USN World War II Components Master Sheet and References

Main sheet has been updated with new flags, colors taken from the Wikipedia article and sizes created using this article: http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq129-1.htm

So far have only done two sizes for the naval jack and the national ensign, but might do more if necessary. I would look to some of the more knowledgeable historians than I to help determine what size of flags should be flown from various ships.

Master sheet updated with the Mark 63 Gun Fire Control System.

I'm running out of space...

Adding this reference post to this thread:

David Latuch wrote:

Thanks Henrik,

Yeah, I read that too. But it was also used on the South Dakotas and North Carolinas also. These two classes may have been retrofit. I guess what I'm trying to say is that knowing that the Iowas had the Mk-38 doesn't mean that they were necessarily the first to have them.

I'm not sure why I never responded to this.

The Mk.38 director system was fitted to the Alaska CBs and the fast battleships only (BB-55, BB-57, BB-61 classes). The BB-55 and BB-57 classes were not retrofitted with the Mk.38 but rather designed with the system in mind. I don't know of any examples of the Mk.38 director being retrofit to any USN ships - the heavily-armored director shield was probably too heavy to make retrofitting feasible.

Some of the Standard type battleships were refitted with Mk.34 directors during the war as well as Mk.3 Mod.2 (FC) and Mk.8 Mod.0 (FH) radars depending on the date of refit. It's very common to see the "oblong" Mk.3 Mod.2 (FC) fitted above the spotting tops on the old battleships (BB-34 class comes to mind). This provided radar ranging to the ships which didn't have the convenience of a fire control tower-mounted director like the Mk.34 or Mk.38.

It's interesting to see how radar was hurriedly added to almost every USN ship as the war progressed. You often see photos of the Mk.33 director equipped with a very odd set of supports for the Mk.4 (FD) radar and then later with the Mk.28 radar dish replacing it. Or pics of the secondary directors on the old battleships with the oblong Mk.3 Mod.2 (FC) jury rigged above it. There doesn't seem to be any standard method of fitment and in my research I encountered several different types of mounts for each different radar - a big headache for the model builder or artist. They were certainly trying to get as many radar sets into the fleet as possible and didn't care what it looked like!

I also realized I just bumped a 2 year old thread. My bad.

edit: Well since I've bumped this stupid thread I might as well add something valuable. Going back to my point about the Standard type battleships being fitted with the Mk.34 directors, here's a series of three great shots of the USS Maryland (BB-46) taken at the Puget Sound Navy Yard on August 21, 1945:
http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/014645.jpg (looking aft from above #2 turret)
http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/014644.jpg (looking forward from above the forward smoke pipe)
http://www.navsource.org/archives/01/014643.jpg (looking aft towards the mainmast)

The first photo shows the usual outgrowth of receiving whip antennas all over the superstructure - several added forward of the pilot house and even more on the spotting top. Note how the spotting top windows have been plated over for extra splinter protection. A trainable TDY jammer is ahead of the spotting top on a small platform, with its attendant "Sword" antenna mounted ahead of the pilot house (importantly shielded from the TDY's emissions, as this antenna was used to monitor reactions to jamming). Two Mk.37 directors with the Mk.12/22 radar combination direct the dual-mount 5"/38s on the wing positions. A very standard search radar fit is on the foremast with an SG above an SK and two "ski-pole" IFF antennas (likely for the BK system) P&S of the SG radar. "Derby" RCM receiving antennas are on either end of the yardarms. These were normally accompanied by "Sword" antennas on the yards but they're probably just not visible in these photos.

The second photo shows the other side of the foremast. Note the large radome for a TDYa S-band jammer mounted just aft of the foremast. Two DBM-1 antennas in radomes are on yards P&S of the mainmast, about level with the spotting top. "NANCY" IR beacons are visible as the "blocks" above and outboard of the second level of the spotting top. Two whip antennas whose nature I'm unsure of are also on the yard-arms, probably receiving antennas for TBS (but not sure).

