Dragon

1/700 USS San Diego CL-53 1942

Kit Number: 7052

Reviewed by  Luke R. Bucci, PhD, IPMS# 33549

MSRP: $22.95 USD Thanks to Dragon Models USA for supplying the review kit. The antiaircraft light cruiser CL-53 was the second San Diego in the US fleet, the first being an armored cruiser. CL-53 was the third of four ships of the Atlanta class, differentiated from later ships of this class by having a round bridge front, and eight twin 5in turrets instead of six. Atlanta class cruisers were conceived in 1934, but not built until 1939. They were designed as fast flotilla leaders to counter high-speed Japanese destroyers, and serve as antiaircraft escorts. Atlanta class light cruisers were the lightest cruisers in the US Navy, and never carried catapults or aircraft. To reach high speeds, armor was sacrificed, with deleterious results in surface actions. This design, with minor modifications, was carried over into the Oakland and Juneau II classes. The San Diego was built by Bethlehem Steel Co, Quincy, Mass. and commissioned on January 10, 1942. San Diego was regarded as a “plodder” – one of those lucky ships that was always there in the thick of many fights, but never grabbing any glory, headlines or notoriety, and incredibly, no major damage or lives lost. By following the fast carriers around, she garnered 15 Battle Stars, and was the first US Navy ship to dock in Japan after the surrender. She steamed over a quarter million miles, and was so busy, was not refitted with 40mm guns until December 1943. She was decommissioned in November 1946, and scrapped in 1959. A memorial on San Diego’s waterfront next to the carrier Midway is the only vestige left of this sea trooper. Kit Characteristics: First Premium Edition kit from Dragon Models USA, updating older kits with new details – in this case, their earlier Atlanta kit (7017). New guns, fittings, decals and photo etch. Injected plastic (polystyrene) kit complete with decals and brass photo-etch. Full hull or waterline options, with a stand included for the full hull option, and (oops) a nameplate for Atlanta, not San Diego. 10 sprues, with six being two types of weapons and fittings only – a real bonus with plenty of extra parts for other USS WW2 warships. Four of these sprues are labeled as Essex-class, and the other two appear to be the original Skywave USS WW2 weapons set. Photo-etch sheet with fittings for 1942 fit, and a decal sheet for the first four ships of the Atlanta class are excellent – the railings even have the diagonal supports, and are sagging too – a nice touch. 1.1in quad AA guns are entirely photo-etch and look to scale (not easy to do). The radar fit is also correct for this ship and time period. Unfortunately, there are no specific instructions for placement of the railings to put the diagonals in the right places. Parts are sharply molded with virtually no flash, and packaged well to prevent damage during shipping. An 8-page instruction booklet is in five languages with pictures of each sprue and hull pieces. Exploded view drawings clearly show part numbers and their locations on the model. Sequence of assembly looks right. Only a few problem seams are apparent – the main foredeck, and the major superstructure pieces. Otherwise, very little sanding and filling of seams is needed for this kit. The hull is two pieces, with a bottom plate including the armor plate hiding the seams. The superstructure pieces are few and have excellent detail. Splinter shields for AA guns are a little thick, but not bad considering the scale. Other details, including AA guns, are close enough to scale to look realistic. Photo-etch 20mm guns are an option for those who desire super-detailing. Last page shows the three camouflage schemes for San Diego. Only the Measure 12 scheme is correct for the AA gun fit for this particular kit. The kit Measure 12 scheme is slightly different from reference photographs, but this is a trivial point. The other patterned scheme shows some differences compared to references and photographs. The latter two schemes do not match the kit as built. Hull length scales out to 542 feet, very close to the 541 feet actual. Hull beam (width) scales out to 53 feet, right on the actual 53 feet. Thus, the proportions are accurate. Paint guide lists GSI Creos and Model Master paints. The GSI paints are sometimes difficult to find in the US on hobby store shelves, and their numbers for Model Master paints do not correspond to my bottles of US Navy colors. Better paints with correct US Navy designations are from Floating Drydock enamels, Testor’s Model Master acrylics, Polly-S acrylics or White Ensign enamels. First Impressions: Dragon has put out the original Skywave/Revell Atlanta class kit with a fine photo-etch set for early war fit (1942) and many updated details. This kit is vastly superior to the old Matchbox San Diego kit, and is the industry standard for Atlanta class cruisers at this time. This kit should be an easy build. The proportions are accurate, the parts are sufficiently detailed, the photo-etch is outstanding, and the camouflage schemes are accurately pictured. An accurate and fine-looking model of any of the four early war Atlanta class light cruisers can be built out of the box with nothing other than paints and glue needed. The many extra weapons and fittings are well worth the small extra cost of this Premium Edition. This is the best Atlanta class 1-700 scale kit today. Highly recommended.

