| The Montana class were designed for the US Navy as a classic
slow battleship counterpart to the Iowa class fast battleships. They would
have had larger, different hulls from the Iowa's, with extra length and
width to accommodate an extra triple 16" turret, heavier armor and a better
anti-torpedo protection system. A lower speed of 27 kts was accepted as
the Montana's were intended for the battle line, whereas the Iowa's were
intended as carrier escorts. They would have displaced 56,000 tons empty
and measured 925' in length. Five Montana's- Montana, Ohio, Maine, New
Hampshire and Louisiana (BB 67-71 respectively) were planned, but all were
canceled in 1943 in favor of more aircraft carriers. Interestingly, their
greater beam would have prevented them from using the Panama Canal, and
a planned set of new 140 ft wide locks was also canceled with the battleships.
This is Very Fire's first injection molded ship kit. Let's take
a peak inside the box: |
| UPPER AND LOWER HULL |
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| The hull is molded split at the waterline. The fit
is good and the shape looks correct. The lower hull looks pretty
good, however some sanding will be needed to remove the mold insert lines
on the stern. |
click images
to enlarge |
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| DECK |
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| The deck has nice planking detail. The surface details are little
generic but I doubt many of you will mind in this small scale. |
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| SPRUE D |
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| The upper levels also have deck planking where appropriate and nice
bases for the quad 40's. The walls look a little plain at first glance.
But sprue E takes care of that. |
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| SPRUE E |
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| Walls for the upper deck levels on sprue D are provided here.
They include doors and hatches as well as life rings and compressed gas
cylinders for welding molded-on. Many of the other platforms are
included on the sprues well. |
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| SPRUE F x4 |
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| Four of these weapons sprues are included with one main 16" gun turret,
three 5" 38 caliber, six quad 40's, and fourteen 20 MM machine guns each.
Gun directors, life rafts, searchlights, and a kingfisher float plane are
provided here. Most of these parts are nicely detailed but I find
the quad 40's if are a little plane looking. You will have a few extra
parts to usse on other projects! |
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| SPRUE F |
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| If you don't like the conventional 5" 38 caliber turrets on sprue F
you can use these twin 5" 54 caliber turrets based on the single version
found on the Midway class carriers. A cool option. |
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| PHOTOETCH |
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| A single Brass photo etch fret is included with custom cut handrails
sections, 20 MM gun shields, radar antenna, catapults and crane, and many
more details. The views below illustrate the PE parts well. |
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| DECALS |
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| Flags and aircraft insignia are included as well as hull numbers and
ship names for Montana and Louisiana in white and black. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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| The instructions are eight pages well drawn with plenty of subassembly
views documenting the whole assembly. The bottom of the box has a full
color painting guide. |
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| CONCLUSIONS |
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 For
a first ship kit this is pretty impressive. It looks like it should
be easy to assemble right out of the box. Or you could use it as
a platform for super detailing. I like that they give you a choice
for secondary armament. Since the Montana was never actually completed
we don't know exactly what the armament would have been. So it's
nice to have a choice. I'm looking forward to seeing what other kits
Very Fire comes out with.
Very Fire Models
are available direct or where ever fine ship kits are sold.
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