After a questionable investigation, the US Navy finally admitted the cause was “unknown” after trying repeatedly to blame it as an intentional act of sabotage by one of the sailors. Aging equipment in the ship was the likely culprit, as the ship’s modernization was rushed.

On April 19, 1989 the USS Iowa was conducting a gunnery exercise when Turret 2 suffered a large explosion, killing all 47 sailors inside.

This is the second model I completed, the heavy cruise Graf Spee. Known for its infamous ability of giving the British admiralty many headaches, she was eventually defeated near South America.

Thankfully, it came out nice (for my skills at the time.) Working on it provided a nice creative outlet and this build would soon spark an entirely new hobby craze for me.

My first model since I was a kid, battleship Richelieu! When I built it, I had no idea how it would turn out and was prepared to bin it and never speak of it if it came out poorly.