1/200 Arizona

Hi TRACY. What I did based on what you and others have posted is this .On my client,s ship, she is a weathered medium sea blue , very lightly weathered .The sun in the PACIFIC can cause paint fade quicker than anywhere else I have seen . It is somewhat brighter than standard medium sea blue flat ,by , TESTORS medium or regular matt sea blue.The problem I have found is this.I have 48 bottles of medium sea blue.When I get paint I put a dot of color on each primered cap .Well after about fourteen months I have forty  different shades of paint . I went and mixed the hades out of it and sealed the bottles .After six months I had three different shades of the same color !! By the way ,all my bottles are kept in a temperature controlled area in large DARK boxes . I learned this more years ago than I will admit to .  Thank You TRACY you have pulled my fat out of the fire more than once . And even though I have built for courts and corporations and other commercial entities as well as model clients I have NEVER been consulted as an expert .   I,ve been doing this for almost thirty eight years now . Oh well, I,ve got you . THANKS AGAIN         tankerbuilder

That's the best you can do at this point. My research supersedes that news article.

This is what I came across regarding the Arizona's colors.

Now do I flip a coin and if it heads, paint it medium blue or if tails dull gray?

Was Arizona Blue?

Got my flyer and trying to arrange my Christmas budget to somehow slide in the Trumpter kit.

One question I do have is just what was the paint color of the Arizona? I thought it was your typical dull gray but I came across a notice from the National Park Service saying Navy documents from the National archives the ship hull and all metal parts were painted a bright medium blue??

It looks like USS Maryland had the partially rigged paravane tackle in place as well...

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h83000/h83065.jpg

As Capn Mac and Bondo point out - most ships probably didn't go through the pain of having them rigged under traditional peacetime circumstances.  In fact, I'm not sure I can find pre-1941 photos of any of these same ships showing the paravane tackle.

Seems that every instance where we can see the bow of a battleship in a Pearl Harbor photo it shows a paravane rig in place - at least a partial setup.  It sure smells like an order went out at some point... If Arizona didn't have them rigged she'd be unusual.

Bondo

Seems to me that sweeping for moored mines with a battleship is a little like swatting flies with a sledge hammer and at the least a great misapplication of assets. Even the amphibious ship I was on had the hole in the forefoot for the tackle and the paravane cranes on deck. No gear or paravanes hidden a way in some lower hold though. Are you aware of anytime the gear was actually rigged on any ship other than a minesweeper or maybe a destroyer?

Amphib

Stumbled across this copy of the California bow shot while doing something else. It looks to me like California was partially rigged for paravanes as well.

Well, two thoughts. This was not a peace time navy we're talking about. It wasn't actively shooting until December 7th, but there were orders to do so in place (against submarines) and the harbor entrance was swept the morning of the attack for mines (I don't know if it was a daily or multiple times daily event; I presume at least daily).

Then again, the drawing I posted that is mentioned is simply a copy from the Booklet of General Plans and should not be assumed to be the exact configuration of Arizona or her rig on December 7th. It's meant to show general fit, not details at X hour, Day Y.

I haven't  yet made the time to look to see if I have a higher-quality copy of this photo or this one to see how California was set up, but we know that at least two of the ships (Pennsylvania & Nevada) from two of the BatDivs were partially rigged for paravanes at least.

CapnMac82

Having grown up with an old-enough copy of Knight's Modern Seamanship that it went int great detail on both fixed and sliding-foot paravane rigging, it always seemed to me to be something you'd rig in advance, in either calm shallow water or a drydock.

I always assumed this was a major pain for the peacetime Navy, having those chains banging the forefoot about.

And, in the drawings, it's all deceptively simple and elegant--rig the gear, then hoist this, pull that, and it all streams away.  Drawings are seldom on narrow, wet, gyrating forecastles.  Drawings are not strewn with low-steel wire, cable cutters, messenger lines, and the like.  The deck also does not have the fall ends of all the davit tackle, and safety lines, and a Chief, probably a Warrant, too, and for sure the Division Officer for the fo'c'sle crew (or, on a BB, probably a paravane division).

Ah, the 'romance' of the sea . . . <sigh>

Having grown up with an old-enough copy of Knight's Modern Seamanship that it went int great detail on both fixed and sliding-foot paravane rigging, it always seemed to me to be something you'd rig in advance, in either calm shallow water or a drydock.

I always assumed this was a major pain for the peacetime Navy, having those chains banging the forefoot about.

And, in the drawings, it's all deceptively simple and elegant--rig the gear, then hoist this, pull that, and it all streams away.  Drawings are seldom on narrow, wet, gyrating forecastles.  Drawings are not strewn with low-steel wire, cable cutters, messenger lines, and the like.  The deck also does not have the fall ends of all the davit tackle, and safety lines, and a Chief, probably a Warrant, too, and for sure the Division Officer for the fo'c'sle crew (or, on a BB, probably a paravane division).

Ah, the 'romance' of the sea . . . <sigh>

The line drawings on page 282 in Stillwell's book kinda suggests the possibility of the appropriate tackle being in place - at least the chain on the bow seems to be in the right place in the upper drawing...

Absent any definitive orders being found, it seems reasonable that having them rigged would've been an appropriate wartime preparation given the tensions and pre-hostilities footing of the fleet.

I think I've got enough to proceed without folks being able to gainsay me...

Thanks!

I don't know what the official orders were and don't have any "day of" photos of her where the bow is above water, but you can see that Nevada had hers rigged in this photo, so I would imagine it was common enough that no one can reasonably gig you for doing it.

Tracy

That is good enough for me!  I'll add that to Santa's list this season...

BTW - A quick question regarding the Arizona on that fateful day... Was the Paravane tackle rigged at the time?  I do see the cables rigged on Pennsy in the damaged drydock photos...  Admittedly, regardless of the answer I think I'd like to rig them up on my version for illustrative purposes.  Your online drawing shows them quite nicely.

Thx

Thanks, but if I can deflect the praise, I got involved after looking over the author's other books. David Doyle does good stuff; I just sent in a couple of photos and did some proof reading. I won't rate it further as I was involved and not "impartial," but I will say that David found some photos that even an Arizona nut like me hadn't seen before, so it's worth a look for anyone.

Force9

The catalog also hypes their "Squadron at Sea" research book on USS Arizona - 

"Illustrated with 288 photographs, 5 detailed line drawings, 7 color illustrations. Doyle; 120 pages."   Anybody have it and could comment on the quality of the photos and drawings???

I bought the Battleship Arizona it is a Hard cover text that covers the Ariz from initial keel laying to the Memorial at Pearl. Text has a lot of data and pics of the Ship during varoius stages of it's life.The text has been very helpfull to me during the build of the 1/200 I am doing as a waterline depicting the morning of 12/7/41. Half price for the kit is a great deal saves$ for all the PE that is available  Greg

The catalog also hypes their "Squadron at Sea" research book on USS Arizona -