USS Idaho Scale Model

[joe100]

Just finished, USS Idaho as she looked in 1909. She was one of the most pointless battleships ever built by the US Navy, and the last of the pre-dreadnought type battleships. The USN was attempting to recreate the 74 gun 3rd rate ships of the line from the 19th century with what they termed as a third-rate battleship. The main aim was cost-savings but she was outclassed considerably. The battleship arms race passed her by before she was even launched, but the navy commissioned her anyway. Idaho was only in service for a few years before being sold off. Right after Idaho, the USN threw in their lot with all big-gun dreadnoughts and super dreadnoughts.

Our all big-gun battleships USS Michigan and USS South Carolina were far larger with twice the firepower. Had they been equipped with turbines like HMS Dreadnought, and not reciprocating triple-expansion engines, they would have been world-class. Speed was their undoing, they just couldn't keep up in the line of battle. That's fatal in the world of battleships. We learned our lessons and switched to turbines and never looked back.

I thought USS Idaho would make an interesting subject. Not often modeled and since her career was so short with the US Navy, photos of the ship are scarce. Maybe a few dozen exist and for the modeler, this makes things difficult.

My customary scale is 1/700 and the ship itself is just a little over 6in long. The model depicts the ship as she looked above the waterline in 1909. The giant cage mast was a fixture on US Navy battleships until the modern Fast Battleships of the mid 1930s. In these days before radar, you had to be high to see your target and to spot how well you were firing. By WW2, we were firing by radar, but not in 1909. The cage made it almost impossible to take down with shell fire.

The ship itself is made from resin, plastic, brass, and steel. The hull and guns are made by a Czech company and in very limited numbers. The rest of the detail is photo etched brass or scratch built by me. Total time was about a month. And yes, those are dozens of crew members manning their stations and milling around on deck.

USS Idaho BB24 in 1909


Construction






Finished








Stern awning braces

[Dr. Robert]

Very cool!

[joe100]

Thanks!!

[SearChart]

Wow, great work!

[capote]

Very cool! I guess a certain amount of patiance was needed

[Old Expat Beast]

Great work, Joe.

[joe100]

Thanks everyone!

I usually have some sort of ship model project going on. Next up is the Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto from WW2

[joe100]

I-boat in dry dock I did last year:

[Gaijin]

Well done! That is seriously cool and a great military history lesson. Thank you!

[Invictus Maneo]

Joe, you continue to amaze me with your skills. I still have all the pictures you sent me last year of your former projects and this one looks like it is up to your usual excellent standards. How you do this intricate work is totally beyond me, especially the one's you fabricate from scratch.
Great work, sir! And thank you for the history lesson.

[cop414]

Joe, they are simply amazing, great work!

[VaRobot]

Very nice! My son and I toured the Wisconsin recently.

[andromeda160]

Beautifully done as always!

[RichM]

Very, very nice Joe. The detail is stunning. Thanks for sharing the photos and the history.

[bdex75]

Incredible. Just stunning detail. And as someone who has nerve problems and early stages of Parkinson's I really appreciate the small detail work even more as I really enjoyed building models as a kid. Mine usually came out of a box and resulted in my fingers being glued together. 😀. Nothing like this detail or level of skill.


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[Hpozzuoli]

Joe- my dream is to get into model boats. I am currently hunting for the Dumas Donzi. It's been long out of production, but they pop up occasionally.

The ship looks great and so does the sub. Did you custom make the dry dock?

[Pix]

Very nice work....Please post up some more if you have them:)

[GerardoG]

wow! Great job!!!

[Danny83]

Good work

[SemperFi]

Beautiful job Joe!

[Kingair]

Nice !

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[ChrisInCharlotte]

That's sweet, Joe just curious how long did it take you?

[Rockrolex]

Those are beautiful models, Joe. Congrats.

[Knappo 1307]

Awesome!

[teqp]

Very nice work!

[TheVTCGuy]

Wow... Just... Wow. Joe, you have amazing talent.

[daveathall]

Many congratulations, the detail is absolutely superb, the write up was fascinating. Thank you very much Joe.

[joe100]

Thanks guys!! Here are some more ships, all 1/700 scale.

HMS Malaya in 1943













Italian Battleship Roma







German Battleship Bismarck, sunk in May 1941. This is how she appeared in Norway during Exercise Rhine. She would sink the British Battlecruiser HMS Hood in less than 5 minutes with only 3 survivors out of a crew of 2000. The British navy, with a little help from the US (even though we were still "neutral"), hunted her down and smashed her to pieces. The deck markings are there to avoid aerial attack by friendly forces. All German capital ships had these markings when they were near land where there was a potential for Luftwaffe aircraft to attack.











German Pocket Battleship/Commerce Raider "Graf Spee", scuttled December 1939. This is how she looked in 1937. The rigging isn't finished yet, only just started.

[J!m]

Awesome work!

I used to have time for modeling; however my ships are of a different sort...

(The first one I pulled out of the box... No idea where the hatch is.)

[Rockrolex]

Beautiful ship models, Joe.