1/700 Trumpeter USS Texas BB-35

[JTninja]

This group build needs at least one build related to naval bombardment, so here we go! USS Texas was quite active during World War II, providing bombardment and firing support in numerous engagements, including the landings on Omaha Beach. Luckily, the ship was saved after the war, and has continued to serve as a museum ship. 

 

 

Should you ever find yourself in Houston, Texas, I highly recommend visiting this wonderful ship. 

 

This is Trumpeters 1/700 plastic kit, the smaller offering compared to their beautiful 1/350 kit. Still undecided how detailed I'll get with this build, but I look forward to starting it soon. Camo will most likely be MS22, which she had during June '44. 

 

 

 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Shes going into dry dock soon to be given new hull plating. I hope to visit her when she comes out in a couple years. 

[desert falcon]

What a mighty ship, good she was saved 👍

[Col.]

Excellent JT, our first ship

 

7 hours ago, JTninja said:

This group build needs at least one build related to naval bombardment, so here we go! USS Texas was quite active during World War II, providing bombardment and firing support in numerous engagements, including the landings on Omaha Beach. Luckily, the ship was saved after the war, and has continued to serve as a museum ship. 

 

 

Still undecided how detailed I'll get with this build,

Are you planning to complete it on wash day with everything hanging out to dry as above?  

[Jasper dog]

This will be an interesting build, adding a nice bit of variety to the GB!

Never really done a boat so this could be inspiring!

 

Atb

Darryl 

[PeterB]

Back when I was building 1/700 warships there were of course plenty of Japanese, together with US, UK, and German battleships and carriers (where appropriate) but very little else. These days the situation has improved enormously and not only are cruisers and destroyers available for the last 3 countries but also a much wider range of older ships such as the Texas and the Warspite. Also a handful of Italian BB and maybe the odd French ship? 

 

This will be a good subject, though of course like the Arizona, that generation of battleships were somewhat smaller than the later ones and in some cases shorter hulled than modern heavy cruisers - my old Revell? Arizona looked tiny by comparison with some of my other heavy units, even allowing for the fact that it was 1/720 like their Prinz Eugen.

 

Pete

[JTninja]

You can see a bit of size difference next to my halted West Virginia. While the Colorado class battleships started construction only 6 years after the New York class, the designs had been improved from the preceding classes that followed the New Yorks with minor changes (Nevada, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Tennessee classes). 

 

Hull and main deck has been glued, surprisenly good fit, though a bit complicated to do so. The platform for what I believe are 5in secondaries has to tuck in under their shield. meaning the deck has to be attached to one side of the hull first before the other side can be mounted. Im now checking the fitment for the next deck, which provides the roof to the layout of secondaries. 

 

[JTninja]

A bit more progress on the Texas

 

Deck Blue has been painted down, and clear coated to help prevent lifting when masked. Ordered a Photoetch set direct from GoldMedalModels, whom Ive used previously and loved.

 

 

Pre-cut masks from Hunter are being applied. I've never used precut masks before, and they're fantastic. Fitment is about 90%, difficult and time consuming to lay down correctly, but ultimately a quicker and more accurate process. Not sure how I'll get them off later, but I deal with that when the time comes

 

 

 

 

And lastly, im starting to plan how to back date the model to summer of 1944. This image shows the difference in configuration of the Main Mast, which was upgraded at the end of '44 (right). This was done during refit and relocation to the Pacific theater. 

 

 

 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

That's a beast of a ship. When was she launched?

[PeterB]

Does it still have any of the casemate mounted secondaries or had they all been replaced after the last refit - I suspect the ones below the main deck had gone but maybe not the ones below the next deck up (shelter deck perhaps) which I guess are the ones you are referring to? They were common on ships of WWI vintage but lost favour after that, particularly the ones nearest to the bow as they were "washed out" in heavy seas. Three of the British Queen Elizabeth class still had some during WWII though not I believe Valiant and Queen Elizabeth herself which had a more extensive refit than the rest.

 

Pete

Edited February 23, 2022 by PeterB

[ArnoldAmbrose]

On 2/23/2022 at 2:17 AM, Bertie Psmith said:

That's a beast of a ship. When was she launched?

Gidday, AFAIK, launched 18th May 1912 and commissioned 12th March 1914'

 

7 hours ago, PeterB said:

Three of the British Queen Elizabeth class still had some during WWII though not I believe Valiant and Queen Elizabeth herself which had a more extensive refit than the rest.

I believe the five 'R' class battleships retained their casemate 6-inch guns throughout WW2 also, although HMS Royal Oak didn't see much of the war being torpedoed and sunk in Scapa Flow by U-47. Regards, Jeff.

[JTninja]

The issue from gluing the hull, split in two pieces, is that part of the deck has to fit under these shields. You can see the deck under the raised shields, which is part of the hull. The directions require you glue the deck to one side of the hull, and then the other. Luckily, the fitment was for once pretty good.

 

 

Now. the hull has been primered. My initial 5-H Haze Grey paint for the upper hull/superstructure was a bit too dark, so I ordered some alternative. Until then, here's how she sits

 

 

 

 

[Col.]

Good to see you making progress with this one and hopefully the new paint doesn't take too long for delivery. Are you able to work on any other sections of the kit in the meantime?