Yes, the latter half of 1941 into early 1942.
Paul - Does the Pensacola appear to be a fit for a specific year/period?
I have now successfully completed four SS models, and have learned a great deal from the experience as far as building these kits. I'm confident now that I can build any of these. I don't claim to be an expert at these, but if you're planning to try them, I hope that you can benefit from the tips, tricks and observations that I have learned from this.
When I was young and scratch building crude models out of balsa wood, my mom would regularly say that I could be a brain surgeon. Well, I've never done brain surgery, and never will, but I think that building these kits is about as close to it as I could ever get.
The fourth one I built, pictured here, is the cruiser PENSACOLA. Building it wasn't a particularly different experience than that of the others, but it confirmed for me the common issues raised in construction of these kits. Here's my comments on building it, and the others:
1. The biggest challenge in building PENSACOLA was removing the parts from their supports, much like with the others. It's difficult, it's perilous, and often confusing. With all these kits, you must resign yourself to breaking or losing parts. It's inevitable. Be prepared to find a way to work with it. In some kits some parts simply can't be used. In others you have to ask yourself if the parts are worth the effort. In three of the four kits, I had to replace parts for one reason or another.
2. Although all the kits are uniformly detailed, the implementation of those details can have odd differences. The DELAWARE kit which, I haven't been able to finish, has numerous separate microscopic parts which would normally be cast onto the deck, such as hose reels, paravanes etc. I can't finish it, because there is one part that wasn't included in the kit. It wasn't just accidentally left out. It was never produced! It's shown on the instruction sheet as cast onto the deck, but it's not there. The vendor is having the part produced. The SOUTH CAROLINA models have the ventilators cast separately, lacks anchor chains, and leaves out a searchlight platform that should be placed between the funnels. Be prepared to scratch build your own.
3. On PENSACOLA, the legs of the tripod masts were curved or bow legged. Contemplating how to correct that I decided to try heating the parts and then straightening them. So I put them in a small bowl of hot water and after a short time I was surprised to see them straighten out by themselves without my touching them. And they stayed that way. The aircraft crane was likewise bent out of shape, but the same miraculous cure worked on it.
4. I managed to remove the 5" secondary guns from the sprues with minimal damage, but when I went to install them I discovered that one had vanished. My solution was to use mounts from PaperLab instead. While slightly larger than the kit ones. They look great AND I like them better than those in the kit. The barrels on the kit ones were too thin IMO.
5. Lost or broken parts come with this territory. If you're not prepared to deal with it, you shouldn't try these kits. Searchlights are a recurrent problem. On all the models they seem to be barely attached and fall off at the merest touch. You might consider applying a touch of A/C glue to them at the base before removing parts from the supports.
6. It's critical that you dry fit parts before assembling things. Tolerances on some models, such as PENSACOLA are very tight, and if you aren't careful things won't fit. That's particularly true of the aft funnel and searchlight platform abaft the funnel. There is no wiggle room there.
7. The kits don't need to be primed before painting, but I recommend at least priming the hull and deck. And definitely, paint individual parts before assembly, at least the places not easily accessed. There are lots of nooks and crannies and things that would be very hard to access once the model is assembled.
8. You'll need a magnifier, steady hands, and enormous patience to build these models. The fine details are fragile and often astounding. The seaplanes on the PENSACOLA for instance actually have discernible and individual guy wires between the wings, something that I have never seen before in a model that small.
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