Revell 1/720 USS Massachusetts

KIT#:               H-485 

PRICE:           $10.00

DECALS:       none

REVIEWER: Tim Reynaga 

NOTES:          1969 kit reissued by Revell Germany

HISTORY

The USS Massachusetts (BB-59) was the third of four South Dakota class fast battleships built by the United States Navy in the late 1930s. Designed under the strict constraints of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty (which was, unbeknownst to the USN, by then being ignored by Germany and Japan), they were smaller than the preceding North Carolina class. Nevertheless, they had the same main battery of nine 16 inch guns (which could hurl a 2,700 pound shell 21 miles) as well as an imposing secondary battery of twenty 5 inch guns. They were also better protected than the North Carolina class with innovative sloped armor, had better underwater protection, and were equipped with more modern machinery. The South Dakota class were the best of the "treaty battleships" built.

The Massachusetts (“Big Mamie” to her crew) was laid down in July 1939 at Bethlehem Steel in Quincy, Massachusetts, launched September 1941, and commissioned in May 1942. After shakedown, the ship left in October 1942 to participate in the Allied invasion of North Africa as flagship of the Western Naval Task Force. On 7 November the Massachusetts sailed into Casablanca harbor to confront a Vichy French naval squadron which included the battleship Jean Bart. It was a strange situation; although this was clearly an invasion of sovereign French territory, the Allies believed that Nazi Germany’s ambivalent allies would not fire upon Americans. The ships approached quietly with extra large Stars and Stripes displayed prominently in the hope of being greeted as friends, but French military honor required a response. Just after 7 am a coastal battery opened fire on Massachusetts. The Americans mistakenly believed that the fire had come from the battleship Jean Bart, so the order “Play Ball” (open fire) was given and the Massachusetts opened up on the French battlewagon, firing the first 16 inch shells of the Second World War. This action has been called the last “battleship duel” in naval history, but it wasn’t really much of a duel; the French ship was at anchor and only 75 percent complete with only one of her 15 inch gun turrets operational. Still, the Jean Bart’s crew gamely engaged the Americans. Over the next hour and a half the Massachusetts fired nine full and thirty eight partial broadsides, hitting Jean Bart five times and disabling the main battery. Massachusetts shells also destroyed two merchant ships, a large floating crane, and an ammo dump which were nearby.

While this was going on, seven French destroyers had managed to slip out of the harbor in a bid to attack the nearby invasion beaches, so after disabling Jean Bart the Massachusetts gave chase. The shore battery at El Hank which had initially fired on the Massachusetts continued engage, scoring two 7.6 inch shell hits which caused superficial damage (splinter scars from one of these hits can still be seen aboard the preserved museum ship today). In the running battle which followed,  Massachusetts and the cruiser Tuscaloosa sank the destroyer Fougeaux, and the Massachusetts shut down the destroyer Le Milan with a 16 inch shell. In addition, the light cruiser Primaguet was forced to retire after multiple hits from the Massachusetts and cruisers Augusta and Brooklyn. By the end of the battle, the Massachusetts had fired 786 of the 800 main battery 16 inch shells she had aboard.

Thus Massachusetts began her service career performing the traditional ship-on-ship combat for which the big gun battleship had been designed. The North African campaign was, however, the last time Big Mamie would see such action. Time and technology were overtaking the battleship, and by the time she reported for service in the South Pacific in 1943 her duties had changed to a supporting role behind the new stars of the navy: the aircraft carriers. Not needed for ship-on-ship combat any more, her considerable arsenal would henceforth be used for carrier battle group escort and shore bombardment.

 After escorting convoys and supporting air operations in the Solomons, Massachusetts sailed with an aircraft carrier group which struck Makin, Tarawa, and Abemama in the Gilbert Islands. Her 16 inch guns assisted in the bombardments of the Japanese-held islands of Nauru and Kwajalein. Massachusetts also provided anti-aircraft defense for carrier groups striking Saipan, Tinian and Guam in the Marianas as well as supporting invasions of the Caroline Islands, Hollandia, and Ponape Island.

