USS Texas, BB-35, in 1/350 Scale

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member

My Review and Build of Trumpeter's 1/350 scale Kit #05340,
USS Texas, BB-35, Battleship


bb35-01.jpg

bb35-02.jpg

bb35-03.jpg

bb35-04.jpg

bb35-05.jpg

 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member

bb35-06.jpg


Introduction and What's in the Box - August 20, 2015

About the ship:
This is a 1/350 scale model of the battleship, USS Texas, BB-35.

In the early 1900s, the US Navy was expanding, and under the leadership of President Theodore Roosevelt, it was expanding rapidly. Roosevelt had high regard for the ability of a strong navy to allow a major

power to protect itself and its interests around the world. BUilding up a powerful NAvy was part of his, "Speak soiftly but carry a big stick," motto. And in those dayys, the most powerful weapons on earth

were battleships, parrticularly the readnought battleships.

USS Texas even though it was the second named vessel of the class, it was actually laid down, launced, and commissione dbefore the the name sake of the class the USS New York, BB-34. which was laid down on

September 11, 1911, launched on October 30, 1912, and commisisoned into the US Navy on May 15, 1914. The USS Texas was down on April 17, 1911, launched on May 18, 1912, and commissioned on March 12, 1914.

Becasue of her being laid down, launched, and commissioned first, several people like to refer to the class unofficiallyt as the "TExas" class...not surprisingly, most of those doing so either reside in, or

are from Texas.

At the time of her commissioning, with her ten brand new 14" 45 caliber main guns, and twenty-one 5" 51 calbier secondary guns, the USS Texas weas the most powerful battleship...of for that matter,

weapon...on earth.

She saw immediate and extensive use for decades.

(See
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
for full details of this history.)

Tampico, Mexico incident in 2014 immediately after commissioning:

Operational duties, Exercises and Maneuver's:

World War I Convoy duties and German Fleet Blockade duties:

Inter-war Service - Test, Exercises & Operations, Training, Flagship:

World War II Convoy Duties:

World War II Operation Torch - the invasion of North Africa:

World War II Operation Overlord - D-Day Invasion:

World War II The Battle of Cherbourg:

World War II Operation Dragoon - The invasion of Southern France:

Wolrd War II Operation Detachment - The Invasion of Iwo Jima:

World War II Operation Iceberg - The Invasion of Okinawa:

World War II, Operation Magic Carpet - Bring troops home after the end of the War:
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Museum Ship 1948-Present:

After her decommissioning, the USS Texas was offered up for use as a museum ship. Very quickly, the state of Texas responded. On April 17, 1947, only six days after she was decommissioned, the Battleship Texas Commission was established by the Texas Legislature to care for the ship. Texas quickly met all the requirements, including the $225,000 necessary to tow her from Baltimore to San Jacinto. On March 17, 1948, the Texas began her journey to a brand new anchorage on the Houston Ship Channel near the San Jacinto Monument, at San Jacinto State Park in Texas. she arrived there on April 20, 1948, and was turned over to the State of Texas on the 21st to serve as a permanent memorial.

The 21st of April is significant because oit was the date of the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto against Anta Anna, when the Texas forces defeated him there, and Santa Anna, the president of Mexico at the time, surrendered and agreed to Texas Independence. This led to the creation of the Republic of Texas, which joined the US as a state in 1845. Afterwards, the USS Texas name was struck from the official US Navy Vessel Register on April 30, 1948.

In being established as a memorial museum ship, the Texas established another "first," that of being the first permanent battleship memorial museum in the US. When She the battleship was presented to the State of Texas, she was commissioned by the state as the permanent flagship of the Texas Navy.

She has remained such ever since.

As a native Texan myself, I can remember on two occasions and a young man 10 and then 13 years old, while visiting relatives in Houston, going aboard the vessel in the 1960s.

By the 1980s, however, the USS Texas was in a state of disrepair, particularly below the waterline. The State of Texas, and the people of Texas came to her rescue.

In 1983, the responsibility for the upkeep and maintenance of the battleship was transferred form the original Texas Commission, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, The Commission was a small agency, and was not able to continue to amass the funding or the personnel necessary to maintain the Texas. Texas Parks and wildlife is a large, very well staffed and funded agency, better suited for the long-term viability of the vessel.

