Vol. 64, No. 4 winter 2019 336 14.


1942 units to 1939 confi guration. I utilized the Yankee Modelworks photo-etched set to make the searchlight tower, eschewing the plastic parts that came in the kit. To detail the searchlights, I hollowed them out, painted the insides silver, and then fi lled them with liquid Microscale Kristal Klear. As its name implies, this material turns from white to clear when it dries. I overfi lled the searchlight cavities just enough to create a round, convex lens when dry. The assembled and painted funnels and tower were then glued in place as shown in Figure 26. Notice, too, the scratch-built whaleboat that I suspended from its davits using stainless steel wire. (The curved ropes were made from unraveled copper speaker wire.)


Next up in the production line was the aft superstructure. I cut open the hangar door, pre- painted its fl oor and then attached the pre- assembled and painted main housing. After adding the smaller pieces to it, the results are shown in Figure 27. The backdating of all the ship’s superstructures was now complete.


To fi nish off that rear superstructure I needed to add the ship’s utility boats. My research indicated some important differences between what was in the 1942 kit and what was embarked on USS San Francisco in 1939. Therefore, I went to work cutting up inventory pieces and using putty to create launches, cutters, whaleboats, and punts. (Figure 28) Photo-etched brass parts were used for the propellers, tillers and rudders. When the boats were completed, I made cradles for them and installed them on the roof of the hangar, which did double duty as the boat deck. (Figure 29)


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The last step was to rig double halyards (from the upper fl ag box rails I had made) to the foremast (Figure 25) from 20-denier Uni Caenis fl y-fi shing line.


Because I build from front to back and from the centerline out, my next area of focus was the funnels and the searchlight tower. I scratch built the funnel caps and vent pipes to convert the kit’s


Returning to the midships area, I took a look at the model’s 5-inch guns mounted outboard of the forward superstructure and the funnels. Unfortunately, the whole gun was molded in one piece and the base in another, so they looked like two-piece toys. To remedy this, I replaced their plastic barrels with Master Models turned brass parts. Then I added recoil cylinders, sights, handwheels, seats, and railings, all of which was fashioned from scrap styrene and cut- up photo-etched inventory. (Figure 30) The ship’s 8-inch gun turrets were nicely molded


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