On the morning of December 7, 1941 USS Pennsylvania was in #1 Drydock at Pearl Harbor. Flagship of the USN Pacific Fleet. Mighty Penn was in the habit of being a flagship. On October 12, 1916, soon after being commissioned, she became the flagship of the entire USN. In November 1943 she was the flagship for Admiral Turner's amphibious force.

As with other pre-war battleships, Pennsy took part in many bombardment missions. She had the reputation of supplying a tremendous volume of fire. She was present for the Battle of Surigao Straits but did not fire because she did not have the most modern radar and was masked by the other battleships in the line. On August 12, 1945 she was heavily damaged by a single aircraft torpedo, which hit her starboard stern. For some reason many of her water-tight doors were open. She lost the use of three shafts, which she never regained, and took on so much water that she was in danger of sinking. Towed to shallow water, she received temporary repairs and left for Guam at a maximum speed of 5 knots on August 28, accompanied by five tugs. Her hull was patched at Guam, she left for the West coast. Shipping water and steaming on one screw, she arrived at Puget Sound on October 24, 1945. Pennsy wasn't through, she went on to survive two A-bomb tests and was finally scuttled off of Kwajalein on February 10, 1948.

Iron Shipwright will soon be releasing a 1:350 scale multimedia kit of Pennsylvania in her 1944 fit. Another kit in her 1941 fit will be released later. Seen below are photographs of all of the resin parts for this kit. The photo-etched fret and instructions have not been finished yet but you can expect the kit to be ready before Christmas.