In addition, funding was raised, with the people of Texas and the government of Texas coming up with the funds to take her from her berth in 1988 and placed in dry dock until 1990 for extensive repairs and conditioning for her long term upkeep as a museum/memorial ship. This included significant updates and changes to her berth near the San Jacinto Memorial.

In December of 1988, Texas was pulled from her berth with great difficulty by six large tugboats to begin al 56 mile trip to Todd Shipyards in Galveston, Texas. Once under tow she started taking on water, through breach just forward of the engine rooms. The crew had three 4 in and two 2 in pumps in continuous service to combat the flooding. During the nine hour trip, the ship's draft increased 18 to 20 in and Texas ultimately entered the yard's floating dry-dock with only 6 in to spare between her hull and the blocks she would have sit on. 16 months later, on February 24, 1990, tugboats moved Texas from that dry-dock to a repair facility on Green's Bayou where her new deck was installed. Repairs complete, the ship officially reopened to the public on September 8, 1990.

Texas Parks and Wildlife has an ongoing program, that started soon after her return, to restore her interior spaces on room at a time.

Since then, a plan to dry dock the vessel at her San Jacinto Memorial berth, has been proposed. The Master Plan was formally adopted bin 2004 by Texas Parks and wildlife. The Texas Legislature put it to the Texas voters the voters. On November 6, 2007, Texas voters approved $25 million in funds to dry-berth the ship to prevent any further deterioration from the corrosive waters of the ship channel.

After the vote, BTF contracted a independent maritime engineering firm to make a survey of the ship to determine her condition. The survey reflected that her keel and main supporting internal structure was sufficiently strong to support the weight of the ship in a dry berth. In March 2009 the funds were released for the dry berthing project to commence.

In October 2010, a contract was signed with AECOM, to design and develop the plans for the dry-berth. Following a federally mandated environmental assessment, the bidding process for construction of the dry

berth and temporary mooring of Texas began in mid-2014. Construction is to be completed by mid to late 2017.

Specifications for the USS Texas, at the end of World War II:

Designation: BB
Length: 573 ft
Beam: 95 ft
Displacement: 32,000 tons (full load)
Propulsion: 6 oil fired boilers, 2 shafts
Speed: 21 knots
Range: 8,500 miles at 10 knots
Crew : 1,042
Armament:
- 10 x 14 in/45 caliber main guns
- 06 X 5 in/51 caliber secondary guns
- 10 X 3 in/50 caliber Anti-aircrft guns
- 24 x 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns (6 x 4 mounts)
- 44 x 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns)
Armor:
- Belt:12 in amidships, 6 in aft
- Bulkheads: 10 in and 11 in lower belt aft
- Barbettes: 5 to 12 in
- Turrets: 14 in face, 4 in top, 8 in sides
- Decks: 1.5 to 3 in

Post Script:
I visited The USS Texas in August of 2014. It was the first time I had been back to the ship since 1969, 45 years earlier. She looked great! You can see three pictures I took while there above...the first three pictures.

The Kit:
This is a brand new kit by Trumpeter, announced in late 2014 and delivered to outlets in the US in the Summer of 2015. One of my favorite suppliers, who have a strong online presence and a very decent brick and mortar store in Georgia, is Free Time Hobbies. I got mine from them, after being on their waiting list.

It is a GREAT model. Little or no flash or residue from the molding process and lots of delicate detail parts, including all of the photo etch railing for the vessel, and various sensors and other details in PE. It will make for a nice build.

It comes with a total of 13 plastic frets (two in clear plastic for the 2 OSU Kingfisher aircraft) and 3 Photo Etch metal frets. There are also 14 plastic parts that are individual parts for the main decks, deck houses and the stand. A total of 672 plastic parts and 138 metal parts, or 810 parts altogether.

There are two decals sheets with a total of 58 decals.

There is an excellent build guide that goes through all of the steps of building the model in typical, descriptive and intuitive Trumpeter fashion. Also, in keeping with most 1/350 scale Trumpeter models, there is a full color paint guide for the vessel, depicting it in its current colors as a museum ship, which is a basic dark Sea Gray color for the vertical and horizontal surfaces.

This model of the USS Texas, Battleship...out of the box...lives up to the reputation for quality and detail we have come to expect from Trumpeter. has established for itself.

