Well I've been busy from being a procrastinator and having college, so in my free time I've just been doing some work on the top view and some touches here and there for the side view. anyway here's what I've added:
I cleaned off more of the top view and added the 12" signal lights
The red and green was to test symmetry which the top view is not.
I continued cleaning off the top view
tried to see if the 5 inch guns were the same or not, and some more work on the top view
Top view mostly cleaned out and made symmetrical and I finished the platform for the aft most secondary turret
Started working on making a top view for the Baltimore's turrets, I spent about 2 hours looking around for the Ordinance pamphlet with the turrets in it, only to find that it did not exist online (without purchase at least)
to finish the turrets, I used the top view from the picture of the Baltimore from Norman Friedman's book US cruisers and matching the side view and it's measurements
added some more detail to the turrets and debated on putting a ladder in between each gun and whether or not if it looked good. I also decided to finish the top view and remove the catapults and airplanes to be replaced later with anything found from part sheets or made custom if needed
moved the top view to be in line with the side view, and started making corrections on the top view's placement of the super structure. also added an Anchor
here's where I am now, I continued working on the superstructure. I added the four screws after taking them from iirc the USS Baltimore picture and re-coloring them. I added some measure 22 with the colors from your USS Alaska image and added it to my color palette. I cleaned up the picture a bit by moving parts to the side and added credits as Charguizard suggested when I posted the image on the discord. I'm currently deciding on what the finished superstructure should look like,
I will also need help with placing stuff on the ship for instance how far apart should the opened and closed chocks be, etc. but we'll get there when we get there I guess