Shipbucket

Nicely done destroyer! One question, do you know why the USN didn't continued with the flush deck destroyer design in the interwar years? Thanks and cheers.

These prewar destroyers have finally got their chance to shine. Lovely work.

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>"Emotions are prohibited." —YoRHa No. 2, Type B ("2B"), NieR: Automata
>"Wow, if I wasn't a hardened killing machine, that mightta hurt..." —SSgt. John Lugo (1st SFOD-D), Spec Ops: The Line

Great addition.

Thanks all.

Next is FARRAGUT (DD-348) in September of 1944, in the Measure 31/7D scheme. This is the only other "dazzle" scheme for this class. The official design sheets show a pattern of Ocean Grey (5-O) and Dull Black (BK) on the vertical surfaces, but from photographic research it appears FARRAGUT was actually painted in Light Grey (5-L) instead of Ocean Grey. The yards occasionally painted the ships using different colors than the SHIPS-2 manual specified.

FARRAGUT's 1944 configuration differed from HULL's only in details. The large pilot house windows are still present (HULL having received portholes during her Puget Sound refit), and the shape of the trash burner uptake on the forward stack is slightly different. FARRAGUT's bridge wing splinter shields have also been reduced, most likely as a weight savings measure. The small log desk and pelorus are visible next to the Mark 27 torpedo director now. FARRAGUT's starboard sea anchor has also been landed and the hawse pipe plated over - almost all of the pre-war USN destroyers lost one of their anchors during the wartime refits. Most interesting is the reinforced bow for ramming enemy submarines, a "common modification for the time", according to Friedman. The electronics fit is the standard mid-war DD arrangement of SC-2 (air search) and SG (surface search) on the mainmast, with Mark 28 on the gun director. Note the wind baffles on the port and starboard sides of the director - an effort to reduce director crew exposure while underway at high speed with the guns trained outboard. This problem would be solved on the larger units by enclosing the director, but weight restrictions did not allow it on the FARRAGUT class.

FARRAGUT would end the war in this configuration, being decommissioned immediately after the Japanese surrender and sold for scrapping in 1947.



All FARRAGUT class drawings available here: http://shipbucket.com/drawings/search?c ... ate=&view=

All USN destroyer drawings available here: http://shipbucket.com/drawings?category ... shipType=1

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

Awesome!

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB

Very nice drawing, boss.
Friedman offers an extensive discussion of the inter-war destroyer design processes. I'd recommend borrowing a copy if you can find one.

Thanks, Erik!

Next is MACDONOUGH (DD-351) in December of 1943. After a complicated series of refits, DD-351 returned to the Pacific combat area in Measure 21 camouflage (overall Navy Blue (5-N)). The FARRAGUT class ships all received twin 40mm Bofors mounts amidships during their 1942/1943 refits, and the earlier refits also added the Mark 49 director, visible just aft of the no.2 stack. The Mark 49 was a completely enclosed power-driven gun director originally designed as a replacement for the Mark 44 and Mark 51; ultimately it proved unsatisfactory as it was not capable of training rapidly enough to track fast-flying aircraft. Some installations included the small Mark 19 ranging radar allowing for blindfire capability, but by 1944 almost all Mark 49 directors had been retired in favor of the much lighter and simpler Mark 51 (a basic lead-computing director trained and aimed by a human operator).

MACDONOUGH retains the three 20mm Oerlikon machine cannons ahead of the pilot house, with one mount in a centerline tub ahead of the bridge. Note the pipe guards to restrict this gun's field of fire to prevent the gunner from accidentally firing into the bridge wings. This was a common modification on the mid-war units as the 20mm Oerlikons did not have interlock capability.

The ship's Mark 33 gun director for the main 5"/38 guns has been fitted with improvised supports for the Mark 4 "FD" ("Fox Dog") radar. The open topped directors did not have the ability to mount the radar ahead of the director so this clumsy solution was preferred; it shows how eager the Navy was to get radar onto as many fleet units as possible. The foremast mounts the usual SC-2 air search and SG surface search radar antennas, with a TBS tactical radio antenna on the starboard yardarm. The waveguide for the SG radar is visible below it.



Finally, another version of HULL (DD-350) in April of 1942, also in the Measure 21 scheme. The FARRAGUT class ships were only camouflaged in Measure 21 and the Measure 32 dazzle schemes during the war.

HULL shows a very typical configuration for the early war refits. A battery of four 20mm Oerlikons has replaced the original amidships 5"/38 mount (a sacrifice dictated by the King Board anti-aircraft rearmament projects, which preferred to lose 1/5th of the main gun battery vs. 1/2 of the torpedo battery). The Mark 33 director atop the pilot house has not yet received the Mark 4 radar, and the SC and SG antennas atop the mast have yet to be fitted. HULL would receive these upgrades during its next refit.



All FARRAGUT class drawings available here: http://shipbucket.com/drawings/search?c ... ate=&view=

All USN Destroyer drawings available here: http://shipbucket.com/drawings?category ... shipType=1

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

As a bonus, here's an imgur album of all the high-res photos I've assembled for the FARRAGUT class: http://imgur.com/a/R8Bdd

Turns out the Naval History and Heritage Command has been scanning the 80-G and 19-N photo collections as 30MB TIFFs in enormous resolutions and making them available online. I just added the official label (usually the record group, ship name, date, and location), cropped out the unnecessary parts, saved as a jpeg, and threw them on imgur's ridiculously easy upload system. I may do this from now on... researching these things generally leaves me with a ton of resources that never see the light of day and they may be handy to other artists or model builders some day.

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USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

Very nice work!

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MS State Guard - 08 March 2014 - 28 January 2023

The Official IJN Ships & Planes List

#FJB