BY BILL ENGAR

ATLANTIS H457 -- 1/490 USS PITTSBURGH CA-72 -- 77 STYRENE PLASTIC PARTS MOLDED IN GRAY -- PAINT AND GLUE REQUIRED FOR ASSEMBLY, SOLD SEPARATELY -- RECOMMENDED FOR AGES 14 AND UP -- COMPLETED MODEL 16.75" IN LENGTH -- MSRP $24.99

Atlantis' USS Pittsburg uses Revell box art from 1967.  The painting shows the dazzle-camouflaged Pittsburgh negotiating  a storm with heavy surf and lightning.  Spectacular stuff!  Stay tuned -- We'll show you how to execute that "dazzling" paint scheme using official U.S. Navy documents from WWII at the end of this article!

Atlantis' USS Pittsburgh has been in their catalog since 2019.  It's one of their first models released after obtaining Revell USA's legacy tooling when it ceased operations in 2018.  The model is one of Revell's early ship kits dating back to 1954.  After the success of their Iowa Class battleship, Revell quickly began working on additional model ship kits.  A cruiser was a natural choice.  During the era, the Baltimore-Class heavy cruisers including the USS Pittsburgh were still in use, many having provided notable service a decade prior during WWII.  

Atlantis' USS Pittsburgh has 77 parts molded in gray styrene plastic.  Engineering is somewhat similar to what you see with their 1/535 Iowa Class battleship kit.

USS Pittsburgh responded after the USS Franklin, an Essex-Class aircraft carrier, was devastated by two Japanese bombs which hit the carrier while it was operating just 50 miles off Honshu in March, 1945.  The carrier was severely damaged with hundreds of crew dead.  At great risk to both ships, the Pittsburgh retrieved a number of Franklin's surviving crew from the water and then towed the stricken carrier out of danger.  The Franklin weighed nearly three times as much as the Pittsburgh and best speed was a slow 5 knots making both ships extremely vulnerable to further attack.  Look closely at the box art Atlantis uses; you can see an Essex-Class carrier in the background.

Initially, the kit was released as the Los Angeles and it's seen a few other names with various versions of box art from the 1950's to the 1970's.  Revell re-released it a few times afterward as late as 2009.  

The first of two sprues with superstructure parts, guns aircraft and one stand.

This sprue also has guns and superstructure parts.

This is one of Revell's first ship models tooled nearly 3/4 of a century ago (at time of posting).  Make no mistake, this is a vintage model kit.  The builder will experience flash, sinkholes, and gaps between parts / fit issues.  Builders should be comfortable using glue and working with many small parts.  Painting the Dazzle paint scheme may be a bit tricky too (we'll provide a color chart plus images of official US Navy Drawings with guidelines for painting in our Bonus Features accompanying this article).

The decal sheet had names for 14 Baltimore Class cruisers.  Also included is the classic Revell signal flags sheet.

Here's what greets you upon first opening the box.

As mentioned, this kit followed Revell's wildly popular USS Missouri and the engineering is generally similar.  Scale wasn't exactly the same; at 1/490, the Baltimore Class cruiser / Pittsburgh is in the same ballpark as Atlantis' 1/535 Iowa Class battleship.  Remember that Atlantis got an alternate set of molds for the Iowa Class battleship and that's why Revell sells their Missouri at the same time Atlantis sells their very similar Iowa.  Check out our article about Atlantis' Iowa.  We determined that the tooling to Atlantis' Iowa has aged a little better than Revell's due to much lighter use over the years.

Like most Atlantis kits, box sides have kit specs and paint colors.  This one has a small view of a completed model.

In addition to displaying nicely with its kindred Atlantis 1/535 Iowa, your USS Pittsburgh will display well with a number of Atlantis' other vintage ship models, even those originally engineered by other companies.  At 1/490, the Pittsburgh is very close in scale to Atlantis' 1/500 Ticonderoga aircraft carrier and 1/500 North Carolina (both of these came from Renwal tooling).

The other side shows the decal sheet with another scrap-view.

At 16.75", it's also close in physical size to Atlantis' small collection of 16" ship models so it'll make a nice display alongside those as well.  Atlantis' 16" series includes the USS Forrest Sherman (a former Revell kit) and former Monogram kits including 1/665 Wisconsin and Missouri, 1/618 Bismarck, and 1/311 USS Brooke.

