USS Juneau CL-52

[rjccjr]

Hi All;
This week is one of those times when it doesn't look like much was done. Actually it was a lot. The starboard torpedo mount was constructed and placed. More importantly all four quad 1.1 inch mounts were constructed and set aboard. Each one of them has over fifty parts and is about the size of a dime. The one earlier unit was removed because it wasn't quite right. The first photo shows the aft unit. The second shows the replacement between the wing turrets. The third shows the units near the bridge. Four shows the ship over all. For the last picture, the old mock up was hauled out just to show the difference between a mock up and a prototype. Next week's goal is to get the remaining 20 mm guns made and set in place. Those quad 1.1s were really exhausting to do and it's really a relief to get them out of the way. By the way, if anyone has questions feel free to ask. The only dumb question is the one not asked.
Regards, rjccjr

[zablo1978]

Hello, you're doing very well and the ship itself has a very nice silhouette, I'm still cheering.

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

This has been one of those weeks when the world backed up. After getting through the five inch and 1.1 inch mounts, it figured that the remaining six 20MM would be easy. Right! Somebody turned on the cataclysmatron and chaos reigned. First was the discovery that the 20MM mounts installed were out of proportion. Redesign and replacement would be required. Ok back to the drawing board. Second was the fact that Dupuytren's contracture now interferes with my ability to work small parts. You get extra points for either spelling or pronouncing that name. It isn't painful, but it sure interferes with manual dexterity. No way at age 85 am I going to deal with surgery or other treatments, which are just as much fun. Third is the discovery that the age of the cell phone camera had devastated the reign of the digital camera. While uploading pictures, my arm caught the strap of my trusty, but aging Nikon Koolpix B500 camera and it fell to the concrete floor of the shop. Result, death of a digital. It didn't give up without a struggle. It tried to start, but the telescoping extension on the lens was mortally wounded. Not willing to spend the cash for a big money camera, the hunt was on for a moderately priced point and shoot. A new replacement is not to be found, either in store or online. Go into a any local store and look for digital cameras. You will see for yourself. It's now the world of the cheapie throw away or the overpriced professional device. Joe average appears to be out of the picture. After digging deeper a solution was found, but it is going to take a while to get here. Stay tuned. The week was spent redesigning the 20MM's. Right now, two promising new mounts are in place. Only two pictures, shot with the cell phone, are presented. The first is an over head shot of the forward mounts. The second is a side view. Bear in mind that there are limits to how small you can work card. They are still a little long, but workable. The question is whether to live with this compromise or to try to refine the drawings. Perhaps this is the limit of what the tremors and Dupuytren's contracture will allow me to accomplish.

Regards, rjccjr

PS A digital camera will take an average 4 MB picture. A cell phone will average around 3 MB. If you put your shots into microsoft paint, reduce to 25% and enter "save as" , the result will take up only three to four KB. That saves you and the site servers a whale of a lot of storage space and still give a pretty good eight by ten photo print.

[rjccjr]

HI all;
Well, the week has been full of adventures. First, after hunting around on the net, a replacement for the trusty old camera was found and obtained. That solved, attention focused on the masts. Card stock was too heavy to roll neatly, so paper was tried as a solution. Too light. There was no way to get either one to be neat. Solution? Roll the paper into a loose tube. Insert a bamboo skewer into the tube, after applying white glue to the skewer. The pointed end of the skewer went into the socket for the mast and the assembly fit in place. Right now the mainmast is set in place and looks decent. Later, it will be cropped for correct length. Then details will be applied. Photo one shows the 20 MM guns at the stern. They are a little over sized, but that all that an aging body will allow. The size is not as noticeable in the other positions. Photo two shows the guns by the after stack. Three shows all four guns in that location. The last shot shows the main mast set in place. Photographs show that peculiarly, CL-52 had the SC-1 array on the main mast. There are ladders, platforms, lights, ECM gear and an SC-1 radar array drawn and will be attached to the mast. Then the completed assembly will be set in. Next will be the foremast assembly. Rigging will get attention at the end of the project.

Regards, rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;
The main mast assembly was addressed first, because CL-52 had the SC-1 antenna on it. Atlanta CL-51 had it the other way around. The antenna was drawn and printed with one page of card with one page of paper. The resulting sandwich is fairly light, more flexible and still to scale. This, one on one, technique worked well on the splinter shields and it works well here. At this stage, when the drawings for the parts are done, I usually print a test page with a lot of extra parts because the tremors usually cause the need to make several tries. When it all comes together, the leftovers are discarded and the final drawings adjusted. Photo one shows the masts cut to correct length, then set in place with the antenna platforms on top. Photo two shows the mainmast with the detail parts on a folded piece of paper towel. That's so they will be clearly visible to handle when attaching them. photo three shows the detailed masts in place. they won't be glued in until they are entirely satisfactory. Photo four shows the depth charge racks attached to the stern. They seem somewhat short because there were fewer depth charges than those on the stern of a destroyer. Photo five shows the anchor equipment and one capstan. The others are yet to be assembled. The last photo is a general arrangement shot of CL-52 as it is right now. From here on it is a matter of refining and attaching very small parts and there are a lot of those.
Regards, rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

Photo one is my very first selfie, sort of. Let's start with a show of hand. This is what arthritis, Duyputrens syndrome, tremors and almost 86 years of wear and tear looks like. It is also why the build looks like it does. But, that's all there is to work with. Not complaining really, it's just a visual explanation of why this is a labor of sheer stubbornness and a refusal to quit.

