USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 by Hank - FINISHED - Trumpeter - 1:200 - PLASTIC

[Hank]

Purchase of the Trumpeter 1:200 MISSOURI kit took place the last week of Nov. 2013. I received the kit today, Dec. 05, and began to access what was needed to turn this into a model of USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) in her 1967-69 configuration.

 

As for reference materials, I will be using various sources in order to obtain the best information possible for this project. They include, but are not limited to:

 

USS MISSOURI Plan Book – 1945 - The Floating Drydock
Battleship NEW JERSEY – Paul Stillwell
IOWA Class Battleships - Robert Sumrall
United States Battleships, 1935-1992 - W.H. Garzke, Jr. & R.O. Dulin, Jr.
Photoetching for the Plastic Ship Modeler - Loren Perry
Dreadnaught Returns & Dreadnaught Farewell –  Neil Leifer
Dreadnaught 68-69 - 1968-69 USS NEW JERSEY Cruise Book – LTJG J.T. Vernallis, Editor
USS NEW JERSEY – The Navy’s Big Guns – Neil Leifer
Warship Data – USS MISSOURI (BB-63)
Warship Data – USS IOWA (BB-61)
The IOWA Class Battleships – Malcolm Muir
U.S. Battleships – An Illustrated Design History – Norman Friedman

 

USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) Plans –
Floating Drydock – Deck Plan/Sheer Elevation – 1967 – Tom Walkowiak
Floating Drydock – G Series, from U.S. Navy Plan Book

 

In addition to the plans/publications listed above, I will be referencing photos taken by myself aboard NEW JERSEY and those of Tom Fally in visits to MISSOURI (BB-63) in Pearl Harbor, HI.

 

The model will be bashed as necessary to achieve the 1967 renovations made to NEW JERSEY at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. Those include: removal of all 40mm AA batteries, removal of various HVAC ventilators and repositioning; the addition of the UHF antenna on the bow of the ship, addition of the 4 ABM Chaff Launchers (modified Zuni Rocket pods), modification to the forward fire control tower with addition of the ECM suite, modifications to the forward/aft masts and radars, addition of the helo pad on the fantail and supporting equipment, and various other minor changes made to the ship at that time.

In addition to the basic kit, Teak Decking will be installed over the kit deck on the main deck and 01-04 levels as well as photoetched details will be utilized in place of plastic parts from the kit. These are or will be provided from a third party vendor.

 

Vendors under consideration are:

 

Pontos – Basic PE Detail Up Set w/o Deck (purchased)
Scaledecks – Uncut Teak Deck sections as necessary
Nautilus Models – Uncut Teak Deck sections as necessary
Toms Modelworks – PE Doors & Hatches (purchased), Upright Stairs & Ladders, and various other PE deck equipment and fittings
Gold Medal Models – 1:200 scale U.S. Navy Decals (purchased)

 

At this point I've done an initial assessment of the kit and have a couple observations to make:

 

    1) The PE provided in the kit has been evaluated for it's strength (thickness) and may be used where appropriate. In addition, the Pontos Teak Deck Detail Set may be purchased for the 01-04 Level decks and PE equipment - the main deck is not suitable for this build. Under consideration is the uncut Teak Decking from Scaledecks which will be fashioned for the main deck of the model.

    2) Kit provided decals are deemed not suitable for this build - GMM decals were purchased and will be incorporated throughout.

 

I am still looking over choices for solvent based paints to be used (Haze Grey/Deck Grey). I've decided on Gundam Mr. Color #29 – Hull Red (Bottle) and GSI Creos Mr. Color Hull Red (Spray) for used on the models bottom (paint purchased).

 

So, for the initial "eyes-on" of the kit, I'm fairly satisfied with what I've seen so far. There has been some discontent by other modelers as to the hull of this model and whether or not it's underside faring aft of the skege keels down towards the inboard shaft skegs is correct. I am not going to get into this argument at this time - there's a lot of other decisions to make before deciding that the hull needs revamping - a major task to be sure.

 

Once my shop area has been policed, inspected, Field Day held, and all scallywags, drifties, slackers, and any other riff-raff taken to the brig, construction will commence.

 

Hank

[JeffT]

Interesting build. I look forward to seeing it.

[augie]

It's apparent you've given this project some serious thought.  Best of luck to you.  Think I'll be dropping by (the teak deck put me over the edge).

[Hank]

Jeff,

 

Thanks for the support!

 

Augie,

 

Well, the serious thought took place back in the '60's - the application was thwarted by dried up paints when I was doing this on the 1:350 Life-Like/Tamiya kits back in the 90's. So, now with the 1:200 scale at hand and many more super detail sets available - decking to name one, I'm tackling this again. Hopefully, this will have a successful conclusion.

