USS Tennessee BB-43 1944 - 1:700 Trumpeter

[Paul A H]

USS Tennessee BB-43 1944

1:700 Trumpeter

The USS Maryland, alongside her sister ship the USS California, formed the Tennessee class of battleships, filling the gap between the New Mexico class (on which they were based) and the Colorado class. Improvements over the New Mexico class included additional armour protection against torpedos and much improved elevation for the 14 inch main guns. The Tennessee herself was laid down in May 1917, launched in April 1919 and commissioned in the summer of 1920. After working up, the Tennessee joined the Pacific Fleet based at San Pedro, California, which was to remain her home port until the advent of the Second World War. On 7 December 1941, the USS Tennessee was moored at Pearl Harbour during the Japanese attack. She was hit by two armour piercing bombs and suffered light damage as a result.

Repaired and re-equipped with additional anti-aircraft armament and modern search and fire control radar, she spent some time patrolling the Pacific before entering Puget Sound Naval Yard for a substantial rebuild. By the time she re-emerged in May 1943, she sported a new, more compact bridge structure and a single funnel, as well as all-new secondary armament and improved and rearranged anti-aircraft armament. For much of the rest of the War, she took part in shore bombardments at the Marshall Islands, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Mariana Islands, Leyte Gulf and the final line battle in military history, the Battle of Surigao Straight. Decommissioned in 1947, she was placed in reserve for the next twelve years before finally being scrapped in 1959.

It's been a busy few months for Trumpeter's small scale ship division, with the release of the USS Maryland and HMS Queen Elizabeth at the vanguard of a wave of new ship releases from the Chinese firm. This is their first kit of the USS Tennessee, although her sister ship, the USS California is also to be released in both pre- and post-rebuild forms. In the usual Trumpeter style, the kit is tightly packed into a compact top-opening box. Each sprue is individually bagged and some of the more delicate parts are protected with extra strips of foam padding. As usual, the decals have the protective paper sellotaped in place, which can make them difficult to remove from the backing paper. A small fret of photo etched parts is included, although as this kit depicts the ship in post-rebuild form, the complex cage masts are not used.

The kit is comprised of hundreds of parts spread across some twenty seven sprues, as well as separately moulded parts for the upper and lower hull and decks. Everything is moulded in grey plastic, apart from the lower hull and waterline plate, which are moulded in dark red plastic, and the aircraft, which are moulded in clear plastic. Many of the smaller parts such as the secondary and AA armament are produced on generic sprues that are common to a number of kits, which is a clever way of minimising tooling costs without compromising quality. The plastic parts are perfectly moulded and feature plenty of intricate detail, while the photo etch parts are also very fine indeed. I'm a big fan of Trumpeter's policy of including both full hull and waterline options in their kits.

Construction begins with the upper hull and deck. The latter has planking detail moulded in place and is split into two levels in line with the ship's extended forecastle. The upper hull has the characteristically broad beam of many US battleships of this era and has portholes and other details moulded in place. Before construction moves on to the main superstructure, you have the task of making up a lot of the smaller sub-assemblies. These include various life rafts, anti-aircraft gun installations and the secondary armament. All are nicely detailed, finely moulded and will easily pass muster in this scale. The main superstructure is made up of the deck and separate parts for the walls. As this model depicts the ship in its post-rebuild form, the superstructure deck is festooned with anti-aircraft guns, helping to create an incredibly busy and detailed finish.

The detail doesn't stop there. The main deck benefits from fine details such as separately moulded anchors, cable reels, capstans and other features. The ship's crane and aircraft catapult are replicated in photo etched brass, but you can still choose to use plastic alternatives if you are not comfortable working in that medium. Other details provided for on the fret include the truncated conical cage masts, but as these (frankly quite horrible) features were removed during the rebuild, they can be consigned to the spares box. Most of the rest of the details, including the bridge and funnel superstructures, are fairly straightforward and can all be built and painted prior to assembly.

The four triple 14-inch main gun turrets are all present and correct. You have the option of using guns with or without blast bags, which is helpful as these are tricky to make from scratch if they are not included. If you decide to upgrade to brass barrels, you can simply fix the plastic barrels (with blast bags) in place before cutting the barrels themselves off and replacing them. Once all of these sub-assemblies are complete, the whole thing can be assembled. You don't have to make up your mind whether to finish the model in full hull or waterline configuration until the very end of the building process. If you choose the former, then you can fit the propellers and their shafts, as well as the rudder, to the underside of the hull. If you choose the latter, you can just stick the hull plate on and call it done. The last job is to build the Curtiss SC-1 Seahawks that are provided on the small clear sprues. A colour painting guide is provided, but it might be a good idea to consult period photographs before cracking open the paint.

Conclusion

Trumpeter are now close to having one of the most complete ranges of World War II era naval vessels available in this scale, particularly if you discount the large range of Japanese vessels available from manufacturers such as Tamiya, Hasegawa and Aoshima. To my eyes, the late-war USS Tennessee, with its massive superstructure bristling with guns, is one of the more attractive of the pre-war US battleships, so this release is very welcome indeed. Overall it is a thoughtfully produced and superbly detailed kit, with the added bonus of a handful of delicate photo etched details. A set of railings wouldn't have gone amiss, but that can be easily sorted with some aftermarket parts. All-in-all this looks like a great package and it can be recommended to all fans of WWII era warships.

UK Distributors for

[dfqweofekwpeweiop4]

Just a quick correction - The Tennessee and California were one class and the Colorado, Maryland and West Virginia another, collectively very similar and known in the US as the 'Big Five'. The main difference was the Tennessee and California were armed with 12 14inch guns and the other 3 with 8 16inch guns.

The model itself is very nice but it could do with etch radar antennae for the secondary directors as these are not present on the kit etch. If anyone would like any recommendations for extra detailing bits n pieces, I can point people in the direction of useful stuff.

thanks

Mike

[prowler0000]

I REALLY want this in 1:350.....

Looks like a very nice, albeit rail-less, kit.