USS Juneau CL-52

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

As Chester A. Riley used to say, "What a revoltin' development this is!" It took several days to clean up the third deck level, only to find that the computer had decided to save it at 140 percent of the 1/192 scale profile. After thinking about the problem, I went back, looked at the deck levels and decided that the dimensions at the first platform deck were actually closer to the water level plan anyway. So, a copy of the port profile, which is correct to scale, was made and the first platform inserted below. At least the two would be compatible when cleaned up. Photo 1d shows the third deck. It is saved in case later adjustments become necessary. Photo 2d shows the partly cleaned platform with the profile.

Having some experience with working on the real thing, before the age of the computer, I've realized that when working with a booklet of general plans you can't take anything for granted. Tracings may or may not be suitable. Personally, the real plan is more useful. First it matters whether the plan was rolled or stored flat. A lot depends upon how they were reproduced. If the plan was laid out on a table for photo reproduction, it should be perfectly flat with the camera device directly above. Most plans are drawn on linen. It tends to reproduce as a grayish hue. The camera lens may distort the lines on the drawing slightly and it certainly will pick up every bit of debris and wrinkle or tear in the linen. Even if tears are carefully mended, the line may be slightly distorted. If you are going to design a model from these plans, the first thing you need is a perfectly vertical and perfectly horizontal reference line. This will detect whether the drawing is at an angle on either axis, or has bumps due to reproduction. You then need to establish a ruler graduated in tenths of an inch. That will serve to insure the dimensions.

For a profile drawing, the horizontal reference lines should be at the waterline and at the keel. For a plan or deck drawing the reference line should be directly down the center. If the drawing is not perfectly flat these lines will detect it. Sometimes the drawing centerline is slightly wobbled or asymmetrical. Once you have this accomplished, you can get on with the clean up. Photo 3d shows the insets for the starboard side of the island and the stacks. They are partly cleaned at the moment and will be used to generate the starboard profile later on. The last photo is a half mid ship area bulkhead. Once cleaned and adjusted for scale it will be used to establish the validity of the plan view dimensions. It will also be used to clarify drawings of the island, bridge, stacks and the hull bulge. There is still a very long way to go, but the beginning of the central keel, the water line plate and the bulkhead arrangement is in view.

Regards, rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

Things went well this session. The profile drawing was opened and the cleaned up, then the cleaned up first platform deck was transferred to it. The drawing was aligned and sectioned. It was printed to scale joined and together. The dimensions matched the profile print out. The waterline beam is a hair off at .016", which is negligible. Both drawings are a little over long, but they are both in proportion and can be adjusted. Work has now begun at cleaning up the weather deck and the flight deck using the same method. Work has also begun at cleaning up several bulkheads and the starboard profile. There are several discrepancies due to the reproduction process of the separate sheets from the booklet of general plans. It is tedious work, but nothing that cannot be dealt with.

DR 1 shows the waterline base below the port profile. DR 2 shows the waterline drawing cleaned up and ready for test printing. Photo 001 shows them both printed out to scale. Dr 3 shows the early progress on the flight deck. DR 4 shows the start of cleaning on the weather deck. The last drawing shows the beginning of work on a bulkhead approximately mid ship. There is a lot of cleaning and adjusting to do but the basis of a model is in the mess somewhere.

Regards, rjccjr

[rjccjr]

Hi All;

Cleaning up booklet of general plans sheets is a very tedious process, which takes a looong time. Tedium tends to bring on the dreaded doldrums, which can cause you to walk away from the project. So, to sustain interest, it's a good idea to switch tasks every now and then. Sooner or later I'm going to come to grips with the problem of designing parts in color and getting them to print out with reasonable accuracy.

In the mid seventies, I got interested in accurate colors schemes for models. First it was focused on aircraft, but then moved along to ships. In April of 1979 a gentleman named Del Palmieri started publishing a series of articles devoted to accurate color schemes for US Navy ships, with an eye to formulas for paint schemes for models. These articles are a very scholarly labor. The series ran in the British Magazine Scale Models for six installments and then Del was involved in a very serious automobile crash, which nearly killed him. In 1981 the series resumed and ran to eighteen articles. Shortly afterwards Dell succumbed to his injuries. Even today that series is just about the best source of information for World War II colors for modelers. We met at a regional IPMS convention in New York and he kindly loaned, some authentic navy color chips, for a while. That led to the color scheme applied to a 1/295 model of the USS Indianapolis, which was my first completely scratch built ship model. Today, the most accurate reproductions available of these chips are from the Snyder and Short company.

Photo 1r shows the start of Del's series. All eighteen articles are in there. Photo 2r shows the album of amassed color information for ships and aircraft from numerous countries. Photo 3r shows the reproduced color chips, with the formulas on the back. Underneath is FS 595 with changes up to 1979. Photo 4r shows the color chips separated. Photo 5r shows a copy of Ships 2, the regulations for ship camouflage during World War II. Photo 6r shows the color chips for CV-23 as translated for computer application. Though not perfect, they print out pretty well on a test page. Shown in 7r is the next step, applying the colors to simplified profile drawings, not to scale, to see how the measure 33, design 7A scheme would appear. This translation is only partly complete to date. It's way too early to attempt to apply it to the full scale profiles since the details of the profiles are incomplete. In drawing 8r the reproduction of the flight deck layout and coloration is to scale and involves getting the spacing between tie down strip and the deck colors along with the cleanup of the flight deck drawing from the booklet of general plans. There are eleven planks between tie down strips of wooden flight decks.

Regards, rjccjr