Osprey Publishing’s latest monograph focuses on the waning years of the Habsburg Empire, and the Kaiserliche und Konigliche (k.u.k) Kriegsmarine's effort to protect its southern coast on the Adriatic Sea before and during WWI. Today, the coast and the cities along the coast, Trieste, Pola, and Fiume, among others, are parts of present day Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The book features fine illustrations of the 5 ship classes, 2 “in action” paintings, and many sharp black and white photos, sure to be of interest to ship modelers. The only weakness is the lack of a map of the 1914 Habsburg Empire's coast, and theater of operations during WWI.

History

The Arizona was a Pennsylvania-class battleship, for and by the U.S. Navy in the mid-1910’s. The ship was the second and last of the Pennsylvania class of “super dreadnoughts” battleships. The Arizona had an overall length of 608 ft., beam 97 ft, and draft of 29 ft, 3 in. The ship had four direct-drive Parsons steam turbines, each of which drove four 12 ft. 5 in. diameter propellers. The Arizona’s designed speed was 21 knots. The Arizona carried 12 .45 caliber 14 in. guns in four triple gun turrets. The Arizona took part in several exercises, escorted President Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference, was regularly used for training exercises, assisted in the Long Beach earthquake of 1933 with disaster relief, and was featured in the Jimmy Cagney film Here Comes the Navy.

Thank you to Iwona and Piotr Czerkasow of Master Model and all those at IPMS Reviewer-OPS for providing me an opportunity to examine and apply some delightful parts for improving a ship model kit. Model Master’s recent addition to their Sea Master Series is very welcome. The aftermarket world is indeed enhanced with the products Master Model offers.

Background

The Littoral Combat Ship is the Navy’s latest controversial shipbuilding program. What was originally designed to be a winner-take-all competition is now a ship construction program with two distinct classes. The LCS-1 USS Freedom Class is a more traditionally designed mono-hull, while the LCS-2 USS Independence Class is the trimaran hull form. Those of us with longer memories remember how controversial the Spruance and Oliver Hazard Perry classes were when they were under construction and during their early service – both were designed to be manned with smaller crews and the ships were delivered before their major weapons systems were ready: Harpoon, Sea Sparrow, SLQ-32, CIWS, and LAMPS Mk III. The LCS program is in a similar position; the hulls are delivered with small crews and without the mission modules, which are lagging the hull production. Many observers question the viability of the program.

Well, the Black Swan has set sail! In the process, I’ve developed a new appreciation for all those shipwrights out there, especially those who build from scratch! But I digress; in this final installment ,we’ll cover steps 37 to 61.