by J.J. Barnes
1/700 USS Vincennes CA-44 (Loose Cannon)
This is a rather old resin kit from LC at a time when resin was king of the hill for subjects that hadn't a prayer of being seen in plastic. Well, all that has changed now but I still love resin and this kit, while extremely rough to begin with, did not disappoint.
Naturally I chose to portray her as at Savo. Detailed reference materials for this time frame are quite scarce but Floating Drydock does have a pretty good plan set for her. Augmenting that with another set of plans from her sister Quincy, plus photos from the same, I think an acceptable level of detail and accuracy was achieved.
The kit came with its own photo etch fret which is so appealing to my eye I asked LC for more of the same and they obliged by sending the last several frets they had. Perfect! Now I can do the whole class properly! The kit is also augmented with other frets of generic details such as tertiary guns (those WEM 1.1 inch quads are just divine), railings (Gold Medal Models superfine), perforated brass strip etc. The secondary 5'/25s and Spotter a/c are from Corsair Armada and a vast improvement over the kit supplied secondaries and planes. Oh, and let's not forget, those barrels are from Clipper, a pain to align but they make the ship just shine.
So, what changes have been made? For starters, the entire bridge structure was practically scratch built. I did use the original parts as templates to fabricate new ones from styrene since the over pour and burrs of resin were too much of a headache to clean up.
The entire deck was replaced with evergreen siding since the plank lines were anything but. Deck details including the barbettes were replaced with tubing and assorted etch, hatches and styrene pieces. Gun directors were completely rebuilt and all stack pipes are brass tube. The one place my camera can't do justice is the rigging. The lines really are small but my photography skills make them look like hawser lines! Masts are soldered brass rod, tapered by mine own hand. Call me a masochist, but I get a lot of satisfaction turning metal rod without any appreciable aid of power tools.
Painting: I used a concoction of Polyscale and WEM Colorcoats, not mixed, mind you. The Ms. 12 (mod) scheme was traced onto Tamiya tape and cut out with an x-acto. The stencil was then burnished to the hull and sprayed. After dry, I hit the hull oh so very lightly with 0000 steel wool to smooth it out. Future clear coat, decals, another shot of Future, then a flat coat completed her finish.
Green Turret Tops? Yes, well... after reading up on the research Tracy White has dug up, I've found out she was the 4th ship in CRUDIV 7. That means green (probably willow green, or my version anyway) up front and a black aft turret top corresponding to ship's position. We know she at least had
