Building (slowly) the 1/700 Dragon USS
Oakland kit as USS
Flint (CL 97) reveals more about this kit, and provides a comparison with the USS
Spokane kit from Admiralty Model Works. These kits represent different ships. The
Oakland group comprised USS
Oakland,
Reno,
Flint, and
Tucson (CL/CLAA 95-98). The
Juneau II group comprised USS
Juneau,
Spokane, and
Fresno (CL/CLAA 119-121).
To model a particular ship, one needs the kit for that type. To model
Flint, I need the Dragon kit. My notes about modeling USS
Juneau II (CLAA 119) as she appeared in 1950 from the Admiralty Model Works of USS
Spokane in 1946 are
here.
To model any ship of the
Oakland group from the Dragon kit, one needs:
-- plans from Floating Drydock (which now offers plans of USS
Flint in 1/192);
-- the Warship Perspectives booklet
Atlanta Class Cruisers in World War II;
-- neither of the above to build an excellent model from the Admiralty
Spokane kit.
As built, all four ships of the
Oakland group had eight twin 40mm gun mounts. The Dragon kit provides accurate tubs for only two, which are molded on the 01-level deck between the funnels (kit part D1). All the other kitted tubs in the Dragon kit are sized for quad 40mm's and are about 50% oversize for twin 40mm's. Some of these ships (
Flint not among them) later in their careers mounted some quad 40mm's after overhauls but even for one of those ships, you still need to build at least some twin 40mm tubs.
The kitted Dragon/Skywave USN weapons, good 20-30 years ago, are inferior to today's products. I am upgrading all of
Flint's weapons, and many other fittings, with products from Admiralty (5-inch guns and turrets, various fittings), Loose Cannon (40mm guns), Paper Lab (20mm guns, torpedo tubes, various fittings), Gold Medal Models (new PE for USN WW2 cruiser/destroyer), and others.
Add the costs for the Dragon
Oakland kit, the Floating Drydock plans, and typical after-market parts and PE. The total is higher than for the USS
Spokane kit from Admiralty Model Works, which needs no after-market parts, provides detailed diagrams, and has far higher quality in fit, in detail, in everything.