by John Bange
1/500 USS Washington BB-56 (Revell/Kitbash)
This is my USS Washington BB-56. She is painted in measure 22. I have not seen this ship in any other scheme. This is a kitbash of an old and very expensive Renwal kit of USS North Carolina BB-55, purchased on Ebay. It is a shame Renwal is gone because this is the best battleship model of this scale I have ever seen. I used the kit supplied fire control.
The 16" main battery is the best I have ever seen. Barrels rise individually. Detail is excellent with portholes,floats,hatches, and ladders. Hear that Revell! It makes your North Carolina look weak.
The hull went together easy but I made a cedar hull anyway. I was going to use the supplied hull and deck but, the plastic was very hard and brittle. This might have to do with the age of the kit. I could not cut the rails off either. To waterline it would have been difficult.
I cut the barrels off and replaced them with pins. They were not bad and had the right angle but were located too low on the mount. REbarreled, these are the best 5" 38 twin mounts this scale has ever seen. I used 40mm's from Revell(still the best in this scale). The single 20mm's from the kit are very good also.
The floatplanes are from Revell and are poor. If I update anything on this ship I will start here. I added 4 bladed pe props. The odd thing about this kit is that it came with an H-19 helicopter instead of fixedwing aircraft. I do not think the H-19 flew befor the 50's.
Where it not for Washington, South Dakota might not have survived the war. She was the last and only "fast battlship" to engage another capitol ship. IJN Kirishima was so badly damaged by Washington, she was scuttled the next day. A good ship to be on as long as Indiana BB-58 was not too close, she suffered no battle damage at all.
I am going to watch out for another one of these kits and redo my South Carolina.