Part 2 - The Kit Build Pros: Full hull (with display stand) or waterline option. Eight sprues with extra parts (mostly guns) are worth the cost of the kit just for the spares. Parts are crisply molded with almost no flash. Parts fit well with minimal seams. Detail on superstructure (molded ladders and portholes) is adequate. Only a few minor inaccuracies in platforms and deck fittings (leftover from the Skywave molds), not enough to need a fix (unless one is obsessive-compulsive). Dimensions are accurate. Photoetch is accurate for 1942-1943 appearance. Photoetch railings and other parts are extremely fine, representing the latest generation of photoetch in 1/700 scale ship models. There is sufficient deck railing length to have a small amount leftover. Photoetch deck railings have the sag between posts - very realistic. Instead of forcing the modeler to cut small pieces from a full-length railing for the short upper deck stretches, they were separately provided, and clearly marked where they went. Modelers with photoetch experience in this scale will keep their bending and folding skills sharp (and should still measure the railings and consider where the posts go). Painting guides for each appearance of the San Diego are helpful, especially the complicated 1942-1943 Measure 12 camouflage scheme, which is the correct scheme to use for this kit. Correct paint colors are specified. Decal sheet has extra hull numbers and stern names for each Atlanta-class cruiser, and flags for two ships. Cons: Nameplate (for full hull version) is for Atlanta, and San Diego nameplate is not present. Armor belt is too thick (about triple the proper thickness). Two-piece hull leaves seams between armor belt and hull. Hull bow does not have the hawseholes that are correctly depicted on the box art. The anchor hawseholes had grommets but these are not supplied by this kit. Large seams on the front and back of the forward superstructure assembly needed filling and sanding. Funnel grills are not a good fit. Contents for the two small gun tubs underneath the bridge wing 1.1in tubs are ignored. Either 20mm guns or small rangefinders were carried in these tubs, depending on the time period. 20mm guns are too large, especially when next to the very fine 1.1in photoetch guns - they look more like 3in artillery pieces with shields two feet thick. This is a common issue with injection molded pieces in this scale. Step 1 shows twin and quad 40mm guns that need to be assembled, but they are not used for this time period and are not needed (otherwise the wonderful photoetch 1.1in mounts have nowhere to go). Need to trim the mast on the crane so that it fits under the searchlight platform. Liferaft confusion: the instructions (Step 8 inset) illustrate the liferaft arrangement for Atlanta and Juneau as commissioned, and not for San Diego in 1942-1943. The liferaft arrangement in the Painting Guide is acceptable, but may not be accurate. Step 13 (final assembly and photoetch placement) left off the F 5in twin turret (aft-most turret) from the illustration - do not let this omission confuse you. Photoetch parts are very fine and small, meaning this may not be the right kit for beginners. Two sets of upper deck railings should be switched (MA8 and MA13), or else the boat deck railings will be too short. Kit Build Notes: This kit is the same mold as earlier Skywave kits of the Atlanta class cruisers, and contains parts for modeling all four ships of the first building program (CL-51 through CL-54). So the basic kit is nothing new. However, for this Premium Edition, Dragon has added a wealth of extra parts to refine the accuracy of this kit. Eight extra sprues with weapons and fittings are provided, a boon for those with a spare parts box. Two sprues are from other Dragon Essex-class carrier kits, and provide more accurate 5in twin turrets than the ex-Skywave weapons sprues. Four sprues from other Dragon carrier kits provide the barrels for the 5in turrets, and the 20mm singles, leaving a large number of extra parts (enough to arm several carriers). Two ex-Skywave weapons sprues provide other fittings and quad torpedo tubes. An exquisite photoetch fret provides two types of railings (one for the deck and others for the superstructure), good-looking radars and 5 1.1in quad machine guns (one is extra). The 1.1in guns are not difficult to fold, and even have the seats on each side (although they are fragile, so be gentle when folding the seats). In this scale, the seats are miniscule, but the finished mounts look very close to actual scale. