Decided to get started on CG-52 tonight. A little history first. USS BUNKER HILL (CG 52) was my first assignment in January of 1991 as a budding Electronic Warfare Technician. I flew from my home in San Antonio after Class "A" School in Pensacola, FL to Tokyo via FedEx 747. I kid you not, I was stuffed in with a bunch of sailors, Marines and AF pukes. Free drinks if I remember right though.
Anyways, I get to Tokyo, only to get put on a C-9B Skytrain on a "hop" to Bahrain, where I took a "Desert Duck" SH-3 out to the ship. I get settled in as much as possible, get a bunk in the lower combat systems berthing area and... WHOOM. Yeah, lower CS berthing was just aft of the forward Mk 41 VLS cell. And it was January 16th, and we fired the first Tomahawk from the Arabian Gulf. Welcome to the Navy, I suppose.
So, the kit. I picked it up in Hong Kong in 1995 when it was first issued after I left Japan and was stationed in San Diego. I've toted this kit around for 15 years from coast to coast, through at least a dozen moves, and still have it. The box is beat to hell, the kit instructions are yellowed with age, and the decals will most likely disintegrate once I put them in water, but this ship, and this kit, are a very REAL part of my career, so I'll do my best to do her justice.
On to the pictures:
First couple of shots. 15 years in a box, only had two parts come off the sprues (sprues were still sealed in the bags). One of the AN/SLQ-32(V)3 antenna and an SH-60B folded rotor blade. Not too shabby:
The hull had very little warp after being in the box so long and subjected to heat/cold/humidity/etc. I did have to use some help keeping the sonar dome together, as the last two photos show:
That's about all I was able to get done tonight. I am still trying to figure out the best way to assemble her to minimize having to pick out some of the minute details after the haze gray/deck gray has already been sprayed on. Should be fun!