1/485 Revell USS Boston CAG-1, 1956

[Alan P]

Hi Salty Sea Dogs (and of course @TonyOD, here's another build for the list!)

 

I threatened to put more ships in the SSDGB if I made good enough progress on the New Jersey, and so the next candidate is on deck!

It's a really interesting subject - USS Boston, a Baltimore-class heavy cruiser. It started life as CA-69, a standard Baltimore-class cruiser. After the war, it wasn't modernised for the Korean War but instead taken aside and virtually rebuilt as CAG-1, the first guided missile cruiser in the US Navy. It was integrated with the Terrier SAM system, which, like most similar integrated missile system projects (eg. the Royal Navy's Seaslug on the County-class destroyers) was virtually obsolete within a few years of entering service.

 

The kit is the venerable Revell box-scale which pans out at approx 1/485 by my measurements (1/483 according to Scalemates, who also put the kit at 1956 vintage!) It's a little rough and ready but the quality is pretty good for its age. Ironically, despite being box scale, I don't have a box for this kit - I found it stashed inside the giant box for the Revell New Jersey, so I must have stored it in there from years back.

I'm enhancing the very basic kit parts with Model Monkey accessories in 1/490 scale...new bridge structure, twin 5"/38 gun turrets, new 8"/55 gunhouses with drilled trunnions, Mk37 directors for the secondary battery and Mk56 directors for the 3"/50 AA guns.

Very pleased to have sourced this hen's teeth set from Gold Medal Models - 1/500 upgrade set for the vintage Revell cruiser models.

The kit itself is pretty basic, as you'd expect of this vintage,. but the quality is pretty good. I expect it will build up into an interesting subject 🙂

 

Cheers again,

Alan

 

 

[UberDaveToo]

Good one...

[Alan P]

It's taken a while to get going on this but it's finally under way!

Here are the vintage instructions, dated 1956! You van see my rough calculations to work out the scale, which is basically 1/485. Scalemates says 1/483, with Revell approximating 1/490. The photoetch details are 1/500. We're talking millimetres of difference so it's all the same really!

First step is to shear off all the moulded railings. Although a nice touch in the days before photoetch railings, they're really not going to cut it.

 

This was a tedious and quite fiddly job to get right! Remind me why I keep building all these old kits

 

[Alan P]

33 minutes ago, Alan P said:

Remind me why I keep building all these old kits

Because they're really good! Simple but very nicely produced.

Despite most of the parts being off the sprues, the instructions are clear enough to make out what's what. 

 

Assembled the main superstructure parts including the Model Monkey bridge - it's not exactly correct for the Boston, but the only game in town for a closed bridge version.

 

This kit just flies together. The fit is excellent as long as you prepare the mating surfaces. If I'd been building this forty years ago, I'd have been very happy with it as is. Although cutting off the railings was a pain, the rest of it is a breeze!

 

Cheers,

Alan

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

1 hour ago, Alan P said:

Remind me why I keep building all these old kits

Because you can. 🙂 She's coming along nicely, and very quickly too. The Revell 1/570 scale Bismarck/Tirpitz has the molded hull guardrails too. Regards, Jeff.

[Alan P]

19 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

The Revell 1/570 scale Bismarck/Tirpitz has the molded hull guardrails too. Regards, Jeff.

Cheers Jeff, yes it was definitely a thing with those Revell kits of that era. I built the USS Forrest Sherman (as boxed by AHM) and it had the same features (though a lot more flash and misaligned moulding than this one!)

Tidied up the joins, added filler and remodelled the bridge and forward superstructure. Looks busy enough for such an old kit.

Also washed off all the 3D printed stuff from @Model Monkey - had to butcher some of the lovely bridge parts for the standard modernised Baltimore to suit the single-funnelled Boston as well. I'll only need two of the 8"/55 gunhouses and five of the 5"/38 twins, so it'll be good to have a couple of spares!

 

Now I have the bridge parts sorted out, this should look pretty good with a bit of photoetch.

 

Cheers,

Alan

[ArnoldAmbrose]

4 hours ago, Alan P said:

I built the USS Forrest Sherman

Me too actually, and botched it right up, not realizing the difference between bulkheads and guard rails when attaching the decks. And a different scale than my Airfix ships.

 

It looks like you'll have enough spare 5/38 turrets for a scratch built Sumner or Gearing class destroyer to accompany USS Boston. 😁

Regards, Jeff.

[Alan P]

Amazing, no update since 23 Feb! Been very busy with work and irregular shifts and then the freezing weather returned, so not much opportunity to build  

Couldn't resist a dry fit to see the overall layout! Also note the hull has been cut down to waterline. You can see all the loose parts in the background, cleaned up all the parts ready for priming.

Decided to add the railings prior to painting this time - Not really sure How I'm going to paint this yet - I suspect I'll spray all the Haze Gray uprights and then hand paint the decks.

Also added some doors and ladders from the GMM set. The railings are very delicate and need careful handling!

Some of the folds are relatively complex and needed quite a bit of creative bending!

The main armament radar assembly was part PE, part scratchbuild. Not entirely authentic, but looks good enough.

The various masts, sensors and ship's boats and directors ready for priming.

Added some fascias for the Terrier SAM radar/directors, as well as PE from the GMM set.

The lattice foremast also needed a lot of improvement, including the SPS-6 and SPS-10 radars.

The SPS-8 air search radar was too complex to recreate, so i left the silly-looking kit part at the top of the mast. Nothing to really be done with it.

I left the mainmast more or less OOB, as the radar at top was also too difficult to scratchbuild. I did manage to do some effort at the SPS-12 but it's very rough.