I intend to build the vessel in a World War II configuration, with both Kingfisher aircraft mounted on their catapult atop the center 14" gun turret. I will choose the paint scheme from the Atlantic escort duties leading up to the invasion of North Africa and thereafter, the D-Day invasion, or the camo scheme in the Pacific. I just haven't decided yet...I like all three.

Here's how it all looked out of the box:


bb35-07.jpg

bb35-08.jpg

bb35-09.jpg

bb35-10.jpg

 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member

bb35-11.jpg

bb35-12.jpg


This really looks to be an excellent build. As a naval enthusiast and as a native Texan, I have wanted an affordable, yet detailed USS Battleship Texas, BB-35, for a long time and am really looking forward to building this and adding it to my collect.

Color me Texas proud! LOL!


The Build - Initial construction and painting of the hull - August 20, 2015

The hull comes in two pieces, a port and starboard side. Both are nicely detailed. There are five stiffener/structural pieces that fit in between the two. As I was putting mine together, I found that the fit between the matching holes for the I found that the holes on the two sides, and the holes for the structural pieces were not a perfect alignment. There is about a 1/32 inch of play/difference there. I split the difference between the two ends, and will make up any difference with putty if necessary. I then glued all of that together.

I then painted the assembled hull Model Master Gunship Gray.


bb35-13.jpg

bb35-14.jpg

bb35-15.jpg


That was all there was time for.

She's looking pretty good. In my next session I will add the main deck, the shafts, supports and rudders to the lower hull, and then mask off and paint the lower hull in its hull red, and then the waterline mark in black. I will also paint the main deck.


SCHEDULE for Future Activities - August 20, 2015

- By Sep 18, 2015, Complete USS Texas, BB-35, in 1/350 Scale
- By Sep 25, 2015, Complete RAF Typhoon in 1/72 Scale.
- By Oct 16, 2015, Complete RN Merlin Helicopter in 1/72 Scale,
- By Oct 30, 2015, Complete French Rafael M in 1/72 Scale.
- By Nov 27, 2015, Complete USS Hornet, CV-8 in 1/350 Scale.
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member

The Build - Main Deck, hull painting, shafts & struts, 5" guns, main deck house - August 22, 2015

I began this session by adding the main deck. It comes in two section, the forward and aft portions. The hull, with the stiffeners, was spread a little too wide on the forward portion so I had to use clamps to really pull the sides in for the main deck forward. But this worked out fine.


bb35-16.jpg

bb35-17.jpg

bb35-18.jpg

 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Continuing on with the hull, I masked off and painted the waterline mark flat black. Then I gathered and painted the six 5" gun that are mounted along the gun deck, foreword to port and starboard behind the main forward batteries. I then added the lower section of the main deck house, extending back amidships. This fit too was a little tough and had to use clamps to pull it together, and then a little filler along a couple of seams.


bb35-22.jpg

bb35-23.jpg

bb35-24.jpg

 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
With that done, I then added the second level of the main deck house, which includes the second level of AA guns and the portion just below the pilot house.


bb35-25.jpg

bb35-26.jpg

bb35-27.jpg


I am doing a little preparation for weathering (of sorts) as I go here, and believe it is looking pretty good. LOTS of details left.

In the next session, I hope to add the rest of the main deck house, the funnel, the main batteries, and the 40mm gun mounts.
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member

The Build - Pilot House, Main tripod mast, Forward, Main 14" gun Batteries - August 24, 2015
</center>

Well, I started this session by building the next "stack" to the main deck house, which included the pilot house, and then placed it on the battleship.


bb35-28.jpg

bb35-29.jpg

bb35-30.jpg

</center>​
 

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
I then built the main battery 14" gun turrets. There are five of them and each consists of five parts. Both barrels, a dowel/shaft for the two barrels to pivot up and down on, then the main part of the gun turret (through which both guns protrude), and the bottom of the turret. Two of them have to four have small holes drilled out (they are well marked on the inside of each turret) for the addition of positions for four 20mm antiaircraft gun positions, one (the turret amidships) to receive the aircraft catapult, and then the forward and aft batteries.


bb35-31.jpg

bb35-32.jpg

bb35-33.jpg

</center>​
 
Top