USS San Francisco CA-38 1942

Trumpeter, 1/350 scale

Reviewed by Glen Porter

Trumpeter's 1/350 scale USS San Francisco 1942 is available online from Squadron
 

The fifth in the seven ship New Orleans class of  Heavy Cruisers, San Francisco was laid down in September 1931, launched in March 1933, and completed in February 1934.

Although in dry-dock and defenseless in Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December 1941, she was undamaged but later at Guadalcanal, on the 12th of  November 1942, she was hit by a Japanese aircraft which caused considerable damage and casualties and that night her force was surprised off Salvo Island by Japanese Battleships, a Cruiser and Destroyers in what is today known as the First Battle of Guadalcanal. Due to bad decisions on both sides, it developed into a melee or “Bar Room Brawl”. The Cruiser Atlanta and four Destroyers were lost and every other US ship bar USS Fletcher was damaged.

San Francisco herself was badly damaged again with both her Commander and Flag Officer being among the casualties but managed to limp home to the US for repairs.

USS San Francisco survived the war was the second most awarded warship of the US Navy.

On opening the long sturdy box, the first thing you will notice is the full-length grey upper hull, red water-line plate, red lower hull and two piece deck in a partitioned off portion of the box. The parts fit together very well and are clean of any flash or sink marks.

The main area of the box has the eight sprues with the rest of the parts except for another partitioned area with two clear sprues which are the ships aircraft and the small decal sheet.

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“A” carries the funnels, prop shafts, various deck house parts and lots of other bits and pieces. “Bx2” each has catapults, life rafts, small AA guns and their shields, 5 inch gun bases, props, one small boat and again many smaller parts. “Cx2” accounts for two main turrets and their bases along with four gun barrels, 5 inch guns, two A/C cranes and their booms, anchors, funnel caps plus lots more.

The “D” sprue contains most of but not all the superstructure parts while “E” has the rest of the superstructure, ship's boats, masts and the search-light tower between the funnels and the name plate for the four-piece stand which is on a sprue of its own and unmarked with a letter. The small parts on all of the sprues consist of  search-lights, stairs, reels, ammunition lockers, etc. Again, all are nicely moulded and some with considerable detail.

The clear aircraft sprues have two fuselage halves, lower wing, upper wing, main float, two tailplanes and outer wing floats. I think it's a good idea doing the aircraft in clear plastic but I have enough trouble painting 1/72nd scale aircraft canopy frames without trying to do it in 1/350th scale.

Now, the small decal sheet. Here we have some problems. Yes, I'm told the two U.S. Stars and Stripes have the correct number of stars for the period. However, there are two aircraft supplied, the ships actually carried four, and the paint/decal instructions show one aircraft from four sides and it has white stars on blue circle national markings in six positions. They also have the number ten (10) just forward of the fuselage star on both sides. The problem is, the decal sheet has only six national marking and two number tens so there's only enough for one aircraft. Doh!! You do get four white number thirty eights (38) which is correct, two just behind the anchors on the bow, thats the pointy end for you non-naval types, and two just above the rudder trailing edge on the stern (the blunt end).

The decals are well printed and in register, its just that we need two of them.

A couple of other silly little mistakes. The title page of the instructions says USS Francisco CA-38 1942. It's the same on the title of the paint/decal instruction sheet.

I am led to believe the ship was in Measure 21 camouflage as depicted in the kit but Trumpeter have omitted to tell us what colour the superstructure should be.

Everything else is covered, hull, deck, props, boat interiors, funnel caps, boat booms but no superstructure. Now, if you happen to know what colours Measure 21 included, great. For the rest of us, stiff.

I think this is a very important kit for Trumpeter and they've put a lot of work into it and come up with accurate and detailed model. To then have it let down by a few silly mistakes suggests that someone at Trumpeter has not got their mind on their job.

Obviously, the kit will benefit from a PE set, especially for those catapults and crane jibs, not to mention guard rails and stairs and I believe several are on the way.

I also think there are several other ships of the class coming including in a late war fit-out as six quad 40mm AA guns and their mounts are included on the sprues but not used in this kit.

Highly Recommended, even with the bloopers.