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the 20mm singles. Even though they are better than other 1/700 renditions, they are still oversized with shields that are way too thick. If this were not a review kit, I would have replaced them with photoetch 20mm mounts (there are several manufacturers with excellent 20mm guns, but my favorite is from Corsair Armada PE7001). The decal sheet has numbers, ship names and flags that look just right for this scale, with duplicates - a nice touch. All in all, the inclusion of so many extra parts to get the best-looking guns is a bonus and shows a high regard for accuracy. The basic kit suffers from a few minor flaws that are not really significant when modeling the San Diego. Some platforms are from the post-1943 refit and not completely accurate for the 1942-1943 time period, but this does not detract from the model's appearance. The basic look of this ship class is portrayed well by this kit, which is far better than the earlier Matchbox kit. So far, there are no resin kits of this ship class available, so this kit is the ultimate Atlanta-class kit in 1/700 scale. Building this kit was relatively easy. I chose the waterline option, mostly because all my other ships are waterline. Besides, ships were seldom seen with their bottoms showing, and when they were, they were not a pristine hull red color - they were heavily stained, weathered and full of seaweed and barnacles (especially after South Pacific deployment). This makes showing the full hull either unrealistic or messy, another good reason to stick to the waterline version. Parts were few (compared to carrier kits anyway), cleanup was minimal and fit was good. Minor seams are seen around the armor belt on the hull, and one deck seam near the bridge is not too bad. There are minor seams in the superstructure that are very difficult to sand or putty since it would eradicate some of the molded-on detail. I chose to leave the seams between the decks and vertical sides, but I did use putty to fill large seams at the front of the forward superstructure and underneath the funnel on the rear of the forward superstructure. I followed the sequence of the instruction assembly steps, except that I assembled the forward superstructure on the hull bottom-up instead of top down as shown - it was easier to align the parts. That means start with Step 4 and work back to Step 2. Be sure to paint the superstructure pieces before assembly (see painting section below). Also, unlike the instructions, I waited until all the major subassemblies were on the hull before I added the small pieces, masts and fittings. It is much easier to paint the small pieces and major assemblies this way. The placement of liferafts was confusing. The instructions actually show the arrangement for Atlanta when commissioned, which was soon altered. Liferafts were concentrated on the bridge and were not on gun turrets during this time period. The Painting & Marking guide showed liferafts under the bridge gun tubs, and on turrets A, B, E and wings. Photos of San Diego from the Measure 12 time period were not available, but in late 1943, San Diego was given 40mm guns, and the liferafts were on most turrets and on the railings near the boat deck 20mm tubs. In other words, I had three choices so far, neither of which was confirmed for the time period depicted by the model. Fortunately, the Warship Perspectives book had many good pictures of San Diego's sister ship, the San Juan, during the same 1942 time period as this model depicts for the San Diego. Clearly, liferafts were under the bridge gun tubs, and also on all centerline turrets, but not the wing turrets or around the boat deck. So I assumed that fit was probably what San Diego had too. Unfortunately, I ran out of painted liferafts, so I left them off turrets D and F. I used ModelMaster acrylics for painting my San Diego. Accurate colors for US Navy 20-B Deck Blue, 5-N Navy blue, 5-O Ocean gray and 5-H Haze gray were used along with the usual black, silver and rust paints. I used a drafting pen to blacken portholes, grates and gun barrel tips with India ink. As usual for waterline ships, paint the superstructure deck pieces before assembling the superstructure (this is not indicated in the instructions). Otherwise you will not be able to reach all the surfaces when the superstructure is assembled. I use a piece of double-sided tape to attach all the small parts for painting. I did airbrush the hull 5-O, and the superstructure pieces 5-H (before assembly), but all other painting was done by brush. I used cyanoacrylate glues (thick and thin) to attach all parts. Normally I use an airbrush for photoetch frets, but this one was so small I painted it by hand. Paint the guns, radars and upper deck railings (two-bars) 5-H, and paint the sagging three-bar deck railings 5-O. The San Diego carried a complicated version Measure 12, although it was much simpler than Atlanta or Juneau schemes. After the superstructures were painted with 5-H and added to the hull, I used the Painting & Markings illustration from the kit to paint 5-O splotches by hand. After consulting photos and looking at the box art, I felt that the Painting guide was close enough, and besides, it is what most modelers will do. Then I painted 5-N (Navy blue) to the hull according to the Painting & Markings illustration. The irregular splotches are somewhat difficult to reproduce exactly, but close enough is good enough... From photos of the San Juan during the same time period, I deduced that the turret tops were likely camouflaged, and not Deck Blue (like most US ships), as shown in the Painting & Marking guide. The photoetch parts are very delicate, and accentuate the appearance of this kit. However, they are so delicate that you will need very fine needle tip tweezers, and very gentle handling and folding. Thus, those with inexperienced