USS Florida BB-30
by Paul Helfrich

1/2400 USS Florida BB-30 (Viking Forge)

The USS Florida BB-30 was the lead ship in the third class of “dreadnought” battleships built for the US Navy. The other ship in the class was the USS Utah. Commissioned in 1911, the Florida served during WW I and was present at Scapa Flow for the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet in November 1918. She served in the Atlantic throughout the 1920's and was decommissioned in 1931 and scrapped in accordance with the terms of the London Naval Treaty.

Her sister ship, the Utah, was converted to a target training ship and was sunk at Pearl Harbor. Many people don’t realize that there is also a Utah memorial at Pearl Harbor, along with the famed Arizona memorial. And like the Arizona, many of the Utah’s crew are still on board, lost on that dreadful Sunday morning in December 1941.

There aren’t many kits availble, in any medium, of the US WW I era “cage mast” battleships. Viking Forge’s kit of the Florida/Utah battleships is very simple and mostly intended for war-gaming. I did my best to dress it up with some additional masts and a flag.