting of Mississippi underway in 1936 with a full complement of 3 SOC Seagulls aboard. I was wondering what colors her SOCs carried at the time. I know of the fuselages being aluminum and the upper wings being yellow but what about the tails? I can't find which squadron was aboard hence the color dilemma. Ol' Miss herself would have been in pre-war light gray with teak and deck gray decks right? Any help is appreciated as always.

Thanks,

-Mike

[Russ2146]

Could they have been painted to match the main battery turret tops? I believe I read that somewhere.

[Russ2146]

I've checked my copy os "United States Navy Aircraft Since 1911" Swanborough and Bowers, Funk & Wagnalls, 1968.

"Scouting squadrons assigned to battle cruisers has their designations followed by the letter 'S', as VS-5S, while observation types flying from battleships were further indentified by the letter 'B', as VO-3B." In 1937 the system was changed and cruiser scout plans were indentified by squadron number, 'C' for cruiser , S for scout and plane number as in 5 SC 4. Carrier scouts would be 5 S 4. Battleships would be 5 O 4.

Painted markings are your interest so some basics. Squadrons were composed of 4 plane secrionsall sections used a uniform color system. Section 1 - red, 2 - white, 3 - True Blue, 4 - Black, 5 - Willow Green and 6 - Lemon Yellow. The section leader aircraft had a 20 inch band painted around the fuselage, ceterd on the squadron designation letter and the forward half of the engine cowl. planes 2,3 and 4 had no fuselage band. Planes 2 & 3 had the upper and lower halfs of the cowls in the section color. All 4 plnes had the section color chevron on the upper wing.

As to tail colors, from 1926 to 1941tail colors identified the unit (ship). For carriers this was Lemon Yellow - CV2, White - CV3, Wiilow Green - CV4, Insignia Red - CV5, True Blue - CV6, and Black - CV7. For cruisers and BB, scouting squadrons were using color5ed bars on their tails while the observation types used a solid paint job. The book is silent as to ship-color match ups, which probably takes us back to the turret tops.

[Russ2146]

From further research on this site, we have Adm Kimmel's first letter on taking command:
SUBJECT: Turret Markings for Identification by Own Aircraft

1. This letter replace U.S. Fleet Letter No. 13L-40, which letter is hereby cancelled, since colored tails for aircraft are being eliminated.

2. Battleships and cruisers shall paint the tops of any or all their forward turrets or enclosed mounts with the following colors for identification by their own aircraft. When stripes are involved, they shall be painted parallel to the axis of the guns.

BATTLESHIPS

Battleship Division ONE � Red (solid)
Battleship Division TWO � White (solid)
Battleship Division THREE � Blue (solid)
Battleship Division FOUR � Black (solid)
Battleship Division FIVE � Yellow (solid)

CRUISERS
>snipped to save space<

3. In addition, battleships and cruisers shall paint the top of their after turret or enclosed mount to correspond with the section their aircraft are in. The colors are red, white, blue, black, green and yellow for first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth sections respectively.

H.E. KIMMEL

Now this is for just before the war and what you want is 1936. However, note how this matches up with the section number to color sheme used by the aircraft types.

[Russ2146]

Net resea research:

USS NEW MEXICO, flagship of Battleship Division THREE in June 1936

See: http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/articles.htm

http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Ships/ ... 4L-38.html

[bb-40]

My name is Kevin and i am wondering if anyone on this page had any family serve on the bb-40 USS New Mexico. I had a great grand father that just recently passed away and i have his uniform and a other few odds and ends like belt buckles and such that mean a lot to me and i'd like to have a model of the queen. anyway, please reply and let me know, BTW my great grandfather ran the 5" guns on the deck, but to anyone who served, thank you for all you've done to make america a free country.

[src]

FYI: New Mexico recently completed its 400th Anniversary celebration. As part of it, the State Historical Museum hosted an event commemorating the two US New Mexicos: the BB40 and the SSN 779. On the > Forum [Index] < / > Picture Post < / > Completed Models < I have posted some two dozen pix of a ~1/100 scale model, some BB40 officer's regalia, and personnel. Two samples attached. Enjoy. Stephen

[Dana Bell]

I don't have a lot on the New Mexicos, but perhaps some of this will be helpful.

- I only track back to 1926 (when turret markings first appear to have been introduced). At that time, all three ships were assigned to BatDiv Four, with New Mexico as flag. The ships' aircraft were assigned to VO-2/VO-2B, drawing aircraft numbers (apparently) in the range 2-O-10 through 2-O-18.

- On 1 July 1928 the aircraft were reassinged to VO-4B, drawing numbers 4-O-1 through 4-O-9. (4-O-10 through -12 were assigned to California's aircraft while that ship sailed with the division.

- The only turret markings noted in this period were four stripes on New Mexico (red-white-blue-yellow) marking that ship as the division flag. In 1928 aircraft tails were a very dark color that appeared black, but this is not yet confirmed by written documents.

- On 1 April 1931, BatDiv Four became BatDiv Two, with all three New Mexicos transferring. At the same time, the aircraft were reassinged to VO-2B.

