How good are the crusiers by Trumpeter? I believe they are USS San Francisco.
Thanks
Mike

With the exception of a few items which need to be tweaked (prop guards needing replacement, skinny-arsed anchor hawse pipes needing building up, anchor stocks repositioned to make the anchors look correct in the stowed position, fairleads needing drilling out) I give these ships a 10 out of 10.

Add some PE and you have a killer rendition of this class of ship. All IMO of course, but, from my handle, you can see I'm a bit biased.

sanfranfan

Hi Mike,

I built the USS Baltimore for the 20th Century Cruisers group build and have the USS San Francisco and the USS Astoria in the stash, the Astoria was the subject of a review that I did also. I would have to agree with Bill, pretty decent renditions with a little assistance here and there from a good PE set and some research. They are an improvement over some of the older kits that I have dealt with in the past as far as detailing and ease of construction. The instructions are pretty straightforward and the decals allow you to build any of up to four different versions. If you realy want to get wa-ay into it, you can toss in a few aftermarket resin and metal bits to build a top notch quality finished product.

I would rate the1942 Frisco as "fair." The fit is OK but not perfect. The forward third of my lower hull had cooled narrower than the upper hull and I had to spread it with wood dowels to keep it at the proper width. Main deck fit well, but the "corner" between forward and aft decks sat a little too low when I test fit mine, so I glued it to the aft piece before gluing the aft piece down and lined it up with the forward piece deck before gluing the aft deck into place. The splinter shields around the 5" guns look OK, but trumpeter accidentally reversed their shape... that might not be a big deal to you though.

It's certainly a very buildable kit and better than their fletcher kit.

I have built Trumpeter’s 1/700 USS ASTORIA and thought the fit and kit detail poor and worse than the 1/700 USS NORTH CAROLINA kit (I built both NORTH CAROLINA and WASHINGTON.) The kit is poorly researched and the parts modeling borders on crude. You are left to wonder if they even looked at a picture of the real ship. I replaced the 20 mm, 1.1 inch and 5 inch guns, the boats and radars with parts from other kits. The area of intersection between the forward and aft decks requires adjustment and much dry fitting.

I am currently building Trumpeters 1/350 USS SAN FRANCISCO and it is a much better kit. All the guns are perfectly usable, although you should replace the 8 inch turret barrels (I am using 1/700 Clipper KGV barrels). The fit is acceptable and you can tell that Trumpeter did some research for the kit. I am surprised by some of the detail that they caught and puzzled by some that they missed. Although buildable, it is a step down from their magnificent 1/350 HMS HOOD, but on the other hand, it is a step above the 1/350 USS NORTH CAROLINA.

The low point of both kits is the depiction of the anchor chains. You have to wonder why they even bothered to mold on the anchor chain.

These ships are the only game in town if you want to build a plastic NEW ORLEANS class cruiser. Good Luck, Rich

How do they compare to the 1/350 Aoshima Takao/Chokai?