Trumpeter USS South Dakota BB-57 (1 Viewer)

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barney

Airman 1st Class
133
6
Apr 11, 2006
The box describes this as a detailed kit for adult collectors. I had always been fascinated by "Battleship X" so I figured this would be a good way to get to know her. My wife and I both worked on the assembly and fitting. This is a 1:700 scale kit meaning the hull is less than a foot long. The kit depicts the South Dakota as she looked at the end of the war. The ship looks to be ready to sink under the weight of AA guns - 68 barrels of 40 mm alone.

The model is quite detailed making the parts minute. Drop a 20 mm antiaircraft gun on the floor and consider it gone. The kit can be built as a waterline model or with the lower hull attached. See it as a waterline model and you begin to realize this ship wasn't too far from being a submarine. The vessel put on a lot of weight during the war – guns and radar.

The upper works is cast in light gray and requires painting a darker color. However, one would have to spray it very lightly or obscure some of the detail. I decided not to paint.

Viewing actual pictures of the South Dakota I see a few mistakes. The real South Dakota carried a yard on Sky One that is not in the kit. The place where the lines from the yard terminated is in the kit. Also, one side of the superstructure is missing a ladder. The kit contains a pair of three, four and five bladed props. The various ships of the South Dakota class had a great number of prop changes in an effort to remove vibration but I think the South Dakota ended the war with four four bladed props. You don't have that option without buying another kit.

Anyway, we plan to attach some colored markers to the starboard side to mark the places the South Dakota was hit in the night gun action of November 14-15, 1942, using color to show the size of the projectile and make a legend we place in the case (a case we have yet to acquire).

I nice kit if you enjoy working with tweezers and searching the floor. BTW, there is a set of decals for the catapult aircraft – aircraft that have a wingspan of 5/8 of an inch.
 

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