I've not seen much mention on this thread (save for Martin's original post) of Midship's rebuilt Cassin DD-372; which I'm about midway through building.
Having built Midship's Benham, I had some idea of what to expect
Still, I was surprised at how much Midship just plain left off Cassin. Poor research? Cutting corners on changes from the existing "base" 1,500 tonner kit?
Anyway, once I got past the first couple of errors/omissions I thought to make a list here for anyone else building this kit and wanting it to look even close to the real thing:
The forward funnel should not have a cap; that was prewar.
#1 turret needs a low shield, almost like a breakwater, in front of it. See the Downes photos on Navsource. (IIRC, this was mentioned in an old review of Cassin on this site)
Scuttles forward of the bridge are prewar, the new-build hull had none; fill them in.
The new Cassin & Downes had only one bow anchor; to starboard. The kit ignores this "minor" detail and has no anchors.
The kit shows just two single 20mm mounts, just below & abaft the director atop the bridge. Even Wikipedia knows there were six. There are two more beside the bridge on the same level as #2 turret, and one more on either side of the rear funnel. To Midship's credit they gave PLENTY of spare parts. From them I was able to cobble together mounts for those 20s straddling the funnel which kind of look the part.
Speaking of the director, it's incorrect. The alternate one, with the "arms" extending to either side, is needed and needs radar atop it. I won't attempt to properly ID the director or the radar atop it; Rick and the others who know US DDs can do so.
EDIT: See just below from Rick for the designations of the director and both radars. Cheers Rick
Radar is needed atop the foremast too. Here again, Midship's spare parts come to the rescue.
There are four oval life rafts readily apparent in Navsource photos; two on the main deck just under the bridge, the other two at the rail under the aft twin 40mm mounts.
The kit instructions would have you mount the cutters/whaleboats abeam the aft part of the bridge; Navsource photos show that the boats were to either side of the forward funnel.
EDIT: One more; between the twin 40mm mounts and the after tubes should be two raised circular platforms with small directors for the AA guns.
The experts on here will no doubt have some other tweaks; but the above will get me far beyond where I'd be following Midship's instructions.
BTW, Rick's "incidental" photos of Cassin at MINY, page two of this thread, are a HUGE help!
I hope this is helpful to anyone contemplating this kit. As always, thank goodness for both ModelWarships
and Navsource!