Today I wrapped up a near-4-month long build of the old battleship, U.S.S. Texas. I am a native Houstonian, which of course is where the Texas is berthed at San Jacinto, and have toured her many times. I’ve always wanted to build her, but up until this kit was released in 2015, I think the only kit I’d ever seen was a resin offering that was way beyond my abilities at the time I saw it around the year 2000.
When this was released, I grabbed it. It has been tucked deep in the stash ever since. This year I decided I was going to build a wider variety of subjects rather than simply Allied or Axis warbirds (to which I will be returning later this year). After the Wright Flier, I turned my attention to the Texas.
For a mostly airplane builder, this kit was daunting. I’d only ever built one ship before, the original U.S.S. Lexington. I didn’t feel as if I’d done a very good job on her. That build was taxing to my patience and my nerves, and I think that played a role in my reluctance to tackle Texas.
The kit comes with 4 PE frets containing a lot of railing, 2 OS2U Kingfisher float planes (but decals for only 1), and a bunch of tiny parts that my eyes don’t like without the Optivisor.
Currently the Texas is painted in a very monochromatic dark gray. I knew I didn’t want to go with such a simple paint scheme (although that would have made life easier). I had bought the Squadron Signals book on the Texas, and found reference to the various paint schemes Texas wore throughout her WWII service (measures). I liked the tonal variation of the Measure 22 scheme, so that’s how I decided to paint her.
I honestly don’t know if the kit is accurate for the time frame that Texas wore the Measure 22 scheme; some of the photos from late 1942 into 1943 show some differences between the kit and the actual ship. I decided the kit would have to do; I’m sure there are some folks far better acquainted with US Naval subjects such as the Texas than am I, so if I missed something, consider it my mistake.
The majority of the paints I used for this build are new to me - LifeColor and ColourCoats. The LifeColor paints are for the Measure 22 scheme - Navy Blue 5N for vertical surfaces above the waterline (or however the black stripe is referred to), Haze Gray 5H for all vertical surfaces at the main deck and above, and Deck Blue 20-B for all horizontal surfaces. The ColorCoat paint is Norfolk 65A Anti-fouling Red for the area below the water. I used some Vallejo USN colors for the Kingfisher, Model Master brass for the screws, and Tamiya semi-gloss black for a small number of details. I weathered with Mig brown wash and a tiny bit of Tamiya weathering compounds, mostly rust.
I found the ColorCoat paints to be difficult to work with through my airbrush. It is quite likely because I didn’t thin the paint properly, but I was able to get the Navy Blue painted with the airbrush, as well as the Deck Blue on the main deck pieces. I also did the anti-fouling red with the airbrush. Everything else I painted by hand with a 10/0 brush, an Optivisor and a lot of patience.
This kit includes a lot of PE, which in aircraft I typically do not enjoy working with. I think my dislike of PE has a lot to do with my aversion to using CA. I’ve had too many fingers get stuck together, and even had CA “run away” from accelerator and onto the exterior of an EA-6 Prowler I did a few years ago. To this end I found Gator Grip Thin Blend, which was said to work great with PE. I’ll verify that claim. This glue looks a lot like white glue, or Elmer’s glue. Just a little dab on the tip of a toothpick, making glue placement relatively simple, followed by carefully aligning the parts from tweezer to kit, and then let it dry for a few minutes, which would usually be long enough to keep the parts in place. I’d typically glue on a few pieces of railing and leave it for the night, just to ensure a good bond. The Gator’s Grip also works great with EZ Line for rigging, as I later discovered.
I didn’t like the look of the display stand (which is the same style Trumpeter used for the Lexington). I opted to purchase a couple of rustic-looking drawer pulls to give the Texas a more polished look.
The kit was pretty good per my very limited experience building ships. Not many fit issues (the only one I really recall was the lower hull pieces required some extra effort to close up properly, and I reinforced that join from inside with pieces of strip styrene.) I actually came up short on deflector plates for some of the deck guns - Trumpeter provided 44 to go with 45 guns, although you were only to use 42 of them. Don’t know if the carpet monster got some of the parts …
Any way, this is my Texas. I’m pleased with how she turned out. And for now, I’m taking a break from the bench, but am eyeing a Fine Molds Star Wars kit as well as a lighted version of the C-57D Space Cruiser from the movie Forbidden Planet.