1/350 RM Roma (Trumpeter)
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by Robert Apfelzweig |
1/350 RM Roma (Trumpeter)
I've just completed Trumpeter's recent addition to their 1:350 warship line, the flagship of the Italian Navy (Regia Marina) Roma, in her final guise prior to being sunk in September 1943. The kit was finished with Flyhawk's excellent new photoetch set, which I was able to obtain online directly from a distributor in Hong Kong. The wood quarterdeck and wood decks for motor launches are from Artwox.
I began construction of the Trumpeter kit before the Flyhawk set was issued, expecting to be able to complete the ship once a suitable photoetch set was available (the Trumpeter kit comes with its own small fret, which the Flyhawk set more than supersedes). Big mistake! There are dozens of small pieces such as perforated gussets (triangular platform supports) that were difficult or impossible to install properly without breaking apart the bridge and other parts of the superstructure. For comparison purposes, I have shown the Trumpeter small AA guns (twin 20mm, twin and single 37mm) and their Flyhawk replacements, along with the final versions of the 37mm guns that were further upgraded with ModelMasters 37mm brass barrels (the Flyhawk barrels are 2-dimensional). I had previously purchased the ModelMasters brass barrel upgrade for the Trumpeter kit, those these parts were duplicated by the Flyhawk set. The latter is very complete, with one major exception -- there are no rudders or propellers for the small boats and motor launches. Also, there are a number of small brass parts that are not identified in the instructions, and so their usefulness is unknown. The various railing parts are engineered for a perfect fit and come pre-hinged for easy bending where necessary, though this can make them quite delicate to handle. The kit was finished with suitable RM paints from WEM Colourcoats, in the camouflage scheme that I took off the internet from Italian sources -- Trumpeter's painting guide was similar, but differed in various details (so I assumed it was wrong). Rigging is from stretched black sprue.
In general, the Trumpeter kit is high-quality, and the upper and lower hulls fit snugly together with minimal overhang. One issue I have with Trumpeter is their continuing failure to provide simple devices to permit the gun turrets (main and secondary) to rotate without falling off -- I had to use short Evergreen strips to produce structures underneath the main deck that permit rotation while still fixing the turrets on the deck and barbettes. This is not possible with the high-angle 3.5-in. AA guns, but this was less of an issue for me. Since the 15-in. and 6-in. gun barrels are fixed within blastbags, they cannot elevate.
All in all, the three Vittorio Veneto class battleships of the Regia Marina (a fourth was never completed) were beautifully designed ships, though largely from an aesthetic point of view -- they were not efficiently utilized by the Italian naval command and, throughout various skirmishes with the British navy in the Mediterranean, apparently never hit a single enemy target with their big guns.
The Roma's fate was both tragic and historically noteworthy -- on September
9, 1943, she was steaming between Italy and Sardinia with her two sisterships
and other units of the Italian navy to surrender to the Allies. A
squadron of German Dornier Do217 twin-engined bombers was dispatched to
stop them, utilizing what can probably be described as the world's first
cruise missile -- the Fritz-X glider bomb. Free-falling from the
bombers, these could be partially directed by joystick-operated radio commands
to their tail fins, provided the bombardier could maintain visual contact
with the bombs as they fell (a flare in the tail section of the bombs assisted
this). They packed a 320-kg armor-piercing explosive charge.
One struck and damaged the battleship Italia, and soon after the Roma was
hit amidships, with the warhead passing completely though the ship and
detonating beneath her keel. This caused major flooding and electrical
problems, and both inboard propellers stopped working. Soon afterward,
a second Fritz-X struck the ship near the second heavy gun turret, which
set of its powder magazine, actually blowing the turret off the ship and
into the ocean. The resulting damage severely stressed the hull and
the Roma rapidly flooded, down at the bow and listing to starboard before
capsizing and breaking in two. Some 1253 crewmembers perished,
the largest single loss of life for the Italian Navy in World War II.
Recently, the wreck has been found and positively identified, and rests
mostly upright about a mile below the ocean's surface.
