1/350 USS Indiana BB-58 (Blue Water Navy)
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by Keith Bender |
This model was finished over four years ago with a building time of about nine months. I used a Blue Water Navy kit of the USS Massachusetts BB-59. I always wanted to do Big Mamie but I like the camo pattern on Indiana. I decided to do her in December 1944 not long after her repair from the collision with the USS Washington BB-56 in 1944.
For starters I worked the hull over for a few months. Using plans taken from micro film at the archives. I had to reshape the twin skegs. These needed to be built up quite a bit in width. The tail ends where the shafts protrude need some work as well. The inboard shafts were scratchbuilt from brass rods and turned on the lathe. The bulb at the bow was undersize by far. This was built up using Bondo. I plated the hull using the paint and tape build un method I usually go with. The seachest openings were put in place along with the extra plates added to the hull where the anchors would tend to hit when dropped. I used a set of props from the Tamiya Missouri and resized them then cast them in resin. Indiana was the third in this class of four ships built. She went to the water with five blade outboard and four blade inboard propellers. The other ships in the SoDak class all had different arrangements in blades over the years including Indiana which she ended up with Fives outboard and three's inboard just like Massachusetts did.
The main turrets in the kit looked pretty good till I really checked them out. I discovered that BWN cast them with the outboard barrels too far out so this meant there would be no room to place the ladders outboard the barrels on the turret face. I took measurements and moved the mounting holes in the turret faces inboard. It was a simple fix. I also used Tamiya Missouri barrels and cut them back to the length of a 45cal rather then 50cal of an Iowa class. I cast these as well with the bore drilled. The five inch guns are my home grown type and resin cast. The 40mm came from Tamiya as did the 20mm.
Most all the photoetch is from Gold Medal Models. All the mast are brass rods spun in the lathe and tapered with emery cloth. I used WEM kingfisher planes. I'm not fond of using white metal do to the weight. They are easy to break off the cats during transit especially when driving on the NJTP or in NYC. I raced on better motocross tracks then those roads. Most of the superstructure is from the Mass kit but I had to do a little research to get it correct for a Dec 1944 Indiana. As I always say you must pick a specific date when modeling a warship during it's war service. They had so many changes made in such a short time and the paint was one of the biggest changes. Tracking down info on Indiana's paint of that time wasn't the easiest thing to do. I had many contradicting drawings. I also found that on the video "The Fighting Lady" there is a color fly-by which shows Indiana at anchor right after her collision. The aft stb. side is covered with temporary plates that are rusted but it is a nice shot of her in color.
Something else that needed tending to was the stack top. It needs to
be opened so I have a go with the Dremel and hog it out about .75 of and
inch deep then replace the uptakes inside with plastic sheet.
Many of the gun tubs are turned brass and I used .005 brass sheet for
some of the 20mm tubs. The paravain chains at the bow are 40 lpi.
These are usually secured to the deck to pad eyes until they are needed
then they are rigged to lines for down hauling. The one chain is
drawn through a hawse pipe while the other one is rigged up over the main
railing through a sheave. The anchor chain is 15 lpi and the chain stoppers
are 40 lpi with home made pelican hooks. There is allot of piping all around
the superstructure that I created with brass wire as some final details.
This is the first model I mounted over a mirror due to the unique tunnel hull design. It was not often photographed and if you didn't see them in drydock it is hard to understand their design. One other unique fact is unlike all other four shaft ships the SoDaks inboard shafts stop shorter then the outboard shafts. That meant the outboard propellers were further aft then the inboard propellers.
Over all this was a fun build. It took some time to gather all the info
needed but well worth it. Only after I had finished it did YMW come out
with their version of Indiana. I'd like to thank Dave Shadell for his photo
collection and color assistance for this project.
