by Bob Dedmon
1/700 USS West Virginia BB-48 (Waveline)
This build was originally planned as an entry for last years IPMS National convention in Virginia Beach. I ran into a couple problems (probably self induced) that prevented that and got this project shelved until recently. First I primed it with Alclad primer then used Floquil enamel for the deck color, a week or so later the paint began cracking and peeling forcing me to strip and try to repaint the O-1 (AA gun deck) to try to fix the problem (mostly worked sort of). Then I couldn't get the deck to lay down completely (until later). At this point I gave up on the nationals for this ship. I also had problems of fit with the number 2 and 3 gun turrets hitting the structures behind them. I corrected the forward by shifting the superstructure aft and shifting the barbette for the #3 turret toward the stern as far as I could (it's still not clear of the aft mast). I wanted to replace the catapult on the #3 turret but the PE was too large. I replaced the forward and aft 5" 25 cal with Corsair Armada parts and used spare part photo etch from my spares kit for the fantail catapult, incline ladders, 50 caliber MG, and rails.
Originally I planned to paint the ship in 5S blue following the latent assertion that the Pearl Harbor battle line was painted blue (per Adm Kimmel's orders) instead of the commonly held belief that the line was painted 5D dark gray. After nationals I repainted the ship 5D based on a conversation I had during nationals. I did paint the turret tops per the orders issued by Kimmel based on photo evidence taken during and after the raid. The West Virginia's turret colors were black tops forward (BatDiv 4) and red on #4 (leader). I added a Kingfisher to the #3 turret catapult to represent the ship as she was that first week of December as she pulled into Pearl.
