USS Cornado, LCS-4 in 1/350 Scale

Introduction and What's in the Box - December 22, 2014

About the ship:
This model is a 1/350 scale model depiction of the US Navy's USS Coronado, LCS-4, Littoral Combat Ship.
In the mid 2000s, the United States Navy identified a need for a completely new class of combat vessel, specifically designed to fight in several ways in the littoral waters, with a shallow draft, very fast
sprint speeds, and the ability to conduct anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, mine counter measures, and landing and supporting special forces in the shallow, near to the coast, littoral waters.
These vessels would have to be stealthy, network centric, and capable of also performing escort duties, particularly in the anti-submarine role for other task forces if called upon. As such, they were to be
called Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) and would end up replacing the older Perry Class Frigates, Avenger Class counter-mine vessels, and other vessels associated with the missions these ships were meant to
conduct.

The vessels would be either large corvette or light frigates in displacement, around 3,000-3,500 tons. They would have to consist of a basic armament suite, but would also allow for significant space
internal to the vessel to accommodate one or two "mission packs," that would customize them to the specific mission they were meant to perform on that specific mission. Furthermore, these "mission packs,"
would have to be able to be changed out within a 24 hour period at forward operating bases so the vessels could change their mission as required.

Initially several companies submitted bids, but this was relatively quickly narrowed down to two manufacturers. One headed by Lockheed Martin building an advanced mono-plane hull design, and the second headed by Grumman with a new, trimaren hull design. Both had pros and cons for their specific designs, and both were meeting the requirements. In the final run-off each built one vessel, and then were
authorized to build another one. When the Navy tested both designs it found both adequate and then went ahead and signed contracts for each company to build another ten of each vessel.

The total requirement was for 55 vessels. Current contracts will produce 24 vessels, 12 of each variant. But the US Navy at this point will only build 4-8 more (after the initial 12 of each) LCS vessels to the original specification. After that, the Navy has decided to build what is called the Small surface Combatant (SSC) and has chosen an up armed, and more multi-role (without the modules) version of the two vessels to go forward with. The older, existing vessels, like the Coronado, will be retrofitted to receive some of the up armaments. 28-32 of the new SSC vessels will be built.

The Lockheed design became the USS Freedom class of Littoral Combat Ships. These vessels will have odd pennant numbers, beginning with LCS-1 for the USS Freedom. So far four have been built (USS Freedom, LCS-1, USS Fort Worth, LCS-2, and USS Milwaukee, LCS-5), and USS Detroit, LCS-7. Six more are under various stages of construction.

The second, Trimaren design by Grumman/Austal is called the Independence Class of Littoral Combat Ships, upon which this model is based. They will be numbered with even numbered pennants, starting with
LCS-2, the USS Independence. Four of those ships have also been built to date (USS Independence, LCS-2, USS Coronado, LCS-4, USS Jackson, LCS-6, and USS Montgomery, LCS-8 ) Six others of this variant are also in various stages of construction.

After launching two of each variant and having them deployed, the US Navy determined that the vessels wee under-armed for their role, and not able to exchange mission packs quickly enough. Experiencing this
in real life led to the decision to product the SSC. The current vessels will receive refits to add more weaponry to them. For the SSC, Lockheed and Gruman/Austal bid multi-role versions of their two
designs. Huntington/Ingalls bid a US Navy Frigate version of the US Coast Guard Legend Class cutter. The decision was made in late 2014 to go with the modified LCS designs.

The Kit:
The Bronco kit for the Coronado is fairly recent. It is a very strong kit with lots of detail, photo etched parts, and numerous options. I earlier built the in 1/350 scale. comparing the two is a typical comparison between Trumpeter and either Bronco or Dragon.

Trumpeter has more small, detailed plastic parts that come as individual pieces. Bronco molds more detail into the deck houses and structure of the ship, alleviating the need for as many small pieces.
That is also the case here, though the Bronco model still has plenty of parts and detail.

The Bronco hull itself actually has more parts than the Trumpeter one. That is because the Bronco model comes with a water-line option, and with the Trimaren, this means more parts. I am choosing the full
hull version in any case.

The upper hull is made up of one large piece and a cover for the stern. With this Bronco model, the main deck house is a separate assembly and not molded into the upper hull as was the case with the
Trumpeter Independence Class LCS. There are a lot of details for the sensors, hull cut-outs for launches, etc.