That done, here is how research works. Photo 0405232 on the Navsource site of USS Juneau shows the rear of the quarterdeck in New York on April 19, 1942. There is a jumble of unidentifiable crated and shrouded equipment and some very clear modifications. There is a large mushroom vent with three crew men standing by it. That is good for judging the size of things. Forward of that are three ready service lockers. On the starboard side are three K-guns. Each has four uninstalled bases, ready service mounts for holding Depth charges. Toward the rear are two 20mm guns, a capstan and the unprotected director for the after quad 1.1 guns. The ship is in commission and clearly being modified before going to sea. The most noticeable items are that the 1.1 director is a very early version, and the K-gun arrangement is quite different from that of later destroyers and escorts. Ready service was a single post for each depth charge with a davit to move charges onto the K-gun. Later units had a rack carrying several charges.

What does that mean for the model? Well the bad news is that any drawings for this equipment used on earlier models were now useless. A whole new set of parts drawings was now required. The capstans forward and aft are now in place. The parts needed were six K-guns with depth charges, six loading davits and twenty four stands with depth charges. The drawings took better than a week.

Photos two and three show capstans and anchor handling equipment fore and aft. Photo four is a general view of the entire model, BC, before charges. Photo five is a working drawing of the K-gun assemblies. The last photo is a test build of the K-gun, the davit and the ready service stands. Next up, the quad 1.1 directors. It appears that Juneau had two Mk 37 and two Mk 44. Research so far indicates that the forward and after guns had the Mk 37 and the wing guns had the Mk 44. This is yet to be verified.

Regards, rjccjr

[Michael Mash]

May I "salute" your labor of sheer stubbornness and a refusal to quit.
Juneau looks good in that fourth image.
Mike

[rjccjr]

HI All;

After studying the Navsource photo mentioned last week, the conclusion was that the existing drawing would have been OK for San Diego or San Juan, but the picture was unique to Juneau. Sooo... Much of this week was spent redrawing the quarterdeck to suit the evidence. What got done was the deck, new mushroom vents, Fire directors and shields for the quad 1.1 inch batteries and the construction of thirty depth charges. That was about as fascinating as watching beach erosion.

About gun sleeves and life rafts, their application and location were always changing depending on ship activity at any given time. The gun sleeves were evidently used when that area of the ship happened to be in wet conditions. They were not present when the turrets were in use, probably because they presented a flash or fire hazard.

Earlier on, a full page of life raft parts had been printed and partially used. It was discarded after the earlier application was thought to be complete. The left side of the photo shows three rafts lashed to the deck. So a new page had to be printed. There also appear to be two more rafts attached to the superstructure above the wing turrets. Good thing the drawings are retained in computer folders for just such surprises. The quad 1.1 fire directors are a very early type Mk 44. All four appear to be the same. These were either in splinter tubs or behind shields. They were on a pedestal with two operator seats and were not slaved to the guns, as were later versions. Still to made, are six transfer davits, six K-guns, and twenty four ready service pedestals. That's why the thirty depth charges with a couple of spares were done first to make sure that they were all pretty much the same size. It appears that, here and there, several more charges were lashed to the deck in various locations along the superstructure.

The first photo shows the revised quarter deck derived from the navsource photo. The second shows revised ready service lockers, director tubs and four Mk44 directors, which will probably have to be revised. The third picture shows one page with thirty two life rafts. Three have been cut out and assembled. The last photo shows thirty depth charges, two mushroom vents, three rafts, two director tubs and the K-gun with ready service post which were assembled last week. One director and one ready service locker will need to be assembled this week to get the proportion right and if needed the drawings corrected.

Regards, rjccjr

[Don Boose]

Catching up with this excellent build. All the guns, rafts, and deck furniture look good to me. I enjoy hearing about how you overcome problems and work to insure accuracy (based on existing documentation and images). This ship underwent a lot of changes, some of them "field expedient" modifications and painting, so a lot of judgment and examination of evidence is required. You have the experience to carry out those judgment calls.

You are producing a well-informed and scrupulous three-dimensional historical analysis.

Don

[rjccjr]

Hi All;
Work slowed down lately, what has been accomplished is the revision of the quarter deck. The K-guns and depth charges are progressing, but will take considerable time. Thought was given to replacing the entire quarter deck with the new revision, but that would take more rebuilding than it is worth, so the old position markers were simply painted out with water color paint. It isn't neat, but will have to do. The ready service lockers and mushroom vents had to be redrawn because the proportions were over scale. Many commercial drawings and models have life rafts stowed high on the after superstructure sides, but photographs do not support this. Storage of rafts on the quarter deck, three high, do show on the previously cited navsource picture. So that's the arrangement on this model. Since a lot of items were moveable, finding the true positions at the time of the ship's loss is so far impossible to prove and it is a best guess situation. Photo 1r is a top shot of the quarterdeck. The rafts, vents, trunks and lockers are in the right locations. The old white location markers are painted over, but need another coat. The lack of coverage is my own fault. The prototype was taken out for a demonstration during a local exhibit. It was over sprayed to avoid ink bleed in case of rain. The card of the original print is absorbent and takes water color easily. Once over sprayed it becomes quite water resistant. Picture 2r is a starboard side profile. 5r is a port side profile. 6r is an angle shot of the quarterdeck and the last one is the forecastle. The way things are going, the drawings for the forward deck furniture will probably have to be revised. At least it is a motivator, the model is too far along to quit now.
Regards, rjccjr