1/700 West Virginia 1941 & USS California 1941 (Pit-Road/TR)

[Dan K]

It was at this point that I realized what it was that had been bugging me since I started working on this bridge; something was missing. It turns out that the kit did not mold the bridge wings on the Navigating Bridge level that held the 12� rangefinders. Apparently, this change was made to all the sisters sometime in the 1940-41 time frame. Interestingly, only California�s wings did not gain splinter shielding around the rangefinders, only railings. I couldn�t say why.

When I finished this step, I realized the support girders underneath it were oversized. So, those would have to be replaced.

(A further update tomorrow, I hope.)

[Quincy]

Beautiful work x 2 Dan!



Bob Pink

[Dan K]

Thx, Bob.

Huh. I just realized I never posted a photo of the current state of WeeVee. I�ll take care of that in the next day or two.

In the meantime, back to California:

The girders were replaced, and everything painted. The bridge is merely placed on the hull in the following photos. (I like how you can distinguish between the 5-L and the white turret top in the first pic.)

The funnels and boat rack were installed; here with just an unpainted 50' motor launch lying in the rack. I added an additional auxiliary funnel pipe. The thicker, taller pipe was for the incinerator, which I believe was located to the side of the funnel, unlike WeeVee�s, which is in front.

The CXAM radar is also scratch-built and merely placed here for positioning. It turns out that no one makes a CXAM in 1/700. CXAM-1s and SKs yes, but not the CXAM. I modified an SK and built a cradle.

[Jeff Sharp]

Hi Dan. They look awesome. Tom�s Modelworks makes a CXAM.

[Dan K]

Thank you, Jeff! I must have missed that. On my list. Good thing I didn't glue mine in.

So, question on ship's boats in this time period - 5-D hulls, white or 5-L upperworks, unpainted decks?

[Jeff Sharp]

It all depends on who's boat you are referring to. There was officer's gigs, Captain's gigs, and Admiral's barge. All appeared to still have their unpainted mahogany decks. The Officer's and Captain gigs appeared to be in 5-D top to bottom whereas the Admiral barges appeared to have either black or 5-D hulls with white tops.

[Dan K]

Thanks for the quick response. So, I was thinking more in terms of the various sized motor launches; basically, anything with an upper works canopy or enclosure. In this case, as they apply to WeeVee and CA. Seems then that they would all have 5-D uppers.

I'm not sure how long an admiral's barge is. This would appear to be the only sort of motor launch with a white top.

[gms]

Your VW progress so far is marvelous. I wish my models would look like yours rather than mine. It must be extremely difficult to obtain such precision in such a small scale. Great work so far.

[Dan K]

Thank you very much for those kind words.

Ok, as promised, WeeVee's current state. Both ships have the pair of rear 3"/50cal. guns installed. These are from Blue Ridge. Superb versions.

[Neptune]

Great job, your topic is actually reigniting my interest in these types of battleships. Since I generally don't follow the "kit-business" anymore, I didn't know there were kits around for them!

High building standard on yours and the lack of bridgewings was a nice find

[MartinJQuinn]

Sharp work, as always. They really were fine looking ships.

[J.F.S.]

[Dan K]

Today is a most appropriate day for a small update.

The next step was the heavy, midship boat cranes. I think the Five Star crane trestlework to be more correct than the PE versions supplied with the kit, and more substantial than the Tom�s versions. That said, the FS intructions are, again, woefully inadequate and require a bit of interpretation and another learning curve. (Note: The FS instruction sheet for WeeVee is a hair more detailed for this assembly than the one for Maryland, but it�s still pathetic.)

Of course, if Mr. Smartypants (that would be me) had actually bothered to look at the kit instructions first, then I might have saved myself some grief on which kit parts (WeeVee vs. CA) to use for which vessel. After some mis-steps, I found my bearings and finished the cranes. The FS platform parts for WeeVee (and Maryland) are not appropriately shaped, so I used the kit parts. The boom suspension cables (or whatever that mechanism really is) were made from brass rod. Pulley cables were sourced separately from the Tom�s Merchant Ship PE set (#796). I added some styrene to replicate what I believe are control panels on the boom operator's platforms.

WeeVees�s (and Maryland�s) cranes differ from California�s (and Tennessee�s) at the top. Not only are the kingposts thicker, but they carry what appear to be AA platforms for small mounts, probably .50 cal. MG. Maryland certainly seems to have guns installed in these positions at Pearl Harbor; however, whatever WeeVee has is covered by tarps.

