Thousand Gallons of Paint, Miles & Miles Of Masking Tape Restore WWII Memorial
From the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge in Wilmington, NC, there is a great view of the USS North Carolina Battleship Memorial, a mile or so away. Sometimes.
For when clouds in the background are in a certain position, it's kind of difficult to make out the 729-foot-long WWII relic, even from such a short distance.
Actually, the tourist attraction had been a lot more noticeable before receiving a new paint job early in 1995 in preparation for the 50th anniversary of VJ-Day. But to bring the ship back to its fighting-days look for the celebration, it was painted in its original camouflage scheme for the first
For when clouds in the background are in a certain position, it's kind of difficult to make out the 729-foot-long WWII relic, even from such a short distance.
Actually, the tourist attraction had been a lot more noticeable before receiving a new paint job early in 1995 in preparation for the 50th anniversary of VJ-Day. But to bring the ship back to its fighting-days look for the celebration, it was painted in its original camouflage scheme for the first
time since the War's end. The camouflage is almost too effective.
"The camouflage pattern during WWII was basically there to confuse submarines and other enemy ships," notes Roger Miller, assistant director of the Memorial, who oversaw the painting project. "It's really unique in that the pattern at a distance of 8 to 10 miles blends to a haze gray and just dissolves into the sky when the clouding is right.
"The pattern itself was designed to cause an illusion: it reduces the size of the ship and makes it difficult to tell which direction it's heading, which was very important to confusing submariners on their target. Back in those days they didn't have homing torpedoes."
To get the authentic pattern, Miller turned to the U.S. Navy. They provided him with old color photos to match against. (There hasn't been a lot of camouflage painting of ships lately, so Miller couldn't refer to more recent resources.)
With these photographs in hand, Miller began to look for a painting contractor who could handle the job. Nolan Painting Co., also based in Wilmington, was selected.
"When the job came up for bid with this camouflage pattern to it, I found myself very interested," recalls Dan Nolan, the owner, "and put my name on the bid list and away we went. The job became really interesting! Using just the photograph, I had to scale it off and lay it out over a 700-something-foot ship. We used miles and miles of masking paper and tape!"
In order to economize, the Memorial decided to sacrifice a bit on authenticity. Whereas the photos showed different patterns on each side of the battleship, the new scheme has the same pattern on both starboard and port.
"To make it easier on the painting contractor to lay out, we chose the starboard side pattern for both sides," notes Miller. "Starboard side was a little more spectacular."
Another budgetary consideration was paint selection. Since being "memorialized" in 1961, the USS North Carolina was being recoated on an average of every three years, using a "regular industrial-grade alkyd paint."
"When we decided to go with the camouflage paint job, given the extra cost of laying it out, we wanted the job to last quite a while longer," says Miller. "We talked to several paint manufacturers, and Du Pont came in with their IMRON® package, and we felt that was the best way to go."
IMRON®'s well-known durability was key, given the harsh environment of the ship's location just off the Atlantic Ocean. Lots of salt air, sun, and severe changes in temperature.
Du Pont High Performance Coatings Div. was able to match the four blue and gray colors in the camouflage scheme with their IMRON® 326. After spot-priming with Du Pont 25P epoxy mastic, just a single coat of the 326 was sprayed.
"Instead of repainting in three years," notes Miller, "we're hoping to get eight to ten years out of this paint job."
Another benefit to IMRONR is its easy recoatability.
"Before they recoat, they will not have to sandblast," affirms Rick Rodda, sales manager at C&S Paint Co., the local distributor who supplied the IMRON® paint. "All they'll have to do is pressure-wash, hand-tool-clean any rusted areas, spot-prime those, and then spray the IMRON® 326."
The project was handled over the lower-traffic winter months when fewer tourists would have to be inconvenienced. Says Nolan, the painting contractor: "That was the difficult part, painting around the people. To say we didn't have any overspray complaints would be untruthful." But in spite of a tough winter the project was completed well within time.
It took over 200 gallons of the Du Pont 25P for spot priming, and then more than 800 gallons of the IMRON® 326 at 2 mils thickness. Every exterior surface down to the waterline was painted the appropriate color, including machine guns and cannons. On the hull alone, with its multi-color pattern, the contractor claims to have used "somewhere between two and three miles of masking paper."
How is the paint job holding up? Miller: "We've been looking at it for over a year now and it still sparkles, yet with the alkyds that we had been using we would have definite chalking after just a year.
"The paint looks brand new. We're really happy with it so far."
A "Lucky" Ship
The USS North Carolina was "a lucky ship," according to Roger Miller, Assistant Director of the Battleship Memorial.
"She took part in every major naval event in the Pacific during World War II," Miller says, "got fifteen battle stars, and only ten crew members were killed during action." In September 1942, the North Carolina was struck by an enemy torpedo in the battle of the East Solomon islands. Miller: "That put quite a hole in her port side just below the water line. Five of the casualties occurred as a result of this hit."
