by Bill Keough
1/700 Wreck of USS Indianapolis (Matchbox)
The USS Indianapolis was a Portland-class cruiser and, together with her sister the USS Portland, was a direct discendant of the first US 'Treaty Cruisers'. Limited by treaty to 10,000 tons and 20 cm guns, Indianapolis was laid down in March 1930 and completed in November 1932. She was the flagship of the USN's Scouting Force for many years prior to the outbreak of WWII, and in 1936 took President Roosevelt on a month-long goodwill visit to South America. She became the flagship for Admiral Spruance in late 1943, but her record is overshadowed by two events that took place prior to VJ Day in 1945. Firstly, on 16 July 1945 she carried out a top secret mission that was to have a profound effect on the outcome of the war - her task was to transport the first operation nuclear weapon from San Francisco to the Marianas Islands, a task she accomplished successfully. Secondly, and by way of a strange irony, she became the focus of the USN's worst disaster involving a ship at sea when, on an unescorted voyage to the Phillippines, she was hit by torpedoes from the IJN submarine I-58 and sank within twelve minutes. Her loss was not appreciated for three days, by which time nearly 900 of her crew of 1,199 had perished.
The wreck of the Indianapolis has never been discovered owing to the depth of the water where it is believed she lies. Therefore, this model represents a hypothetical study of her wreck. She was hit by two torpedoes on the starboard side. The first hit blew away a forty feet section of her bow and the second hit blew a large hole in her hull underneath the second main gun turret. Water cascaded into her her hull, she listed rapidly to starboard before capsizing and sinking. I cut off the bow and have detailed the area just aft of the starboard bow to accenuate the damage using stretch sprue as well as discarded staples and pieces of discarded spure. The main turrets have been removed as they would have fallen away once she capsized. The rest is speculation.
The model is the old 1/700 scale Matchbox kit. Given that the kit is very basic and devoid of detail meant that it lent itself well to the project at hand. Pics 1 to 3b show the model after she had been detailed and spray-painted overall with Tamiya TS-3 Dark Yellow. Pictures 4 to 9 show the model affixed to her base after having been given a number of washes with Tamiya XF-58 Olive Green and dry brushed with the same colour coat. The base is made up of numerous layers of gel medium and the lumps in the base is modelling clay coated in the gel medium to craete the uneven surface of the ocean floor. Pics of the final product will be shown soon. My apologies for the quality of the pics - new digital camera.
