by Paul Helfrich
1/481 USS Baltimore CA 68 (Revell)
This odd-scale representation of a Baltimore-class heavy cruiser was part of Revell's venerable "Picture Fleet" series of ship models from the 1960s. Other ships in the series included the battleship Missouri, a Fletcher-class destroyer, and a Midway-class aircraft carrier. The Missouri is the only one of the series still widely available today. They all had an unusual feature, in that the lower hulls were not really to scale. They were flattened out, and no propellers or shafts were included with the kits. The idea seems to have been to make the models float more easily in swimming pools. (I can attest that it works - I have one of the "Midways," which I motorized, and it sails along quite nicely). The drawback, though, is these kits cannot really be considered scale models, without a lot of modification.
The heavy cruiser was re-issued in a limited edition a few years ago, under the name "USS Helena." I had good references on the disruptive camo scheme used on the USS Baltimore, CA 68, so that's how I painted her. She's in a "box scale" that works out to about 1/481; comparable to the scale of Revell's old Yorktown-class carrier models.
In addition to the flattened lower hull, there are some problems topside as well - the 5" gun turrets are particularly odd-looking. On the other hand, the quad 40 mm mountings look pretty decent. Overall, this is one where you have to enjoy the nostalgia of building an older kit and not worry too much about its shortcomings. You could waterline it and get around the hull problems that way. I took that approach with the Fletcher-class destroyer. For this one, though, I took the full hull approach.
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