Revell USS Arizona

Yes it is the same old kit from decades past. There are several PE sets out there made  for this kit. From a video I saw of an upgrade of this kit, yes the molded on railings have to be removed. I think the first time I built this kit was in 1971 after my first visit to Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial. It was not a new kit back then.

Wow! 1971, what a year. I was still in high school. How did the kit turn out? or do you remember?

Thanks, George

Well about at well as you can expect for a 6 year old... The last time I built it about 10 or so years later it came out much better...

i'm working on 2 of them converting to 1941 oklahoma & 1945 nevada.

George:

I'm sure that John Tilley can provide some additional information, but I'm thinking that the kit dates at least to the mid 60's.  Considering the age of the mold (no CAD software in those days), the kit has stood the test of time fairly well.  It is generally accurate with some obvious problems that have probably been discussed in the Forum over the years starting with the molded, solid railings and including: size and shape of the spars on the forward and after tripods, the fit of the after tripod, the secondary battery on the main deck, and the size and appearance of the of 5"/25 single mounts in the AA battery.  The smaller 3" AA mounts in the tubs at the forward end of the superstructure and back on the quarterdeck are also incorrect.  I'm also told that the biplanes on the catapultsare not correct for 1941.

All that being said, it's a reasonable value for the money and it has served as the starting point for some very impressive models although at 1:426 it is in a scale by itself.

Mike 

Carmike

I'm sure that John Tilley can provide some additional information, but I'm thinking that the kit dates at least to the mid 60's.  Considering the age of the mold (no CAD software in those days), the kit has stood the test of time fairly well.  It is generally accurate with some obvious problems that have probably been discussed in the Forum over the years starting with the molded, solid railings and including: size and shape of the spars on the forward and after tripods, the fit of the after tripod, the secondary battery on the main deck, and the size and appearance of the of 5"/25 single mounts in the AA battery.  The smaller 3" AA mounts in the tubs at the forward end of the superstructure and back on the quarterdeck are also incorrect.  I'm also told that the biplanes on the catapultsare not correct for 1941.

All that being said, it's a reasonable value for the money and it has served as the starting point for some very impressive models although at 1:426 it is in a scale by itself.

Mike 

I should clarify that I don't deserve any status as a Revell history guru.  I just happen to have a copy of Dr. Thomas Graham's fine book, Remembering Revell Model Kits, whose appendix contains a list of all the kits released by Revell (Revell of the U.S., that is) through 1979.

That list establishes that the 1/426 Arizona was first released in (drum roll, please) 1958, with the kit number H-348.  Dr. Graham comments, "Revell head engineer Charles Gretz traveled to Hawaii to gather material for this model.  The kit was later used as part of the fund-raising promotion for the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor opened in 1962."  It's been reissued so many times since - including several times after 1979, when Dr. Graham's coverage ceases - that I've lost track.  (Revell, of course, always promotes it as a "new" kit.)

I agree completely with Carmike's assessment of the kit.  It represented the state of the art in 1958, and in many ways it still holds up pretty well by modern standards. 

I have this kit in my stash, too.  I built the smaller version when I was a kid, along with the same kit in a different box as the Pennsylvania.  I thoroughly enjoyed building those, and I look forward to building the larger kit, with a little more experience and care applied, of course.  I was thinking of bashing the kit into the Pennsy in the mid-Thirties, but I'm currently doing that with HobbyBoss' 1/700 kit of the Arizona.

I think the earlier comment is correct--if I'm not mistaken, the biplanes--were they Voughts or were they SOC-3s?-were replaced by Kingfishers by the time of the attack, and maybe a little earlier in 1941 or at the end of 1940.  The observation squadrons assigned to the battleships got the OS2Us, and the SOCs remained with the cruisers.

I've only seen pictures of SOC Seagulls on BB's up to the Summer of 1940, specifically on New York and California. I think the Vought FU-1 was long gone by then as well.

I think you're right, Bondoman, the Seagull replaced the Corsairs (I think the OSU carried that name), and the Kingfisher replaced the Seagulls.  I've got Squadron's booklets on the Kingfisher and the other observation aircraft, I'll have to look it up to see the actual dates.  For my build, it's the OSUs that I need to build.

Does Trumpeter do the SOC in 1/350th?  For someone bulding the larger Arizona kit, that might work.  I've seen other builds where 1/350th aircraft were used for off-scale kits, for example, using the TBD's with  the Revell Yorktown-class kits.

Trumpeter includes two SOC's in their USS San Francisco kit. Great kit, great birds.

bondoman

Trumpeter includes two SOC's in their USS San Francisco kit. Great kit, great birds.

Ok here is something interesting why is it that the Revell Arizona which is 1/426 scales down to 1/400 scale that there are no aftermarket guns? and at least Tom's modelworks and Gold Medal Models makes a PE set for it though.

Oh and as for the 1/570 scale Revell Bismark would the PE set for the Airfix 1/600 scale Bismark work for the Revell kit?

Folks:

I checked a pretty good source: Leeward Publications Ship's Data #3, USS Arizona (1978), and confirmed that the a/c on board in 1941 were OS2U Kingfishers.

We had a discussion in the thread on the Bonhomme Richard as to the actual scale of the kit and it made me wonder about this kit as well.

According to Leeward, following her 1929-1931 refit, the Arizona had an overall length of 608'0" and was 600' on the waterline.

At 1:426 this works out to 17.13" overall and 16.9" on the waterline.  The kit measures (to the best of my abilities) 17.06" overall and that scales out to 1:427.7 which is very close and the difference is probably my error.

Mike

Mikeym_us

Ok here is something interesting why is it that the Revell Arizona which is 1/426 scales down to 1/400 scale that there are no aftermarket guns? and at least Tom's modelworks and Gold Medal Models makes a PE set for it though.

No aftermarket barrels, like these from B&D Barrels?

http://WWW.BDBarrels.com/

scroll down to 'other scales'

bondoman

Trumpeter includes two SOC's in their USS San Francisco kit. Great kit, great birds...

Thanks, Bondoman!

You've prompted me to do a quick search at Squadron, using "soc seagull" as the keywords, and it returned your San Francisco, as well as a couple other cruiser kits, but no box sets, I'll have to do a more thorough search, but I suspect that they might not have them available in sets, like they do with the more well-known and numerous aircraft.

There is a 1/350 kit from Yankee Modelworks, though:  http://www.squadron.com/ItemDetails.asp?item=YM20033  Cast in white metal, $5.39 right now at Squadron.

Well, it occurred to me to go right to the source.  I went to Trumpeter's website, and after poking around in the Chinese-accented English, I found the 1/700 aircraft sets.  And they do indeed offer the SOC's in box sets:

http://www.trumpeter-china.com/war513/products/en_list.asp?classid=20&Nclassid=60

So, we should be able to order from our favorite vendors, if not directly from Trumpeter themselves.

Whatever the project, I recommend their aircraft sets, they're really well done.