Trumpeter USS Texas, BB-35. 1:350

[Shar2]

USS Texas, BB-35

Trumpeter 1:350

USS Texas (BB-35), the second ship of the United States Navy named in honour of the U.S. state of Texas, is a New York-class battleship. The ship was launched on 18 May 1912 and commissioned on 12 March 1914. Soon after her commissioning, Texas saw action in Mexican waters following the "Tampico Incident" and made numerous sorties into the North Sea during World War I. When the United States formally entered World War II in 1941, Texas escorted war convoys across the Atlantic, and later shelled Axis-held beaches for the North African campaign and the Normandy Landings before being transferred to the Pacific Theatre late in 1944 to provide naval gunfire support during the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Texas was decommissioned in 1948, having earned a total of five battle stars for service in World War II, and is now a museum ship near Houston, Texas.

Among the world's remaining battleships, Texas is notable for being the only remaining WW1 era dreadnought battleship, though she is not the oldest surviving battleship; Mikasa, a pre-dreadnought battleship ordered in 1898 by the Empire of Japan, is older than Texas. She is also noteworthy for being one of only six remaining ships to have served in both World Wars. Among US-built battleships, Texas is notable for her sizable number of firsts: the first US Navy vessel to house a permanently assigned contingent of US Marines, the first US battleship to mount anti-aircraft guns, the first US ship to control gunfire with directors and range-keepers (analogue forerunners of today's computers), the first US battleship to launch an aircraft, from a catapult on Turret 3, one of the first to receive the CXAM-1 version of CXAM production radar in the US Navy, the first US battleship to become a permanent museum ship, and the first battleship declared to be a US National Historic Landmark.

The Model
With the release of the USS New York maritime modeller knew that it wouldn’t be too long before Trumpeter released her sister ship the USS Texas. Well, here she is in all her glory. Fortunately Trumpeter haven’t just released the same parts as in the New York kit, which they could well have done knowing their haphazard research techniques, as the deck and superstructure parts are all new and from what I can see, correct for the era. Unfortunately, they haven’t done anything with the hull, which still sports the overlarge shelf along the top of the aft section of the armoured belt, which is a great shame as this is almost impossible to fix. The large, thick, hull plates are also still in evidence, but at least these can be sorted with a bit of judicious rubbing down with some wet ‘n’ dry. The kit comes in the standard top opening box that has a very nice rendition of the Texas at sea in line ahead with another battleship on the top. Inside there are eleven sheets of light grey styrene, two main deck parts and six loose superstructure parts, also in light grey styrene, two sprues of clear styrene, four sheets of etched brass and small decal sheet the large black styrene stand and a length of chain.

All the parts are very nicely moulded with some very fine details, particularly on the deck and superstructure. The parts are all cleanly moulded, with no sign of flash or other imperfections, but there are quite a few moulding pips, mainly on the small parts. The exceptions being on a couple of the loose parts, where they look like they have been quite roughly removed from a sprue, with large lugs that need to be removed and cleaned up. The instructions are well printed and very clearly mark the positioning of parts and sub-assemblies

Construction begins with the fitting of the two hull halves between which are four bulkheads and two joining parts for the bow and stern. The main deck is provided in two sections, the joint of which is fortunately covered by the superstructure, so there’s no worry about filling an awkward seam. Turning the hull upside down the four keel strakes, two propeller shafts, A frame supports, and propellers plus the rudder are attached.

Before moving on, several sub-assemblies and PE parts are constructed. These include the PE inclined ladders, PE floater baskets, forty two 20mm Oerlikon mounts with PE shields, two director towers with PE radar dish, twelve 5” gun mounts, and eight quad 40mm mountings with PE railings. Six of the 5” mounts are fitted just forward of amidships before the large deck 01 is attached. This needs several holes drilled through before the fitting as the ship is at a different mod state than the previously released sister ship USS New York. On either side of the hull, aligned with 01 deck, a section of what used to be the barbette emplacements is attached.

The bridge area is now assembled, which includes 02 deck, armoured steering bridge, 03 deck and secondary bridge along with two lookout points. The bridge structure is then glued into position along with two ready use lockers, signal lamps, large and small and two binocular stands. The instructions also call for some of the railings, inclined ladders and floater nets to be fitted, but it may be prudent to leave these till nearer the end of the build. The underside of the upper bridge deck/mast is also fitted out with PE braces and struts before being turned over and fitted with the forward main director two rangefinders, two aldis lamps and six 20mm Oerlikons. The two inclined mast poles and underside deck supports are attached and the sub-assembly fitted above the bridge, followed by the mast pole which has two lookout tubs attached along with their roof. Once again the railings and inclined ladders are due to be fitted at this point. The upper spotting top is now assembled, with the PE support braces, yardarms and a very nice PE radar antenna. This is then fitted to the top of the mast structure along with two PE inclined access ladders.

