Yes, and CapnMac, that loop casting welded at the bottom of the hull is not for the paravane gear, it’s there so you can haul in boat up on to the trailer . . . (Doesn’t everyone trailer their battleship during the off season?) Slip space at the marina is so expensive these days!!
Thanks for the sweeping notes, good to know stuff. And no, it wasn’t in my issued copy of the Bluejackets Manual.
WWII used a wider stripe than in peactime, and with some variations with each of the ships presently, too.
From photos, Missouri appears to have the current skinniest, 4 or 5 feet.
From having been next to her, Wisconsin is showing 10-12 feet (which is near the WWII dimension).
Oh, and when you get under the counter at the stern, the stripe remains horizontal, parallel to the keel, and not a constant width. This can be tricky masking and wants careful marking of the waterlines.
It’s in none of the five copies I have, which go back to '38.
I’m now looking for a manual on Minesweeping, as I know at least on of my references covers capitol ship streaming, and points out all the differences from dedicated Minesweeper operations.
And those are distinctly different operations.
And the MS ships towed the sweeps, so the whole vessel was in front of the sweep wires.
is this what you mean capn , the boot stripe tapers down at the aft end .
I’ve shaved the bulb down as far as I can really go , if it’s not 100% accruate I’m sorry , but I’m pretty happy with it , as it was my first go at milliput , which was very old and didn’t want to mix too well .
Looks good to me.
Steve-. If I can suggest…block up the hull so its level, and you can go completely around it. Mark your boot upper and lower lines. Take a sharp pencil and make some kind of jig to hold at those two heights. Go completely around, and there is your masking line for the boot.
Steve, that taper you are seeing is just the watermark on the boot topping. The boot topping is the same height all the way around the hull VISUALLY. So, if you could pick up the hull to where it is horizontal to your view, the boot topping would appear the same height or thickness all the way around. Now with that in mind, any place where the hull is angled, like back near the stern, above the screws, the stripe will be a bit wider because of the angle. That is what CapnMac was referring to.
Yes. You cannot, say, just use 10mm wide tape to make the stripe, as the top and bottom are meant to be level of the waterline.
And, an 8’ boot might be 2 feet below the Load Water line, and 6’ above (to account for all the weight of ammo, fuel, prvisions ,and the like, that are to be expended on cruise).
Now, just wait until we all get into the debate about whether the exposed shafts were bare metal or painted hull bottom color [:)]
Thanks Skipper!
Now, as to the shafts . . . since they are just as susceptible to fouling as the rest of the hull, they should be painted, normally the same anti-foul paint as the underwater hull . . . with the exception of right before and right after they come in and out of the stern tube, any intermediate struts, and the strut bearing. All of which are miniscule when playing in 1/200 or smaller.
Other than when turning, which tends to prevent accumulation of fouling.
There are photos of a number of large ships with “bare” shafts–just not with any consistency. With the right mill finish and perhaps a lacquer finish, the metal would still look “metalic” and not hull bottom color.
It’s an endless debate for modelers, and really needs reasonably good photos. And people disinclined to pointless debate (wait, I said modelers, right?)
CapnMac, I’m quite aware of that sort of stuff as back in 1990-91, I was one of the guys who scheduled the entire Pacific fleet for the waterborne hull cleaning program and ran the contractors when they were scheduled to clean ships in Long Beach and the Bay area.
I specifically was the guy who maintained the files as to the ship, paint type, last cleaning, schedule for next cleaning, and whether it would be a full or interim clean.
Yeah, been there, done that, goin back for more!!!
getting back on subject guy’s , I could be a while posting again , the ones on the left 50 of on the right 30 of , with lots of parts , see you then .
I did notice their was a lip around the edge of the forward gun station , so I added some styrene , could anyone tell me what the middle hole is for . it look’s like a mooring point , but where does the rope or chain connect to to on the deck .
Commonly referred to as the bullnose (because a lot of ships actually have two holes there, like nostrils), the center opening is for the minesweeping chain we were discussing earlier, and for mooring and towing.
I was involved in towing Missouri from Bremerton, down to Long Beach for reactivation back in the 1980’s. Here we are picking up the tow out in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Hi, HooYah!
If you go to ship sites You’ll see a lot of ships with a Fair-Lead, at the bow. It’s closed at the top and it is used for both Towing and originally a minsweeping coil to be dropped. They also are very handy for the Tow purpose as they allow very large Hawsers in.
The Fairleads are sometimes open at the top to allow line to be dropped in while mooring as it’s easier to handle for the run to the warping engine or winch!Then when done the lines are quickly wrapped around the bitts for holding and locking the loops to allow the lines to hold and flex when the ship moves.
Oh. as far as the shafts are concerned( The screws too.) After sitting, for in some cases years they get fouled with underwater growth. They do in some cases have divers and small barges with High pressure water and Air to Blow them off occassionally. The municipalities nearby don’t like that. It fouls the water around the Yacht Club Marinas, Poor things!
Ought to be a deck opening about 45º back and up.
For towing, the chain would be stopped off with several of the regular pelican hooks normally used for the anchor chain. As for mooring lines, on a ship like that, the bullnose would usually only be used for either long term moors, or for a storm wire. In either case there is a set of bitts on both sides of the bow that would be the securing point. Also, the mooring line / storm wire would be routed under the bow gun tub.
thanks guy’s , for the info . the best part of this site learning .
I think you did a excellent job of correcting the bow form.
cheers thuntboss . finally got the 40mm bofors together , now for the smaller guns their is only 50 of those , [bnghead]
The “deck” bits are meant to be Deck Blue, but that was inconsistent.
Wartime photos generally show Gray barrels and actions with dark or black at the recoil spring area.
Let’s see if this will show:
All the verticals will match nearby verticals.
There are some ratime photos with the tops of the barrels in Deck Blue with a wavy edge. None are much seen on Iowas, though.
IIRC, Pontos gives you material for all the clip racks around the tubs, too. [o_O] The racks are the color of the tub. The clips for the rounds are a steel sort of color. But, the clip racks are as often empty as full in photos, in case you’d rather this was sensible.
The 20mm mounts are a simpler paint scheme, luckily
Pertty much every thing is in Vertical Gray, other thna the recoil spring & magazine.
Magazines, IRL, are dark charcoal sort of color.