1/350 USS Pensacola CA 24 (ISW)

This is the ISW Salt Lake City kit built to represent the USS Pensacola as it appeared at the Battle of Santa Cruz on 10/26/1942. My thanks to Martin Quinn and Mike Czibovic for their help in sending me high res photos of the ship that were critical to locating details such as 20 MM cannons. Whoever put the very high res high quality copy of the August 42 aerial photo of the ship at http://imgur.com/YIlxRwU my thanks also.  As always thanks to Jon at ISW for his cooperation in replacing parts for me and sending 50 caliber machine guns from another of their kits. I found twin 50s in a NARA photo of the ship taken early in the war located in the tubs forward of the aft 1.1s. Thanks also to Model Monkey for quick production of vents and turret base rings.

A few notes about the kit for anyone else who wishes to build Pensacola early in the war. The instructions were good but I still had trouble with the front tripod mast. I tried to match the angle on the aft legs to photos of the real ship. As a result it would have been very hard to get the aft legs down to the main deck where they really were. The deck for the 01 level is very thin and I could not completely resolve the warps in the 5” gun tubs. The triangular structure below the platform below the forward director should have been cut off. I did not catch that until too late. That platform does not match the shape of the one on the ship in 42, it is too wide, but my guess is had I tried to build a narrow version then it would have been too narrow to fit the aft tripod legs. As you can tell from the photo at the site above the forward superstructure and tripod scores maybe a 7 out of 10 for accuracy. I will confess I do not have the scratch building skill needed to score a 10. The Instructions called for tripod legs of 3/32” width due to the base impression for the forward one I used 3/32 for that and 1/16 for the rear legs. All plastic rod to allow bending around obstructions.

I also had to remove the raised aft portion of the searchlight platform to match photos of the ship. One of my NARA photos showed what appeared to be vents or stacks on that platform which I tried to add with plastic rod. The vertical vent on the port side of the aft stack is visible in the Tulagi and other photos. It is a folded radar screen, no idea what its purpose was. The 40 MM gun station by the aft 5” guns also had to be removed.

Rather than attempt custom mixed paints as I did with Northampton I used Life Color Navy Blue for the vertical portions and Tamiya XF 16 Medium Blue for the decks. They seem to be good matches for the color footage here. The hull red is Polly S Boxcar Red. The starboard signal flags are the radio call sign NIJS per navsource. The armor belt is made from plastic sheet. About 10 years ago I computed the campaign ribbons for S1C Louis Uriah Spell who was a 20MM gunner on the aft director platform and was burned in the hands when the ship was torpedoed at Tassaforanga. A red life ring marks his battle station and a photo of him while being treated at Tulagi is included. He is in the front row with both hands bandaged. The NARA number for the photo is 80 G 36285. The port side signal flags are his initials

The following detail kits were used:

• Alliance Modelworks 20MM ammo lockers and plane crane.
• Anchor chain unknown source I put them all into the same bag.
• Archer Resin Rivets AR 88001. Only the smallest are close to scale and approx.. 3 sets would be needed to do both sides. Only the port side has only the smallest rivets.
• B&D 8” gun barrels.
• Flags from Dave Winfield’s Cutandfold website. Flags on all of my models since San Diego have been from his site.
• G  Factor  IJN  MOGAMI  props, closest I could find to props on plans of the the ship.
• L’Arsenal  and 40MM twin tubs, nav bridge equipment set, and small/medium/large life rafts.
• Model Monkey vents on the catapult deck per photos from Mike and turret rings.
• Northstar medium size paravanes, a little too large, small would probably be perfect. Also used some of the parts to their catapults to add to the kit catapults
• Veteran  Model Kreigsmarine Fire Control Set, Light Flak Director, closest thing I could find for a MK 44 for the 1.1s.
• White Ensign Models PE 35111 for all radar screens.
• 3D Model Parts 20 MM cannons with shoulder grips from other kits. Overall the easiest to build that I have encountered with good accuracy.

USS Pensacola CA 24
10/26/1942
Built by Fred Branyan 9/8/2015-2/26/2016
In memory of 20mm Gunner S1C Louis Uriah Spell

This model won 2nd place for category 21,  BB/CA/CL/CV 1/401 and larger Mosquitocon in Wayne NJ on 4/2/16

Gallery updated 3/28/2016

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