Attention is then quickly focused onto the foredeck, with the fitting of the PE anchor chains, hawse pipe gratings and styrene windlasses, cleats, bollards and Jackstaff. Moving aft, more ready use lockers are fitted round the bridge structure and mid AA gun deck. These are followed by several deckhouses, complete with attached carley floats, six quad 40mm mounts, six 5” mounts and four 20mm Oerlikons alongside B barbette, as well as a pair of small goose necked derricks. Aft of the forward superstructure all the way back to the quarterdeck, or fantail in this case, numerous ready use lockers, ventilation mushrooms, intakes, davits, and other ephemera are fitted. Four more deckhouse sub assemblies are then constructed and fitted with either Carley floats or 20mm Oerlikons and floater baskets, before being fitted into their respective positions, followed by four Quad 40mm mounts, two Mk 51 directors, four 5” mounts, a practice 5” loader and twenty 20mm Oerlikons.

The funnel is assembled next; it comes in two halves and is fitted with a styrene and PE funnel cap and base. It’s completed with auxiliary steam pipes, PE funnel guards and railings before being fitted into position. The next sub assembly is what looks like an auxiliary bridge on top of a large intake trunk, capped with a small radar antenna. This is fitted just aft of the funnel along with four ships boats onto their respective cradles. More of the ships superstructure railings are now attached as well as the remainder of the floater baskets. The two cranes are assembled from a mixture of PE and styrene parts which should make them look really good once painted up. With these in place the build moves onto the five 14” main turrets. Each turret consists of the base, turret, and the two gun barrels, which whilst they are quite nicely done, they would be better replaced with turned metal items. The centre turret is fitted with a very nicely detailed PE catapult, complete with walkways and supports, whilst B and X turrets are each fitted with six 20mm Oerlikons, their splinter shields, ready use lockers and on the outside of the shields four floater baskets, plus Y turret has four Carley rafts attached the turret sides.

With the build in its final stages the five turrets are fitted and the main mast is assembled from a series of decks, three mast poles, and fitted with the after main director, topped off with a pole mast on top of which is the large CXAM-1 radar array, which is made entirely of PE parts, although fitted to a styrene mounting, four 20mm Oerlikons, ready use lockers and railings before being attached to the ship. The kit comes complete with two OS2U Kingfisher aircraft on the two clear sprues. These are assembled from two fuselage halves, separate floats and propeller. Unfortunately there appears to be only room for one on the model and that would be attached to the catapult, as there isn’t a handling trolley for the other to sit on, although one of the aftermarket companies may rectify this. Last task is to fit all the upper deck railings and set the completed model onto the large stand provided.

Decals
The small decal sheet provides national markings and codes numbers for the ships aircraft, the ships name for the stern and her ID number for the Bows and stern quarters, the Stars and Stripes in plain and wavy form. For the colour scheme you will need to get into a blue period, as the horizontal surfaces are Deck Blue and all the vertical surfaces are Navy Blue. You will get some relief if you’re building full hull with the red anti-fouling and black boot topping, as even the aircraft are in a light blue/blue grey and white scheme.

Conclusion
As with the USS New York release this is Trumpeter at their best, mixing superb detail and moulding with some shocking inaccuracy with the hull. They really do have a problem when it comes to researching ships hulls as they rarely get the details right, even if the length and breadth is correct. That said, if you’re not a stickler for absolute accuracy this will build into an impressive model, after all, most people who will see it won’t know what’s wrong with it. So, for buildability and modelling enjoyment, alone, I can still quite happily recommend it.

Review sample courtesy of
UK Distributors for

[Panzer Vor!!!]

So nobody paid a visit to the real ship then?

[Shar2]

Probably not mate.

[prowler0000]

On another site with the letters S & N in its name, There was a thread about the hull accuracy. Following on from the initial 'how crap is the hull?' posts, Some wag signed at "Trumpeter" posted "this thing still exists?!?!? We must pay it a visit someday!"

In it's defence, I bought this last week from Hannants London, & must say how impressed i am by whats in the box. If you want a nice ship to build with everything you need in the box: USS Texas!

Needless to say, i've already bought metal barrels, & await a BLUE wooden deck with rapt anticipation!

[Ragtag]

Interesting-looking kit. Are you going to do anything about the hull or build as-is?

[Alan P]

Another plus, look at all that PE! Even The railings are included. Also Trumpeter have managed to include the correct US flags for the era, something Tamiya seem incapable of grasping.

I'll have to look at solutions for the hull, I'm sure it is fixable to an acceptable result.

[Ragtag]

Hadn't realised the kit came with the PE, nice inclusion

[Shar2]

The only way I can think of dealing with the excess shelf is to fill and sand the area behind it with milliput the file it down to the correct depth. It's not impossible, but you'd have to be careful to keep the hull shape. Since the hull plates need to sanded back you wouldn't lose too much detail.

On another site with the letters S & N in its name, There was a thread about the hull accuracy. Following on from the initial 'how crap is the hull?' posts, Some wag signed at "Trumpeter" posted "this thing still exists?!?!? We must pay it a visit someday!"

In it's defence, I bought this last week from Hannants London, & must say how impressed i am by whats in the box. If you want a nice ship to build with everything you need in the box: USS Texas!

Needless to say, i've already bought metal barrels, & await a BLUE wooden deck with rapt anticipation!

I wouldn't worry about getting a blue deck, easier to just paint it.