Today she is "stuck in the mud" and hosts almost a quarter million visitors a year. The Battleship Memorial has been open pretty much every day of the year since 1962.
Facts about the USS North Carolina:
Launched: 1940 Commissioned: 1941 Decommissioned: 1947
Length: 729 feet Beam: 108 feet Height: 130 feet
Weight: 35,000 tons (light load), 45,000 tons (fully loaded)
Max. Speed: 28 knots
Crew: 2,339 during active service
"The camouflage pattern during WWII was basically there to confuse submarines and other enemy ships," notes Roger Miller, assistant director of the Memorial, who oversaw the painting project. "It's really unique in that the pattern at a distance of 8 to 10 miles blends to a haze gray and just dissolves into the sky when the clouding is right.
"The pattern itself was designed to cause an illusion: it reduces the size of the ship and makes it difficult to tell which direction it's heading, which was very important to confusing submariners on their target. Back in those days they didn't have homing torpedoes."
To get the authentic pattern, Miller turned to the U.S. Navy. They provided him with old color photos to match against. (There hasn't been a lot of camouflage painting of ships lately, so Miller couldn't refer to more recent resources.)
With these photographs in hand, Miller began to look for a painting contractor who could handle the job. Nolan Painting Co., also based in Wilmington, was selected.
"When the job came up for bid with this camouflage pattern to it, I found myself very interested," recalls Dan Nolan, the owner, "and put my name on the bid list and away we went. The job became really interesting! Using just the photograph, I had to scale it off and lay it out over a 700-something-foot ship. We used miles and miles of masking paper and tape!"
In order to economize, the Memorial decided to sacrifice a bit on authenticity. Whereas the photos showed different patterns on each side of the battleship, the new scheme has the same pattern on both starboard and port.
"To make it easier on the painting contractor to lay out, we chose the starboard side pattern for both sides," notes Miller. "Starboard side was a little more spectacular."
Another budgetary consideration was paint selection. Since being "memorialized" in 1961, the USS North Carolina was being recoated on an average of every three years, using a "regular industrial-grade alkyd paint."
"When we decided to go with the camouflage paint job, given the extra cost of laying it out, we wanted the job to last quite a while longer," says Miller. "We talked to several paint manufacturers, and Du Pont came in with their IMRON® package, and we felt that was the best way to go."
IMRON®'s well-known durability was key, given the harsh environment of the ship's location just off the Atlantic Ocean. Lots of salt air, sun, and severe changes in temperature.
Du Pont High Performance Coatings Div. was able to match the four blue and gray colors in the camouflage scheme with their IMRON® 326. After spot-priming with Du Pont 25P epoxy mastic, just a single coat of the 326 was sprayed.
"Instead of repainting in three years," notes Miller, "we're hoping to get eight to ten years out of this paint job."
Another benefit to IMRONR is its easy recoatability.
"Before they recoat, they will not have to sandblast," affirms Rick Rodda, sales manager at C&S Paint Co., the local distributor who supplied the IMRON® paint. "All they'll have to do is pressure-wash, hand-tool-clean any rusted areas, spot-prime those, and then spray the IMRON® 326."
The project was handled over the lower-traffic winter months when fewer tourists would have to be inconvenienced. Says Nolan, the painting contractor: "That was the difficult part, painting around the people. To say we didn't have any overspray complaints would be untruthful." But in spite of a tough winter the project was completed well within time.
It took over 200 gallons of the Du Pont 25P for spot priming, and then more than 800 gallons of the IMRON® 326 at 2 mils thickness. Every exterior surface down to the waterline was painted the appropriate color, including machine guns and cannons. On the hull alone, with its multi-color pattern, the contractor claims to have used "somewhere between two and three miles of masking paper."
How is the paint job holding up? Miller: "We've been looking at it for over a year now and it still sparkles, yet with the alkyds that we had been using we would have definite chalking after just a year.
"The paint looks brand new. We're really happy with it so far."
A "Lucky" Ship
The USS North Carolina was "a lucky ship," according to Roger Miller, Assistant Director of the Battleship Memorial.
"She took part in every major naval event in the Pacific during World War II," Miller says, "got fifteen battle stars, and only ten crew members were killed during action." In September 1942, the North Carolina was struck by an enemy torpedo in the battle of the East Solomon islands. Miller: "That put quite a hole in her port side just below the water line. Five of the casualties occurred as a result of this hit."
Today she is "stuck in the mud" and hosts almost a quarter million visitors a year. The Battleship Memorial has been open pretty much every day of the year since 1962.
Facts about the USS North Carolina:
Launched: 1940 Commissioned: 1941 Decommissioned: 1947
Length: 729 feet Beam: 108 feet Height: 130 feet
Weight: 35,000 tons (light load), 45,000 tons (fully loaded)
Max. Speed: 28 knots
Crew: 2,339 during active service