The Ship Model Forum

If not teak, what type of wood did carrier decks utilize?

What type of Fire Control Directors did the Indy have after her April 1942 refit? And also, where can you get them for 1/700 scale?

Any help would be most appreciated.


Bob Pink

3D Models

This probably should have been appended to the thread below, but it took me five hours to dig this all out of the files and I didn't want it to get lost. (I really have to finish that book....)

INDIANAPOLIS

Indianapolis became the flagship of Commander, Scouting Force, in late 1933. As such, for most of her pre-war history she attached herself as the last ship in a cruiser division rather than taking the position of the divisional lead ship. (This often affected the turret colors and aircraft markings.)

1934 photos show her with the “Squadron” flag painted atop turrets 1, 2, and 3. The colors are a checkerboard pattern of (clockwise) white, blue, yellow, and red. She was attached to CruDiv Five at the time.

At some point in 1935, the flags atop turrets 1 and 3 were painted out and a white “35" was painted atop Turret 1. (CruDiv Five marked its ship colors only on Turret 2 at that time).

In June 1935 Indianapolis reattached herself to CruDiv Six. As such, the Squadron flag should have been repainted atop Turret 3, but I have no photos to prove that this happened.

In November 1935 the Commander Cruisers, Scouting Force canceled the system for turret painting. (A February 1936 letter to ComScoFor would complain that “several ships” had not yet complied with the change order.) I’ve not yet found the orders explaining what the new turret markings were to be, but photos suggest the hull number was applied with the ships division and divisional position identified by the color of the number and the turret to which the number was applied. (I’ve found refs to specific documents, but haven’t yet found those docs in the Archives.)

On 10 August 1937 CinC US ordered a new turret identification scheme – the scheme now familiar as seen on the ships at Pearl Harbor. CruDiv Six was to have a black band on its forward turrets. Some ships would paint only Turret 2, others would paint turrets 1 and 2. The top of Turret 3 was painted in the individual ship color. In August 1938 CruDiv Six clarified that the forward black stripe was to be 8 feet wide on both turrets and the individual ship color was to be painted as a 12-foot-wide disc on the after turret; both colors remained black for Indianapolis.

In April 1940, when Indianapolis became the fifth ship in CruDiv Six, the disc color on Turret 3 was changed to Willow Green. The markings remained unchanged through December, when she moved to CruDiv Four. At this time the forward turret stripes became blue, with the Turret 3 disc once again painted black.

PORTLAND

Commander, Scouting Force, records show that Portland wore yellow atop Turret 2 in September 1934. This was totally appropriate for the fourth ship in CruDiv Five (with the divisional marking on Turret 2 and the color yellow designating the fourth ship in the division) which had been Portland’s assignment in most of 1933. However, in November 1933 Portland became the third ship in that division, and the turret color should have changed to white.

(A ship’s position within a division depended on the seniority of her commander. Since every command change could affect the turret color, Scouting Force had recommended that the turret colors be locked, regardless of the ship’s ranking – this is evidence that such a rule was enacted, even if briefly. The aircraft section assigned to each ship continued to change with the ship’s divisional position.)

On 7 July 1934 Portland became the third ship in CruDiv Six, a position she held until April 1935. For that period her turret marking should have been white paint atop Turret 3, though I’ve not found evidence that the change was made.

In April 1935 she returned to CruDiv Five as the second ship - in that position she should have carried red paint on Turret 2 - but again I’ve not proof the change was made.

By November 1935 the turret markings were ordered removed and the new system of hull number markings (noted above) appears to have been substituted.

At the time of the August 1937 introduction of a third turret marking system, Portland was the third ship in CruDiv Five – a position she held through the end of 1940. The stripes on forward turrets would have been Yellow and the paint on Turret 3 would have been Blue.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,



Dana