 Following a refit, Massachusetts joined the mighty Task Force 38, supporting amphibious landings in the Philippines and air battles around Leyte Gulf, Okinawa, and Taiwan. On December 17, 1944 Task Force 38 was hit by the 140 mph winds of Typhoon Cobra in the Philippine Sea, which cost the fleet three destroyers and nearly 800 lives. Massachusetts was luckier, losing only two of her three scout aircraft to the tempest. For the remainder of the Pacific War Massachusetts continued escorting the carriers, with occasional shore bombardments as well including the islands of Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and Minamidaitō. As the war wound down, Massachusetts escorted carriers attacking Tokyo and other targets on the Japanese mainland, then closed in to hit shore targets with direct gunfire. These included Kamaishi and Hamamatsu in July 1945. In a repeat strike on the iron and steel center at Kamaishi on 9 August, the Massachusetts fired the last 16 inch shell of the Second World War.

 After the war, despite having been in service less than five years and being among the most modern battleships afloat, Massachusetts was decommissioned in March 1947 and mothballed. By 1965 she was scheduled to be scrapped, but the ship was saved when Big Mamie veterans, along with schoolchildren of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, raised the then-incredible sum of $50,000 for her preservation. The ship was converted to a floating museum and is the star attraction of “Battleship Cove” in Fall River, Massachusetts where she remains open to the public.

Revell’s Massachusetts goes back to 1969, released as part of their 1/720 scale “International Series” ship kits. Probably targeted at young builders, these models were pretty good for the time with simple construction and lots of surface detailing. They were also very inexpensive, so a kid could build up a whole fleet. A signature feature of the series was snap apart hulls split at the waterline so you could change the display from waterline to full hull and back, if you were so inclined. I appreciated this very much at the time because it made painting a straight waterline easy!  When I built Revell’s Massachusetts as a six year old I was absolutely delighted with what I regarded as the ultimate in model detailing.

Revisiting Revell Germany’s reissue of the kit as an adult, I was less impressed. All that detailing, while making the decks suitably busy, is mostly unconvincing. The deck planking is ok, but the other molded in details generally come up short. Thick, solid deck edge rails adorn the second deck and  those silly Aztec temple style stairs abound; many other details are unidentifiable. Worse, the focal points of any battleship model, the guns, are indifferently rendered. I especially disliked the 20mm guns molded directly to the decks, and the 20mm and 40mm gun shields are both too thick and too short.  Many are incorrectly positioned for Massachusetts anyway, since the layout actually represents her slightly different sistership Alabama in 1945 fit. The 40mm quads are simplified and undersized, and the 5 inch duals are oddly shaped and too squat. The 16 inch turrets, with comically spindly barrels molded on them, are also disappointing.

That said, the basic shapes of the hull and superstructures look reasonably good, and the kit assembles without difficulty. I didn’t like this kit as much as I did when I was a kid, but it still has potential...

CONSTRUCTION

A few years ago a visit to the USS Massachusetts museum at Battleship Cove had inspired me to build a model of the famous battlewagon. A logical choice for a kit might have been Hasegawa’s 1/700 scale waterline South Dakota, which is a pretty good model, but I decided to go with my old favorite instead. I chose Revell’s 1/720 scale Massachusetts partly for nostalgia, partly because I wanted a full-hull replica, but I was also drawn to the challenge of making the most of that simplified, toy-like kit from my childhood.

