The Ship Model Forum

Here is a mini-review and some more close up photos of the kit that an currently available. The kit is packaged very well, I was actually impressed. Everything was fit and layered very well, the photoetch was protected by decently stiff cardboard and was straight. Both deck pieces were in their own plastic sleeves, pretty detailed. Was odd not getting a Trumpeter kit with a blue seascape. Most pieces are clear of flash, with only a couple of minor exceptions.

Option of Full Hull or Waterline. In the kit, the top half and lower half of the hull are packaged together, wrapped in packing plastic. The fit is very good. Waterline fit is also pretty good, but I noticed the waterline piece was slightly wider at the bow than the upper hull. Easy fix though


Pe for Cage Mast, radar, cranes, and catapult. Slightly disappointed theres no railing pe at all, something you'll find with Dragons Pennsylvania and Dragons Arizona (premium), other Pearl BBs in the same scale and similar price range.


The plastic parts pictured are from the V1 parts piece, which there are 4 of.


The OS2U Kingfishers are of good quality, and most interesting enough, the bottom of the fuselage is cut away, and attached to the float piece underneath. This is unlike the Kingfishers previously sold as aftermarket accessories.


2 sets of fret R are included, with the life boats and rangefinders present


Fret C, superstructure, exhaust funnel


Fret H, more superstructer


Closeup



Fret B, Deck and superstructure


Under deck is detailed nicely



4 of fret N is included, and include just about everything. 2 different types of turrents, 2 types of barrels, and duel 5/38 turrents.


Duel Barrel Turrent


Triple Barrel Turrent


Both Turrents are included in fret Q, and both allow a catapult on top


The barrels


The 5/38 Turrents were detailed pretty well for 1/700, but the shape was slightly off on one side. Only downside of the kit for me, but eh, its extra, so still good.



Overall, this kit is excellent in terms of detail. Its the only one of the Big 5 out in plastic, so lets face it, anything decent we'll be happy with. But Trumpeter has shown their finest here, with a quality kit that rivals the best current kits in the 1/700 market. We're very much looking forward to the other ships in the Colorado class that are to be produced later on.

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"Also we will never see a 1/350 late war Enterprise from Dragon due to a paralyzing fear of success...." - Heavy Melder

Lots of unfinished model ships + attention issues = A busy slipway where nothing gets done!

The Kingfishers are made that way in their older kits where they're still normal plastic. The CA-68 and BB-55 class kits have them like that. I'd prefer the float attach via its struts instead because their way leaves for a nasty seam and a slight mis-match since the parts don't line up 100%. That's just me though.

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Drawing Board:
1/700 Whiff USS Leyte and escorts 1984
1/700 Whiff USN Modernized CAs 1984
1/700 Whiff ASW Showdown - FFs vs SSGN 1984

Slipway:
1/700 Whiff USN ASW Hunter Killer Group Dio 1984

I'm impressed with the kit. Even if the bulge might be exaggerated from what I have heard it still looks like a decent kit. Upon first inspection I am really happy with all the extra parts as well as the detail. You get 40 main gun barrels, 8 5"/38 twin turrets, four of each of the triple and twin main gun turrets and all sorts of other stuff. As a guy who likes to build whif ships as well, this thing is loaded with extras for such projects. Heck, I picked up two, might get a third.

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"There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today"

JTninja,

You beat me to the review! But I agree with everything you said. The only thing I have observed is that there are no single mount 5/38 enclosed turrets. Trumpy haves the open shield mounts, but some of the Big 5s have a combination of enclosed mounts along with the open shields at the time of Pearl Harbor too. Right now I am building one as an OOB but with a second kit waiting on all the extras that will be coming out from the aftermarket guys.

Robin

None of the Pearl Harbor Battleships had 5"/38 at the time of the attack. Those shields are for the 5"/25 mounts on the boat deck.

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-Abram
ModelWarships Gallery Page
Joslin Models Facebook Page

Are there 1.1 quad AA mounts? Maryland had 4 of these at PH.

Ed

Sorry! I meant 5"/25.

I just bought this kit. I wonder how hard it would be to make it into the 1942 version. Or maybe Trumpeter will release that version?

Besides the exaggerated hull bulges, the kit is amazing for a 1/700 scale. As for a 1942 version for me that period is hard to find info of what AA and radar equipment the USS Tennessee, USS Colorado and USS Maryland had in the early months of 1942. I ended finish the model as a Pearl Harbour version, but I have bought two of those and I would love to see an early 1942 USS Maryland drawing, to I can make mine too. Is there a drawing somewhere on-line or the Friedman book ?
Thanks in advance.

Atma the 42 version wouldn't be to much did than the kits 41 ver.

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On the Bench
1/350 Independence
1/350 Dunkerque
1/350 Shimakaze
1/350 Sharnhorst Dragon
1/350 Belfast

I'm working on the 1945 version of the kit at this moment and would like to share some observations on the kit.

Deck to hull fit is fabulous, it is tight with no gaps.

The kit I'm working on seems to have quite a bit of extraneous flash in odd places like the port side rear top of the main battery turrets and on the five inch turrets as well. Small bits of flash appear in a number of other places as well. This is not something I have noticed on other Trumpeter 700 scale kits, at least to this extent.

The main battery turret bases do not fit. This is due to what I guess is some kind of mold error inside the turret top which has a poorly formed interior which must be carved out to make the bases fit. This will apply to the 1941 kit as well.

The bases of the 5" gun turrets suffer from a different problem with the bases. Each base must be cut down to fit into the opening in the turret top. This, of course, only applies to the '45 version as does the next note.

the shields for the 40mms do not fit the bases and in some cases need to be compressed to fit into the openings in the superstructure.

Many parts suffer from poor placement of the injection points. You are going to do a lot of sanding and filing as parts like the main battery barrels and many others have the injection points in highly visible places. This applies to the '41 and '45 kit.

The '45 kit calls out a part on a sprue that doesn't exist. Have your spares box ready.

Whatever you do, don't follow the sequence suggested in the instructions for assembling the forward superstructure as this could lead to let's just say frustration with fit.

I'm still working on this but I thought it would be good for others to be aware of these issues before starting their own builds.

WS

I started the '41 version some time ago and haven't been able to finish it yet because I get so frustrated with the fit of the bridge. I think it is one of the worst engineered kits I've seen. Step 11 has parts C2, C3, C4 and H27 forming part of the bridge, It could be made in two parts without loss of detail and be much easier to assemble. There are no square corners to line up and once assembled it is too large to fit in the proper cutout. I bought two at the time figuring it would be good for a conversion but they have filled in the gaps so I check the fit just to make sure it wasn't something I did. Big disappointment, of course it didn't help that I had just finished Tamiya's '45 Saratoga. What a great kit the Saratoga is.

Hello, I have a question, Why does the 1/700 Trumpeter USS Maryland 1941 at 97.5' beam, USS Colorado 1944 at 108' beam and USS West Virginia 1944, USS Tennessee 1944 and USS California 1945 at 114 beam are the same width at the waterline? Shouldn't they be different. True there the only kits out there now. Why do people rant and rave about lousy kits? Randy

That's Trumpeter for you...


I found this out when using turrets from the Colorado for my Saratoga as a battlecruiser build.


That's Trumpeter for you...

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Martin

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne

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