The back of the box has a built model.  It looks great in Measure 33/18d dazzle-camo.

The decal sheet comes with names for all 14 Baltimore Class Cruisers so you could build any of these with what comes in the box if you want.  The ships had varying schemes and configurations throughout their service and we'll discuss some of these in our Bonus Features.  The instructions appear to be the same as what was included with Revell's 2009 release of the kit.  No information is included about painting the ship in the Dazzle scheme shown in the box art, but in our Bonus Features, we'll provide some US Navy drawings that show the camouflage diagrams for the Pittsburgh plus provide specific information about paint colors including FS-numbers.

Post WWII, when the Pittsburgh was recommissioned in the early 1950's, the ship wore a standard Battleship-Gray paint scheme as depicted in the instructions.  The Pittsburgh remained in this scheme during the Korean War and early Cold War.

Instructions include Revell artwork of recent origin.  Color scheme depicted there is Korean War Era/Post-WWII.  Final-assembly suggests some simple rigging.

We're very happy to see this historic kit available again, particularly in an Atlantis box.  Ship builders accustomed to vintage glue-kits will find this kit satisfying.  At its low price it would be a good place for the less experienced builder to stretch their legs building a moderately simple ship model.  If you've never painted a ship in a complex dazzle-style paint scheme, this is a good place to experiment and as mentioned, we're providing all the paint scheme info needed.  It might be fun to buy a pair and finish one in standard Battleship Gray and the other in the Dazzle-scheme.

The 2Modeler Guys are very enthusiastic about this Atlantis kit and give it an enthusiastic Four Thumbs Up!  

SPECIAL THANKS TO ATLANTIS MODELS FOR PROVIDING THIS KIT TO REVIEW AND ENJOY!  ORDER YOURS TODAY FROM AMAZON, DIRECTLY FROM ATLANTIS, OR PICK IT UP AT YOUR LOCAL HOBBY SHOP!

BONUS FEATURES

REVELL'S BALTIMORE CLASS CRUISER ORIGINAL BOX ART AND KIT MODIFICATIONS

Revell's first release of the Baltimore Class cruiser as the USS Los Angeles.  Note the standard "battleship gray" scheme with wood decks.  BoxArtDen image.

Revell's Baltimore Class Heavy Cruiser was first released in 1954 as the Los Angeles in standard Battleship guise, gray with wood decks.  Note that areas of bow and stern are a darker gray.  Many of the Baltimore Class ships wore this scheme; we recommend that you research the particular era you wish to depict for your Baltimore Class cruiser.  After WWII, many of the ships were decommissioned but only briefly as they were recommissioned for the Korean War and following Cold War.  The standard "Battleship Gray" seen on the Los Angeles in the picture above seems typical for these ships in the 1950's.  The hull below the waterline would have a narrow black band "boot topping" approximately 1/8" wide and below that the ship would have been brown-red, or hull-red.

Revell's "Picture Fleet" version of box art for the Baltimore Class cruiser came about in 1960.  The kit was released as the Helena.

The "Picture Fleet" box art was common throughout the 1970's.  Revell's SSP releases (1998 and 2000's) used this same painting.  It was most commonly seen as the Helena.

Revell made major tooling changes to their Baltimore Class cruiser, updating it to a guided missile cruiser in 1956.  The Boston (CAG-1) and Canberra (CAG-2) retained their forward 8" gun turrets.

In 1956, Revell did some retooling on its Baltimore-Class Cruiser.  Apparently a new set of molds was made using some of the masters from the Los Angeles/Baltimore Class kit and new masters were made for much of the deck, superstructure and fittings.  Two Baltimore Class ships (Boston and Canberra) received partial conversions to become new Boston Class guided missile ships.  Revell's altered version represents these two ships, both of which were released separately from the unmodified Baltimore Class ship kits such as the Helena and Pittsburgh.  The molds for these ship kits are in Europe with Revell of Germany as far as we know.

Monogram released their USS Chicago, a 1/500-scale version of a fully-converted Baltimore Class heavy cruiser.  