Maryland does not sport them in the summer of 1941, even during her refit, so I�m of the opinion that these platforms were added at Pearl Harbor sometime in the fall of 1941. Perhaps it was a planned King Board enhancement, or maybe it was a local decision. It�s not clear whether California and Tennessee would have gained them at some point. Colorado does not seem to have ever carried them.

Since small boat placement upon the boat racks would be far more challenging with the cranes in place, I decided to complete a couple of motor launches to glue in place first. I�ve also chosen to leave the racks at least half exposed for the details. At this point only one crane and one boat per ship is in place.

[taskforce48]

Looking amazing Dan! The WeeVee certainly looks to have .50cals in those crane tubs. If you look at the starboard kingpost, you can see two ammo lockers which would be right for an elevated gun mount.

Matt

[Dan K]

If you look at the starboard kingpost, you can see two ammo lockers which would be right for an elevated gun mount.

I'll be damned, hiding in plain sight. Given the split between the two lockers, I thought I was looking at a splinter shield rib. Of course, I didn't understand why the splinter shield would be so much lower on the inner side of the platform. So much for the kit pieces; also incorrect in this regard. Too late to change now.

Given that the .50s are still under wraps, I wonder if WeeVee was not able to bring those guns to bear during the attack due to locked or empty ammo boxes.

Thank you, Matt.

[MartinJQuinn]

Given that the .50s are still under wraps, I wonder if WeeVee was not able to bring those guns to bear during the attack due to locked or empty ammo boxes.

IIRC, that wouldn't be the first time that happened that day.

I got to see these in person the other day. The photos don't do them justice! The are outstanding - very crisp work all the way around. The Five Star PE for the bridge windows look terrific. I would think this set is essential for anyone modeling these ships.

[blacman]

First Class

[Kometa]

Great job. I have just bought the Uss California in the 1945 version and I was pleasantly surprised by the detail of this ship. I will keep an eye on this construction.

[Dan K]

Thanks for the comments, folks.

I�m still working on painting boats and finalizing their stowage arrangements, but I took a small detour to satisfy some curiosity about the spotting tops, starting with just the foretops.

Given that WeeVee's spotting top windows were closed up, and that both California�s and Maryland�s were opened up at Pearl Harbor, my thinking has been that I would do the same with mine, as it would make for a nice set of contrasts. The kits come with only closed versions for both classes. Alternately, 3D Model Parts offers open window versions for both classes.

The Five Star set gives you both open and closed up versions of the spotting tops, but only for the Colorado class. These versions are very sharp; only the seam gaps really can potentially mar the appearance. They are also much sharper than either the kit or the 3D MP versions. They are also very challenging, because:

1) the instructions truly SUCK (have you noticed an ongoing theme yet?), as in there being no guides whatsoever to their actual assembly, and 2) each section has a pair of thin tabs that apparently need to be glued to the adjoining bulkheads for rigidity. These tabs can break off easily, and are very difficult to keep level. I�ve already removed the foretops from their fret in the first photo below, but the secondary tops for the mainmast remain, and one can see the tabs for those pieces.

I thought I would give assembling the FS versions a try. Ideally, I could have a closed version for WeeVee, and an open version for Maryland (assuming I actually build Maryland at some point). Bottom line - it took four renditions to figure out that eliminating all the attachment tabs except the one on top makes for the cleanest, tightest, most seamless fit. Ironically, it was an open window version (which is by far the most flimsy and difficult to assemble) that turned out the best of the four. I guess I can save that for Maryland.

I had one more FS set that I could use for a clean, closed-up version now that I seemed to know what to do. I had set it aside for Maryland and really didn�t want to cut anything from that set until I worked on Maryland, assuming that would ever happen. But, I wasn�t happy with the two closed-up versions in hand, so I gave it another go. Thankfully, it came out as well as could be hoped for.

Thankfully, I bought all three FS sets on sale last year. Otherwise, this would have been an even more costly series of experiments.

You�ll notice that the FS versions sport railings on top of the secondary battery positions. I checked the photographic record for these railings. Apparently, they were removable and their usage varied between ships and situations. Maryland and Tennessee have them rigged on December 7th, while California and WeeVee seemingly do not. The LIFE photos of Maryland during the summer of 1941 also show them rigged. While it might be more correct to remove them for WeeVee, I�m just going to leave them on. When I get to California's foretop using the 3D MP version, I can ignore the railings.

[Dan K]

2 quick updates �

Photos of boats and cranes in place on WeeVee. I've opted to leave some off.

The stacked boats for CA were stowed on either side of the bridge base. My bridge is currently unglued, so these are not yet installed, though the cranes are. Pics on that eventually.