 

Hank

[WackoWolf]

Hank,

 

    I am glade that you are doing this fine ship, I was on her last year when I went down to see Chuck at one of his club meetings. She is beautiful. I got a question for you about the kit. Does it have blast bags for the big guns, and are they separate pieces or made into the turrets? I know the bags are different for the 62 and 63. Are you going to make your own bags for the turrets?

Edited December 6, 2013 by WackoWolf

[Hank]

WW,

 

The blast bags, or Bloomers as we used to call them, are separate pieces for each gun. This is a very nice improvement over the Tamiya 1:350 battleship kits. I bought the upgrade kit from Trumpeter which is metal barrels, anchors, screws - I'm not sure yet whether I'll use the kit plastic or these metal ones; more than likely I will. The 5"/38 upgrade barrels are brass and I will use these in place of the kit plastic.

 

I may refer to photos of the actual bags on NJ 67-69 for comparison to the kit bags before I decide on making ones from scratch. One of the modelers posting on Ship Model Forum is building MISSOURI (1:192 - semi-scratch) and posted photos of his hand-made bloomers and they turned out nice. This would be a good application for Sculpy or similar modeling putty.

 

Hank

[michael20]

I wanna see it, I wanna see it. I've been looking at this kit to build but I wanted to see some builds of it first. I am looking forward to seeing your build. As time goes on I'm sure plenty of other aftermarket details will be offered for this kit. Good luck.

Happy modeling,

Martin G.

[freewheelinguy]

Morning Hank,

 

So another is crossing over into the world of plastic.  I am as well after my Billy build, but starting my experiment into plastic with a lesser build to get my feet wet.  Plastic isn't the same as when we were kids.  I was totally blown away what can be achieved when I attended a IPMS show down in Richmond a couple years back. These kits with their after market upgrades are very impressive.  Plus the 1/200 scale for ships that are hitting the market allows for much more visible detail.

 

If there's any questions primarily pertaining to the 5"38 guns, just give a yell.  Glad I was assigned to these instead of the 16's (much too large, lol).  My bunk was just inside where the whale boat was on the port side main deck.

 

Looking forward to further updates.  Have a blast.

 

Len

[Hank]

Martin,

 

Well, can't say when pix will show up but keep an eye out - I hope to get started in the next week or so.

 

 

Len,

 

Hey, Guy!!! Yea, you were right across the ship from us - were you in 4th Div.? My Enlisted Personnel Office is (or was in 2004) a nasty ole storage area and our berthing area (X Division) has been made into the walk-thru museum (stbd. side).

 

You are correct in that there is plenty of 3rd party stuff out there for these kits. But, this NEW JERSEY (67-69 configuration) was unique and many of the 3rd party vendors haven't a good feel about the profitability of offering detail sets (PE, decking) specifically for this era. So, I'm sort of picking and choosing how to go about this.

 

I do have one question re. MT. 51/52 - the forward-most mounts - did they or did they NOT have the sight hoods on the top rear of the mount? I'm of the opinion that they had been removed and a couple photos in my collection seem to bear this out.

 

Later,

 

Hank

[Hank]

As for the gray paints - I've ordered Master Modeler Light Sea Gray (bottle/spray) for the Haze Gray vertical surfaces, Master Modeler Gunship Gray (bottle/spray) for the Deck Gray horizontal surfaces. These two colors were available in both spray and bottle and that was the determining factor. I consulted the Tester's comparison chart on their website and the Lt. Sea Gray was very close to the Neutral Gray, which was not offered in a spray. In addition, I've ordered flat white, flat black bottles in the Master Modeler Series, as well.

Still waiting on the Teak Deck samples from Scaledecks but I've already thought of a way to incorporate their uncut decking for use on the main deck - this will entail CAD drafting the shape of the main deck (actual wood areas) exact size and then printing this out. Adhesive spray glue to hold the pattern in place and then cutting out from the uncut deck piece. I've considered actually putting the deck on the ship upside down and adhering the teak to that side, thus eliminating the sanding flush of all raised areas molded into the deck, but I'm not completely sold on that idea. The other side of the coin is to draw up the paper pattern with all raised areas (hatches), etc. drawn in as cutouts. I may do this first, and see what kind of fit I get. I do know there will be some sanding off of minor items. Pre-formed holes in the deck that are deemed necessary will obviously be drilled out in the teak decking, as well.

Styrene plastic rods, squares, and bars I horded for years will now finally be used (if needed) on this build.

That brings us up to date.

