by Philip LaVoie
1/350 USS Saint Paul CA-73 (ISW)
This is a conversion of the Iron Shipwrights USS Pittsburgh kit into the Baltimore class heavy cruiser USS Saint Paul that I call "Manning the Rails". I tried to model it directly from a photograph showing the vessel off Pearl Harbor on 1 July 1959. I liked this design with her sleek new look and because it was before the forward twin 5 inch mount was removed to make way for additional crew quarters.
A while back I built the USS Duluth, which is a Cleveland class light cruiser and has a very similar profile to the Baltimore. In fact the Baltimore class is basically the Cleveland class on steroids. I decided to convert the kit into a post war configuration so it would be visually different and also because the Saint Paul had such a distinguished career during the Korean and Vietnam wars. Both the fore and aft superstructures had to be rebuilt and all the gun tubs removed and new ones fashioned. Most of the conversion details came off of various photographs found on the Saint Paul and her sister ship's websites. Hopefully I came close to portraying the ship correctly.
Aftermarket parts include Veteran Model's MK-56 3 inch gun directors and 3 inch/ 50 MK-22 twin guns, the Gold Medal modern New Jersey photo etch set, Master Model 5 and 8 inch brass barrels and a few hundred Fujimi figures.
