| The Liberty ship Jeremiah O'Brien was
typical of the mass produced liberty ships. She was an launched as hull
number 230 on June 19, 1943 an EC2-S-C1 type Liberty Ship. She was later
named the Jeremiah O'Brien and she served in both the Atlantic and Pacific
theaters of war. She was there at Normandy on D-Day helping to support
Operation Overload. After the the war in Europe was under control she sailed
for the Pacific hauling needed cargo in the South Pacific.
She was selected to be a hospital ship, in 1946 but was instead
assigned to the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, Calif. She
survived in the "mothball fleet" until volunteers rescued her and spent
a half million dollars restoring her as a museum ship. Today the Jeremiah
O'Brien is berthed at Fort Mason in San Francisco open to the public and
available for tours. Information about her can be found on the Jeremiah
O'Brien website. Recently the Jeremiah O'Brien made a return visit
to Normandy for the 60th anniversary of the landings
| Length: |
441 feet, 7 inches |
| Beam: |
57 feet |
| Draft: |
27 feet, 9 inches |
| Displacement: |
14,245 tons |
| Armament: |
one 5-inch/38 caliber gun
two 3-inch/50 caliber guns
eight 20mm antiaircraft guns |
Trumpeter has finally scaled down their 350 Liberty Ships to 1/700.
The results look very promising.
|
|
| HULL PARTS |
|
| The hull is molded as a waterline style with separate lower
hull sections for either waterline or full hull display. The lower hull
parts are molded in red. The upper hull includes a deck insert that has
some of the hull sides included. The fit seems to be pretty good, but I
would prefer that the deck would fit inside the hull instead of on top
of it. This makes for a very long seam that will have to be filled. Fortunately
it is in a place where it will be easy to sand. |
Click images
to enlarge |
 |
| The deck includes molded on deck winches and cargo covers.
These are nicely molded and will look good with a light wash to bring out
the details.
|
| SPRUE A |
|
| Superstructure parts are well molded with open portholes and nicely
molded air vent tubes. Funnels are molded in two halves and there are doors
with molded on hinge and rain gutter detailing. |
 |
|
|
| SPRUE B |
|
| This sprue includes the upper decks and gun tubs. Molding is pretty
sharp and the splinter shield walls are more vertical than in some of their
other kits that have an extreme taper to them. |
 |
|
|
| SPRUE D (X 2) |
|
| There are two of these sprues in the kit. There are booms, guns, rafts,
and air vents. The molding on these parts is also pretty good. |
 |
|
|
| DECALS |
|
| A sharply registered decal sheet is included with hull numbers and
a stack emblem. |
 |
|
|
| INSTRUCTIONS |
|
| The instructions are six pages with a separate color sheet that shows
the colors and where the decals go. These are well illustrated and present
a nice step by step approach of the assembly. |
 |
|
|
| Conclusions: |
|
This kit looks like an A-Team effort. It includes 151 parts on 4 sprues
with very nice detailing and will make a very nice addition to your 1/700
supply lines. Thanks to Stevens
International for the review sample. These kits should be showing up
in your local hobby shops now. It is listed as #5755 1/700 SS Jeremiah
O'Brien Liberty Ship with a retail price of $24.95 US.
Stevens is the exclusive importer for Trumpeter kits in the US. If your
hobby shop does not carry Trumpeter kits have them contact Stevens
International or try their Hobby Shop Locator to find one that does. |