The first task was to assemble the hull, decks, and superstructure. Since I chose not to use the split hull feature, upper and lower hulls were cemented securely together. There was some nice delicately raised detail molded on the hull sides, but unfortunately the less than perfect fit of the upper/lower hull join meant a good amount of filling and sanding which obliterated most of it. The distinctive twin skegs at the stern were faithfully reproduced, but the propellers are not very good; I replaced them with better ones from a Trumpeter Missouri kit. The rudder part provided is accurate, but kit has only one where the real ship has two, so I swiped another from a spare kit. Hull shape overall was reasonable, but in retrospect I wish I had taken a bit of extra time here to reshape the bow, as the kit parts look a little blunt when seen head-on (it isn’t  too noticeable when seen from the sides, though). Another improvement I wish I had made was to replace the molded-in bilge keels on the lower hull sides, which are accurate but a little indistinct.

After assembling the major components, the next task was to clear away the mass of poorly done detail. The raised deck planking, although not great, was acceptable so I left it alone, but the 20mm and 40mm gun positions, solid deck edge rails, Aztec temple stairways, molded in anchor chains, capstans and other uninspiring details were ruthlessly scraped and sanded away. This tedious task left the model pretty bare, but it was an essential precursor to the improvements I had planned.

After sanding off the molded in anchor chains on the foredeck,  I added anchor chain chafing plates made from .005 inch Evergreen sheet plastic following Alan Chesley’s excellent drawings in USS Massachusetts (BB 59) Ship’s Data #8. The cables themselves were replaced with gold chain discreetly liberated from my wife’s jewelry box. New capstans came from White Ensign Models’ line of resin upgrade parts (PRO 7023), which are really outstanding. Hose reels on the deck also were WEM resin parts. Hawse pipes (where the chains disappear into the deck) were modified from parts stripped from a derelict Hasegawa 1/700 scale Kaga. Chafing collars to hold the anchors on the hull sides were fabricated from bits of silver solder looped around a small nail, sanded flat and attached to the bows with super glue. The anchors themselves were photoetch parts from Gold Medal Models 1/700 Anchors and Chains set (No. 700-20).

Because the Revell kit actually represents the Massachusetts’ sister Alabama, there are a number of small differences that needed be addressed. One of these areas is the configuration of the 20mm mounts and sensor platforms on the sides of the superstructure. The main platforms with their Mk. 37 and Mk 51 directors on the sides of the smokestack as provided in the kit extended too far aft for the Massachusetts, so I trimmed them down. The four 20mm positions thus eliminated were replaced with two new galleries made from sheet plastic stock and installed at the next lower level. In addition, several kit-provided 20mm positions at the base of the mainmast behind the stack were replaced with a scratchbuilt box structure. Finally, the aft tower for the Mk. 8 director just aft of that structure in the kit was too small and incorrectly shaped, so I replaced it with the corresponding Hasegawa South Dakota parts and some plastic sheet.

The armored tower forward also got some rework. The kit provided decks on the main and upper observation platforms were too shallow and rather roughly molded, so I carved away the floors from the inside and replaced them with .010 inch Evergreen plastic stock. The rest of the platforms on the tower (those which were later fitted with railing) were also cut away and replaced with parts made from .010 inch sheet. These were not only more delicate but also better matched my references for the Massachusetts. The kit didn’t provide searchlights, so these came from Skywave/Pit-Road’s “Equipment for US Navy ships-WW2” upgrade set. I carefully hollowed them out, painted the insides silver and added lenses to the fronts made from clear acetate punched with a Waldron punch set.

On my visit to the Massachusetts I was impressed with the number of portholes, ladders, stairs, doors, and vents all over the compact superstructure. On the model these surfaces looked pretty plain, so I set about busying them up. Following Alan Chesley’s scale plans, I drilled out about sixty portholes using a number 70 drill bit, being careful to keep them in line and correctly spaced. A good way to accomplish this is to use a sharp drafting compass to very lightly scribe the horizontal line of the portholes directly into the bulkhead surface, then using it again to mark out the locations of the holes themselves. After drilling them out, a light sanding of the surface removes the line, leaving perfectly horizontal, evenly spaced portholes on the bulkhead.

