USS Delaware BB-28
by Paul Helfrich

1/2400 USS Delaware BB-28 (Viking Forge)

The USS Delaware was part of the second class (along with USS North Dakota BB 29) of dreadnought battleships built for the US Navy. (The first true dreadnoughts in the Navy were the South Carolina and the Michigan, BBs 26 and 27.)

The Delaware was approximately 520 feet long and mounted 10 12" guns. All US battleships of this era are fairly similar in appearance, but there is one key recognition factor for this class; unlike the battleships immediately before and after her, which had both funnels between the cage masts, the Delaware and her sister had one funnel between the masts and second funnel aft of the main mast.

Commissioned in April 1910, the Delaware was part of US Battleship Division 9 during WWI, the unit that journeyed to Scape Flow for service with the 6th Battle Squadron of the British Grand Fleet. She served in this capacity through August 1918. After peacetime service, her crew was transferred to the new battleship USS Colorado (BB 45) in 1923, and the Delaware was decomissioned that same year. She was scrapped in 1924 in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.

Viking Forge's 1/2400 kit is more of a semi-scale representation than a true scale model. It's too short, both fore and aft, and the turrets are out of scale. And of course, cage masts, with their complex latticework, are very difficult to render, in any scale. Nevertheless, it can still be made into a reasonable representation of the ship. Until GHQ issues US ships of this era, to go with their excellent German High Seas Fleet and British Grand Fleet models, this is the best that's out there. I added some of this missing masts with stretched sprue.