Glencoe 1/225 USS Oregon Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

The USS Oregon was the third member of the Indiana class battleships that were launched just before the start of the 20th Century. These battleships represented a new direction for naval surface warfare employing armored hulls and 13 inch main guns. In addition, the Indiana class were also armed with six torpedo tubes, 20 six-pound cannons, 6 one-pound cannons, and four gatling guns.

While the Indiana class were formidable on paper, the ships had too little freeboard, were too heavy, and had limited endurance. Nevertheless, during the Spanish-American war of 1898, all three battleships served with distinction. In fact, the USS Oregon was in the Pacific at the outbreak of that war and made a record-breaking run around Cape Horn 14,000 miles into the battle, all within a month.

In 1911, the original wooden masts of the three battleships were replaced with cage masts, but by World War I, the Indiana class was deemed obsolete. At the end of that war, all three were stricken from the fleet. Indiana and Massachusetts were sunk as targets, but the Oregon was saved as a memorial by the people of Oregon. At the outbreak of World War II however, the US Navy reclaimed the Oregon and towed her to Guam to serve as an ammunition storage ship - the IX-22. At the end of that war, the citizens again tried to reclaim their memorial, but the Navy scrapped the Oregon

The Glencoe 1/225 USS Oregon is another timeless mold, originally developed by ITC. It nicely captures the look and shape of this famous vessel and doesn't lack for detail.

Molded in light gray styrene, this kit remains as originally designed. The kit features nicely molded detailing into deck and superstructure surfaces. The fore and aft bunker-type main gun turrets are nicely represented, as are the remaining gun emplacements.

The kit comes with a nice array of detailing while remaining a simple build for the less experienced modeler. The AMS modeler will be able to adapt some of the close-to-scale photo-etched hand railings, ladders and other details to really make this model pop.

Markings are provided for all three members of the Indiana class - USS Indiana, USS Massachusetts, and USS Oregon.

Glencoe has definitely rescued another interesting piece of history as well as modeling history. It is hard to believe these molds are over 50 years old, but clearly Glencoe has been doing some serious maintenance on the hardware.

My sincere thanks to Glencoe Models for this review sample!