USS Juneau CL-52 - Page 9

**georgerutherford1861** · #81 04-03-2023, 07:11 AM

It is looking good, I enjoy checking in on your progress. Sorry to hear about the technical difficulties, but glad to see you forging ahead again.

Doug

**rjccjr** · #82 04-16-2023, 02:30 PM

Hi all;
The doldrums set in during the holidays and I took a week off. Work resumed this week and there was something of a building frenzy. Quite a lot of detail has been added to the superstructure as shown in the first two photos. The mock up model had double walled splinter shields, which were too thick and misshapen. An attempt to fix that took a some experimentation. At first, simply painting the inside area of the shield with gray water colors was tried. Nah! Didn't look right. Then an attempt was made to do the inside by printing the reverse side of the card. Too difficult to get the registration of the reverse precise and the shields were suspiciously thin. Last up was to print the back on plain paper. You have to curve the splinter shield before gluing the paper backing and take care to get the fit right, but it worked. The 1.1" quad wing tubs on the forward superstructure are high up and access is made by vertical ladders close to the wall. It took quite a lot of study to even see them in available photos, but it got figured out. You can see the rearrangement in photos 6r and 7r. The shape of the floor of the mount is quite different from the mock up. That after section of the mid ship deck house is still not satisfactory, but the drawings are now corrected. It is just too much trouble to print it out and build it again. Photo 8r shows the improper fit. The general structure is OK, but it doesn't sit right. There are numerous doors, ladders and fire hoses in the section, that are a pain in the neck to keep cutting and applying. Maybe toward the end of the build, if everything else looks right, it will get replaced. The twenty MM gallery shields have been test fitted and are now correct. I'm eager to build at least one quad 1.1 mount and a couple of 20 MM guns to check the fit in the tubs. If one assembly needs correction this is a good time to do it since you only have to correct one drawing for several guns.
Regards, rjccjr

**Douglas Urantia** · #83 04-16-2023, 07:08 PM

Oh wow.!!! when I used to make these ships I just used a line of dark paint for upright pipes on the side of the deck structure. My clients loved it. It coming along fine.

**rjccjr** · #84 04-28-2023, 12:59 PM

Hi All,
CL-52 has come quite a way. The idea of doing the back side of splinter shields with paper works pretty well. Most of the gun tub and search light shields are in place. The flag bags and aft stack base are also. Although the prototype is not yet as far along as the mockup, it's starting to look fairly good. The first two pictures are general arrangement shots, one alone and the other with the mock up so you can see the difference. Photo three gives a good idea of the deck houses amidships. The last shows the gun tubs at the stern in contrast with the mockup. The next step is to get the fire directors detailed and installed. The rotator tables are under construction at the moment. The idea is that, if the guns can be rotated the fire directors should rotate as well.
Regards, rjccjr

**rjccjr** · #85 05-07-2023, 01:16 PM

Hi All;
Well, the fire directors are now in place. Each unit, including the rotator discs, the cabinet and the radar, has fifty three pieces and is about the size of two dice cubes piled one atop the other. The first photo shows the cabinet, the mount, and the disassembled radar unit before final assembly. The second shot is the forward director in position before gluing. The third shot shows the difference between the mockup unit and the prototype. The devils in the details. The last shot shows both units installed. The screens on the radar antennae were made from ordinary copy paper, because the card version was too heavy and cumbersome. The lighter version works well. The rotator disc assemblies are quite successful and allow the directors to rotate quite cleanly. Now, for the funnel assemblies.
Regards, rjccjr

**rjccjr** · #86 05-15-2023, 02:28 PM

Hi All;
Progress on CL-52 has now evolved to the point where the major parts of the model are in place and fit properly. The first photo shows the basic stacks simply set in place. The last details are added to the gun directors and they are attached. The remaining photos show the pipes, vents and ladders attached to the stacks. What remains are small parts and assemblies such as guns and turrets can be constructed as modules. The main turrets and directors can all rotate and elevate to be posed. This will all take a great deal of time, but the hardest part of the project is behind. Except for the mast work, which is likely to get complicated. As you can see, CL-52 is starting to look like what it is supposed to be.
Regards, rjccjr

**georgerutherford1861** · #87 05-16-2023, 07:33 AM

It is looking really good. Man, I would have hated to be on the receiving end of all those 5" guns. I think I read somewhere that there was quite some debate on its ability in a light cruiser role to have much penetrating power against other ships, but the devastation it could deal out to aircraft, or in my mind if you could land some shots around the opponent's bridge, would have been quite considerable.

Doug

**Michael Mash** · #88 05-16-2023, 07:43 AM

I agree with Doug. Your USS Juneau has come along nicely.
Mike

**Douglas Urantia** · #89 05-16-2023, 07:06 PM

A 5" gun can ruin your day. Their destructive power is awesome in the extreme.

**rjccjr** · #90 05-26-2023, 12:41 PM

Hi All;
For those of you who have had to deal with builders block here are a couple of suggestions aimed at getting around it. First is to do at least one thing a day whether you want to or not. Some jobs are very tedious so it's ok to slow way down. Just do not come to a complete stop. Sometimes it's just a matter of cutting out one difficult piece, but those pieces gradually amount to something. Second is to walk away from the main project and do something completely different just for fun. CL-52 is a very demanding undertaking. To design it and get it built takes several years. When I was young and did not have tremors, there were usually several projects going on at the same time. When I hit the wall with one, it was simple enough to switch off and pick up something else. In the first picture you can see where the project arrived at the point where the major components were in place and effort switched over to dealing with small detailed items. In the second picture there was need for a break and so attention turned to something very different. It was a breath of fresh air, Admiral Byrd's Snow Traveler. It isn't particularly challenging, but a lot of fun, still a fascinating machine, a good idea that didn't work, mostly because it was rushed to meet a deadline and never really had a chance. Reading the history of the machine displays a comedy of errors worthy of the Marx Brothers. The third picture shows the davits and the business end of the boat crane in place. Sixteen parts for the davits and four for the crane tip. The boats are cut, but not yet assembled. The fourth photo is the first of three quad 1.1 AA mounts. It took about a week and a half to get right. The last is the fifty part mount placed beside a penny, just to provide contrast. Two more to go. Daunting? You bet it is. Awfully glad that it isn't done with super glue, that thought is frightening.
Regards, rjccjr