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by Richard Sliwka |
1/350 USS St. Louis CL-49 1942 (Yankee Modelworks)
"This is the 1/350 scale Yankee Modelworks (YMW) USS Helena kit converted to represent the USS St Louis as configured in November 1942 before deploying to the South Pacific. The "build" turned-out to be a bigger project than I anticipated (about 350 actual hours vs. 250 hours estimated). I couldn't find any drawings of the St Louis in this configuration so I used Floating Drydock and US Naval Institute photographs as my references for specific St Louis features and a Helena drawing enlarged to 1/345 scale (the kit hull is 1/4" too long) for general, common features. Also, I purchased Midship Models 1/700 St Louis kit to help determining various dimensions.
The major modification was the forward super structure/bridge. Initially,
I thought this would be a simple substitution using YMW's Brooklyn kit
parts for those in the Helena kit. John Sheridan/Chris Decker of YMW provided
the Brooklyn kit bridge parts. When I actually started, I discovered the
Brooklyn and St Louis forward areas were quite different so back to "square
one" and more research. Ultimately, I cut-out all decks above the O-1 deck
from .015" plastic sheet using photos and the Midship kit parts to get
the plan. The deck structures themselves were made as follows: O-2 level
was the Helena part with an added conning tower; the O-3 bridge level was
the Brooklyn part modified by reducing the bridge and adding the rear main
director support column; and the O-4 director level was the Helena part
with added features.
The aft superstructure modifications were the removal of the 40mm quad
gun tubs and the addition of scratch-built 1.1" quad tubs, the Mk51 directors
"shield within a shield" tubs, and look-out positions.
The fore and aft raised 40mm twin tubs were fabricated from .010" plastic
strip and the 20mm tubs/shielding from .005" brass strips (used PE sheets).
The masts were fabricated using brass tubing/rods. The searchlight tower
was from the kits PE with scratch-built searchlight platforms and details.
Also, on my kit, the aft stack had to be relocated 1/8"-1/4" aft to provide
the proper spacing for the tower and main mast.
Steve Nuttalls' 6" brass barrels and L'Arsenal's 5" brass barrels,
20mm guns, 1.1" quad mounts, 40mm twin mounts, Mk-51 directors, 40mm tub
ammo clip holders, whaleboats were used. 36" searchlights were Paper Labs
and the SOC float planes were WEM's. Many other details were scratch-built--24"
searchlights, the stowed bridge platforms , wire support out-riggers,
etc. Rigging was .002" (halyards), .003 (radio wires) and .004" (support
cables) nylon fishing line.
The model was painted in the measure 21 scheme using Model Masters
acrylic Navy-Blue (5N) for vertical surfaces and Poly-Scale Weather Deck
Blue (20B) for the decks.
This was a challenging and enjoyable project. If anyone plans to do a similar project, I would be happy to share my experiences/research and help avoid the mistakes I made. I can be reached at richardsliwka@yahoo.com (I use the public library's computer so any response may be delayed.)"