There is a large fret of Photo Etch parts for railing, sensors, various parts for the helos and the mine hunting sled.

The vessel comes with a 32-cell Mk-41 launcher for the space behind the 57mm main gun and includes four separate photo etch assemblies for .50 caliber machine guns. The armament is rounded out with the
SeaRAM missile launcher which is molded in fine detail.

The kit comes with a Fire Scout helicopter drone, a MH-60R ASW helicopter, a large MH-53E mine hunting helicopter, and a Mine Hunting Sled for the MH-53E.

The plastic parts are on five gray plastic sprues and three clear plastic sprues. The clear sprues are for the helicopters. All told there are well over 300 parts to the model, as opposed to 450 parts for
the Trumpeter model...though the trumpeter model took up several dozen parts for the separate tie downs for the landing deck.

The instructions are very well done and all of the pages are very detailed and yet intuitive explanations, clearly displayed in full color. There is a full color, color scheme that depicts the painting and
the locations for the decals for the ship in its various views and of the aircraft and the mine sled.

All in all a very good looking, out of the box kit that looks really fun to build, with a lot of detail, but straight forward enough for the relative novice who has the right tools and the patience.

Here's how she looks out of the box:

I began by building the hull and painting it. The Independence class has a Neutral Gray upper hull, both vertical surfaces and weather deck (mostly), and then a black below the water line. The landing deck is in gunship gray, and the pathways to the 57mm gun and the SeaRAM launcher are in medium gray.

I also built the main deck house.

I then added the water jet propulsion at this point to the underside of the after portion of the ship.
This is looking good. I will next work on the armament, masts, the helo and mine sled, and the Photo etch.

I began by building the hanger deck and then placing the completed Main Deck House over it. I then built and added the main armaments, including the 57mm main gun, the SeaRAM missile launcher, the 32 cell
Mk-41 VLS (which is provided for, but not actually included in the production ships at this point). I also built and added the main sensors, the radar domes, the antennae, etc.

Finally I built the large mine hunting sled that this class vessel uses for the Counter Mine Measures (CMM), and is dragged across the ocean by the MH-53E. This was a pretty large assembly itself consisting of well over 30 parts.

At this point I built and added the four .50 caliber machine guns and their mounts, two forward along the side of the main deck house, and two on small gun decks, aft, under the landing pad. I also built and added the decoy and chaff launchers which are also on either side of the main deck house, amidships.

I then built the MH-53E large helicopter...which is the largest helicopter (along with the CH-53E Super Stallion it is based upon) in the US Military inventory. It is neat that this relatively small vessel was built to accommodate the MH-53E for anti-mine warfare operations. The assembly for the MH-53E is also a large assembly comprising something on the order of 30 parts and numerous decals. But it and the mine hunting sled make a fine addition to the landing pad and hanger area on the Coronado.

At this point I had also painted and added the flight deck safety meshing along the sides of the landing pad. This is a place where the PE of the Bronco model excels (IMHO) over the Trumpeter. The four parts at the transition (from the deck railing to the landing area, and at each aft corner of the landing are) are superb, and allow the netting to be modeled along the sides, just below the deck, accurately.

Now it was time to add the photo etch railing around the rest of the vessel. These all come in pre-cut pieces, which is nice, requiring that you simply bend the railing appropriately before installing it (after painting of course).

I also added the ships launch and crane, and the auxiliary propulsor to the vessel at this point and attached it to its stand.


With the railing and all of the other details added the vessel is looking GREAT! A few more decals, some touch up, and then I will take the final pictures all in the next session.

Added the final water depth/gauge decals, touched up the paint in a few places, and then added the two coats of dull coat to finish the Coronado.

Here's the look at her all around:

And then here's quite a few various views and close ups of the vessel. Like I say, the safety netting detail for the landing deck is nice around the four corners and transitioning the safety netting into
the railing.

...and there she is. The Bronco Model's, 1/350 scale USS Coronado, LCS-4.

I believe next I will do the very large project of Gallery Model's 1/350 Scale USS Iwo Jima, LHD-7. That will be a large, involved, and probably three or more month long project.

Jeff, very nice again ! like much your comments.

Impressive a big helo as CH-53E on a Frigate flight deck and fits easily ! Freedom a little more small mainly less large. Ofc with MK-41 she is a more decent warships much more powerful.