White Ensign Models 1/700 USS North Carolina and USS Washington Detail Set First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

So you thought the Trumpeter 1/700 North Carolina-class battleships were detailed straight out of the box? Yes they are, but you also realize that there are limits to what one can mold with styrene. Railings are either omitted or can only be rendered as slabs in this scale. Radars may have the right shape, but they can't get close to scale thickness in styrene. White Ensign Models to the rescue.

This detail set provides a great supply of two and three bar railings for these vessels as well as a variety of inclined and vertical ladders. This set also adds support structures for the towers and funnels.

The one thing that detail sets like these do best is radar. Radar antennas really do look awful in styrene but photo-etched radars catch the eye. North Carolina class were fitted with some combination of SK-2, SG, SC-2, CXAM-1, and the Mk.4/Mk.12.

Some other things that photo-etch does very well are cranes and catapults. These battleships had a large aircraft recovery crane to hoist aboard the floatplanes that were carried aboad and launched using the stern catapults. Each of these battleships carried two catapults to provide them with their own over-the-horizon reconnaissance and fire direction capabilities.

As you can see in the photo, the detail set consists of quite a few detail parts that will take care and experience to manipulate and install on your Trumpeter kit. If you're comfortable working in this medium or are ready to give photo-etch in 1/700 scale a try, this is the set for you!

My sincere thanks to White Ensign Models for this review sample!