Per Arne
Rikvold
Tallahassee, Florida
Per writes: “I built Revell Germany’s reissue of the cutaway SSB(N) 598 USS George Washington, nominally in 1/253 scale. This kit (No. RG0008) is actually called USS Abraham Lincoln and contains markings for the five GW-class boats: SSBN 598 USS George Washington, SSBN 599 USS Patrick Henry, SSBN 600 USS Theodore Roosevelt, SSBN 601 USS Robert E. Lee, and SSBN 602 USS Abraham Lincoln. I chose the name of the original vessel of the class, which was also the name used on Revell’s original kit, circa 1960.” He removed the starboard aft missile silo and replaced it with a transparent plastic tube so one of the Polaris missiles can be seen in its silo; replaced ladders with photoetched metal from his spares; and used more spare photoetched metal to add windows to the front of the sail, “two rows of three, as seen on the GW sail displayed outside the Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, Conn.,” he says. He painted the outside of the hull with Tamiya NATO black, and the inside “a gray somewhat lighter than the plastic.” Interior details are painted according to kit instructions, with some exceptions to make things stand out.