USS Washington BB-56 
by Dakota Gorder 
wa1

1/350 USS Washington BB-56 (Trumpeter)

Here is my 1/350 USS *Washington *BB-56 from the Trumpeter* North Carolina* kit which was then extensively modified and backdated. My previous scratchbuild conversions have been my way of preparing for this project- making my favorite warship. I hoped to depict the ship in the minutes leading up to her duel with *Kirishima*. About 6 months of work paid off as I am very happy with the result. The hull I had came warped upward amidships which meant I had to attach the ship to an already completed water base at almost the start of the project to allow weight to hold the hull down as it dried to the base. Normally I attach an already complete ship to my water bases, so the workflow was incredibly tedious the entire time. Thankfully, paper towels worked to protect my water base made per the 'flodberg' doctrine of water bases. The main backdate difficulty stems from needing to remove the *North Carolina* 40mm gun tubs already on the model which I did with a chisel. This utterly destroyed the deck detail which I then rescribed as best I could before drowning it in a coat of 20-B deck blue. I extensively used 3d printed parts when I could such as the turrets, funnels, searchlights, armament, gun directors, etc. but the searchlight platform, masts, etc had to be modified the old fashioned way. Recent photos of Washington on navsource served as my primary reference along with Ed Macdonald's excellent *Washington *on this site. Between the two sources, I am happy to say I think this is a fairly accurate rendition of *Washington *on the night she dueled *Kirishima*. I believe I used more aftermarket parts on this kit than ones from the box, but that is necessary to get Trumpeter's kit up to today's standard of detail. Outside of the largest parts, almost everything was aftermarket or scratchbuilt. Here is what I used-
 

Photoetch

3d printed parts Paint- Figures
 

 

Dakota Gorder

Gallery updated 4/21/2024

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