COBI USS Arizona (BB-39) Set 4843

COBI's USS Arizona (BB-39) is a 1:300 model built from 2,046 blocks, 61 cm long. The propellers and rudders turn, the turrets rotate and the barrels elevate. A brick display stand takes a plate with the ship's name.

She is still there

Arizona was launched in 1915 and spent a quarter of a century in service without seeing a major action. On the morning of 7 December 1941 she was moored on Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor when an armour-piercing bomb reached a forward magazine.

The explosion destroyed the front third of the ship. 1,177 of her crew died, nearly half of all American deaths that morning, and the wreck was never raised — the damage was beyond any repair worth attempting. The superstructure above water was cut away, leaving the base of number three turret showing.

A memorial was built across the hull in 1962, deliberately not touching it. Oil still seeps from the bunkers at a slow, steady rate and reaches the surface as a film; visitors call it the black tears. Surviving crew members have the right to have their ashes interred in the wreck with their shipmates, and a number have chosen it.

This is a model of a ship that is also a grave, and it is worth knowing that before building it.

In the COBI range

Set 4842 is the Executive Edition, which builds either this ship or her sister the USS Pennsylvania from one box.

Specifications

Pieces: 2,046 · Scale: 1:300 · Display stand and nameplate included
Model length: 61 cm (24 in)