North Carolina Class Battleship
Reviewed by Timothy Dike
| The North Carolina Class Battleship was a radical departure
from earlier designs. There long sleek shape was the fore runner of the
more modern Iowa Class BB's. Both the North Carolina and her sister ship
the Washington had rather storied careers, serving in both theaters of
war and the USS Washington became the first US Battleship to sink an enemy
Battleship.
This kit can be used to make either ship, and includes enough parts to do an early war version of either ship. A late war version can be made by filling in the port notch on the bow and adding extra 20 mm and 40 mm (available separately). |
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| The hull is well cast in the typical tan resin in the open face method There is a little excess resin that must be sanded away on the bottom of the hull, but no signs of any casting flaws or defects. Detail is crisp and the deck planking looks very good. There are a number of cast on watertight doors that look good enough that photo etch replacements are not necessary unless you are going to open a few of them up. There is a small lip along the deck edge that will make applying the photo etch railings much simpler. | Click images
to enlarge  |
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A kit of this size deserves a few extra views of the hull
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| Deck levels have fine deck planking detail with nicely molded splinter shields. These parts are all molded open face style so you will have to do a little sanding to remove the excess resin. As with the hull there is a small lip to help with the Photo etched railings. |  |
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| Superstructure parts are well molded with plenty of surface detail. The parts are all well molded and will only need a minimal cleanup. The one drawback to this type of molding is the lack of locating pins to align the parts to each other. This is where good reference drawings or instructions are very helpful (see below). |  |
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| Main Gun turrets are nicely molded with separate cast metal barrels and sighting hoods. The detailing includes cast on ladders and other miscellaneous details. |  |
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| Secondary gun turrets are like the main guns well molded with plenty of cast on detail such as the very convincing grab irons. The gun barrels are cast metal and pictured below with the other cast metal parts. |  |
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| The ships launches are really nice they are molded on a thin riser so the clean up will be minimal. |  |
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There are quite a few cast metal parts, almost enough to
be overwhelming.
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| The Photo etch is very complete, with catapults, cranes, radar's and railings. 50 cal machine guns and 20 mm shields and too many other parts to list. If I had to come up with a negative about the set, it would be the lack of a bill of materials of the parts. |  |
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Instructions are very detailed and include a set of Floating
Drydock's plans reduced down to 1/350 scale. They have notes added that
explain the weapons fits for various times during the career of both the
North Carolina and the Washington. Also included are camouflage drawings
showing the early MS-12 mod camo schemes of 1942 for both ships. I am impressed
with these instructions, they include sections on working with resin and
photo etch and attaching your ship (full hull version) to a base using
keel blocks or pedestals.
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| Conclusions: A very nice kit that really does justice to the North Carolina Class Battleships. I recommend doing a 1942 version as their will be fewer 20 mm guns to assemble! My main complaint would be the including of a late war float plane in an early war kit. I couldn't help but play with the parts to see how the completed kit might look. I have included an overall shot of the superstructure parts set in place for reference. As you can see at 25" long and almost 4" wide this will make very dominating kit on your mantle. |  |
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 This
kit is listed for $295.00 and is available exclusively from Pacific
Front Hobbies
Links: |
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