Aft superstructure.

I began the superstructure on the aft part of the ship. From the camo plans I could only tell its couture and its height.I figured that the lower part of the stucture would have an evenly spaced walkway arround its outer walls and the edge of the ship, giving me an approximate dimension of the building:

the face of the building can be seen in this photo behind the sailors swabbing the deck:

From this i could see that there was an outcropping on its roof for the ladders, and that there was a recessed section under that outcropping. Also, that the corners were rounded too.

Here i made the roof for the structure and attached the vertical support beams to make it easier on myself:

here it is being fitted to the structure.

you can see here where I added the raised bulwark (a ship's wall for you lubbers)in on the aft above the sternpost in the above pic made to match the photo below:

You can see that there are slight bulges on the roof structure on either side, whch I think was an extension to accommodate the arc of the guns, of which you can see their barrels sticking up.
Here's some added detail on the roof of the structure. The gun nests are clearly seen on the camo plans. If you look at the photos you cant see them under the taller gun nests and the stacks of lifeboats, but I think that they were kept after her early war refit.

this is the only pic of her from above and I think that those nests are viable here.

Also the tall box structure in the middle on top can be made out in the pic above. I believe that it probably matched this configuration on the APA 17 here. This photo was taken in '44 after her refit to add more defensive guns:

lost pics!

Unfortunately I managed to loose all of the early photos I took of building the model!!! I either erased them or stuck them in a folder some where "safe" so as to never find them.
Anyways, after spending 2 days looking for them I decided to just post what I have.

Here's the bow. I made the entire hull from scratch using the old wooden ship technique with streamers of plastic over ribs cut to fit the contours of the hull. What she actually looked like under the waterline is a complete mystery, but I figured that it was something between the Titanic and the USS Arizona, since they were all built within a decade or so from each other. I also relied in theses pics of the USS Texas:

And the USS Delaware:

For above the waterline this plan Benn found was the greatest help!

From there I got this:

So there is the hull with the streamers and the running gear (propellers and rudder). Next post I'll start attacking the superstructure :)

Grandpa "Shorty" on board

Here's a photo of my Grandpa on board the Bell, taken when he was around 19-21 years old (hard to tell since he served through all the years of the entire Pacific campaign). His

His role was a signalman, and trained at the Navy facilities in Illinois for that role. What he would do was to go to the beaches in advance of the Marines (usually after a bombardment) and signal back to the ship the conditions. From there the ship would wait or go ahead and send the troops on their landing craft. From his account, he was on some very hot beaches that saw a lot of Japanese activity and resistance. His new wife, my Grandma begged him to not volunteer for that duty after they got married, so he respected her wishes and remained on board for the last stages of the war.

more personal pics of the "Strawbottom"

Here are some more photos Benn found of the officers comming aboard and some life abord the ship. These give more detail, but is is also a challenge to find out where on the ship they were taken and go from there in adding detail later.