The Ship Model Forum

building two Forrest Sherman class DDs one as DD 931 as she was around 1960, 2nd one as DD 932 conversion into DDG 32 as she was around in 1970s, My first ship model in over 20 years, normally I build armored vehicles and aircraft


*just recieved a third kit posting a photo as out of the box not built. this is for those who wanted a before look.

the 01 deck is same on both, if you are refering to the the deckhouse that replaces the fwd 3"/50 gun mount, not yet added that, the photos that you linked show this.

now planning on third DD 933 Barry, or maybe the DD 946 Edson, then would need to raise the main deck forward of the 5" gun by 3' (1/320 scale about 2.85mm), all ships from DD 936, and later have a higher freeboard.

still 01 deck, it not step up, not yet added deckhouse in front of bridge, not yet added the deckhouse behind fwd stack, and not added the deckhouse/superstructure that hold the fire control radar that between tartar and aft stack. only other thing i can see that would give the step up appearance is the color difference of the white plastic used for scratch build, and the original plastic color of the model kit. " it is one deck from tartar lchr to fwd stack/superstructure" there is a slight step around the tartar launcher platform area that lchr mount sits on, and base of the lchr is higher than the deck, that is suppose to be there. "The main deck and last 1/3 level 1 deck not glued down"

I see the issue that DavidP might be referering to, very simple explanation the deck is not yet glued down on the DDG version, resulting the aft 1/3 of deck 01 sticking up a little bit. " Remember all This is still in the building phase"

the DDG started few months later, originally planned to just build another DD that was updated with ASROC, after scratch building an ASROC decided to do a DDG. The DD 931 placed on hold while waiting for DDG to catch up in construction, and build both together. Plus I made changes to the DD after starting the DDG such as the anchors holes on the deck and hull (not know the proper name for this part), also changed the top deck house above the bridge that holds the Gun fire radar. I plan on submitting more photos as the construction progresses.

Please come back and check the progress.

update on build: reduced the size of mk42 gun foundations on both ships, glued down last 1/3 of 01 deck on the DDG, added aft deckhouse/superstructure to this deck.

Update on build: added the fwd deckhouse in 31 postion(place of 3"/50 twin gun), added middle deckhouse aft of fwd stack, added the signalman shelter to back of fwd stack.

Update added the SPG-51 missile target tracker-illuminator built two sets as the original design called for two, the change to one SPG-51 was to reduce cost, as the Navy added the more expensive SPS-48 radar to the design in place of the SPS-39 of earlier missile ships, original plan was to convert all eighteen F. Shermans to DDGs this was reduced to four ships, by Sec. of Defense Robert McNamara as cost cutting.

*note the second SPG-51 and tower-platform not glued down as converted only had one SPG-51.

added the mk13 Tartar missile lchr

added a tartar missile to the mk13 lchr

Update: Finally glued down the main deck on the DDG, built more ship's systems built pair of mk32 ASW triple tubes, built a SPS48 radar, and SPS-29/37 radar, built a new ASROC lchr as the first one seems big; prepared the DDG for lattice mast by drilling holes, adding foundation for mast on upper deck level 3. modified the bridge wings on the DD, next step is to build the lattice mast.

this is the part I keep delaying on building a bloody mast

after the mast is built the build should move quickly

Brilliant!

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thanks modelmonkey,


latest update: Finally started the bloodly mast construction on the DDG, just the four mast poles, and mast radar/ecm platforms assembled, the mast, and stacks not glued down yet.

that is a spacer to keep platforms straight while glue dries, and while I adjust and cut and handle the mast,(temporary) not part of the mast.

adding framing to mast, still have few more to add on, masts and stacks still not glued down yet.

Thanks DavidP for your interest, The Fwd mast is about roughly correct in porportion in size, I did not make the level three deck wide enought, (not know of edge overhang), not realize this until after the level 3 deck and upper structures where built, thought of reducing of the fwd mast width, decided for looks not to do that, added the edge spots to level 3 deck to allow space for mast. used this photo for the ideal of adding edge spots

Added few more frame sections to the mast, maybe add few more frames, of what I can see from photos in relation to the *existing detail level of the model, roughly trying keep overall detail close to what model is, as out of the box, except for the raillings thinking of using a photo etch set for the railings, between the two models use as much as possible as out of the box as is (goal is that looks good enought for sitting on the shelf, and that I have fun with the building the model, feels like mission creep when comes to detail level, already doing more than planned on for using out of the box , if I had to start over again, I would of rebuilt the main deck in order to allow for better detailing or done less detail if keeping the main deck and any of superstructure, the existing hull and few of the components such as the gun turrets are fine as is. **My build guide is using a few photos from online, and one image of side view as the cutoff point for detail and size, I zoom the photo to equal size of the mk42 5"/54 gun turret from the model and do rough calculations from that on sizing things, as i do not have any blueprints or proper ship drawings, or data of what real size is of things are, (only the data is a printout of mk42 5'/54 gun), trying keep error rate to about 2.2mm or less. will include the online image I use as a rough guide, and few online photos(*note Iam aware of few errors in the image such as tacan level platform etc).

Thanks DavidP, I will print that image, as soon I find that size paper, I know we have that size laying around some where as my kids needed that size for school.

added more frames to masts, added mast poles, and rigging poles (not sure of proper name), this area is more *guess work, as I estimate size from the online photos, the angle of the photos and mixed view of all the framing/poles etc. and this area is painted black making is harder to judge size and what framing/bracing is connected to what?

Had to reduce the size of SPS-48 radar, looked too large/out of scale compared with rest the structure, reduced the height of radar mounts of all three radars(SPS-10/-37/-48) to fit mast and keep fit with in scale of 2.2mm, built the ECM domes and TACAN dome, about done with mast area.

DavidP, If your referering to the four main legs of the mast, each is one piece, each one is push through the holes in the mast radar/ecm platforms to the holes on the deck, some are bent somewhat off slightly or when add framing the mast would bend, I had cut a few pieces off and shaved them down then reattach them, only going to do so much and not worry about it. first mast pictures show the bend and rebending shows in later pictures, the image i use just rough guideline, having done this build, is a learning experience.

Was trying to figure out the layout of aft part of the Fwd mast between the SPS-10 platform and the ECM platform deck? Posting couple online photos to show the area Iam talking about, seem that there is frame/bracket that connects to port side of rigging pole from the aft end part of the SPS-37 deck from center line, is this a correct observation ? Was planning on adding this set up to the model or something similar maybe connect the bracket/frame from aft end center of SPS-37 deck to center of rigging pole, instead of the port side of the rigging pole? Only thing I can think of why the rigging pole is off center is to clear the smoke stack when hoisting a flag ?

Thanks DavidP for the info, after looking at this over again, found an error in that SPS-37 deck overhang goes too far aft to use the layout from previous post , decided to cut out a section of aft SPS-37 deck, to correct for this, as the area above this is all correct, do not want to do a mast rebuild (that would be for all new build).

after cutting the aft SPS-37 deck, found another online photo that shows this area, with little different layout, has a short bracket connects from horizontal rigging pole to the pole mast, instead of connecting to SPS-37 aft deck.