For 8"/55 barrels in 1/490 I used 1/700 14" Mk VII barrels from the British KGV class. They are about 1.5mm too long, but the shape is spot on! I'm still waiting on 1/700 5.25in barrels to use as the 5"/38. Unfortunately Starling Models sent me the wrong type of barrel but hoping to get the correct replacements soon!

One last improvement I made was to replace all the bitts (bollards) with plastic card and rod. Partly to replace the kit moulded ones which were damaged or cut off when i removed all the moulded on railings, and partly to create a uniform appearance.

 

Well, some good leaps of progress made there, hope to get some paint on her soon!

 

Cheers,

Alan

 

[Col.]

This is an impressive update to the old kit Alan. Nice work.

[Alan P]

Well heavens to Betsy, I managed to do some modelling today!!! And what a day it was.

Finally got some paint on the thing. All colours are by Colourcoats, except the black which is MRP lacquer. Colourcoats Teak for the wooden deck, which was unpainted in the postwar era.

This was swiftly followed by Deck Gray, airbrushed freehand over the still wet Teak!

I immediately followed up with the Haze Gray and the whole thing was finished in about an hour.

Not too bad for a freehand job, I'll follow up with a brush to catch the areas of overspray tomorrow.

If you maintain a respectable distance, it looks pretty good!

 

Also painted all the gun turrets, masts, radars and other accessories. Need to do the missiles and boats and boot topping separately, but this should be finished before the deadline.

 

Alan 

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

6 hours ago, Alan P said:

Not too bad for a freehand job,

       Gidday Alan, I've been wondering how this is getting on. It looks good for any type of technique, freehand or otherwise. And so quick.

These were quite nice-looking ships  -  for American. 😁 (Only joking about the American bit). I think they did look good, not top-heavy like some of their later conversions.

And I do like the angles that you've taken the photos from, I think they show the ships to their best. I have a photo in a book of a sister-ship USS St Paul just after the war, taken from the same angle as the first photo in the post - she looks really good.

       Now I'm off to check out USS New Jersey.       Regards, Jeff.

[Col.]

That's made a difference again! Nice progress

[Alan P]

Thanks very much @Col. and @ArnoldAmbrose 👍  This should be finished by the weekend hopefully!

[Alan P]

Had a rush of blood to the head and finished the assembly!

Just needs rigging and a bit of weathering to finish off.

Bit of drying paint on the bow, don't worry too much about that!

It's an interesting mix of the old injection moulding of the 1950s (3"/50 gun mounts, lumpy deck furniture) and the new photoetch and cutting edge 3D-printing of the 2020s (turrets and photoetch rails and radar)

The Baltimores were certainly handsome and effective ships, built after treaty restrictions were a thing of the past and with enough stability to build a lot of postwar rebuilding and repurposing. They persisted in active service until the Leahy/Belknap/Californias superseded them through the Vietnam era.

 

Seeing as I had a bit of a struggle rigging the New Jersey, I might try something new with the Boston by using thin gauge black enamelled wire instead of lycra and nylon thread. We'll see how that goes!

 

Cheers,

Alan

[Alan P]

Not really convinced by the rigging but I'm a lot happier with the sea base so far!

Unfortunately lost all the flags and decals that came with the kit, so they'll just have to wait for another day.

Just spotted a wayward wire to repair. Photos can be helpful for spotting errors!

Otherwise it does look the part.

I'm really pleased with how it came out considering it's a 1958 kit release! Surprising how much I spent on it to get it looking like that though (almost £60 in aftermarket and shipping!)

 

Almost finished, look out for it in the Gallery this weekend.

 

Alan

[ArnoldAmbrose]

2 hours ago, Alan P said:

look out for it in the Gallery this weekend.

.   .   .  which starts in less than two hours in my part of the world, it's almost worth staying up to see it. 😁 But then I'll probably appreciate the model better with clear eyes later in the morning, not blurry eyes in a couple of hours. 

 

The sea base looks good, she appears to be moving purposefully but without undue haste - to me anyway. Great job of her. Regards, Jeff.

[Alan P]

7 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

The sea base looks good, she appears to be moving purposefully but without undue haste

Thanks Jeff, that's exactly the look I wanted 👍

[flashlight]

Very nice work indeed! The base is also looking very good! Congratulations on finishing her!

[Alan P]

Thanks very much @flashlight 👍 glad to get her done and thanks to @Enzo the Magnificent for the deadline extension and @Col. for steering this supertanker of a GB to shore after losing the captain and first officer to the February storms!

 

Alan

[Alan P]

It's all finished now, managed to find a flag in the spares box.

More in the Gallery.

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday Alan, congrats on your completion, she looks great. I'll hop over to the gallery. Regards, Jeff.

[Col.]

Nice result Alan. Your sea base adds a lot to the overall look of this one; so much so it's is something I want to go back and pay more attention to how you created it

[Toryu]

That's a beautiful ship Alan! I wished I could replicate sea water so realistically. I read your description but it's beyond my abilities.

[dnl42]

I just caught up with this. You did a wonderful job on this just-older-than-me kit! I'm a little too close to the spectrum to deal with the odd scale, but that is quite an insipring build.

[Steve Weaver]

Hi Alan, I just joined the group. I recently purchased a vintage Revell ship model of the Guided Missile Cruiser USS Boston and am missing some parts/pieces. I read your posting of the same model that you completed and was very impressed with your finished example. I was hoping you saved some pieces that I need and was wondering if you would consider selling them. I am needing one of the main battery 8"gun turrets as well as the main radar mast (of which I only have half). 

Thanks,

Steve Weaver (across the pond)🫡

Edited June 17, 2024 by Steve Weaver