1/700 USS New Hampshire
|
by Martin J Quinn |
|
| HISTORY | |
| The battleships USS New Hampshire (BB-25), a member
of the Connecticut-class, was the last pre-dreadnought built for the United
States Navy. She was laid down in May, 1905, launched in June 1906,
but not commissioned until March 1908, long after HMS Dreadnought had rendered
her obsolete.
She participated in the expedition against the Mexicans at Veracruz – where her Captain won the Medal of Honor for his actions leading a shore party – and served mostly as a training and convoy escort ship during World War I. For further information, check out her Wikipedia page here. |
| The Combrig New Hampshire
New Hampshire is packaged in Combrig’s familiar
soft, white cardboard box, with a photo of the real vessel on the box top.
Inside the box is the hull, a bag of over 175 parts and a photo-etch fret
in a plastic bag. The prow of the hull was chipped on my example. I’d like
to see Combrig beef up their boxes and packaging moving forward.
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| THE HULL | |||||||||||||||||||
| The hull is very well cast with good
detail. There is sharply done planking, cast inclined ladders that lead
into the interior of the ship, and nicely cast bitts and other details.
As previously mentioned, there is a chip in the prow, but there is no over
pour to sand off.
According to the measurements I found for New Hampshire,
the hull scales out perfectly in beam, but is a little short in length.
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| SUPERSTRUCTURE PARTS | |||||||||||||||||||
| A resin wafer is included in the box.
This is where you will find all the superstructure platforms, as well as
the platforms for the military masts, the top of the pilot house and a
few other platforms and structures. The platforms have nice planking detail,
but the wafer is fairly thick and will require careful sanding to remove
the parts.
The base of the after superstructure is a separate piece in resin, with recessed windows. |
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| FUNNELS AND TURRETS | |||||||||||||||||||
| There are six turrets included with
the kit: 2 12" gun turrets and 4 8" gun turrets. They are all nicely cast,
and appear to have the proper shape. Each turret has what appear to have
sighting hoods cast on the turret tops.
The three funnels as also well cast, with a fairly deep opening in the top. The only blemish I found was a chip in one of the skirts around the bottom of one funnel. This may be due to the fact all the parts were in one plastic bag in my sample. |
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| SHIPS BOATS | |||||||||||||||||||
| There are a total of 14 different boats included with the kit. All are up to the usual Combrig standards, which means they are well cast. | |||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| ASSORTED PARTS | |||||||||||||||||||
| The cranes consist two resin parts
each (along with some PE). The crane bases are particularly nice. The military
masts, ventilators, and ship boats are well cast. The gun barrels for the
12’ and 8’ guns look pretty good in resin, though the magic of macro digital
photography shows one or two may be slightly warped.
What I assume are winches are very nice. Other small parts like searchlights (or are the signal lamps?), boat cradles, anchors, davits and bitts are, again, sharply cast. The boat cradles look like they could be challenging to remove from the runner – use caution. The boat davits are impressively thin and very fragile looking. There is a runner with what appear to be four braces that are really small – I’m impressed that these were cast in resin. I haven’t figured out where they go yet, but some care will be needed when handling them. |
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| PHOTOETCH | |||||||||||||||||||
| There is a fairly extensive photo-etch
set included with the kit. On it you won’t find railings, but you will
find braces, inclined ladders, anchor handling cranes, gun pedestals, boat
racks, anchor chain and funnel caps. There doesn’t appear to be any relief
etching. For some reason, my sample had two photo-etch sets with it!
There are no masts included with the kit, but, as per usual Combrig practice, there are drawings showing dimensions of the masts and yards. |
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| INSTRUCTIONS | |||||||||||||||||||
| The instructions are typical Combrig
fare. There are three sheets of paper, with instructions on all but one
side. Along with a plan view of New Hampshire, there is a page cataloguing
the parts, another with some sub-assemblies and two pages of exploded views
showing where to place the parts.
There are no color callouts or painting instructions. Launched in 1908 while the USN was still in the white and buff paint scheme, it appears New Hampshire quickly changed into overall gray paint. Instructions continue to be one of the weaker parts of Combrig's kits. |
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| CONCLUSIONS | |||||||||||||||||||
| This is a very nicely cast kit of
a lesser known ship that was consigned to obsolescence before she was even
commissioned. Highly recommended for fans of pre-dreadnoughts and/or fans
of United States Navy battleships.
This is Combrig’s 1/700 USS New Hampshire, kit number 70466. The model lists for $54.95 and is available from many of our fine sponsors. This is an in-box review, your mileage may vary once you commence construction. Thanks to Combrig Models for the review sample. |
 |
||||||||||||||||||
| This is an in-box review showing the kit contents. We welcome your input and comments in the review section of the forum especially if you can share details about fit, ease of assembly and accuracy. Click the logo on the right to join in the discussion. |  |
