USS Iowa 1:600

[KiwiKev]

A spare 1:600 Bismarck kit hull in the stash seemed too good to do nothing with. The fact the local library had the "Anatomy of the ship" volume on USS Iowa, with drawings in 1:600 scale, settled it for me. There are 1:600 kits out there for an Iowa class ship, so this is just a play with some spare parts to see what's possible from more of a scratch build start, although using sections of the Airfix Bismarck hull will hopefully save a lot of time and just leave a few gaps to fill in.

[KiwiKev]

Not too much left of the poor old Bismarck hull. Each hull half will be cut amidships to allow an extension, and the beam needs to be reduced slightly. The white styrene deck is copied directly out of the book's 1:600 drawings and quite a bit of work will be needed to fit the Bismarck sections near the bow, which shows the Iowa's characteristic long and slender form.

[KiwiKev]

How far this goes will depend on how well the hull turns out. So far not too bad. One concern I have is how to etch or otherwise mark the hull plating lines, as there is a lot of filler and scribing this may cause some uneven chipping. An alternative approach might be to glue on some very fine line along the plating lines. I'll experiment with scribing the lines first. This picture shows the grey areas used from the Bismarck hull. Note the white section amidships that provides the extra 70 odd feet of length. Another major change is the removal of the centreline skeg, as two offset skegs will have to be created, an unusual feature on the Iowas that I haven't seen on any other warship.

[KiwiKev]

When I started this I wasn't aware of any 1:600 Iowas. Apparently there are a few, but they are all pretty awful, and not all are true 1:600. I bought the Kangnam 1:600 New Jersey, and was lucky enough to get one of the few that actually has a decent hull shape, with correct number of rudders etc...

It is more basic than even early Airfix ships, and will need a lot of correcting if the supplied superstructure is to be used. Happily though my Bismarck hull conversion stacks up very well alongside it. The two hulls are actually both so good that I will be building two models. One in WW2 configuration, and one in 1980's.

The kangnam hull (rear) is almost devoid of any detail. Will need hull plating etched in, anchor arrangements added, but at least the basic shape looks reasonably accurate, and I know the converted hull (front) is, as its based on good drawings.

[Sailorman]

Looking good!