Calling all rebuilt "Big 5" (TN/MD class) fans

[Haijun watcher]

What about the Midship Models' 1/700 Colorado 1941? There's one on EBay for over $150 US dollars/Over 200 Canadian dollars!

[Steve]

What about the Midship Models' 1/700 Colorado 1941? There's one on EBay for over $150 US dollars/Over 200 Canadian dollars!

While the 1/700 1941 USS Colorado is still listed on the plastic kit list, the kit on EBay is most certainly the resin kit marketed under the Midship logo when they were still "in business". The Trumpeter kit is no longer is listed by Stevens as far as I can tell. My guess is that the kit list should be revised to delete her unless................?

[Haijun watcher]

Does it matter if Midships is out of business?

As long as one can find kits with the Midships brand kits at model shows or on EBay, perhaps their Colorado class kits should stay on the list, although they are getting rarer by the year.

The same goes for Naval Works kits of this class, which are also OOP but can still be found on EBay.

[Steve]

I referred only to the 1941 Trumpeter 1/700 plastic kit that was announced a long time ago and is still carried on the upcoming plastic ship kit releases on this forum. IMHO this kit is a Trumpeter "never will be" having been dropped a while ago by the Steven's Hobby Trumpeter kit listing. Apologies to all the resin kit builders.

[SeanF]

I referred only to the 1941 Trumpeter 1/700 plastic kit that was announced a long time ago and is still carried on the upcoming plastic ship kit releases on this forum. IMHO this kit is a Trumpeter "never will be" having been dropped a while ago by the Steven's Hobby Trumpeter kit listing. Apologies to all the resin kit builders.

I always thought that was an odd listing, Colorado not being at Pearl on 12/7 and all. However, given the part break-down, the extra pair of 5"/51s each kit comes with, and the way you have to open up holes in the aft deck for the 3"/1.1" tubs, it seems to me that the kit designers gave some thought to a 1930s, maybe even 1920s fit. Take, say, the Tennessee kit (which is already missing the superstructure 3" tubs), package it with a new midship deck that lacks splinter shields, a pair of SOC Seagulls in lieu of Kingfishers, and you have a 1938 Tennessee kit to sell.

Back for a moment to where this conversation was going: A Midship Models 1941 Colorado won't help with the bulge issue, as it doesn't have any. You'd be just as well served (and save money) by taking a Trumpeter '41 West Virginia kit and adding bulges to it. Even if a Trumpeter 1941 Colorado were ever released (and was accurate), was never active in '41 with a bulged hull; and if they released her in a bulged '42 fit, they'd almost certainly just use the same overbulged hull rather than make a new one.

Unless there's another kit out there that we haven't discussed yet, your choices for a '42 Colorado are as follows:
Reshape the bulge on an overbulged Trumpeter, HP, or Loose Cannon kit.
Add a bulge to an unbulged Trumpeter or Midship kit.
Live with the overbulged Trumpeter, HP, or Loose Cannon kit.

- Sean F.

[Haijun watcher]

I always thought that was an odd listing, Colorado not being at Pearl on 12/7 and all.

Sean,

Here's the listing for the Midship Models USS Colorado 1941. It clearly says 1941 on the box.

Ebay listing: USS Colorado 1941 (Midship Models)

Yes my options are limited- I probably might have to stick to reshaping the bulge of another Trumpeter Maryland 1941 kit to depict her in Feb. to June 1942 fit. I used my previous Trumpeter Maryland 1941 kit to make Colorado 1942, but I felt I could have done a better job of emulating your instructions.

[SeanF]

Sorry, I meant that the Trumpeter listing of a 1941 Colorado was what I found odd. I knew the Midship one was '41 fit.

Really makes me wonder why there are so many incidents of USN bulges being done with this same wrong interpretation. Loose Cannon's, HP's, and Trumpeter's Colorado/Maryland, Trumpeter's 350th New York & Texas, and Niko's Florida come to mind. Arizona, on the other hand, never gets presented that way in plastic.

- Sean F.

[MartinJQuinn]

Tennessee off the coast of California, December 1943.

[Betelguese90]

Wow, I thought I had posted my images for my completed 1/700 Uss California. I know its not perfect, and not a 100% true backdate from 1945 to 1944, but its close enough for me. Plans are to put it in a Dio with a tamiya 1/700 Uss Cushing converted to a uss Sigourney DD-643.


