I was looking forward to painting the first coat of Deck Blue on the San Francisco, but ran into an unexpected challenge. I have typically used oil-based enamel paints in my modeling, which need to be thinned with an oil-based thinner. Because deck blue is a fairly obscure color, I was forced to import a specialty paint typically used for painting robot models in Japan. When I poured it into my airbrush and mixed it with thinner, I got a working stream of paint, but quickly clogged the nozzle. After cleaning my airbrush and trying again, the same problem occurred, but I noticed flecks of thinner sitting on top of the paint. After some research, I realized that this paint was water-based rather than oil based, so by thinning it with oil, I was creating a hydrophobic seal at the bottom of my brush and preventing paint from passing through. I look forward to updating this post when I have the opportunity to thin with water rather than oil.
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I was away from home for the first week of Spring Break to visit a friend in flight school at Naval Air Station Pensacola, so I was unable to work on the model until the second week. I had hoped that the station's air museum would have a Curtiss SOC Seagull similar to the ones on the San Francisco, but I was unable to find one. Nevertheless, I still found a way to bring the San Francisco with me. When I returned, I spent my non-sailing time finalizing the smaller details on the San Francisco's hull. My goal was to complete the build to the point that I could begin the painting process, which required that I finish assembling the smaller details around the ship's hull. I modified the San Francisco's smokestacks and spotlight tower to have greater detail than included in the kit, such as adding the smoke deflector to the forwards stack, life rafts around the spotlight tower, and ammunition containers for the smaller 5-inch antiaircraft cannon. The spotlights and cannon need to be painted light blue rather than deck blue, and thus will be painted and added separately. I added ammunition boxes and build two lifeboats to be placed above the San Francisco's hanger, as well as doors, crane holders, and added a smaller tender crane to the catapult mounts. The catapults, radar, and smaller .50 caliber guns need to be painted separately, and are left off until the deck is painted. Like in the bow, I added rangefinders and smaller lifeboats to the main turrets, as well as deck hatches. I measured out railings to glue on after the deck is painted. Overall, after finishing more of the San Francisco, the model is ready for its first coat of paint. More parts will be painted separately and added, but after finishing the bridge elements, deck parts, and turrets, the horizontal surfaces are ready to be painted sea blue. I look forward to putting the skills I learned over the summer to use airbrushing the San Francisco, and continuing to improve the build after the deck is painted.
I found out at the last minute that I will have to be away for the first week of spring break, but I will be able to work in the mornings and evenings of the second week. My goal for spring break is still to complete the build of the San Francisco, or finishing assembling all of the parts and modifying the kit to obtain a greater degree of realism. Hopefully, I will be able to start the painting process, as all that remains is finishing the ship's smaller details like railings and ladders. Sailing practice doesn't start until noon, so I plan to devote my mornings towards a certain unfinished part of the build each day, with the goal of completing it by the end of the week. Given the progress I have already made towards the San Francisco, I think this is a reasonable objective, and one that will prepare me well to have the model finished by the end of the year.
Earlier in the month, my sister inadvertently crushed one of the San Francisco's two Curtiss Seagull aircraft, so I spent some time restoring its damaged wing struts. Thankfully, the plastic parts were not damaged, so I was able to restore the aircraft to its original condition by straightening the brass struts. I then worked on the most challenging part of the ship: her twin aircraft catapults. American ships in WWII had a vast array of different catapult designs, and many were extensively modified over the course of the war. The San Francisco was originally designed with two catapults, and still had two at Guadalcanal, but had one removed and the other modified when she was refitted after the battle. I've recreated the complex system of catwalks and launching systems to the best of my ability, and I plan to paint the catapults separately and install them after painting the deck. I've only managed to find one primary photograph of the San Francisco's catapults, but it was unfortunately taken after her refitting in 1943. At first I thought the two stabilizing platforms in the rear were a later modification, but I've since concluded from the work of other modelers and from written sources that they were present at Guadalcanal, and I plan to construct them out of wire and add them to the final catapult.
Following up from my midterm review, I received a copy of the input from my presentation. This information was quite helpful, and I plan to focus on listed strengths while addressing areas for improvement. One piece of information I discovered about both men was their burial sites; as a Medal of Honor recipient, Schonland is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, but McCandless chose instead to be buried at USNA's graveyard on Hospital Point, and his son elected to be buried next to him. Over the weekend, I found myself near Hospital Point and decided to track down their headstones. It took a fair amount of time to locate them (although I discovered the graves of many legendary Naval officers like Arleigh Burke, Elmo Zumwalt, John McCain, James Lovell, Wade McClusky, Wesley Brown, and Ernest King in the process), but I was able to find and photograph their headstones. Observing the final resting place of these two legends in the Naval community was an emotional and humbling experience, as I was able to witness the gravesite of the men I spent so much time familiarizing myself with. I'm thankful that they were buried together, in sight of the college they studied at and the water they served on, and surrounded by people as devoted to the U.S. Navy as they were. The two McCandless headstones sit next to each other. Bruce McCandless Sr's has a special marking indicating that he earned the Medal of Honor, and lists his rank alongside his other medals and an indication that he served in WWII. I noticed that most headstones from the early history of USNA's graveyard followed this format (many were marked simply "infant," which was truly puzzling for a military cemetery. I think this might be due to deaths in childbirth at the former Naval Health Clinic on Hospital Point). Conversely, his son's headstone follows the more modern format of designing unique headstones to fit individual accomplishments: in his case, Naval astronaut wings. I found it especially touching that, in addition to featuring their wedding date, the McCandless' headstone features the astronaut device next to his wife's name to show her affiliation to the space program as a civilian.
