by Ron Smith
1/350 USS Chester CA-27 (Yankee Modelworks)
This is a kitbash of an old BWN Louisville and a YMW Northampton to get all the correct features for USS Chester 12/08/1941 while she on the anti-submarine sweep off Hawaii. As far as I know there is only one photo of her during this period so some details towards her stern are guesses. She appears to have had all her 1.1” guns but the third set of 5”-25 guns does not appear to have been splinter shielded. She also still retained the cutouts where she originally mounted torpedo tubes and has .50 MG's for light AA armament. Chester also seems to have had a full prewar boat complement.
What made me want to build her was the camouflage, Ms-2 with Ms-5 false bow wave. For ships in schemes other than Ms-1 the false bow wave was to be a white outline at the wave top with a dark blue or dark green infill. All we know for sure is Chester's wave is lighter than the 5-D band on her hull and darker than the 5-O band. I chose green since she received the scheme while still part of the Atlantic Fleet where the water tends to be green rather than the blue of the Pacific. The turret markings are appropriate for her CruDiv and position in the division but the photo is not clear enough to determine if she did in fact wear them. Her horizontal surfaces and main barrels are painted 5-D. The wooden decks are nothing special, just a color I whipped and liked for bright teak with an umber wash.
The 1.1” and 5”/25 guns are from L'Arsenal. The rigging is stainless steel music wire for funnel, mast and crane stays. The antenna leads are silk suture as are the signal halyards forward. I ran out of suture then and rigged the aft signal halyards with tippet (that didn't work so well this time). Boat covers and canvas cheaters are made from painted cigarette rolling papers ( I used the most defective boats in my spares box because they being covered).
