The USS Massachusetts, a South Dakota class battleship, was liad down on 20 July 1939 at Bethlehem Shipbuilding in Quincy Massachusetts.  The Massachusetts was launched 23 September 1941.  The South Dakota class battleships represented the peak of battleship design limited by the London Naval Treaty of 1936.  The goal of the South Dakota class was to offer a solution to the shortcomings of the earlier North Carolinas while still adhering to the same treaty limitation of 35,000 tons.  This was done by shortening the hull, which resulted in a smaller protected space for her vitals.  The weight saved by shortening the ship went into better protection.  The price for a shorter ship was the need for more shaft horsepower, yet the shorter hull made less space available for more powerful equipment.  Massachusetts needed 135,000 shaft horsepower to drive her through the water at the same speed that 115,000 shaft horsepower drove the North Carolina.  A novel solution was developed by placing the high and low speed turbines next to the boilers instead of having separate fire and engine rooms.

Another innovation was Massachusetts’s sloped internal armor belt.  By sloping the armor belt 19 degrees, the designers were able to satisfy the requirements set by the General Board for immunity against 16-inch shells and still comply with the London Treaty.  There were some drawbacks to this innovation, however; the ships were very cramped and when fully loaded tended to be wet at the bow.  In the overall, the design was found to be very efficient and maneuverable.

For the Massachusetts, WWII began with the Naval Battle of Casablanca while supporting operation “Torch”.  During the battle, Massachusetts would sink three merchant ships, one destroyer, and heavily damage the French battleship Jean Bart.  Following the battle, Massachusetts returned to the Boston Navy Yard where she would undergo her first major refit adding four quad 40mm and fifteen 20mm mounts.  On 6 February 1943, Massachusetts headed west through the Panama Canal to the Pacific war zone, where she would spend the rest of the war.  Her first Pacific action was at Russell Island 15 July 1943.  Massachusetts would finish the war with 11 battle stars.  Her surface combat record was the best of any battleship in the U.S. Navy with the exception of the Washington.

The bottom portion of the hull in my kit was not flat.  To correct this problem, I cemented a piece of ¾” hardwood plywood to the bottom surface of the bottom hull half.  I used 30 minute epoxy and placed a heavy piece of plate aluminum on top of the hull bottom while it cured for several days, Fig. 1.  Prior to assembly of the hull halves, the straps across the upper hull half were removed.  Unless the straps are removed, there was a bulge in the bow area as indicated in figure 3.  The upper and lower hull halves were positioned together with masking tape and cement was applied in sections, Fig. 2.  Working in section facilitates making small adjustments to improve alignment.

I next turned my attention to the deck.  Trumpeter molded the deck in three pieces.  In addition, the kit deck had numerous molded details that would have to be removed.  Both of these issues made it more attractive to scrap the kit deck and fabricate my own.  I began by cementing the kit fore and aft deck sections in place with a sheet styrene center section, Fig. 4.  For the deck, I used N scale car siding from Evergreen.  It is .020” thick and supplied in 24 lengths that make it ideal for a seamless deck.  The first step was to cut a small piece for the steel forward deck.  This was cut from the scribed siding and cemented in place with the scribing facing down.  A piece of scribed siding was cut for the center portion of the deck.  The rear portion of the deck also done with a reversed piece of scribed sheet, Fig. 5.  I marked a centerline on the sub-deck and the scribed decking to aid in alignment.  The exposed groves from the reversed siding were filled with cyanoacrylate cement, Fig. 6.  I removed the excess material to blend it in with the hull sides and cut the opening for the main battery, Fig. 7.

Next up was the anchor washboard cutout in the port bow, Fig. 8  This is an important feature for the Massachusetts because it remained until the last refit in 1946.  The cutout was lined with .010” styrene, Fig. 9.

Another reason that I wanted to avoid using the kit deck was so that I could replicate the waterway that ran the perimeter of the deck.  The kit supplied deck was designed to fit inside of the hull sides which left an unsightly gap at the joint.  I went about establishing the waterway by first cementing a piece of .010” x .020” styrene strip around the edge of the deck.  My technique was to apply the styrene strip to the sticky side of a length of 3M Fine Line tape, Fig. 10.  The Fine Line tape has a nice combination of rigidity while still allowing for flexibility to adapt to the fore and aft rise of the deck.  A ruler was used to insure that the styrene strip was straight on the tape.  The tape was stuck to the side of the hull so that the styrene strip was in contact with the deck, Fig. 11.  A bit of Weldon #4 tacked the styrene strip to the deck.  I did this around the entire perimeter of the deck.

Construction of the superstructure began by separating the first level from the cast deck. To aid in location and fixation of the superstructure, I placed two studs machined from acrylic rod into which I inserted short lengths of brass rod. In order to keep the first level of the super structure flat, I cemented aluminum rod to the underside between the acrylic locating studs, Fig. 12. Corresponding holes were drilled along the centerline in the main deck, Fig. 13.

As supplied in the kit, the main battery needed much improvement.  I assembled the turret sides, filled all the gaps, and then sanded everything smooth and straight.  Since I had scrapped the kit’s main deck, I needed a different method to mount the main battery.  Holes were cut in the main deck and ringed with styrene strip.  Acrylic disks were machined to fit precisely into the openings.  The disks were supported by short lengths of pvc pipe that rested on the wood that was glued to the inside of the hull.  This insured that the mounts were parallel, Fig. 16, 17.  An additional styrene shim was added to the top of the #2 turret mount to correct the height.

The turrets were also a bit too tall so I milled off an amount of material from the bottom edge of the turret tops before they were mated to the bottom half, Fig. 19.  I used barrels from the Lion Roar detail set.  For mounting, I modified the barrels by cutting off the short mounting stub, drilling out the ends, and fitting a substantially longer piece of brass rod.  This provided a much more positive alignment.  I milled acrylic blocks that were drilled to accommodate the barrels.  The blocks were cemented to the inside of the turrets, Fig. 20.

The twin 5” mounts provided in the kit are made up of four pieces that are nearly impossible to assemble while preserving any amount of detail.  I ordered replacements from L’Arsenal, but discovered that the turrets on the Washington had a different shape, Fig. 21.  The turrets supplied with the Tamiya Missouri are correct in shape and size with the exception of the elevation slots which are a bit thin.  I took the easy way out and modified a Tamiya turret by milling out the elevation slots, fitting the shields and rear hatches, and machining new sighting scopes.  I sent the pattern off to Paul Fisher (Fisher Model and Pattern) who was kind enough to cast a beautiful set of turrets.  The turrets were cast with a large base so that I could chuck the turret in the lathe and precisely cut and form the base, Fig. 22.

Friedman, Norman.  U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated History.  Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, 1987

Friedman, Norman; Lott, Arnold s.; Sumrall, Robert F.  USS Massachusetts (BB59), Ship’s Data.  1985

Shocker, Randall S.  USS Massachusetts: Technical Reference 2.  Oxford: Oxford Museum Press, 2004

Stern, Rob.  US Battleships in Action, Part 2.  Carrollton: Squadron/Signal Publications, 1984

Wiper, Steve.  South Dakota Class Battleships, Warship Pictorial #32.  Tuscon: Classic Warship Publishing, 2009