Cage masts may be the great challenge of the age. The Navy called them "lattice masts" and they are almost unique to the USN. They were also used quite a bit on shore batteries. Their purpose was to elevate gun sighting stations, long before the units we call gun directors that had positive mechanical linkages to the control rooms below.
The design seems to have been advantageous for two reasons.
First; resistance to battle damage. Repeated hits from fairly close range by large shells didn't topple them. Tripod masts had been developed in England earlier, but were susceptible to defeat by a single hit.
Second; absorbance of vibration from main battery fire recoil. This had mixed results, mainly due to their area as opposed to rigidity.
The design is a hyperboloid. Take two circles connected by Z ordinates only and rotate.
A hyperbolic paraboloid rotates two circles, or parallel line pairs (boxes) though Y and Z. The most familiar of those is the Pringle potato chip.
I agree with John T that the solution to this problem would be a milestone in model ship building for those of us who like early steam. Over a couple of dozen years admiring ship models first hand, every lattice mask I've seen represents long nights with the soldering gun, wire clippers and the inevitable uncorking of the Rum bottle.
Toms Model Works and maybe others have sold photo etched (PE) lattice masks over the years. IIRC they are already a conical shape laid flat, and are meant to be rolled and joined, but not twisted.
Tilley makes a sensible suggestion in twisting the shape. My only caution would be that the intersections of a PE part would probably not bend from a cross to a "x" too readily without kinking, and that would be a manifold problem.
I think that the new "3D printing" technology may be useful. Where a laser draws a pattern on a surface of a liquid, creating a solid, and the solid is lowered on a little platform into the liquid while the laser adds layers and layers of solid. All driven by a 3D program model.
In any case, any BB in plastic launched prior to WW2 is always welcome news.
In 1942 she was painted overall 5N cage masts and all.
That's a SHIP!
I will also be buying this model. I am not too familiar with the Pearl Harbor battleships, but it would seem that West Virginia could be built from this model as well (?).
EDIT:
When I was a little boy, a favorite trip was to China Town in San Francisco in the 1950's. A toy sold along Grant Avenue in the shops was a "Chinese Handcuff". It was a tube of twisted hemp mesh about 6" long by 1" in diameter. Stick your index fingers in each end and pull apart! Locked! A perfect hyperboloid.
Of course the best toys were the "Chinese puzzles". Complicated interlocking wood models that could be taken apart and hopefully put back together,
George