Sorry I can't help, but I haven't seen that kit in many years. I do remember buying one when it was released; that, according to Dr. Graham's fine book, was in 1969. I remember being extremely disappointed in it, and concluding that the slightly larger (and considerably older) Renwall kit was better. In fact I think I wrote a nasty letter to Revell about it; I did not, of course, get an answer.
I know of four other styrene North Carolina kits. (She's a rather popular subject in my neck of the woods.) The old Renwall one was pretty good, by the standards of its time (the late fifties, I think). It had individual 20mm guns, thereby making a huge improvement over the only other "fast battlship" kits, the Iowa-class ones from Revell, Aurora, and Lindberg. I suspect it would look pretty crude by modern standards, though. Aoshima produced one in the 1/700 "Waterline Series," a cooperative venture by four Japanese companies that began in (I think) the early seventies. Aoshima was generally regarded as the weakest of the four, and this kit was a pretty typical Aoshima product. (I have the impression that the company's products have improved enormously since those days.) A couple of years ago Trumpeter released a big, 1/350 kit that seems to have been quite well received, though some of the real enthusiasts have found some flaws in it. Most recently, Trumpeter released a 1/700 version. I haven't seen it or read a review of it; I suspect it's an excellent kit. If I were thinking of building a North Carolina that's the one I'd be inclined to investigate most closely.
Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.