Next came the multitude of photoetch doors and ladders (Gold Medal Models No.700-22) added to the appropriate places on the exterior bulkheads, again following plans as well as photographs I had taken on my visit. Other improvements included carving out the solid-topped kit smokestack and adding grates built up from tiny bits of wire, adding tiny plastic vision slits to the armored citadel, and a sheet plastic roof for the bridge. Bridge windows were represented by a length of spare 1/350 photoetch ladder material bent to shape. Simple details such as these are not all that difficult to add, and they are a great way to build up the busy look one expects on a large ship.

The most dramatic improvement to the model was to replace the armament. The whole point of a battleship was its guns, but Revell’s weapons were all inaccurate and under scale. Fortunately, I had a 1/700 scale Hasegawa South Dakota on hand, so I raided its weapons for the Massachusetts. The Hasegawa parts were way better, and I figured that the less than three percent difference between 1/700 and 1/720 scales would not be noticeable. Even they needed some improvements, though: the three 16 inch main turrets received photoetch ladders and life raft grates, plastic auxiliary sights, putty blast bags with wire frames and drilled out muzzles. Also, the big turrets on the real Massachusetts were topped with additional 20mm and 40mm antiaircraft mounts, but the Hasegawa South Dakota turrets had a slightly different arrangement. I used the Hasegawa 40mm tubs and built up the 20mm positions beside them from plastic sheet. As with the main batteries, the ten Hasegawa 5 inch gunhouses also received hollowed out muzzles, putty blast bags, scrap plastic auxiliary range finders and assorted photoetch doors and ladders.  

The sixteen 40mm quad guns provided by Revell were also replaced. The new assemblies were comprised of parts from various sources: the guns themselves were from the Skywave/Pit-Road USN parts set and the shields were from the Hasegawa South Dakota. The Skywave/Pit-Road 40mms had come with their own shields as separate parts, but I liked the finer Hasegawa shields better, so I carved the molded guns away and fitted the Skywave guns into them. It was a little extra work, but using the best elements of both made the overall effect much better. The rails were photoetch parts from the White Ensign Models 40mm Bofors upgrade set (WEM PE735).

The twenty seven 20mm single mountings throughout the kit were replaced with  parts from Gold Medal Models (No. 700-21). These miniscule photoetchings consist of two parts each, a gun and its shield, and are beautifully detailed and delicate.  They are a bit fiddly to handle due to their diminutive size, but they look far better than any injection molded representations I have seen. The deck mounted splinter shields surrounding these were shaped from .010 X .060 inch plastic strip, and new 20mm ammo boxes and hatches located throughout the main deck were fashioned from bits of Evergreen plastic stock.

After the guns, the most prominent feature visible on battleships was the extensive fire direction equipment. The Revell Massachusetts kit versions of the two Mk. 8 and four Mk. 37 fire control directors were crude, and those from the Hasegawa South Dakota weren’t much better. Fortunately, Revell’s 1/720 Missouri kit had good ones, so I used them instead. These were further improved with a few sheet plastic details and photoetch radar screens and other details from the 1/700 scale GMM World War Two USN Battleship set (No. 700-3).

The numerous small Mk. 51 directors presented a problem. The Hasegawa mountings were good replacements for the indistinct lumps of the Revell kit, but they were solid on top and completely without detail, while the actual mountings had open tops with the complex Mk. 51 units very visible inside. I had no desire to scratchbuild a dozen or so pinhead sized directors, so I took a shortcut and used surplus Skywave/Pit-Road injection molded 20mm guns. These were inserted, barrels downward, into hollowed out Hasegawa Mk. 51 pedestal tops. Other Mk. 51 units were installed without the pedestals in various places on the superstructure. It was a compromise, but in this small scale they at least suggest the complexity of the Mk. 51s.

