The Ship Model Forum

Great photos of the bridge chairs and variations as well as the presence, non presence of the foot rests. Also a good view of the dog arrangement on the pilot house door. Note the upper surface of the12" signal lamp is painted 20B!

Regards: Tom

G-r-e-a-t!!!! So NOW he posts these photos.....After we've already built this stuff



Hank

Willie - your bridge details look excellent, as usual!!!

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HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

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Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).

Of course Commander Willie is authorized to make whatever alteration, deletions or additions of small items during yard periods to HIS ship.

I did laugh at one of the officers (Caine Mutiny) joking about having to get BuShips authorization to weld a bunk to the hull, being a hull alteration.

Added items should always be plausible and useful.

Regards: Tom

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Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).

Willie,

That object appears to be a bulwark mounted binocular stand - I've not found another photo or drawing of it at all. The photo is from 1956 so it very well could have been a modified Sky Lookout mount cut down from the WWII version of the Sky Lookout Chair & Binocular Stand. It appears to have one of the large bridge binoculars mounted with a pair of handles for maneuvering. We had either 2 or 4 of these on NEW JERSEY (011 Level) and if I can find the photo in my cruise book, I'll post it. The binocular mount looks to be simply a plate welded to a pipe stanchion and that welded to the bulwark. The binocular mount was probably removeable from the stand.

As both of my TFD Plan Books show items from WWII, this equipment is not included.

Hope this helps (somewhat... )

Hank

_________________
HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

Yes, those are 20 power (20x120) bridge binoculars. I printed some on a pedestal for use on several models though as shown here can be mounted on a pipe welded to a bulwark. I remember Turner Joy had sets of these mounted on the bridge wings. In the photo one of the handles used to assist in pointing can be seen.



Cheers: Tom

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Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).

Willie,
Your forward tripod mast looks good - I drew up this mast in 2D CAD quite a few years ago and then last year did some revising to small details prior to designing the whole mast in 3D for eventual 3D printing. I had the 1968 BoGP stbd profile of the ship to go by and I can't recall now the angle from straight up that the mast sits, but it is somewhere between 5 and 15 deg. Here is the side view of my 2D CAD drawing:

From this I developed the 3D design and here is the result -

This is actually two parts, the lower mast and upper mast. It does not include the yardarms. And here is the printed lower mast, it took approx 5 prints with modifications along the way to get to this point -

The final version does include the yardarms. The upper mast I have printed (3 copies) and will eventually get it cleaned up and off it's printing supports and mated to the lower unit.

More than likely all these tripod masts were basically the same in structure, but had different instruments/RADARs/antennas depending on the ship, etc.

Keep up the good work!!!

Hank

_________________
HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

I wonder if the mast rake on the tripod was the same as for the pole mast? On my DE I was lucky to have drawings of the mast which specified the rake in inches per foot. As I printed the bridge structure and the mast passed through the O2 and O3 levels (anchored in the O1) I was able to accurately set up the rake in the design of the bridge structure and establish the degree of tilt required for the platforms.

All the 3D geometry is not always easy to establish!

Cheers: Tom

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Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).

I have in the past similarly built masts from tube or styrene. The 1:515 Whitehurst has a brass tube mast. For the 1:144 version I was fortunate to have detailed mast plans. Interestingly the mast tapers both at the top and bottom and I was able to replicate this in my printing design. With brass for instance telescoping units can be used and putty added then the unit turned. I used this method for the main batteries on Missouri and Alaska as I did not have a lathe at the time, but the result was good. The difficulty with printed masts is that they are quite flexible. Making them hollow and reinforcing with Steel piano wire is quite effective.

At any rate you mast is coming along well and five degrees seems a reasonable number. Mine was delineated in inches per foot, or was it furlongs per fortnight?

Best regards: Tom

Willie wrote:

Willie,
Here are a couple design file shots of the underside of my tripod mast assembly. Originally, I had drawn several 2D views of the mast when I was designing it years ago (side elevation), front elevation, bottom view, top view) but have since given up my 2D CAD license so no longer can access those design files. I may or may not have made screen shots of those plans but have since thrown them out after the 3D mast was designed & constructed. So, here is what my mast looks like from the underside:


This assembly includes just about everything that will go on the mast except for some small instruments that are glued to the ends of a few small rods here & there. This also includes the wave guide for the AN-SPS-6 RADAR mounted on the lower platform and down the stbd side of the front tripod leg. As I mentioned prior, I printed my mast in several parts so these screen shots are of a composite of those parts all in one file "assembled".

I know it's rather complicated to view, but that's the best I can provide at the moment. I hope this answers your question. Also, 5° on the mast rake sounds about right. One other note - I used a scaled print of my 2D design when I drew up the 3D parts and overlaid the 2D printout with the 1968 scaled copy of the BoGP on my light table to ensure that the mast had the proper rake, size, etc. etc.

Anyhow, your mast is coming along nicely - each of these will be somewhat different in their final form.

Hank

_________________
HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

_________________
Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).

Perhaps the Fletchers didn't get the Hedgehogs as early as the DE's, especially in the Pacific a couple of Orlikons might have been considered more useful. The DE's by comparison were considered more expendable, after all DE stands for destroyer "Expendable". Thanks to our Brit friends who developed this ahead projector. Of course they had some reason to have interest in the issue. Definitely a war of the "Boffins".

Always glad to see Willie's progress on this interesting warship!

Tom

During WWII, only units primarily ASW had ONE hedgehog installed (some of the flush-deckers, of course all DE's, and other misc units like USCG cutters). The fleet destroyers (FLETCHER, SUMNER, and GEARING) had TWO hedgehogs installed in about 1951 (depending onward availability).

Rick:

Good information as always, thanks! Tom

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Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).

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Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso (Lk 23,43).

Willie!

A clever solution to a 3 dimensional issue. Working with styrene has some advantages, in comparison to 3D printing. The thin styrene sheet is smoother and crisper than an equivalent printed piece and probably stronger. The main disadvantage is requiring assembly from a plethora of small pieces. The tripod mast on my Missouri is from Styrene and complicated by having many crossbars and diagonal braces. Your round head solution was quite good indeed!

Best wishes! Tom