I have mainly spent the past few weeks developing a slideshow and script for my upcoming midterm review, which I will have next week, on the 7th. I look forward to presenting my work to adults from the Severn community and hearing their feedback on my project. In the meantime, I've been working on assembling the San Francisco's two Curtiss SOC seaplanes, used for observation. I encountered a problem in that my assembled photo-etch parts only include replacement struts for one aircraft, when the San Francisco had 2 aircraft and 2 catapults (one would be removed while she was undergoing refitting after Guadalcanal, because the role of observation aircraft had diminished substantially at that point). I've built new struts for the second plane out of a boom rest included in my parts, used for the San Francisco's post-Guadalcanal crane. Working with these parts has been very challenging because the aircraft are so small, but I believe I have somewhat faithfully replicated the biplanes' struts, at least to a more authentic degree than its stock struts made of solid plastic.
Over the past two weeks, I have mainly been focusing on writing an article about RADM McCandless' son, CAPT Bruce McCandless III, for the Severn Anchor. Given his status as an astronaut, the Severn archives had a lot of information on his life and experiences which proved invaluable in writing the article. I especially enjoyed reading a passage by Roland Teel describing McCandless' work on the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU). It is my hope that this article introduces my classmates to the life of one of Severn's most notable alumni, in keeping with the goals of the project. I am attaching a link to the article here: https://www.severnanchor.com/2022/01/severn-school-grad-launches-original-space-telescope/ I haven't been able to do much modelling besides some small detail work, but I came across an exciting find while going for a walk in downtown Annapolis: McCandless' photograph in the 1932 edition of "Lucky Bag," the Naval Academy's annual yearbook. Hearing McCandless described by his friends and classmates, rather than professional historians and authors, offered a fascinating lens into his life. I found a lot of common ground with his love of naval history and strategy, and I enjoyed the humor in his classmates' lighthearted mocking of his rolling walk and nicknames of "Bunge" and "Mickey." Given my interest in modelling, I loved reading that McCandless also enjoyed building model ships and studying the tools of celestial navigation (once a highly important skill set for officers to learn, celestial navigation was abandoned in the 1990s after computers became sophisticated enough to render it unnecessary, but the discipline has returned given the increasing likelihood of cyber attacks forcing officers to rely on the stars to find their way). Given the rarity of 1930s-era Lucky Bags, this find was a special treat, and I'm thankful to continue McCandless' love of history and modelling 90 years later. McCandless' son becomes the first person to make an untethered spacewalk.
I was too sick to work during the first week of winter break, so I got off to a late start modelling. However, by redoubling my efforts during the second week, I was able to make significant progress. I focused on building up the San Francisco's complex superstructure, which had to be built in many small layers. At the time of the Battle of Guadalcanal, the San Francisco was painted in Measure 21 Camouflage, which stipulated that all vertical surfaces be painted Navy Blue and all horizontal decks be painted the darker shade Deck Blue (this color scheme was adopted in 1942 after the Pacific theatre turned towards almost entirely air conflict rather than naval battles, and allowed ships to blend into a flat ocean from the air at the expense of making ships easily visible from the water). Thus, on the advice of Dr. Holtgrewe, I am building and painting the ship in layers to make it easier to mask off the two colors. The San Francisco's superstructure is largely complete, as are many of the small deck details like winches and ammunition boxes, which are too small to be airbrushed and will have to be painted by hand. My immediate next steps are to continue modifying the model using photo-etch parts, especially by adding greater detail to the San Francisco's portholes, hatches, and doors, which I've already assembled and only need the addition of brass detailing. Given the age of the kit and the vast distance it had to travel, I've also had to spend some time repairing damaged parts, such as the cleats used to tie down the San Francisco in port. I've repurposed parts from other kits (such as cutting up an unused .50 caliber barrel from a B-25 Mitchell I've previously built into new cleats) to fix the damage. I look forward to beginning the process of painting the San Francisco, which, despite only prominently featuring three colors, looks to be quite challenging due to the many layers that need to be masked off and painted separately. I look forward to beginning the painting stage soon. I've also drafted a checklist of everything I should need for a student model-building event, and identified the perfect kit: Airfix's 1/72 F4U Corsair kit. This model only has 35 parts, and features a monochromatic color scheme, which should hopefully be easier for beginning students to paint. Best of all, as a so-called "model set," included are the paints, glue, and a brush necessary to put the model together. The only other materials necessary should be easily obtainable by Severn's art department, such as masking tape or crafting knives. I look forward to sharing my work and discussing this event in greater detail with Ms. Carsley as we return to school. Current status of the