The kit masts were generally correct, but the simplified single-piece moldings of these complicated structures were not very convincing. I built entirely new ones using various thicknesses of brass wire and .010 inch plastic strip. This was not as difficult as it might seem, the key being to work slowly using good references.  Alan Chesley’s scale drawings of the Massachusetts  were a big help, as were the numerous photos I took on my visit. Also, I didn’t try to include every single detail, just the most prominent features to create an impression of complexity. With structures this small (the entire foremast assembly is less than an inch high) not much is needed. The new masts looked better, but it was the etched steel ladders, rails, and radars which really made the difference; the finesse and consistency of photoetched parts is simply amazing. I was especially impressed with GMM’s 16-part round SK-2 air search radar on the foremast, and those little etched wind vanes and footropes on the yardarms look very cool too!

As with the radars, the kit aircraft catapults and cranes were replaced with photoetch parts. Etched metal is a particularly suitable medium for duplicating the complex, open frameworks of these fittings. The new parts were surprisingly easy to assemble too, just fold like a sort of simple origami. The complex looking angled crane at the stern, for example, is made up of only three parts! These were all huge improvements over the solid molded kit parts they replaced. Another photoetched part was the boat handling crane on the aft part of the superstructure, which  Revell didn’t even attempt to depict. The GMM set provided the intricate crane boom, control cables, and hook, but the complicated looking base and kingpost had to be assembled from scratch. My onboard photos helped out a lot here, as did some pictures of the ship I found at the SteelNavy.com ship modeling website. As it turned out, these parts were fairly straightforward to fabricate, consisting of simple cylinder, disc, and box shapes. The result looked good, but ended up almost hidden among the 5 inch mounts and aft sensors! The Skywave/Pit Road set contributed the 26 foot motorboats beneath the crane and on the aft deck.

One of the more impressive aspects of small sale ship models is the railing, which in this case came from the GMM World War Two USN Battleship set. These rails are tiny and delicate looking, but GMM makes their 1/700 scale sets of tough stainless steel rather than the more common soft brass, so they were actually fairly easy to apply. There are many ways to attach photoetch rails. I get good results airbrush painting them while still on the fret, cutting them out with scissors, and attaching them with white glue. Though supposedly not suited to this type of application, white glue is great because it is non toxic, water based, and dries very quickly. I use Elmer’s, but any PVA (polyvinyl acetate) type adhesive should work fine. It dries clear, and the bond is surprisingly strong. StilI, I do this only after all other assembly and painting are completed to avoid knocking off or damaging to the rails in handling.

The final step with most of my ship models is the rigging, since it is the most delicate part of all. I use  very fine copper wire I salvaged from a transistor radio (remember those?) as a teen… that single coil has lasted through dozens of projects over the years! I suppose the stuff can still be found; it is just copper wire, but it is fine as human hair. I like this better than fly tippet or stretched sprue because of its relative strength, stability under temperature and humidity fluctuations and general ease of use. It also has enough weight to give the lines a natural looking hang on ship models. When I rig small scale ships, I never try to reproduce 100 percent the rigging of the original ship. Rather, I find it more effective to attach a representative sample of the lines to suggest the full rig. The lines were painted gray to match the hull color, except those hanging from the yardarm on the tower, which were light tan for halyard rope. These were attached below to flag boxes from the Skywave/Pit-Road accessories set. I also added lines running fore and aft for the colorful signal flags the museum flies to create a festive atmosphere for visitors. For the flags themselves I used the outstanding 1/700 scale dry transfer signal flags from Archer Fine Transfers (sadly no longer available). The national ensigns, one near the top of the foremast and another at the fantail, came from GMM’s International Flag Decals set (No.700/350-1 D), as did the blue US Navy jack at the bow. To give the flags a natural “waving in the breeze” appearance I sandwiched bits of aluminum foil between the two sides the flags, gently shaping each one into a wave with a toothpick. They were then individually attached to the fore and aft rigging with white glue. Getting these miniscule banners to look natural was tricky and time consuming, but the bright, colorful effect was well worth the effort.