The third photo is most interesting. It shows the SP/SM height finder on the mainmast (the value of this capability was learned during the anti-kamikaze actions off Okinawa), and this radar is seen on almost all refitted heavy combatants post-1944. More whip antenna have been added basically wherever there was room (in this case, on either side of the emergency conning station and starboard of the aft smoke pipe). The Mk.34 director (the reason for this whole stupid post...) has been added on a pedestal aft along with what appears to be a Mk.8 Mod.3 (or possibly Mk.13) ranging radar. A TBS antenna is on one of the yards, likely with a "buddy" antenna on the opposite yard though it's hard to tell.

Very cool stuff. Sorry for the rambling post.

edit 2: Continuing a long-standing tradition, labeled versions of the photos above:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/161 ... abeled.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/161 ... abeled.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/161 ... abeled.jpg

Oh I like these colors, should I make a gpl file for them?
Is there a standard palette of non paint colors for details like windows and such?

Also, will there be one for the IJN next? The shipbucket illustrations look very pale compared to the dark blue/grey seen in photographs and on models.
Not to mention the green/tan camouflage seen on some japanese carriers. (world of warships lets you put it on any ship, and it's very sexy, but I understand it wasn't used as often IRL)

I don't personally use Gimp so I wouldn't need it but thanks for the offer.

Quote:

Is there a standard palette of non paint colors for details like windows and such?

At some point there was a thread or something that had all the colors defined with their RGB and hex values. I'm not sure where it went. When in doubt pull colors from another drawing.

Quote:

Also, will there be one for the IJN next? The shipbucket illustrations look very pale compared to the dark blue/grey seen in photographs and on models.

I don't draw Axis warships out of general principle so you will need to talk to that crew about it.

Quote:

Not to mention the green/tan camouflage seen on some japanese carriers. (world of warships lets you put it on any ship, and it's very sexy, but I understand it wasn't used as often IRL)

World of Warships' lack of accurate camouflage measures for ships really bothers me... but I won't say anything else about that stupid game...

Kokia wrote:

Also, will there be one for the IJN next? The shipbucket illustrations look very pale compared to the dark blue/grey seen in photographs and on models.

Various books, including Janus Skulsky "battleship yamato" "battleship fuso" and "heavy cruiser Takao" gives the colour composition of both the IJN underwater hull and the standard "kure grey" paint for the upper structures. I've created the underwater hull colours using those references. The interesting thing is that I've checked the Kure grey too, and well, the actual basic shade is a tad darker than the standard grey, but at the same time it is lighter than the shaded one. Basically (and surprisingly) the palette I'm using ended up being so close to the proper colours that changing the entire palette would be barely noticeable. Believe it or not.
It is also true that some Japanese shipyards also used their own "personal" Kure grey, so some ships could actually be a bit darker than some others. Still, it would be an almost impossible task to create multiple palettes differing possibly by a single shade, other than being impossible as well to correctly tell which ship was actually darker or not.

Kokia wrote:

Not to mention the green/tan camouflage seen on some japanese carriers.

I have that Palette too, (it was used on some of the Unryu and many other units during the last months of the war) I've used it on the never built drawing for the Kai-Taiho but I cannot create a file for it right now since my PC is broken and the old scrap I'm using right now not only has linux and not windows, but also fails to install whatever drawing program I've tried to obtain. So I'm effectively cut off from producing new drawings indefinitely.

I do most of my drawings on Linux using Aesprite. An old version is available for free on the Ubuntu repositories, and you can get the latest version by buying or compiling it yourself from the source code on github.

(I hope this dosn't violate the rule against advertising, this is free open source software, and while I have made minor contributions to their project, I don't get paid to shill for them)

Main sheet updated with a few "new" radars (stuff I've been meaning to add literally for years) - CXAM, SA, SL. I rearranged it a bit and added more info in a few places.

[ img ]

Fabulous. An exemplar.

Shipbucket

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