by Bob Nandell
1/700 SS Grant Wood (Trumpeter)
This is a kit-bash of the Trumpeter Jeremiah O'Brian kit to create the WWII Liberty Ship S.S. Grant Wood, hull number 1208, named after famed Iowa artist Grant Wood. The ship was built in August, 1943 at the St. John's River Shipbuilding Co. in Jacksonville, Fla. It was sold-off in 1947 to civilian use and scrapped in 1970. New Orleans native Robert J. Villars recounts as part of the history of Liberty Ship sailors how he, as a Navy radioman, made two North Atlantic crossings aboard the Wood. The model depicts the Wood's first crossing with crated aircraft parts and a couple of aircraft on the deck. The holds were filled with freight cars full of bombs. Villars recounted how the second crossing to Newcastle, England, was so rough that it was feared the hastily-built ship would break apart. Additional steel reinforcing plates were welded onto the hull upon its reaching Newcastle. The Trumpeter 1/700 Liberty Ship kit is very well cast, with tiny parts to bedevil the builder. My problem was using too large diameter thread in attempting to rig the vessel's cargo booms. he USS Pine Island model was one of the Revell Picture Fleet kits from the early 1960's that included tankers, transports, hospital ships, tug-boats, and the like. Far more sailors served in the backwaters of World War II on such vessels than ever served in the famous combat vessels up on the 'front--line.' Revell's picture fleet was fairly accurate above the water line, and in many cases kit-bash versions could be made of specific vessels.Today the boxes the kits came in are showing up on E-Bay as much as the models themselves. Unfortunately most of us built the kit and threw the box away.The Pine Island finished out its carreer serving off Vietnam in 1967.
