History Brief

May, 1905 – HMS Dreadnought approved for construction. Entered into service December, 1907, and served as the flagship of the British Royal Navy’s Home Fleet until 1912. March, 18, 1916, during the First World War, the HMS Dreadnought sank the German submarine U-29 in the North Sea. By 1918, the Dreadnought was assigned patrol duty of the Thames estuary. She was then transferred to the Reserve in 1919 and finally demolished in 1921.

The Product

Kit features 2-piece full hull, internal strengthening bulkheads, separately molded bilge keel, engraved deck plank texture, finely molded fittings, well detailed ships boats, hollow tip main battery gun barrels, 12pdr rapid fire guns, filigree masts and yardarms, display stand with nameplates, metal chains, and plenty of photo-etch parts. Includes 4-view color painting guide and decals representing jack, ensign and stern name lettering.

History

The USS Ingersoll was Spruance-class destroyer commissioned in April, 1980. During her short career, the Ingersoll was involved in a collision with a Pakistani oil tanker in the Straits of Malacca. Even though the Ingersoll was one of the newest ships in class, it was one of the first decommissioned. The Ingersoll was sunk as a target in July, 2003.

The Delta III class Russian submarine was first commissioned in December, 1976. There were a total of fourteen produced. As of 2008, six Delta IIIs were active. The model in the box seems to be just a generic representation of the Delta III submarine verse a specific vessel.

The Kits

The Ingersoll kit appears to have been a combination of kits that Dragon had produced. Included in the kit were a USS Ticonderoga plate and several deck options that were not used.

I was a sonar technician on the USS Tecumseh, an SSBN, for 3 years while it was being overhauled at the Newport News, VA, shipyard. We were tied up at a pier during the refit, and the 688 class attack subs were docked at the next pier. As a result, I was able to walk all over LA class subs, visit them, and got pretty familiar with them. Most of the attack boats were being upgraded from Flight I to Flight II at this yard, adding the Tomahawk vertical launch tubes. So I jumped at the chance to build Riich’s 688 class, Flight I model.

I’m not a big fan of the 3-piece hull provided, but the option of making this boat as a waterline model is COOL. I stopped and took photos before I put the upper hull and lower hull together, just to show this.

I had to use a good amount of putty to get the hull sections to mate up, as they didn’t match perfectly. But with some putty and a #10 X-Acto blade, it was pretty easy to get it looking decent.

Thank you to Gary Newman of Squadron Signal Publications and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me the opportunity to review this excellent photographic tour aboard the USS Massachusetts in Battleship Cove, Fall River, MA. There is a wealth of detail contained in an astonishing number of color photos, all with great descriptive captions.

Bottom Line: Perfect to-scale 6” (152mm) barrels for Littorio and Garibaldi WW2 Italian warship classes

The latest secondary, or anti-torpedo boat, armament for new construction (Littorio battleship and Garibaldi light cruiser classes) was the 1936 model 152mm/55 caliber gun. This new gun was derived from the earlier 1926 and 1929 versions in use on then-current Regia Marina light cruisers. Two different versions were made – a monobloc construction by the original designer, Ansaldo, and heat-forced tubular element construction from OTO (used only in Vittorio Veneto and Roma battleships). Twin and triple turrets with independent cradles for each gun were made. Rate of fire was one round every 14 seconds. The guns were considered as satisfactory, but dispersion at long ranges was wide, attributable to the ammunition.

The Parts