by Andy Bradshaw
1/350 USS Lexington BC-2 (Scratchbuilt)
This is a scratchbuilt 1/350 model of the battle cruiser Lexington BC-2 if she were finished and upgraded with a refit similar to the Pacific Fleet at the time of Pearl Harbor. Of course she was saved from scrapping in real life by an escape clause in the Washington Naval Treaty that allowed a nation with capital ship construction underway to convert that tonnage to aircraft carriers. She then became CV-2. I chose the final design with more conventional two funnel layout (original plans had first SEVEN, then FIVE stacks) and Jane's interpretation with cagemasts. I based the plastic overlaid balsa upper hull on the lower plastic hull of the Trumpeter 1/350 scale Lexington carrier model. It's invisible under foam and plaster waterline. Evergreen strips formed the armor belt, along with a copious amount of Toms Modelworks portholes PE set, to detail the hull. The main turrets were narrowed down triples from a Massachusetts kit, and recast. Superstructures and stacks are all balsa, overlaid with plastic sheet. The plethora of available extra details helped me complete the ship. Her armament consists of eight 16"/45 rifles, eight 5"/51 casemate guns, eight 5"/25HA AA guns, six quad 1.1 AA's and 13 .50 cal mgs. A Kingfisher tops her single catapult, and she has a brand new CXAM "bedstead" radar on her foremast. A tribute to a ship that never was, and became something different, entirely.