- Sometime between April and July 1933, BatDiv Two was inactivated; the three New Mexicos moved to BatDiv Three, and their aircraft went to VO-3B. Around this time the True Blue tail color was first assigned to the squadron's aircraft, though this made little difference at first - all three ships were undergoing modernization.

- In 1935, all three ships appear to have painted turrets 1, 2, and 4 True Blue, using the aircraft squadron color to distinguish the division. Individual ships were identified by hull numbers painted atop Turret 2. I haven't found enough photos to document how long this markings anomaly was in use.

- In July 1937, VO-3B was redesignated VO-3 when the Navy dropped the assingment suffixes. Note that those suffixes described the unit assignment of the squadron, not the type of ship the squadron sailed on. The "B" suffix was used by aircraft assigned to Battle Fleet/Battle Force; the "S" went to Scouting Fleet/Scouting Force; and the "A" went to Asiatic Fleet. (There were other letters, but they don't relate to this discussion.)

- In August 1937, the US Fleet introduced the fleet-wide turret markings. In BatDiv Three, Turret 2 (and later, Turret 1 also) was True Blue, like their aircraft tails. Turret 4 was the same as the aircraft section color seen on the nose and on the overwing chevron. The flagship was red, Mississippi was white, and the third ship was True Blue. New Mexico may have still been flagship in August 1937 when the new markings were introduced, but sometime in August or September Idaho became flagship and New Mexico became the division's third ship.

There are still a lot of details to plug in, particularly dates and aircraft assignments, but hopefully this will be a good start.

Cheers,


Dana

[Foster]

Hi Guys,
I've recently found a photo of a US Navel non com who was stationed on the USS New Mexico between 1931-37.. It has many photos of its journey from Philadelphia, through the Panama Canal, on to Asia, including the invasion of Shanghai by the Japanese in 1937 and then on to the Philippines... About 500 photos in all... What a treasure. Photos of many of the crew and even crossing the equator.

[Guest]

There is a fantastic 1/350 scratch build of New Mexico by Pierre Marchal featured on the main what's new page on 9/21/11 - don't miss it.

[Andrew D BB39 Sec]

I'd be very interested in doing a 1/700 late-war New Mexico or Idaho, but the only things I see out there at all are the midship models for the 1941 fits. Are there any other alternatives, or how much work would it take to the 1941's without killing oneself?

Thanks!

[KSuM3]

Classic Warships produced a kit of each ship in the class, which I think Midship Models reissued. I built all three and if I recall correctly, they produced a '41 Mississippi, a '44 New Mexico, and a '45 Idaho. The three kits shared the same hull, main gun turrets, and some of the smaller bits. Mississippi and New Mexico shared the same 01 level, whereas Idaho had a different piece because she was refitted with 5"/38 single turrets late in the war. The 3 ships also had minor variations in superstructure details (superficially they're all similar but differed in detail). The ships didn't go to the yards for major builds, like the Big 5, but they did have a lot of AA weapons added over the years.

With that said, a late war Mississippi or New Mexico could be done from a '41 version without major rework (Idaho's 01 level would need to be redone). Some modifications of the superstructure levels might be required and the additional gun tubs/galleries would have to be scratchbuilt.

[Andrew D BB39 Sec]

Both the NM'44 and ID'45 sound just right...only trouble is finding one these days, I assume. So far I only found the ID'41 on eBay, but as I said, I'm really only interested in a late-war.

[KSuM3]

Depending on how much scratchbuilding you want to do, the '41 ID could be built into any one of the ships circa '44. The parts breakdown of the kits allowed a lot of flexibility in making modifications (ie, there were no gun tubs molded to the main hull so that they could use the same part in all the kits). The chief difference I can remember (it's been a while since I last looked at it) is in the windbreaks around the superstructure levels (New Mexico and Mississippi had contoured shields while Idaho's were flat). The Navy kept adding AA weapons to the ships during the years, so it's mainly a matter of adding all the gun tubs and galleries. They made some minor modifications to the superstructures to fit the tubs/galleries, though. These could be scrounged from spare parts collections.

Regardless, some good references and plans are a must.

[Andrew D BB39 Sec]

Appreciate the pointers. I don't mind saying the idea of scratching a lot of the detail is a bit daunting since I'm only now beginning to delve into the warship world, having done aircraft for three decades....just nice to know that I know what I'm doing.

Thanks again!

[KSuM3]

As luck would have it, there is a Classic Warships Idaho for sale. MP88 has it listed:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=135872

I do believe this is the '45 fit.

[Andrew D BB39 Sec]

Yep, saw it, and negotiations have been underway, just waiting for the transfer of funds to my Paypal. Definitely appreciate the heads-up, as I've been wanting to do this ship for years!

[Haijun watcher]

Has anyone on this thread ever built the Blue Ridge kits for the New Mexico class BBs?

Blue Ridge seems to have kits of all 3 in their 1941 configurations.

Their kit numbers
BRM-70006- 1/700 USS New Mexico 1941
BRM-70007- 1/700 USS Idaho 1941
BRM-70008- 1/700 USS Mississippi 1941

I am asking since I'm wondering if a lot of work needs to be done to change the Mississippi kit or any of her sisters into the Mississippi kit in 1944 configuration.