or clumsy fingers will have to take extra care and patience with these photoetch pieces. Separate railings for superstructure (2-bar) and deck (3-bar) are provided. For the deck railings, do not install the lifeboats with davits until after the railings are placed. Also, be sure to orient the diagonal deck railing pieces correctly - the angled side points towards the bow. Unlike the instructions, which show deck railings bow to stern, there was a break around the waist 5in gun turrets, according to photographs. The superstructure railings are carefully marked on the instructions and pre-cut on the photoetch sprue, saving a lot of time and grief cutting out small sections. With any photoetch railings, test fit numerous times before actually gluing them. This way, I discovered that two sets of upper deck railings should be switched (MA8 and MA13), or else the boat deck railings will be too short. Otherwise, pay attention to where the corners and angles need to be folded, because on the real ship there was a post at every change of angle and corner. Otherwise, how do hanging chains miraculously turn a corner without vertical support? Sometimes you will need to start in the middle of a section, and clip the ends instead of just starting a post against the vertical surface. A minor issue is the lack of railings for the aft superstructure searchlight platform. The radars are excellent - too bad the radars for the Mk37 directors were not provided as photoetch. The depth charge racks are a bit difficult to fold, but after they are added to the depth charges, they can be squeezed back into shape if necessary. Be sure to place the flared end facing out the stern. Lastly, decals were applied in the usual manner. First, Future floor polish was painted over the areas were decals were to be applied. Then the decals were applied. When dry, more Future floor polish was painted over the decals. The US flag decal was placed on a thin piece of stretched sprue, and attached to the mainmast. The flag needed a spot of glue to keep it in the proper orientation. The stretched sprue was glued to the mainmast and aft superstructure as per photographs. The blue jack decal was applied to the bow flagstaff. I did not weather this model, so it has a just-completed, pristine look. If you want to weather your model, now is the time. An overcoat of clear flat was sprayed - be sure to get under the bridge decks and gun tubs. An overall flat coat also takes the shine out of the Future floor polish areas. Another question was whether the 5in turrets had blast bags or not. The box art shows canvas-colored blast bags, but photos of San Diego and San Juan at all time periods do not show blast bags, so I left the turrets without blast bags. The turrets actually have molded detail that makes them look better than usual. Summary Dragon is to be commended for upgrading the old Skywave Atlanta-class molds with better guns and minimal, but important, photoetch. They also are to be commended for portraying an early war version mostly correct for the eye-catching Measure 12 camouflage period instead of the 1944 or 1945 versions. This kit builds well and easily. I took about 20 hours actual building time, which is short for me. This indicates the ease with which this kit is built. The finished model looks attractive with its Measure 12 paint scheme, and fills a gap in the depiction of Atlanta-class cruisers. The extra parts are worth the cost of the kit, which is another bonus. Overall, I highly recommend this kit for anyone wanting to build an early-war Atlanta-class cruiser in 1/700 scale. References: Arnold GR. Warship Perspectives: Atlanta Class Cruisers in World War Two. WR Press, New York, 1998. Campbell J. Naval Weapons of World War Two. Conway Maritime Press, London, UK, 1985. 0-85177-329-X Ewing S. American Cruisers of World War II. A Pictorial Encyclopedia. Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, Missoula, MT, 1987. ISBN 0-933126-51-4 The Floating Drydock. United States Navy Camouflage 1 of the WW2 Era. Part 1. The Floating Drydock, Kresgeville, PA, 1976. ISBN: 0-944055-01-X Friedman N. U.S. Cruisers. An Illustrated Design History. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1984. Terzibaschitsch S. Cruisers of the US Navy 1922-1962. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 1984. ISBN 0-87021-974-X Websites:A Google® search will find many sites for information about the USS San Diego, but my favorites are: www.dragonmodelsusa.com/dmlusa/prodd.asp?pid=DRA7052 (company website describing kit) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_San_Diego_(CL-53) (history) www.hazegray.org/danfs/cruisers/cl53.txt (history) www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-s/cl53.htm (history & photos) www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ships/CL/CL-53_SanDiego.html (history & general info) www.navsource.org/archives/04/04053.htm (excellent photo gallery) www.portofsandiego.org/sandiego_publicart/usssandiegomem.asp (San Diego Memorial in San Diego) www.shipcamouflage.com (Snyder & Short’s website on official USN colors) www.usssandiego.org/ (Website devoted to USS San Diego)

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