¹⁄700

U.S.S. Brooklyn CL-40

"The detail on the Niko Model kit is very nice, sharp, with a minimal amount of cleanup."

the build...

I knew right away that I wasn’t going to build the model as Nashville, but most likely as the U.S.S. Brooklyn. Hey, I was born in New York, what do you expect? Another reason was the camouflage scheme. Nashville wore Measure 21 throughout her post-1942 career, and overall Navy Blue was simply too dark for a model with this much detail. I decided on Measure 22, a graded pattern of Navy Blue and Haze Gray, but that left me with only two choices for ships, the U.S.S Savannah and U.S.S. Brooklyn. Savannah was heavily damaged at Salerno in 1943, and her physical appearance changed dramatically after her refit, so the process of elimination brought me to the U.S.S. Brooklyn.

Building a ship model, especially a highly-detailed, yet small model, requires a different approach. Typically, I’ll paint as I go and build from centerline of the ship outwards to the deck edge, and this model was no different. The hull was primed with Mr. Surfacer 1000, and the hull sides were sprayed with White Ensign ColourCoats U.S. Navy 5-N Navy Blue. I typically don’t use enamels, but I’ve heard great things about these colors and decided to give them a try. The paint sprayed extremely well, and after 24 hours of drying time, I masked the hull sides and sprayed the graded portion of the bow and the vertical surfaces on the main deck. Another 24 hours elapsed before I free-sprayed the 20-B Deck Blue on the horizontal surfaces, carefully trying to avoid overspray. Afterwards, I touched up the Haze Gray vertical surfaces with a fine brush.

Most ship modelers will tell you they build upwards and outwards from the ship’s centerline. Once the hull was painted, I started building the superstructure, level by level. I added the bridge levels, turrets, funnels, and fire-control directors to the hull before I started adding details.

Building a large warship can be a tedious process, especially late World War II era ships, covered from stem to stern with a wide array of AA weapons. The Brooklyn was no exception, and I spent the majority of my time building 40mm Bofors and 20mm Oerlikon guns. The 40mm guns weren’t too tough, but those tiny 20mm Oerlikons were a chore. Niko provides them as multi-fold photo-etched parts, and thankfully, provide a few spares on the fret, too. I lost several of these tiny little guns, too much pressure with the tweezers and ZING, off into space. They’re so small, in fact, that looking for them was pointless. Fortunately, I was able to bend the required number and actually had one left over!

After the AA guns were complete, I started on the midships searchlight platform. This tiny scaffold-like structure required some delicate handling. Did I mention 1/700 scale is tiny? After finishing the platform, I worked on the catapults and Kingfisher floatplanes. Each aircraft was assembled, painted, and decaled, then attached to the catapults and set aside.

Adding each of the pre-assembled, pre-painted parts really brought the ship to life, but it was still lacking something. At this point, the model was getting too fragile to handle, so I glued it to a wooden base. This would also end up as the display base later on, so I angled the model slightly on the base.

Now that I could effectively handle the model without risk of breakage, I started adding the final details to the model, those last few integral parts that not only give the ship its character, but also take it into the realm of ‘handle with care.’ I added the photo-etched mounts and arrays for the fire-control directors, the yardarms, funnel caps, various antennas, and finally, the rigging. I used a combination of surgical silk and Lycra thread, another wonderful product offered by White Ensign Models. By tacking one end of the thread to the model, I was able to stretch the Lycra thread to the yardarm and apply a touch of super glue. The resulting line will never sag, and actually offers a limited amount of flexibility in the event you catch a tweezers or other tool during the build. I painted the smaller parts with a fine brush, touching up a few ragged paint lines as I went.