 

Hank

[freewheelinguy]

I guess cause NJ was the only Viet Nam era not much interest for 3rd party stuff.  I've only been aboard once on the initial invitation opening for previous crew members.  At that time there was limited internal access, so I couldn't access my berthing area.  Yes, I was in the fourth division.  After I made 2nd class my berthing changed to just forward of the main deck aft head and showers on the port side.  Wouldn't allow me to stay back berthing with the lower class enlisted men.  Too funny. Did like the head of line eating privileges though.

 

As far as I can recall all 5" mounts had metal hoods top rear.  My last general quarters station was 56 mount captain. The fixed hood covered the mount opening with only the front totally open.  Never knew the proper name, but sight hood does work even though no sights just naked eyes.  I would stand on a platform with my head and shoulders up in the hood.  I don't have access to my cruise book or the Life book (at my wife's house buried in the attic somewhere) but if you do maybe the overhead shots going through the Panama canal would show the hoods.  Don't know why the forward most mounts would have them removed, so 52/54 show them in your latest info?

 

Len

[jud]

The only 5"38's, twin or single, without the Gun Caption blast shield that I have seen were open mounts. 5" 38's were double porpoise guns and often were placed where an adjacent gun blast would make the Gun Caption observation of where the gun was pointed intermittent and difficult. We did have stop firing cams which opened the firing circuit if the gun was pointing at any topside structures, but they were not set up to interrupt the firing if a neighboring gun waved it's barrel into the line of fire, hence the Gun Captions head sticking out so he could keep track of  what was in front of his gun. Doubt that those hoods were removed from any guns mounted on commissioned ships, were it me, I would include the shields on Mounts 51 and 52.

jud.

[freewheelinguy]

Jud,

 

Good point.  Forgot about a gun aft of me blasting my head off.  I know when we took our first shake down cruise to fire the guns.  The shipyard people (yardbirds)  had these large metal containers for bringing equipment on board from the dock (guessing about 8/10 ft sides 1/4" thick or larger, 1968 is a long time ago) aft but forward of turret three and after firing these boxes were quite deformed from the blast percussion.

[joemo]

Hank,

 

Good luck with your build.

It will bring back memories of the battleship New Jersey with us in the Gulf of Tonkin, Yankee station.

Joe (USS Oriskany  68-70)

[rjones726]

Hank,

A number of places you have mentioned "PE", and I am curious as to what those letters stand for in these instances.  Just my ignorance showing.

 

Walt Biles

Hi Walt, I'm not Hank but I can answer your question. PE stands for photoetch. Usually brass sometimes stainless steel. Used to produce tiny, delicate details such as railings, ladders, antennae, etc.

v/r,

Rob

[Hank]

Well, let's see:

Len - the picture I have (Panamal Canal forward looking aft) shows 51/52 without hoods. I'm guessing that they could cause a conflict with the bottom of the after bridge overhang, above those particular mounts, when the mount was traversed.

 

Walter - you've got your answer!!

 

Jud - the IOWA's only had twin 5"/38 enclosed mounts. The open mounts were on the older, pre-WWII battleships, such as ARIZONA/PENNSYLVANIA/TENNESSEE, etc. BB55 forward all had the twin enclosed mounts.

 

Joe - I remember you guys!!! Thanks for the encouragement!

 

Later,

 

Hank

[Old Collingwood]

Hi hank,

 

Great build a very interesting a mighty ship to build,  have you also considered getting hold of a copy of Under Siege, as i believe that was filmed on NJ and should give some interesting viewpoints. 

 

 

C.

[jud]

Some Auxiliary and support ships still had open 5"38 mounts when I was in, 59-68. I rode a Fletcher Can with single mounts as the main battery and our 3" 50's were open mounts like we had on the Helena except the Helena's 3" guns did not have the fire control radar antenna on the mount. The Helena did have twin 5" 38s as a secondary duel propose  battery, she like the Ammen had all of the 40MM guns removed and replace with 3" guns. Those 40's were very good guns when used on the rivers of RVN. Both the water cooled twins and the air cooled single mounts were used, we kept a fire hose in the water tanks of the twins, without that cooling water those guns would blow hot water and steam all over us.

jud

[Hank]

O.C. - I have Under Siege - that movie was filmed mostly on ALABAMA and a small portion on MISSOURI. NEW JERSEY did not play a part I the movie.

 

Jud - I also was on a Fletcher class can - USS STODDARD (DD-566) - 66-68, Westpac 66-67. We had the single 5"/38 mounts and the 3 open 3"/50 mounts that were replacements for the orig. 40mm mounts. I was 3rd loader and then mount captain on MT. 32 and then 33 before I was transferred to a Sumner class Fram 1 can.

