Iowa-Class Battleships

USS Missouri (BB-63)

USS Iowa (BB-61)

The last battleships ever built by the United States Navy were the Iowa class, often referred to collectively as the Iowas.  They represent the sum total of all the lessons so dearly learned over the past century of building and fighting battleships, and are arguably the ultimate expression of the capital ship in the 20th century.  To see why they are considered as such, check out the information at http://www.combinedfleet.com/baddest.htm.

When I began working on the first of the Iowas in my fleet, USS Missouri, I had built two other 1:700 scale battleship models, so I knew about the unique challenges offered by such a tiny scale of model.  The Tamiya kits are extremely detailed, demanding precise application of glue and paint, and very good manual dexterity in handling those tiny parts.  The misconception that a smaller scale model must be easier than a big 1:350 kit is simply wrong...  Missouri was the fourth of the seven kits I have built so far.  I used the paint scheme adopted by the Navy in the last few months of the war, which is much easier to paint than the intricate "dazzle" schemes common earlier.  I had to guess at what "deck blue" was supposed to look like, and it turns out that my guess was way too light a blue-grey to be accurate (some of the pictures I saw on the Internet looked very light), but Tina (my wife) liked the color, and I was not about to try to re-paint every horizontal surface once I found out what it was supposed to look like.  Check out the USS North Carolina page to see what *real* deck blue looked like...

After doing a fair-to-middling job (in my own humble opinion) on Missouri, I decided to try another Iowa with the earlier paint scheme.  In this case, the second Iowa-class battleship I tried was USS Iowa herself, the lead ship in the class.  Unlike many other ships at the time, her camouflage was two-tone rather than three-toned, but it was still a heck of a challenge to get the paint right, or anywhere near right.  The deck blue is wrong again, but once again, the task of re-doing all of that paint is not an option for me - and Tina likes the color...

Anyway, here are some images to look over.  Click on the thumbnail to see a larger image.

The Iowas, both Tamiya 1:700 scale Waterline Series kits:  USS Missouri BB-63 (top), and USS Iowa BB-61.  The models are actually the same length.

The Iowas viewed bows-on; USS Iowa on left, USS Missouri on the right

Composite image of USS Iowa

To read more about USS Iowa, see the following:

http://www.ussiowa.com/

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-i/bb61.htm - this page has a photo of the AWESOME concussive force of the main guns firing!

 

For more on USS Missouri ("Mighty MO") check these links:

http://www.ussmissouri.com/

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-m/bb63.htm

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