Hello all from Canada, (it's 4 AM here in Vancouver as of this posting and I can barely sleep)
I am another ship modeller who just found this wonderful forum. So much information and insights from past posts! Wow! I did a lot of modelling- mostly waterline 1/700 series ships from Tamiya, etc. - way back in my teenage years in the 1990s. Now in my 30s, I recently got back into ship models.
Still, I just have a question about the
Baltimore class CAs as well, so I necroposted this older thread since it had the most posts for past reference.
Did all the Baltimore class ships have their bridge superstructures modified to have the square bridge top as stated below? Or were there any ships in the class that had their superstructures unmodified until at least 1945?
I am asking since I am considering buying the Trumpeter
Baltimore 1943 kit, and was wondering if the kit can be used to depict other ships in the class, specifically the 2nd cruiser USS
Chicago (CA-136). I assuming the
Chicago had the square bridge top, but did she ever have the unmodified bridge that the class leader had at commissioning?
I would have bought the
Baltimore 1944 kit, but it's not available at my local hobby store (strange they don't have this, but have the other one, eh?) and it takes a while for them to order such kits. I previously tried to order the Aoshima 1/700 Japanese battleship
Yamashiro but the order didn't go through because their suppliers couldn't meet the order. That's why I was considering just buying the 1943 kit.
GaryJ in NC wrote:
The Trumpeter 1943 BALTIMORE portrays the ship "as commissioned" on April 15, 1943. However, by June she had received additional quad 40mm mounts, including the fantail mount offset to port. She also received some bridge modifications which included a square front bridge top. By the time she deployed in September 1943, BALTIMORE looked more like the 1944 PITTSBURGH kit in the superstructure; therefore, I am using parts from an extra PITTSBURGH in order to represent BALTIMORE as she appeared in September 1943. As can be seen in the Trumpeter 1944 BALTIMORE kit, the July-October 1944 refit made further changes.
I have no idea why Trumpeter made the 1943 kit "as commissioned" instead of "first deployment." She was in that configuration for less than 60 days. The "first deployment" variation is much more interesting from a historical standpoint.