【Battleship】Commissioned in April 1941! Becoming a representative battleship of the North Carolina class, popular ship BB-55 North Carolina leaving various war records in battles of several years is made into a 3D model on a 1/700 scale!

“If it's a battleship model, after all the presence of main guns is important”. Answering expectations of such ship model fans is the 1/700 scale plastic model “US Navy Battleship BB-55 North Carolina 1944”. North Carolina is a US Navy battleship commissioned in April 1941 as the name ship of North Carolina class battleships equipped with three 40.6cm triple guns. In this kit, you can enjoy that grand figure in a size with total length 317.5mm. While being an easy-to-collect scale named 1/700, the silhouette combining heavy hulls typical of battleships and giant main guns is truly powerful, and if displayed after completion, you should come to want to gaze thinking “Ah, this is a battleship”. Not simply models scaled down from large warships, places where you can assemble while imagining up to the history of a single ship named North Carolina is the interest of this model.

Knowing the steps of actual ships before making models, fun looking at completed figures changes too. Commissioned North Carolina advanced to the Atlantic Ocean together with sister ship Washington, and after that in 1942 to the Pacific Front. In August, participating in counter-offensive operations in the direction of Guadalcanal Island, it demonstrated powerful gunfire. However, it was not smooth sailing. In September of the same year, damaged by torpedo attacks by Japanese Navy submarine I-19 near Espiritu Santo Island, it recedes to Pearl Harbor and receives repairs. Thinking “Did war records end here?”, of course it is not so. In November 1943, returning to the front, after that participating in almost all anti-Japan operations. Knowing such careers, even from small hulls of models, wouldn't you feel weights unique to veteran ships that went through fierce battles of the Pacific?

Modelized this time is North Carolina in 1944, and what wants attention drawn is reinforced anti-aircraft armament. Because figures after modifications adding 40mm quadruple machine guns and 20mm machine guns etc. are reproduced, you can enjoy wartime figures enriched in equipment, different from initial commission. You might think “Isn't it sufficient just gazing at main guns?”, but in ship models fine equipment lining up on decks are also important highlights. Coexisting hearty impressions created by large-caliber guns and precise atmospheres by numerous anti-aircraft armaments, you can savor appearances with much information typical of battleships in 1944. Furthermore, two OS2U observation planes attached is also a pleasing point, and completing including up to carrier-based aircraft, you will be able to express North Carolina as a giant capital ship more deeply.

“When completed, in what figure shall I display?”. Such worries are also fun of model making, but in this kit you can select either waterline models or full-hull models. If waterline specifications, it suits displays imagining North Carolina navigating sea surfaces, and developing into scene works adding sea surface expressions seems fun as well. On the other hand, if choosing full-hull, you can appreciate the whole hull including below the waterline, tasting shapes of battleships themselves thoroughly. Because impressions received change considerably depending on display methods even with the same ship, degrees of freedom being able to adapt to your preferences like “I want to reproduce heroic figures during navigation” “I want to gaze at the whole hull” are major charms.

Intense main guns of three 40.6cm triple guns, 40mm quadruple machine guns and 20mm machine guns added by modifications, and two OS2U observation planes. In this kit summarizing these into hulls with total length 317.5mm, features of North Carolina are condensed. If reflecting thoughts on footprints of actual ships while assembling like “This ship fought in the Guadalcanal direction, received torpedo attacks, and returned even so”, time gazing at completed products will become even more flavorful. Expressing a single scene of battlefields as a waterline model, or savoring sculptings of giant ships themselves in full-hull. Including up to that selection, for people who want to build up US battleships of the World War II era thoroughly, it is a single ship worth challenging.