Dragon 1/350 USS Princeton CVL-23
By Chris Banyai-Riepl
Overview
The Princeton was originally designed as a light cruiser, CL-61, but was reclassified to the CVL-23 and launched on October 18, 1942 as a light aircraft carrier. The Princeton went to war in 1943 and soldiered on until the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944. During that battle, just before 10am, a lone D4Y Judy dive bomber attacked the Princeton, dropping a single bomb that would prove to have devastating effect. The resultant explosion caused a fire that quickly spread. Ships came to assist the stricken vessel, including the cruiser USS Birmingham, CL-62 (which the Princeton would have preceded had she remained a cruiser). A second explosion around 3:30pm severely damaged the Birmingham and half an hour later, the fires were out of control. At a quarter to six, a large explosion destroyed the forward section of the ship and the Princeton finally sank minutes later.
The Kit
This is essentially a re-release of the Dragon 1/350 USS Independence CVL-22 kit, with just a few notable additions. We reviewed the Independence in detail here a while back, and as the plastic is the same, I will refer you to that review for the general overview and just talk about the specific changes for the Princeton.
When I see a kit like this that is a follow-on to an earlier release, the first page I turn to in the instructions is the section showing the sprue layouts. This is to see what parts are marked not-for-use, which gives a good idea of what changed between the two kits. This one, however, was not so easy. There were just a couple of parts relating to the Mk-51s that are not for use, along with the radar pod for the Hellcats. So I had to look closer and compare sprue-by-sprue between the two kits, where I recognized a single new sprue, R. All the Princeton-specific parts are on this new sprue, which makes identifying the updates much easier. There are both changes and improvements here, so we'll look at both of those separately.
First, the changes. The Princeton had a different gun tub arrangement on the forward sponsons, and this sprue provides those new sponsons. Interestingly, the old sponsons are still present in the kit, but they are not marked out in the instructions as not-for-use. Instead, they're shown as not there at all. Anyway, these new gun tubs get separate supports for the underside, but do take note: the instructions only indicate placing them on one side. Well, sort of, anyway. The instructions show their placement on the starboard side, but include parentheses with the alternate part numbers, hinting that those should be used on the other side. But since the assembly instructions for the port side are on a completely different page, this could easily be missed. In addition to the sponsons, the island is reworked, with a new main superstructure assembly and a new smaller upper deck for the signaling lamps.
For the additions, these are parts that should have been included with the Independence, but for some reason or another were omitted. The first part is a section that completes the rear hull. The original kit had the area behind the large gun tub open into the hull. This kit provides the correct piece blanking that off and detailing it with hatches. The other additions can be found on the bow in the form of the capstans. These are now present and nicely detailed. Both of these omissions from the Independence are in areas that featured options for shakedown and wartime cruise configurations, so perhaps it was getting those variations down that resulted in the oversight of these common details.
A quick word on the decals. These are done to the usual high quality that we've come to expect in Dragon kits, but even better, they come with some really cool markings. Well, the Avenger markings are boring, with just stars and bars for those, but the Hellcats, for those you get the option of the wicked snarling mouth markings of VF-27 for the cowling. Additionally, there is the option of the standard blue outlined star and bar or the short-lived red outlined star and bar, which could make your Princeton deck look quite colorful, especially since those snarling mouths were carried on both the overall sea blue Hellcats and the earlier tri-color camouflaged ones.
Conclusion
Aside from the instruction challenges (but really, with Dragon kits that's expected these days), this is a great extension of the CVL line and will make for a great addition to any 1/350 carrier lineup. All the positive remarks from the USS Independence can be replicated here, and further kudos given for the minor updates to the kit that were missed in that earlier release.