USS Iowa - Post 1989 explosion reconstruction and refurbishment.

[seadude]

[seadude]

[Old Wombat]

I'd keep the 40' Utility Boat (everyone needs a Jack-of-All-Trades) & the 33' Personnel Boat (Admirals like to ride in style) & replace the rest with various RHIBs.

Really is coming along well, mate!

[NARSES2]

Really is coming along well, mate!

Early contender for understatement of the year award  there Mr Wombat 

I'm dumbfounded by the level of detail and how much there is. I always think of modern warships as being fairly uncluttered and devoid of this type of infrastructure. Coming along tremendously 

[seadude]

Thanks for the compliments, guys. 
As for your comment, Old Wombat, I would probably agree.
The 26 ft. whaleboats are like a throwback to the ship's boats from the 40's and 50's.
It's high time they got replaced and updated with newer RHIB designs.

[Old Wombat]

Really is coming along well, mate!

Early contender for understatement of the year award  there Mr Wombat 

I'm dumbfounded by the level of detail and how much there is. I always think of modern warships as being fairly uncluttered and devoid of this type of infrastructure. Coming along tremendously 

Well, the ol' Iowa's not exactly a "modern warship", having been laid down in mid-1940 & commissioned in early-1943.

We're talking about the modernisation of a, roughly, 50 years old structure at the time seadude's build is occurring.

And I've already achieved the lead in the "Understatement of the Year" award elsewhere (Here, in fact).

[NARSES2]

Well, the ol' Iowa's not exactly a "modern warship", having been laid down in mid-1940 & commissioned in early-1943.

We're talking about the modernisation of a, roughly, 50 years old structure at the time seadude's build is occurring.

True. I'm just staggered by how much new stuff there is to be grafted on to her

[seadude]

Getting back to the below pic.........I need opinions.
I could possibly scratch build a whole new mast structure, but my eyesight isn't that good and trying to get all the styrene pieces either straight or at the correct angles won't be easy.
If I used the smaller platform that an RPV radome used to be on as shown in the upper left of the pic, I'm not sure if the platform could hold the weight of the Mk.23 TAS?
Anybody got any suggestions?

[seadude]

[seadude]

[seadude]

About the above pic concerning the wood decks.........

The planking on the TAMIYA 1/350 New Jersey kit is exceptionally narrow. Probably about 0.50 mm or less wide. Maybe even 0.30 mm.
And the space/gap between planks is even worse. Not very noticeable and not very deep either.
THE PLANKING AND THE SPACING BETWEEN PLANKS IS EXCEPTIONALLY NARROW. Almost to the point of needing a microscope to see it.
There is one alternative, but I am hesitant to do it as I'm hoping some way to still paint the wood decks a wood color.
The alternative is to paint ALL the wood decks a non-skid gunship gray color just like what I've been doing for some of my other deck pieces on my model. In short, ALL the horizontal decks on the model would be non-skid gunship gray (Except for the aft flight deck.) just like all the decks on an Arleigh Burke destroyer are non-skid gunship gray color.
Would it look weird? Yes, but since my model is a what if fantasy project, I could just say the Navy was testing and/or implementing new deck concepts.
And if I'm not too mistaken, I'm pretty sure I've seen some real photos of Iowa wood decks, (Particuarly at the aft area.) that were "painted over" with a non-skid gunship gray coating. The wood deck was still left in place, but a non-skid coating was applied on top of the wood.

As I said, I'm hesitant to try this alternative, but.......     Anybody have thoughts on this?

[Steel Penguin]

if plan A is a bust go with the anti skid,    it is just a line or 2 to add to the description to say that it was added due to reason X  or y  or due to admiral P realising that the wood was degrading  too quickly due to the actions of the JMN beetle,,, 

[NARSES2]

Some of our members who build WWI models might be able to help with the deck question ?

I'm running out of superlatives for this build, and I really like the inclusion of the saluting guns. Nice touch of detail that could easily be missed 

Seeing the ship's boats I have a quick question. Do USN capital ships have an Admiral's Barge ? Or do they spruce up the 33 foot Personnel Boat when required ?

[Old Wombat]

Sorry I didn't get back to you on you earlier mast question but I was torn between your choices.

Now that you have the second mast installed, I'd suggest you extend the legs down to the deck, as that is where the load bearing structures are, not in the funnels (unless you decide that the legs continue down inside the funnels to the deck).

I have no answers re: your wooden decks because, so far, I've only ever done anti-skid grey.


As for everything else ..... Bloody awesome!

[seadude]

Seeing the ship's boats I have a quick question. Do USN capital ships have an Admiral's Barge ? Or do they spruce up the 33 foot Personnel Boat when required ?

I don't think there's an Admiral's barge that is used. If there was, it may have been discontinued from service long ago. I think the 33ft Personnel boat is mostly used now.

As for the decks........I'm not sure what to do yet. I'm still thinking. If I do the tan decks, the deficiencies won't be noticeable if someone were 6 or more feet away. But have a spectator or contest judge get really up close with their flashlight poking around the model........and I'm screwed. With the non-skid gunship gray, at least I could make up any plausible explanation for that and maybe some people would believe it and go with it.
If I go with the gunship gray wood decks, there's 2 spots that I may leave painted the tan wood deck: the fantail area where the former two 40mm gun tubs are, and the 03 Level Signal Deck below the bridge area. I would leave these tan as a "reminder/nostalgia" for when the ships actually had teak wood decks to show.