Academy 1/700 USS Missouri BB 63 Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

The USS Missouri was third-in-class of the Iowa-class fast battleships that were ordered by the US Navy before the start of World War II. While third in class, the Missouri was the last to be completed before war's end and was commissioned in June 1944. Missouri moved to the Pacific after completing its trials and participated in the bombardment of several Japanese islands as well as protecting aircraft carriers operating in those areas. The Japanese surrender was accepted aboard the USS Missouri. The battleship again provided fire support during the Korean War, sat out the Vietnam War, and returned to support Operation Desert Storm before being decommissioned in 1992.

Academy has been making good use of its multi-color plastic (MCP) concept with a number of their easy-to-build kits which are targeted for entry-level modelers as well as more experienced modelers wanting a little fun. In this release, we have the USS Missouri in its WWII configuration in 1/700 scale and again molded in MCP. The kit consists of eight parts trees (duplicate tree not shown) plus three-piece hull, and superstructure.

For a snap-together kit, this model has lots of smaller parts to replicate the numerous anti-aircraft batteries as well as other details. You can see in the images the main deck molded in deck blue along with the main turret tops which insert into the top of the gray-molded turrets. Did Academy use MCP to match Measure 22? Of course not, using this approach they get close, but if you want Measure 22 accurately, you'll have to do some painting. If you want the Measure 32/22D it wore previously, you have lots of painting to do, but that is the fun of this hobby.

Among the features of this kit:

• Snap-together assembly
• Optional waterline display
• Optional display stand for full-hull display
• MCP approximates the ship's late war camouflage
• Lots of anti-aircraft batteries provided
• Nicely detailed superstructure
• Two SC-1 Seahawks and two catapults provided

The instructions are nicely laid out to make assembly fast and smooth. It also has detailed painting instructions should you wish to paint the Missouri in Measure 22 complete with fine-print paint chart to identify the proper colors from several major paint makers. I wish Academy would pay attention to the US flag - they provide the modern 50 star flag, not the World War 2 appropriate 48 star flag.

If you're looking for a fun weekend project for yourself or with your child, give one of these MCP projects a try as they are designed to be fun. Given the number of tiny parts, you don't want to let your child build this one without supervision.

For a look at this model built-up, look here.

My sincere thanks to MRC for this review sample!