Phew!!! After that list I wonder if it’s worth building the damn kit at all! The only consolation is that most people viewing it wouldn’t know the difference either.
It’s a pity Trumpeter seem to be content to produce a model of the current O’Brien when, with little more effort, they could have covered a wider selection of the class from WWII.
This is a relatively expensive kit for its size and a more comprehensive instruction book with details of possible variations and especially rigging wouldn’t seem to be asking too much.
Like I said, most of the flaws are minor, and are probably the same sort of things you would find on any plastic ship kit. I would rate this kit as more accurate than the earlier Arizona and Hornet releases. I haven’t looked over my Trumpeter Essex in great detail, but it probably has similar flaws and omissions. One great advantage of this kit over some earlier releases is that the overall dimensions and shape of the hull (other than the minor problem at the stern which can be fixed with a small fillet of sheet plastic) are pretty much bang on. The fact that my inaccuracies list mostly deals with little details that are less than 1/8” across on a 15” model shows that overall it is pretty good.
I do find it unfortunate that more effort was not made to represent a WWII ship with more options, like alternate armament and life rafts and gun tub styles. One other item I forgot to mention is that the O’Brien and some other Liberty ships were armed with two 3” 50 cal guns instead of the 3” 50 and 5” 38 as represented on the O’Brien today and in the model kit. A lot of this could probably have been dealt with pretty easily, but to my knowledge Trumpeter did not try to get this sort of information from our organization. I had the opportunity to view test shots of the kit in late June or early July of last year and pointed out most of the mistakes listed above, but no changes were made between the test shots and the final kit. I also made some suggestions such as including both black and white draft marks on the decals, but these were not incorporated either.
Ah, darn. It’s a very nice ship, and you guys have kept her in great shape. How do you go about becoming a crew member? While I was on board I don’t recall seeing any models of the ship on board. I was going to ask the gentleman in the gift shop about it, but totally spaced. Was there a model on board and I missed it, or has one not been built for you guys? Or is there another reason for there not being a model onboard?
Becoming a crewmember is not that difficult. You have to be a member of the organization, and interview with the head of the department you want to join. After that you can start volunteering once your application is in. Volunteers officially become a crewmember after putting in 100 hours of work. Those of us who actually operate the O’Brien underway (as opposed to working as docents or in the store) typically have Merchant Mariner’s documents or licenses, although we accept people without them and have our own training programs.
We have a number of models onboard, including several builds of the 1/192 scale Bluejacket kit. One of these and a 1/96 scale half-hull model were on display in the old store in No. 3 ‘tween deck, and have not been put back on display since the store moved (the store you saw in No. 1 has only been open for about a month). We have a number of Liberty ship models in storage, including a 1/96 scale WWII vintage model and 1/300 and 1/700 scale models. There are also several sets of WWII recognition models in storage. Some of these will eventually go on display in our future museum in No. 1 ‘tween deck (currently in the final planning stages).
Thank you for the information on the Trumpeter mode, it’ll be most useful even to my limited level of finer detail.
One thing I read (in relation to Oceans) was that the boats were swung out while the ship was under way. Was this a practice on Liberty’s and could the kit davits be so modified?
The boats would normally be swung out, although they were swung in while in port and when there was a risk of losing the boats due to heavy seas. The GMM photoetch set has davits in both positions.
If you want to use the Trumpeter davits I suppose you could modify them. The heavier angled part of the davit is what pivots out. The upper half of the vertical bit is a sheath screw that extends when cranked, pushing the davit out. The triangle consisting of the lower part of the vertical piece and the angle brace is the frame that supports the moving bits. I guess you would have to remove the pivoting part of the davit from the kit part, and then replace the sheath screw with a longer piece of plastic or brass rod.
I think thats worth trying for the appearance of the ship under way. It would also make it worthwhile to install the Tom’s lifeboat supports. I wasn’t going to bother with them because they’d be almost invisible with the boats swung in.
On the other hand they would be rather vulnerable to handling.