Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Iowa class external details and questions.

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Iowa class external details and questions.

    Hello there; this would be my first post in this forum.

    I have a couple of questions.....

    Why are the bow bulwarks of New Jersey and Missouri trimmed while Iowa's and Wisconsin's are not?

    Why were the turret ears removed from turret 1 on all four Iowas?

    Why does the aft flight deck have a lot more teak on Iowa and Wisconsin against Missouri and New Jersey?

    Why was it that most of the non-skid surfaces on all four ships was removed upon inactivation?

    Is it true that the Pacific fleet and Atlantic fleet use different shades of gray?

  • #2
    Originally posted by modelbuilter View Post
    Hello there; this would be my first post in this forum.
    Welcome to the WAB!
    Head on over to the Intro Forum and tell us about yourself :)
    I have a couple of questions.....
    Well, you've come to right place

    We have guys here - one of whom is no doubt about to answer your questions - who worked or served on the Iowa's during their reactivation, 80's service, and now in their current role as museum.
    “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

    Comment


    • #3
      QUOTE=modelbuilter;306685]Hello there; this would be my first post in this forum.
      [/QUOTE]

      Why are the bow bulwarks of New Jersey and Missouri trimmed while Iowa's and Wisconsin's are not?

      Originally all had those bullwarks that were actually shields for 20 mm guns. Though the guns were removed, budget restraints cancelled the removal of the shields on two of the ships as it didn't matter whether they were left there or not.

      Why were the turret ears removed from turret 1 on all four Iowas?

      The "ears" are actually the optical range finders. But the Iowas are very "wet" ships. With their low amidships freeboard of only 18 feet and their great length of 887 feet they often plow ACROSS wave valleys and ram into the next wave. The water rushing over the bows is called Green Water and often got so high on the Iowas that they were damaging the range finders. So they were removed.

      In the 1980's, I was tasked to design amidship bullwarks to protect even the stowed small boats.


      Why does the aft flight deck have a lot more teak on Iowa and Wisconsin against Missouri and New Jersey?

      Actually the New Jersey has more teak on it as the ramps from the helicopter platform are shorter. It's platform is only 8-inches high (1968 installation) whereas the other three ships increased the platforms to 12-inches thus requiring longer yellow gear ramps. What can also be confusing is sometimes the shipyard or the crew get carried away with the non-skid painting and paint over some of the teak giving the appearance that there is none there.[

      Why was it that most of the non-skid surfaces on all four ships was removed upon inactivation?

      That is a good question I don't have an official answer for. When I inspected the Iowa this last August and October I was very cautious in the areas, such as helicopter ramps, that had either the non-skid removed or was painted over with haze gray paint (not deck gray which is darker like the non-skid).

      Is it true that the Pacific fleet and Atlantic fleet use different shades of gray?

      No it is not, at least not anymore. Haze Grey has always had a specific MIL-SPEC number and color card. It's just that in WW II the Navy tried different shades of grey and BLUE for hiding in the haze. By the Korean War, however, attempts to camoflage ships with Dazzle schemes and different colors was abandoned. The only thing they kept for difficult seeing was painting the undersides of overhanging decks, platforms, etc. an OFF-WHITE to cut down on the shadow on the bulkheads. Even this isn't practiced anymore since everybody has RADAR.

      What you MAY be seeing today is that the Iowa (in Benicia, California) looks lighter than the other ships. This is due to fading of the paint and not just a specific color.
      Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

      Comment


      • #4
        What can also be confusing is sometimes the shipyard or the crew get carried away with the non-skid painting and paint over some of the teak giving the appearance that there is none there.
        Does that mean that in USS Missouri's pictures which showed almost all of the aft portion of the deck painted in non-skid gray, there is actually teak painted over?
        Last edited by modelbuilter; 08 Dec 06,, 14:26.

        Comment


        • #5
          As far as the color goes when they pulled them in the eighties from PNSY they were beaten up looking with faded peeling grey paint. New Jersey now is a much darker shade of grey as compared to those pictures. Hell when they pulled New Jersey for Vietnam service she had builge stains down her sides that was older then me. If im not mistaken at last check it takes 200 "tons" of paint to give an Iowa class a face lift after refit and thats just the haze grey not including her primer. But Im sure Mr. L or his Pal could probably confirm this.
          Last edited by Dreadnought; 08 Dec 06,, 14:29.
          Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

          Comment


          • #6
            A little off-topic question: The Spruance class ships were upgraded with VLS (now all are retired) and there were plans to upgrade the Iowas with VLS as well. How come the older Ticonderoga class ships not upgraded with VLS?

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Dreadnought View Post
              As far as the color goes when they pulled them in the eighties from PNSY they were beaten up looking with faded peeling grey paint. New Jersey now is a much darker shade of grey as compared to those pictures. Hell when they pulled New Jersey for Vietnam service she had builge stains down her sides that was older then me. If im not mistaken at last check it takes 200 "tons" of paint to give an Iowa class a face lift after refit and thats just the haze grey not including her primer. But Im sure Mr. L or his Pal could probably confirm this.
              Well, I calculated this out once. It takes about 3 acres of haze gray to paint the sides of the ship from the boot top on up and about 1 acre of deck gray.

              A gallon of paint will cover about 250 square feet (or less). The paint for a job like that comes in 5 gallon buckets. An acre is 43,560 square feet. An acre divide by 250 is 174.24 gallons. Paint weight about the same amount of water so figure it at 8 lbs per gallon.

              You can do the rest of the calcs.

              By the way, the weight of the paint is very important as it is one of the factors plugged in for the weight and moment calculations to determine stability of the ship.
              Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by RustyBattleship View Post
                Well, I calculated this out once. It takes about 3 acres of haze gray to paint the sides of the ship from the boot top on up and about 1 acre of deck gray.

                A gallon of paint will cover about 250 square feet (or less). The paint for a job like that comes in 5 gallon buckets. An acre is 43,560 square feet. An acre divide by 250 is 174.24 gallons. Paint weight about the same amount of water so figure it at 8 lbs per gallon.

                You can do the rest of the calcs.

                By the way, the weight of the paint is very important as it is one of the factors plugged in for the weight and moment calculations to determine stability of the ship.
                Never knew that Mr. L. interesting to say the least.:)
                Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

                Comment

                Working...
                X