Was also left over with a bunch of parts for the Colorado class as well.

[Mark McKinnis]

Hi Betelguese90,

I think that your California looks great!

[Betelguese90]

Hi Betelguese90,

I think that your California looks great!

Thanks! I am happy with how it turned out

[Betelguese90]

I'm kitbashing about 16 Revell 1/429 scale USS Arizonas into the US navy's OBBs(Old Battleships) including the California late war period. download/file.php?id=101074&mode=view
viewtopic.php?f=59&t=165105

thats awesome! I will most definitely have to follow your progress on this

[Haijun watcher]

Wow, I thought I had posted my images for my completed 1/700 Uss California. I know its not perfect, and not a 100% true backdate from 1945 to 1944, but its close enough for me. Plans are to put it in a Dio with a tamiya 1/700 Uss Cushing converted to a uss Sigourney DD-643.


Was also left over with a bunch of parts for the Colorado class as well.

Betelgeuse,

Great build! Looking sharp!

I'm guessing you used the Trumpeter 1945 California kit instead of the Trumpeter's 1944 West Virginia kit? If you recall earlier in the thread, SeanF said the 1944 West Virginia is actually identical in configuration to the California of the same year, except for the main armament.

Either way, it looks good!

[Betelguese90]

Wow, I thought I had posted my images for my completed 1/700 Uss California. I know its not perfect, and not a 100% true backdate from 1945 to 1944, but its close enough for me. Plans are to put it in a Dio with a tamiya 1/700 Uss Cushing converted to a uss Sigourney DD-643.


Was also left over with a bunch of parts for the Colorado class as well.

Betelgeuse,

Great build! Looking sharp!

I'm guessing you used the Trumpeter 1945 California kit instead of the Trumpeter's 1944 West Virginia kit? If you recall earlier in the thread, SeanF said the 1944 West Virginia is actually identical in configuration to the California of the same year, except for the main armament.

Either way, it looks good!

I didn't see that post until AFTER I bought the 1945 California and had already started assembling and painting her. If I would have researched before hand like I normally do, I would have found that out. Thank you though!

[Spot]

Really like the way the rebuilds look. I have the Trumpeter USS California in my stash and am excited to build it. It almost looks as if Trumpeter included parts for other battleships in the kit as well, probably to save them creating individual sprues for each ship. My spares box will be very happy.

[garyrunnalls]

Hey I just saw the pics you posted of your USS California 44', very nice indeed!

[navydave1989]

Hi, all- apologies if this has been covered before, but I haven't found a definitive answer yet. It's crunch time now for my finishing up my 1/700 Trumpeter West Virginia, and I want to depict her how she looked at Surigao Strait. Pictures from her leaving Puget Sound in July '44 have her with SK radar, but later pics in drydock in November have the SK-2. Does anyone know when the changeover happened and which one was carried on 25 October 1944?

[Daytona675R]

Hello Dave, this topic is supposed to be used for the PRE-WAR "Big Fives."

Anyway, look at this AAR: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/sh ... rigao.html

PART V: (b) (4): "Search radars consisted of 2 SG-1's and one SK."
PART V: (b) (5): "Three R.P.P.I.'s in C.I.C. were set on the following scales on the sets indicated.
(1) 80 miles (SG-1)
(2) 20 miles (SG-1)
(3) 80 miles (SK)"

One would assume the air search radar was SK. However...

PART V: (f) (a): "...No difficulty with land echoes despite the proximity of land, on the scopes of the SK was experienced. it is felt that the SK-2 did away successfully with such echoes."

As English is not my mother tongue, I am not quite sure how this sentence should be interpreted. I personally incline to the feeling that the "SK" was just used as a generic term, but the real type was "SK-2."

FYI, I found no specific information about when the SK-2 was installed neither in Jaroslaw Palasek's "Colorado Class Battleships" nor his "Big Five" books.

[taskforce48]

Rare images of Tennessee in the spring of 42�. Stills taken from a film showing shots around Pearl Harbor that shows the Pennsylvania and all three New Mexico�s in port.

Matt

[pascalemod]

Which of the big 5 had the MS21 paint scheme that also was the biggest of them all? I gather Wee Vee was the biggest but she never had teh MS21 as far as I know, so which one was the next in size?