The Ship Model Forum

OK, in all honesty, I got kind of side tracked with the .50 cannon and carriage, but last night I did return to the fold, I laid down some nice pale gray for the vertical surfaces of the superstructure and turrets. Not a huge change from the Tamiya primer, so no photos, but I am making progress. We are in the middle of re roofing the house, to start Tuesday, so the garage is going to be bombed out, it will be a week or so before I can do anything more.

Thanks very much to all for the support and encouragement.

See you when we have a new roof.

Bill

Hi Bill,
My cannon came with a carriage made of wood that is a replica of the USS Constitution. I made my carriage out of 3/8 aluminum plate the same shape as the one supplied with the cannon. Then I machined a couple blocks of aluminum so I could roll the cannon under the edges of the blocks. I attached the blocks to a piece of 1 inch steel plate. The steel plate was a little bit over kill, but I didn�t want the thing to move for safety proposes. I know you�ll have fun with it. I love to take mine with me to the rifle range; it always attracts a lot of attention!!!!! :cool_2:

Roger DD-555 :wave_1:

Thanks, Snaphappy!

I just noticed the cannon is visible in that shot. I just got it yesterday and was playing with it while the CA was drying.

Correct, sir, it's a Traditions .50 black powder cannon, I am looking for a base for it, I may end up having to make one. I have a smaller mortar, I just pop it off ocassionally for 4th of July, etc. I have some .50 balls for it, but haven't taken it to the range yet.

Hey Bill,
Looking very good!!!!!!!! :cool_2: What's the cannon in the background? I have one very similar to that one. The one I have uses black powder and shoots 45cal. balls. Back when I worked in the machine shop I made a carriage out of aluminum and a heavy base to mount it on when I brought it to the rifle range to fire it.
:cool_2:
Roger DD-555

Thanks, all, I appreaciate it. Last night I was able to complete the new radar supports using thin wire, and glue up the assembly. I also primed the stacks, and put the nice Resin turrets on the bases, small progress, but here it is:

[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-37356-1334662211577.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-33306-1334662618730.jpg[/img]

Then I mocked it up to see progress so far

[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-3776-1334662935292.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-37329-1334663181729.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-7007-1334663404896.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-44736-1334663987878.jpg[/img]

It's starting to look like something.

Thanks for following,

Bill

HI Bill

Your Fletcher is really nice,and very pleasant has the eye ,Good luck for the continuation of your work
best regards
Nicolas (Nick :smallsmile: )

Thanks all, I appreciate the support for this project.

You can just see the steam pipes I added below the whistle platform, they are made from some speaker wire that I sacrificed, very fine copper wire. I will substitute that for the heavy styrene bracing that looks to me to be about 10 inches in scale diameter.

I will try to get some more completed this weekend, and will post my progress.

Again, thanks for the support, encouragement, and information, particularly the radar specifics.

Bill

Bill,

Since you are building the FLETCHER as completed (or at least early in her career), you don't need the Mk 22 antenna with the Mk 12 antenna on the Mk 37 director. The FLETCHER had the Mk 4 radar for most of the war (until Spring 1945). The Mk 4 looks similar to the Mk 12, without the heavy bracing or the Mk 22 "orange-peel" antenna. Most PE sets use the same array for the Mk 4 and the Mk 12 since they look pretty close, there are differences (the two antenna arrays on the Mk 4 were more "open" than the Mk 12), but in these scales, they are not that noticeable. The most noticeable difference is in the "bulk" of the supporting brackets. The Mk 12/22 combo required heavier bracing and motors and had IFF antennas added.

Below are a couple of views of the Mk 4 installed on La VALLETTE (top), FLETCHER (middle), and DD-560 with Mk 12/22 (bottom) ...

Hey Bill,
After my last post I remembered that I used a picture of a PE set from L'Arsenal to make the side brackets for my Mk 12 Radar Antenna check out this photo I saved from the internet. You can also check out the first page of my build as well.[attachment=0]Mk37P1091pe 13 x 6.144 low res.jpg[/attachment] I�m sure you can find and purchase this set online someplace!!!!!!! :thumbs_up_1:

Roger DD-555

Looks Great Bill!!!!!!!!!!! In the scale your working with you will probably need to use strands of copper wire in the place of the styrene rod on the radar screen. You could cut up a cheap extension cord to get the wire you need. You probably know that 1/350th scale 1' = 0.034 thousandths of an inch, and 1 inch = 0.0028 thousandths. The wire I'm telling you about measures 0.005 to 0.006 and would look closer to size. Keep up the fine work your doing and I'll check back later. :cool_2: :thumbs_up_1: :thumbs_up_1:

DD-555

Very nice, Bill. Are you sure this is your first ship?
I had also plan the order of battle concerning the paint-build-mask-paint-mask-build.

Keep it up!
Jeroen

Good work, Bill. Very nice. I like the way you did your PE. It looks very good.

