Reviewed by Timothy Dike
January 2014 |
The California, the second Tennessee class served first as flagship
of the Pacific Fleet. She moored on the south end of Battleship row at
Pearl Harbor and was among the ships damaged and sunk on December 7th.
Like many of the other ships California was refloated and repaired
After a major reconstruction in 1944, California emerged looking like
a modern fast battleship. Gone were the cage masts and open 5" guns and
in their place a modern looking superstructure and a battery of 5" twin
mounts supplemented by 40 mm quad mounts and numerous 20 mm guns. She sailed
back into action to enact her revenge for Pearl Harbor. Late in 1944 she
was involved in a collision with sister Tennessee and had to return stateside
for more repairs. California again sailed into the Pacific and helped support
the invasion of the Philippines. She was hit by a kamikaze while providing
shore bombardment at Lingayen Gulf. This time she stayed on station until
the area was secured and then once again returned to Puget Sound for repairs.
She was back in action at Okinawa in June 1945 and stayed around to support
the occupation of Japan following the surrender.
California received seven battle stars for World War II service. A more
detailed account of the California's history can be viewed on the DANFS
page.
This new kit is based on the Classic Warships kit. Blue Ridge
Models began with that kit, remastered many of the parts, added some of
the best aftermarket accessories available and brought it up to the standards
we expect from today's kits. Also available is the West
Virginia and Tennessee
from the same time frame. The kit depicts the ship in 1945, but with all
the extra parts can be backdated to 44 easily.
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| HULL |
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| The hull is cast in the typical waterline style with deck
planking inscribed into the surface. The anchor ways are clean with no
molded-on chain. Casting is pretty good overall and there is plenty of
surface detailing and virtually no cleanup needed. |
click images
to enlarge
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| DECK |
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| A wood grain laser cut deck overlay specially designed by Artwox Models
is provided for those who can't resist that real wood look. It can be left
in it's natural wood color if your doing a post war version, or stained
blue for war time colors. The planking is nicely scribed on the surface
and all the shapes are precut to fit around the deck fittings. The deck
has a self adhesive coating on it, so it's virtually peel and stick. |
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| SUPERSTRUCTURE |
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| The superstructure parts are cast on resin wafers. Some flat sanding
will be needed to separate the parts from the resin over-pour. Shapes look
good and the only real flash is on the bottom. Gun directors area also
included with accurate shapes. Those parts are cast on resin runners with
only a very thin resin film on some parts to remove. |
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| MAIN AND SECONDARY GUNS |
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| Main guns are cast in resin with pretty good detailing. Five
turrets are included, four plain, and one with gun tubs cast on the roof.
Separate gun barrels are included with cast on blast bags shown on the
sprures below. The 5" gun turrets are nicely cast and shaped. They have
sighting hoods and access hatches. The modeler will have to drill the holes
for locating the machined gun barrels shown further below. Some gun platforms
and tubs are also included on this resin wafer. |
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| LIGHT ARMAMENT |
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| Ten quad 40 mounts are included with a whole bunch of extra gun barrel
cast in twin sets. These are nicely cast and are provided as a choice for
the modeler (photo etch versions are also included). Mk-51 gun directors
are well done will look really good in this scale. More gun tubs and the
main gun blast bags are included here. |
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| BOATS, RAFTS AND MISCELLANEOUS |
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| The ships boats and a multitude of rafts are provided here. Tubs for
the Mk-51's and searchlights are cleanly cast. Closed and open chocks are
also included to place around the deck edge. |
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| FLOAT PLANES |
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| Two Kingfisher Float planes are included supplied by Trumpeter. They
are molded in clear and have look pretty good. I am not a big fan of clear
molded parts, but some may like this feature. It allows for the canopy
to be masked off prior to painting and the mask to be removed to reveal
a clear effect. |
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| METAL PARTS |
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| The twelve CNC turned 14" gun barrels supplied by Master and are typical
of their high quality work. Ends are center drilled for a hollow look and
the other end has a nice mounting pin to help locate them into the blast
bags provided. There are sixteen Brass Turned 5"/38 cal. barrels that are
scale diameter and length. A turned brass mast is also included with the
proper taper. |
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| PHOTO ETCH |
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| No less than 7 photo etch frets are included with this
kit. Everything you could think of to add to this kit and then some is
included. |
| The first fret is the basic items like railings, vertical and inclined
ladders. Also included are some cool items like lookout seats and yardarm
antennas. |
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| The second fret includes a wide variety of parts. Everything from more
railings to brackets, radars, catapults, and cranes assemblies. The majority
of these will not be needed but save this fret as it has a lot of nice
parts for your other projects. I have included a few detail views of this
one below. |
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| This fret produced for Blue Ridge Models by Tom's Modelworks has some
really nice radar assemblies, catapults and cranes. Many of the custom
platform, brackets, and other details are included here |
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| Another fret from Tom's Modelworks is this US Radar set with the main
gun director radar and even more. |
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| A whole fret of relief etched 40 mm quads is provided from F-Star.
This are provided as an alternative to the resin version giving you a choice. |
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| Also from F-Star are open doors and hatches with a variety of styles.
Nicely etched, these will really dress up your ship and provide plenty
of extras for other projects. |
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| Finally 20 mm twin and single light weight mounts are included. These
are the tripod style mount and include separate shields and ammo cans. |
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| DECALS |
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| The decal sheet is a real treat and includes flags and pennants as
well as both prewar and early and late war hull numbers. These are printed
by Microscale and are typical of the high quality decals they usually produce.
They are nicely registered and sharp. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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| The instructions come in a comprehensive 20 page booklet with plenty
of construction views, parts list and painting instructions. It's nice
to see a high end kit with high end instructions. There is also an adendum
explaining the extra parts included in the kit that allow you to do a 44
version. |
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| CONCLUSIONS |
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This new kit from Blue
Ridge Models is packed full of detail and options. It's truly a complete
one stop kit with nothing else needed except glue, paint and time. The
resin is sharp in detail, the photo etch is first rate, and CNC machined
gun barrels make this a first class solution for your late war battlewagon.
The nice thing is you can pick and choose your options and build it your
way! |
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This is kit #70002
USS California 1945 for $135 available now at Freetime
Hobbies. That may sound pricey at first until you add up all the extras
in the kit. |
