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I have a model of the Destroyer Ruben James Which was Sunk in the Atlantic not long before WWII started. Here's a basic question, What color would she probably been painted?

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That is a very good question, my first thought was the standard interwar haze grey with shadowed numbers, but a quick look at navsource.org provided me with this picture. That's her in the foreground in front of North Carolina in early 1941. It'l looks like she still have the haze grey on her upper surfaces, with 5-N navy blue on the lower part of her hull with small hull numbers.

68C69C2E-43C5-4273-8258-20747BC0B920.jpg

Bill

Edited by rightwinger26
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Thanks, no problem. To me it looks grey all over. Where was the separation line for the blue? It looks like it might have been the raised part in the center. I can see a horizontal line even with the deck but this could be an illusion. At least to me.

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I think she's in Measure 2. It looks to me like the dark band is even with the lowest point of the main deck (stern) and the medium band slopes on both the midships superstructure (more obvious) and forward superstructure (harder to see with some of the clutter around it). The demarcation on that midships structure is so much sharper than any other shadow transition that I can't believe there's anything causing that other than paint.

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That's is exactly what I was thinking, but haven't had a chance to examine it closer. That is a really crisp line on the superstructure, and my initial thought was what could be around there to cast such a large shadow across the harbor, but, if you look at other definite shadows, they all have about the same angle. Look at the bow of the James, and around the funnel caps on North Carolina.

Bill

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I was just doing my daily cruising of Wikipedia, and I stumbled across a picture of North Carolina from the same time, but from the opposite side, and you can see what I am certain is the Ruben James in the background, you might want to have a look, pretty interesting. I can't post pictures at the moment, otherwise I would put it here, but if you go to North Carolinas Wikipedia page, its the second picture down.

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Indeed!!! Imagine my surprise stumbling on that on accident, I don't ever recall seeing that picture before.

I do archival research and help teach people who want to start... one thing I always preach is to look in the background. You will find things that no one has noticed before and discover things that you are shocked hadn't been! It's gotten to the point that sometimes I look in the background so much I forget to pay attention to the foreground!

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I do that a lot myself, its pretty interesting looking off in the distance in Civil War photos, you can see some random things taking place. Most of the time what is taking place in the background is more interesting, its not being staged for a photo, or even known that they are being photographed, so you tend to catch a more candid view of true events.

We're totally threadjacking, our bad Ikar :rolleyes:

Edited by rightwinger26
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No problem there, it's getting interesting. To think that looking for information to build my model of the Reuben James started this and I got interested in that ship because of a song done by the Chad Mitchell Trio back in the 60s:

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No problem there, it's getting interesting. To think that looking for information to build my model of the Reuben James started this and I got interested in that ship because of a song done by the Chad Mitchell Trio back in the 60s:

I'm partial to Oscar Brand's version - his album "Every Inch a Sailor" is a fun one to build warships to!

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Some of the best music:

I used to watch this show when I was a kid. My Father would never be around at this time or almost any other time something about WWII was on, even Hogan's heroes. Eventually I just started going to my room to watch so he could watch what he wanted in the living room and I watched on my 10". As long as I didn't have to go out on the roof to adjust the antenna or a plane didn't fly by, I was content.

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Victory at Sea is good - my Dad played clarinet when I was a kid and we had a lot of jazz and symphonic records in the house. Victory at Sea and the 2001 soundtrack were two big ones, but not nearly as played as his favorite University of Michigan marching band album (he was in the band).

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My brother-in-law was on the Constellation for about 4 years and when he was given the duty to keep the Captain's launch in order he rigged the area to play Victory at Sea when they entered its area.

Just what class ship was the Reuben James and would there be any detail sets for it?

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  • 5 months later...

In looking at the instructions giver with the kit it lists the waterline as being dark grey instead of red. Is this correct? Also did it have wood decks or steel and what color would the deck be painted?

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I've got "Flush Decks and Four Pipes" sitting open in my lap and there's a picture of the Rueben James with the caption: "With just over two months yet to live, the Reuben James (DD-245) passes through the Cape Cod Canal on 21 August 1941. She wears an unusual three-tone paint job. Hull number is beneath the bridge, World War I style.

Reuben%20James.jpg

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I seem to remember reading it had a sort of dazzle scheme when it went down

Oct. 31st 1941. That song about the Ruben James was written by Woody Guthrie.

His son Arlo didn't live far from me in western Mass. years ago, Arlo was famous

for anti war songs and his most famous Alice's Restaurant.---John

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