COLORS/MARKINGS

Since I wanted to depict the “Big Mamie” as she appears today as a demilitarized museum ship, there were a few minor changes to be made from her wartime appearance. The simplest difference was the paint. The ship today has none of the fuel, ammunition, and other stores routinely carried in service, so she rides much higher in the water. To avoid an awkward “high and dry” look, the USS Massachusetts Museum Memorial Committee has repainted the black waterline boot topping about fifteen feet lower than it was when the ship was active. I like this look, making the anchored ship appear even more massive. Also, the main mast aft of the smokestack was painted black in service to hide discoloration from stack gasses, but on the inoperative museum ship it is painted haze gray to match the rest of the ship. The funnel cap, formerly gray, is now black. All weather decks were painted camouflage blue during the war, but the steel decks are now haze gray and the teak main deck is natural wood. I used White Ensign Models Colourcoats Modern U.S. Navy Haze Gray (#M033) and Deck Teak (#C01) for these areas. 

Markings are also a little different. During the war the ship carried the number 59 in small white numerals at the bow only, but the museum has oversized shaded hull numbers fore and aft. Also, the ship’s name, painted over in wartime, now appears on the stern in black letters. I used numbers from GMM 1/700-1/720 scale Naval Ship Decals (No. 700-1D). The ship’s name was a decal custom made for me by a model club buddy on his ALPS printer. This last was a lucky break, as I have no idea how I would have painted the one millimeter high letters M-A-S-S-A-C-H-U-S-E-T-T-S!

FINAL CONSTRUCTION

The most noticeable difference between the wartime battlewagon and the museum ship today is the presence of civilians. The museum is popular, and on the day I visited the ship it was filled with people. To suggest that busy atmosphere I added 22 GMM photoetched brass figures, painting them in shorts, brightly colored shirts, dresses—anything I could think of that looked non-military. They added touches of color to the drab vessel, and they also helped convey a sense of the massiveness of the real ship… which is not easy to do on an 11 inch long model!

Just for fun I painted some of the figures to represent members of my family who were with me when I visited the museum. I tried to make them accurate, painting them in clothes to match family photos taken that day, even trimming down two of them to represent my young daughters. They were then scattered in groups throughout the ship. I thought this was pretty subtle, but when my seven year old found out I had done this she quickly located and identified every person! 

CONCLUSIONS

Revell’s Massachusetts is typical of their late 1960s model kits: basically correct in outline with lots of cool looking surface detail, easy to assemble and inexpensive—a good project for a kid to sink his teeth into… but for the more experienced modeler who wants to create an accurate replica, correcting the numerous shortcomings of Revell’s old standby is definitely a challenge.

REFERENCES

U.S. Battleships, An Illustrated Design History Norman Friedman, United States Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1985

USS Massachusetts (BB 59) Ship’s Data No. 8 Norman Friedman, LCDR Arnold S. Scott, USN (Ret.), and Robert F. Sumrall, HTC, USNR, USS Massachusetts Memorial Committee, Battleship Cove, Fall River, Massachusetts, 1985

USS Massachusetts BB 59 museum photo gallery, photographs taken by Rob Mackie posted on the Steel Navy ship modeling website, http://www.steelnavy.com/Mass.htm

U.S. Battleships in Action, part 2 (Warships No. 4) Robert Stern, Don Greer, Kevin Wornkey, Squadron Signal Publications, Carrollton, Texas, 1984

SOURCES

photoetch, decals:

Gold Medal Models 1412 Fisherman Bay Road, Lopez, WA  98261  http://goldmm.com/

photoetch, resin parts, paints:

White Ensign Models South Farm, Snitton, Ludlow, SY8 3EZ, UK http://www.whiteensignmodels.com/

scale plans:

The Floating Drydock P.O. Box 9587 Treasure Island, FL 33740 http://www.floatingdrydock.com

flags:

Archer Fine Transfers P.O. Box 1277 Youngsville, NC 27596-1277 http://www.archertransfers.com 

styrene stock:

Evergreen Scale Models, Inc. 18620-F 141st Ave. NE, Woodinville, WA 98072

http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com