Bronco Models 1/350 USS Coronado LCS 4 Kit First Look

By Dave Manter

First Look

The USS Coronado is the second Independence Class littoral combat ship built by General Dynamics and Bath Iron Works. A contract for the ship was awarded in May 2009 and the ship should be completed after October 2012. It is expected that the ship will be identical to the USS Independence, an all-aluminum Tri-maran designed for high speed operations in inshore waters. Payloads can be designed to suit the mission as much of the hull is of modular construction so can be quickly reconfigured to suit requirements. Main missions include mine laying/seeping, anti-submarine warfare and anti-surface ship warfare. The ships are relatively small with a full load displacement of only 2750 tons, compared to 10,000 tons for an Arleigh Burke class destroyer.

The Bronco kit of the USS Coronado consists of 180 very well molded plastic parts and about 75 photo etch detail parts including all of the railing. All of the parts are well molded and have outstanding details. Mold seams and flash are minimal. Fit of the large parts is very good. The decal sheet is very well printed and a placement sheet is printed in color on the back sheet of the instructions.

Included with the main kit are several smaller, but equally as detailed kits. They are one each of the following:

• MH-60S helicopter
• MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter
• MQ-8B UAV helicopter
• MK 105 Airborne minesweeping system AN/ALQ-166

The MH-53E Sea Dragon consists of 43 parts including photo etch just to give you an idea how much detail that Bronco has put into this kit!

The instructions are very well laid out and should be easy to follow. No problems with the kit can be seen.

Thanks to DML for the review sample.