Bob

Thanks very much Gordon, Aleccap, and Snaphappy, I am having a blast working up this little kit.

Last night, after several self imposed and life imposed delays, I dove in to the PE. I did the whistle platform on the forward stack, and the ladders, etc of the stacks.

I also started the main radar, but the plastic rod I had on hand looks way out of scale, looks like I will get to try out the debonder I picked up yesterday.

Here are the photos:

[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-16882-1334203824001.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-912-1334203844398.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-17693-1334203799366.jpg[/img]

And the ridiculously overscale radar

[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-17709-1334203884235.jpg[/img]

I think I am at the point where I should paint the vertical surfaces and then begin attaching the smaller pe and rails/weapons?

Thanks to all following, and comments welcome

Bill

Hi Bill,
I hope the Deck Plans of the Sigsbee were a help to you. I plan on using them a great deal for my next build of the USS Bennett DD-473. She was a round bridge Fletcher built at the Boston Navy Yard. My grand father worked there as a ship fitter during WW II, and he may have worked on her. I will be building the Bennett in 1/96 scale and she will also be RC as well. I will start a build thread here when her keel is laid. :thumbs_up_1: :wave_1:

DD-555

Its been a little while since I last looked in, you're doing a great job, love the close up pics as not many people bother with these, and in my view, its important to show these so others can guide, or muck up your good day lol, seriously though, try and think ahead, have you got your crew sorted out ? Quite a few nice 1-350 figures out there.
:thumbs_up_1:

Hi Bill,
You�re doing a great job on your first ship build. I love your paint job it looks awesome. :woo_hoo: Fletcher class Destroyers are my favorite of all the USN destroyers. I'm currently building one of the worst Fletcher kits known to man, the Lindberg Blue Devil. I'm converting it to RC and using PE after market guns and doing a lot of scratch building. One of the members gave me this link for 1/96 scale deck plans for a round bridge Fletcher DD-502 USS Sigsbee. The plans as well as everything else at this site are FREE!!!!!!!!! You can find info about guns, torpedos and almost any weapons used on Fletcher's and any ship of the USN if you search around. So check out this link http://www.hnsa.org/doc/plans/ and scroll down to DD-502 and download the pfd. These plans will help you with the placement of the inclined ladders and much more. Also check out my build thread DD-555 USS Haggard!!!!!!!!!

DD-555 :thumbs_up_1: :cool_2:

Bill,

I have enjoyed following along with your build. Looking forward to your next update.

Hi Jeroen,

Thank you. The paints are all acrylics, I mixed the hull red using Tamiya flat red and some red brown, the camo is Vallejo paint straight from the bottle using the FAQ paint conversion list.

The deck blue is a formula I found on here, Tamiya dark gray, 4 drops, flat white, 6 drops, flat blue, 3 drops, flat red, 1 drop.

The anti skid is Vallejo black gray, straight out of the bottle.

The vertical surfaces are just primer at this point, I will mask the tops and paint the sides this week, Lord willing and the river don't rise.

For primer, I use Tamiya light gray fine surface primer.

Very nice, Bill. I believe it takes a lot of planning to get the order of build/paint/PE right. What colors are you using?

Jeroen

Update time. Over the past couple weeks, I have thought a lot about what to to when, as painting and PE are different with ship models than what I am used to.

AS an example, the forward Funnel gets a delicate whistle platform and a PE ladder, it also gets a camoflage , and I am not sure how to maske the funnel with the PE in place to get the pattern, versus painting it first, then PE, how do I get it to match the pattern? I will figure it out.

This week, I made the install on the base permanent, as I glued the deck down, what a wonderful fit. Then I painted the deck and the tops of the major superstructure assemblies. Then, after consulting with our own Robert Melvin, I went a bit nuts and decided to paint the raised anti skid. Honestly, I went back and forth over this a couple times, and finally decided that if Mr. Tamiya hadn't raised the pattern, I would have left it, but I decided to just go ahead and shoot it. It came out OK, I used a black gray from Vallejo, it goes on like silk and was easy to touch up with a brush. The hardest part was that the walkways are so close together, I had to mask as much as I could, then pull that masking and mask other areas, it turned into a brain teaser with a coupld colors of tape, some of it painted, and the deck. No major overspray areas.

I also put the PE ladders on the Alliance 5/38s, but I didn't add the barrels yet, kind of silly because that brass will need some primer.

I did manage to snap some photos last night when I ran out of steam about 2330. I need to move the clock in the work area, the TV blocks it and I lose track of time.

Here are the photos, comments and advice always welcome:

[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-22059-1332167499756.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-993-1332138693175.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-1011-1332138710141.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-1035-1332138725743.jpg[/img]

And a couple shots of the turrets as they stand

[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-918-1332138757120.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-989-1332138740478.jpg[/img]

Starting to look like something

[img]http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/k634/citadelgrad871/photobucket-909-1332138672570.jpg[/img]
Thanks for looking, all.