Monogram's USS Chicago represents a full conversion of the Baltimore-Class Chicago to a guided missile cruiser.  The kit was released for the first time in 1976 and has no tooling relation to Revell's 1/490 Baltimore/Helena/Pittsburgh kit.  It was one of Monogram's 16-inch ship kits.  Unlike the Revell kit, this model has an accurately-contoured lower hull with four propellers.  We're not sure whether or not the molds for this kit are with Atlantis or Revell-Germany.  The Chicago and Columbus (former Baltimore Class cruisers) were upgraded to this standard.  These ships had missile launchers fore and aft instead of 8" gun turrets and all-new lightweight superstructures optimized for tracking targets and launching guided missiles.

PAINT YOUR PITTSBURGH

The USS Pittsburgh was commissioned October 10, 1944 wearing a Measure 33 Dazzle camouflage scheme.  The specific pattern for the Baltimore CA-68 class ships was 18D.  First off, we include a color chart with Federal Standard (FS) equivalents and then the Navy 18D pattern charts in two images we'll call Sheet #1 and Sheet #2..

All horizontal surfaces (decks, gun tops, superstructure tops, etc) were painted in Deck Blue and Ocean Gray.  Vertical surfaces (hull above the waterline, superstructure bulkheads, gun sides, etc) were painted Navy Blue, Ocean Gray and Haze Gray.

COLORS USED:

Measure 33 Horizontal surfaces:  Deck blue (20B) FS 35042, Ocean Gray (5-O) FS 35164.  Measure 33 Vertical surfaces:  Navy Blue (5-N) FS 35044, Ocean Gray (5-O) FS 35164, Haze Gray (5H) FS 35237.

WWII Navy Color Chart.  Note that Light Gray is not used.  Ocean Gray and Deck Blue are for horizontal surfaces, Navy Blue, Ocean Gray and Haze Gray are used for vertical surfaces.

U.S. NAVY DRAWING 80-G-109721:  MEASURE 33, PATTERN 18D FOR CA-68 CLASS BALTIMORE HEAVY CRUISERS

In Sheet #1 directly below, for the top-set and middle drawings showing vertical surfaces, the black regions are painted Navy Blue.  Gray regions are Ocean Gray.  Lightest regions are Haze Gray.  This includes all surfaces above the waterline only. 

At the waterline, there is a black band, the boot topping, that comes up to the waterline and is about 1/8" or 3 mm in width on the model.  Below that is standard "Hull Red" which can easily be replicated by gradually adding a small amount of brown paint to red until the shade pleases the modeler or matches appropriate color chips.

The horizontal-surface drawing at the bottom of Sheet #1 represents decks, gun-tops and superstructure tops.  In short, anything that can be seen from directly above the ship.  Gray regions in the drawing should be painted Deck Blue and light regions are Ocean Gray.

There may be some confusion about the small front-and-rear view drawings at the top of Sheet #1.  If you look closely at the side view of the ship in the middle of Sheet #1, you can make out lines with right angles and arrows, lettered, D-C-B-A, from left-to-right.

From the rear of the ship (left-side on the drawing), View D is what the vertical surfaces should look like if viewing the ship from the stern, looking forward.

View C is the camouflage guide for vertical surfaces if looking rearward from amidships, or looking at the front parts of the rear superstructure, if that makes sense. 

​View B is the camouflage guide for vertical surfaces if looking forward from amidships.  View A is looking rearward from the very front of the ship; note that most of the forward-facing superstructure should be Haze Gray with a small amount of Ocean Gray on the vertical surfaces of the forward gun, sloping downward towards the right.

Sheet #1.  This is the Measure 33 camouflage guide for CA-68 or Baltimore Class ships, known as Pattern 18D.  Starboard, Topside and Fore/Aft color guides shown.

Note that Sheet-2 has a diagram for Port-side vertical surfaces in the center of the page (bow of the ship at the left side of the sheet).  The diagrams above and below are not used and should be ignored as far as having any painting information other than more clearly showing superstructure and deck details and the guns.

Sheet #2.  Measure 33 CA 68-Class camouflage guide for the Port side only.  Black on the drawing is Navy Blue, mid-gray is Ocean Gray and the lightest color is Haze Gray.

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