San Francisco. I still need to finish her catapults, smoke stacks, Baker gun turret (which requires a different base than Able and Charlie), and radar masts, after which I will begin the painting process. The advantage of photo etch. The kit's included crane boom, molded in plastic, cannot capture the same detail as one made out of folded brass, although the latter takes far more effort to assemble. Photo etch will allow the ship's portholes, doors, hatches, and other small details to become more visible, and allow large wire structures like radar, catapults, and cranes to have greater detail. The San Francisco's bridges proved to be a challenge to assemble. Given how packed together the ship's navigation, fire control, and radar bridges are, it's no wonder that a single lucky hit to this area killed most of the San Francisco's officers. The heavy damage sustained by the bridge meant that this area was completely overhauled after the battle, both to repair damage and install upgraded radar sets. Also visible is the quadruple spotlight tower, a relic of an age where ships depended predominantly on sharp-eyed lookouts to spot each other, and tubs for the San Francisco's 40mm antiaircraft guns, which I will install after the deck is painted. The prevalence of aircraft in the Pacific theater meant that this area would also be overhauled after Guadalcanal to replace her .50 caliber and 5-inch antiaircraft cannons with 26 new 20mm quick-firing cannon to ward off Japanese aircraft. The San Francisco's cranes and aircraft hangar. I've had a hard time figuring out how to assemble the San Francisco's catapults, as catapults were heavily modified and unique to each ship. Her twin catapults and cranes were cut down and reduced to one of each after Guadalcanal, so the few reference photos I've found haven't been very helpful. I will probably end up building the catapults to be the same as those of the U.S.S. New Orleans, the San Francisco's sister ship.
Given that I should have a lot of time during winter break to work on my project, I am planning to devote one hour each day towards construction of the San Francisco model. I have been busy after school on Thursdays and haven't gotten the chance to visit the Severna Park Railroad Club, so I plan to visit the club if they meet over break. Either way, I will be sure to use Dr. Holtgrewe as a resource if I come into any difficulties or have any questions while building. Because much of modeling is simply waiting for paint or glue to dry, spending a moderate amount of time building every day with a few days of doing more work should allow me to maximize my progress. I also plan to upload images of some of the documents I've found to this website with descriptions, to help people that visit it learn about Schonland and McCandless themselves. I will write up a list of everything I need for a model building events for students, draft a preliminary Amazon order of anything too expensive to acquire myself, and prepare to hold a meeting with Ms. Carsley after break to discuss how I can use the art department's supplies to minimize costs. I have never made any kind of google form or survey before, so I will also figure out how to draft a form to be sent to students after the break, and briefly meet with Mr. Soden after break ends to identify the best week to hold it. Winter break will offer me a unique opportunity to build without having too many commitments to school and other activities, and I look forward to being able to freely focus on my project.
After my meeting with Dr. Holtgrewe, I started construction of my kit of the U.S.S. San Francisco. So far, I've mostly focused on small details, such as the battleports the covered the ship's portholes during battle. I've been experimenting with Dr. Holtgrewe's method of using superglue to attach metal parts, and I hope to use his signature technique of combining cyanoacrylate glue with traditional model cement to make a faster bond. I plan to call Dr. Holtgrewe shortly to discuss attending a meeting of his modelling club, the Severna Park Model Railway Club. I also uncovered a new box of documents from the 1920s while exiting the archives, which contained a treasure trove of information from that era. I found an early copy of both men's distinguished alumni citations, and a period article showing Schonland next to a different model of the San Francisco, which will be useful as a primary source photograph. Apart from just those two documents, I enjoyed reading through Spanish Civil War-era sources about Vernon Selby, the first Severn alumnus to make the ultimate sacrifice in wartime, and reading through Severn students' USNA and USMA applications from the 1920s, which were filled out by teachers at Severn. Given that I am going through that same process myself, I found it fascinating just how much has changed from the early days of USNA's history, at a time when the First World War was still "current events" rather than "history," while some things, such as recommendation forms, courses, and GPAs, are still the same today. I look forward to continuing my progress on the San Francisco throughout December. New article about Severn's first two distinguished alumni, portraying Schonland standing next to a similar model of the U.S.S. San Francisco Detail of attaching the battleports to the San Francisco's hull with superglue
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Alex BreniaMy name is Alex Brenia, and I am a senior at Severn School. I am passionate about military history and service to veterans, as I come from a military family. I see this project as a unique opportunity to combine both of these interests, within the scope of the Severn community as a whole. Archives
September 2021
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