 

Hank

[mtaylor]

Hank,

Looks like everything is planned and ready to go... I hope you don't mind if I pull up a chair.   

 

When did the New Jersey leave RVN for the last time?  I arrived in the middle of December, 1969 and several times over next 6 months, we saw the flashes at sea and heard the shells roaring overhead.  I was at Marble Mountain...  puzzlement as I remember someone telling me it was the NJ.  Now I'm wondering if it was another BB or maybe a Heavy Cruiser.

[Hank]

Ready to go??? I won't go into it, but NO, N-O-T quite yet. But, getting all the ducks in a row. Pull up a chair, Aye!!

 

Our one and only WesPac cruise was Sept. 68 - April 69. We were scheduled to depart Long Beach in Sept. 69 but Nixon cut 50 ships in August and we headed the list. It seems the main sticking point at the Paris Peace Talks was one item - NEW JERSEY - the reason being they had absolutely NOTHING that could stop us and it was the deal breaker. So, we didn't return, the talks continued and history took it's course. I know this first hand from Capt. Snyder (later R. Adm. Snyder) our C.O. at the time. He was relieved, and Capt. Penniston took us to Bremerton in Sept. 69-Dec.69 for decomm. End of story. 

 

What you probably heard were the 8" shells from either NEWPORT NEWS or ST PAUL. One of them relieved us and alternated up until one of them had her 8" turret problems. NEW JERSEY was the only battleship reactivated for Vietnam Service.

 

Later,

 

Hank

 

[Hank]

Last night was mainly shop area cleanup, actual modeling was off the table. Tonight (Tues.) I plan to get the bow section assembled to the hull and puttied.

 

 I did, however, take a few photos of the hull pieces:

 

 

[Walter Biles]

Hank,

What will the models dimensions be when finished?  I Can't remember any of the real ship's dimensions so 1:200 doesn't tell me much. 

 

Walt Biles

[Sailor1234567890]

Big. REAL BIG.

Absolute monsters of the sea those ships were.  Would love to see what the bridge looks like. When I visited one, it was only upper decks that were open to visitors. As a bridge watchkeeping officer, I'd love to see how those things were operated from the bridge.

[Jaxboat]

Look forward to you leading the way with the Big Mo. I also bought the kit as well as the top end Pontos PE and deck set. It's quite pricey unfortunately but instructions an details are amazing.

Best

Jaxboat

[Hank]

Walt,

 

The hull is 53" long by 6 1/2' wide (approx.). The actual dimensions are 887' L x 108' W (approx.).

 

Sailor12345etc -

 

I have many pix I could post, but this is a build log and I don't want to get off topic. There are a lot of online pictures of the IOWAs - you just have to look.

 

Jaxboat,

 

I'm getting ready to purchase the Pontos PE Set w/o deck. I'm working on CADing the wood decks and see what Scaledecks can do for a wood deck set for me. I agree the prices are rather steep, but they really add to the basic kit - no doubt about it.

 

Hank

[WackoWolf]

Let us know how you make out with "Scaledecks" and what the material is that they use, also a price if you don't mind. "Mighty Mo" was not the nick name of the New Jersey.

[Ulises Victoria]

Wow. That hull looks impressive! I remember building the Nichimo 1/200 Yamato. Had to modify my workshop to be able to work on that monster.

Congrats on your build!.

I was visiting the Trumpeter page the other day, and was surprised to see they have several 1/200 kits.

[Jaxboat]

Right you are, W² ! I failed to notice he was bashing the Missouri kit to the New Jersey. My older brother was her re-commisioning Eng Off in the 80s. He gave me the five dollar tour. She is truly impressive. I spent a number of years on an Oiler as her fueling officer in the seventies. But we strictly refueled East Coast ships. Big model! Hank may have to build an addition to his house to display her

Best

Jaxboat

Edited December 17, 2013 by Jaxboat

[Hank]

Thanks for the various comments, they are appreciated!!

 

Progress on model -

 

After cutting out the forward part of my main deck plan, I had to make quite a few adjustments in opening locations, etc. I've reconciled 2/3 of the plan and hope to fiinish checking/redrawing the stern section tonight. I've re-printed it and will go thru complete cutout/recheck tonight - hopefully with better results.

 

With the bow sections mated, I filled in the minute holes in the bow and the seams w/Green Stuff and later sanded, etc. The bow section is now mated to the hull and tonight I will apply Green Stuff to hide the seam. Hopefully, I will post pictures tomorrow - I forgot to download them from the camera last night.

 

Hank