My Very First Ship--Tamiya's 1/350 DD445 Fletcher

[GTDEATH13]

Bill if I were you, I would remove the two front and two back wood blocks and repaint the base...

[Bill Mall]

Bill if I were you, I would remove the two front and two back wood blocks and repaint the base...

Hi Nick, thank you, I do believe that that might work.

BTW my lovely wife is Greek, her family is from Paros. Or Poros, I cannot remember which.

[D Burger]

Hey Bill...Looking good so far...I agree, just remove the last 2 blocks and restain...I like your toggle bolt idea...keep up the good work! Doug B

[Bill Mall]

Thanks Doug, for a micro update last night I was able to pop off the outside 2 blocks on both sides, and then I carefully scraped the glue residue off.

I sanded it smooth and re stained, or tried to, but the glue had permeated the wood and it wasn't taking the stain, so I will re sand a bit tonight and will try to minimize the effect of missing blocks.

Thanks all.

Bill

[GTDEATH13]

Bill if I were you, I would remove the two front and two back wood blocks and repaint the base...

Hi Nick, thank you, I do believe that that might work.

BTW my lovely wife is Greek, her family is from Paros. Or Poros, I cannot remember which.

Glad to hear that... If you ever come by here and need any kind of assistance notify me...

Now on with the build, very good thus far...

[Bill Mall]

Micro update: I was able to strip and sand the ends of the mount after removing the two outside blocks last night. I re applied the stain and then re attached the model, masked the red off and re shot the boot stripe, the Tamiya Nato black was more of a dark grey, good for scael effect but the rest of the model will be gray and dark gray, so I figured I needed to punch up the contrast.

Then I maksed the top of the stripe and shot the primary hull color. It needs another coat, but I held off on photos because I figured it would be easier to only mask the boot stripe once. By the way, the Tamiya thin striping tape is AMAZING, I just line up the bow, then come for the stern mark in a smoother motion, and it looks like a nice straight line.

Over the next couple days, I will mask the mottle so I can shoot the darker hull blotches. Once done, I will attach the deck and unattach the tape and we can have a photo update.

Bill

[Bill Mall]

I made some progress last time changing the base to fit this model better. I figured an easy way to do the boot stripe would be to free hand the black, then shoot around it, using a thin strip of tape to protect the black. Then I sprayed the hull red, my own mix of Tamiya flat red and some red brown I had left over from (cough) armor builds. I attached the hull to the base, then I figured I didn't want to unmask the boot stripe until I shot the hull camo, yado yad work week, trying to decide on what kind and brand of paints, leads up to a delay in an update.

So today I decided to just jump in and finish the main hull painting, here are the shots of the first boat I have painted as an adult, I give you Fletcher:

















I just placed the primed major superstructure parts on there so it doesn't look too much like a canoe. In real life, I haven't even attached the deck to the hull, I wanted to make sure before I crossed that Rubicon. Once I attache the deck, it's one with the wood forever, theoretically.

From here on out, i have a serious date with a whole bunch of teeny weenie photoetch. Those Alliance turrets are nested in a box the size of a matchbox, looks like the Optivisor is going to come in handy.

Any and all comments are always welcome, this was a pretty big step for me.

Thanks,

Bill

[GTDEATH13]

Very nice Bill. The lines are clean, no overspray, sharp detail... Lovely...

Your armour experience will prove very help in weathering. I had to find that out the other way round. I only built ship models, than started armour and wingy thingies just in order to become more experienced and learn how to to do stuff like using pigments and oil washes, weathering etc...

Carry on, carry on....

[robertmelvin]

Bill, just got back from vacation and got caught up on your progress. She's looking very nice indeed. Excellent save on the base, I might add. An easy mistake to make. I guarantee you'll not make that mistake twice. I've always learned more from mistakes like that than I ever learned from the stuff I was lucky enough to do right! Congratulations on a great save.

Bob

[D Burger]

Looking good Bill...nice paint work...those turrets are small..but they sure are nice...Taking my 1/144 Fletcher for her first outing this weekend..going to the show in Indy.
Doug B

[BB61]

Nice job so far. I really like the Fletchers. I've seen this kit done to a very high standard, and it really made my day.

[Bill Mall]

Thanks for the nice comments.

Last night, I was able to glue up the stacks and sand the seams, I picked up a flex I file that I have always seen but never tried, until now, very useful to get the curved seams looking nice without flattening the surface.

I also played with an Alliance turret, I took off the pour stub and it looks like I need to use the base from the kit that is visible under the turret itself, but of course there are no instructions in this regard. HAs anyone proceeded in this fashion? I'd like to get clarfication before I proceed.

I also took a leap of faith and glued the solid stack tops firmly in place, then took my Dremel with a pointed cutting bit and removed as much as I dared, cleaning up with some small files, now one can see into the stacks and I can put the PE grates over the openings.

Photos later.

Thanks for the kind words,

Bill

[robertmelvin]

Bill, I believe, without actually looking at one of my Alliance turrets (I'm at work), that you will need to use the kit base, assuming you are talking about the piece that fits into the deck into which the turret fits. I'll look at my alliance turrets tonight when I get home to be sure.

Bob

[Bill Mall]

Hi Bob, that's exactly what I am talking about, there is a ribbed base that goes into the deck hole but projects above the deck about 1/8 inch, it is a separate part in the kit. The Alliance turrets have a very small round projection at the bottom, much smaller in diameter and lacking in height.

The side view line drawings show the ribbed piece is visible under the turrets from the side.
Anyway, if any of that makes sense, I would very much appreciate it if you could check that for me.

Thanks,

Bill

[Bill Mall]

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:






And a couple shots of the turrets as they stand




Starting to look like something


Thanks for looking, all.

[jeroen zuiderduin]

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

[Bill Mall]

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.

[Gordon Bjorklund]

Bill,

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

[snaphappy321]

Hi Bill,
You�re doing a great job on your first ship build. I love your paint job it looks awesome. 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

[aleccap]

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.