*COMPLETED* 1/350 USS Benson (DD-421), 1940

[Devin]

I haven't done a WIP on the boards for a while, and this should be a rather straight-forward build, so it seems a good candidate. This is the Dragon kit of USS Benson as she appeared in 1940. This is for a NJIPMS club group build, hosted by our very own Martin J. Quinn, and as such I'm doing this mostly out of the box, only adding railings and rigging. I INTEND to use the kit-supplied AA guns and 5" mounts, but I've said such crazy things in the past and ended up swapping out the whole lot of 'em.

I've built the Blue Water Navy USS Farenholtand kitbashed a USS Laffeybefore from resin, both waterlined. To mix it up a bit, this build will be full-hull. Also, I'll be going with the U.S. Navy pre-war gray scheme, keeping it simple.

A few photos to get things started:

[taskforce48]

Off to a good start Devin! Haven't seen too many of these done before. Looking forward to see updates.

Matt

[Devin]

Thanks. I've started the deck houses and am noticing a big difference between this kit and its resin predecessors: lots of little seams from attaching the bulkheads to the decks. Nothing major at all, but stuff that'll show under a coat of primer, so it all has to be filled and sanded, negating some of the fine detail molded onto the pieces.

[Gordon Bjorklund]

I liked building all of those Dragon DD kits and now I'm looking forward to your updates.

[Devin]

Gordon, I was just looking through your 1940 and 1945 build earlier today. Did you ever finish the 1940 version?

I'd considered rebuilding the forward stack uptake as you did to make it more accurate, but I think I'm going to do this one straight out of the box for time reasons (I need it done by early September), but I make take a page from your process and rebuild that entire area on the 1942 Buchanan kit I have, to convert it to a Sims class.

[Gordon Bjorklund]

Devin, I did finish the 1940 version.

I have also thought of doing a Sims Class conversion but I'm hoping that someone will do an aftermarket conversion for the stack,uptake and center deckhouse. It would be nice if Dragon just did a Sims Class kit in stead.

Looking forward to your updates

[Devin]

I'm proceeding with the building of sub assemblies. I'm at the point where I need to do the timed application of Mr. Surfacer to the seams in the superstructure pieces, and haven't set aside time for it yet. You know: apply Mr. Surfacer to seams, let dry 30 minutes, wipe off with nail polished dampened Q-Tip.

Once that is done I'm going to be ready to start painting. I'm going Measure 1 as I stated. The below photo is of USS Hammann in MS1, and looking at it brought up some questions. I'm not seeing the deck blue in areas I expected such as the tops of the forward turrets, the top of the torpedo tube directors, top of the gun director. Am I correct in what I'm seeing?

[Timmy C]

I don't think that's MS-1 - looks like standard prewar grey to me.

[Devin]

Ah, see, glad I asked. I assumed the pre-war scheme was like MS-1 with the pre-war gray in substitution of the dark gray 5-D.

And I found an overhead shot of DD-422 that shows clearly that the tops of the turrets and torpedo tubes are not painted. Looks like the interior of the bases of the open 5" mounts are, but other than that it's just the traffic/weather decks.

I don't see anything on Shipcamouflage.com referencing pre-war specifically. Can I assume that traffic decks are painted a dark gray 5-D, funnel tops are black, and everything else would be 5-L?

[Timmy C]

Pre-war grey wasn't 5-L, if you want to be dead-on accurate - it was called #5 Standard Navy Grey. I think it was an even lighter grey than 5-L.

As for decks, it wouldn't be 5-D, but another dark grey called #20 Standard Deck Grey.

Colourcoats should have both of these if you're wanting to be exact.

[Devin]

That's right. Thanks for the reminder. I haven't dealt with pre-war... ever. A whole new world for me.

I have the S&S chip set, so I can mix customs using Vallejo. I love that Colourcoats are exact, but I don't like to use enamels anymore. They're too much extra work to deal with in my painting setup.

Thanks!

[PetrolGator]

I love the look of pre-war tin cans. If you display this model at a show, you really should include that photo. It's absolutely beautiful.

[Devin]

Unfortunately it's not of the same class ship (it's a Sims class, I'm building a Benson), which is all the more reason I want to do a Sims conversion with a Dragon kit. But, yeah, I love that photo, too. I need to track it down on the 'net again and see if I can find a high enough resolution to do a good quality print from.

[PetrolGator]

I think ISW makes a good Sims class kit in 1/350. I've debating buying one.

[Rick E Davis]

Devin,

To address the "horizontal surface" painting for pre-WWII destroyers of the BENSON-GLEAVES dual class, here is an image of USS MAYO (DD-422) at Norfolk Naval Base on 11 December 1940 soon after she started service. This image was cropped from a much larger view, so details aren't the best, but you can see what was painted and what wasn't. Overhead views of the pre-WWII BENSON-GLEAVES are kind of rare.






Further, here is a view of a SIMS class unit pre-WWII. This should give you an idea of the hull markings, the SIMS-BENSON-GLEAVES triple class had the same basic hull. Note it looks like a canvas cover was put over the top of the Mk 37 director, which sort looks like it was installed on MAYO as well.

[Devin]

Rick,

Thanks for posting the photo. I actually found a copy of that very shot you emailed me today over lunch while going through folders at home. It definitely does clear up any questions I had about what gets deck gray and doesn't. It makes planning the painting of this build a LOT easier!

That photo of the Mustin is one of my favorites. I'd love to have it in color like that Life shot of the Hammann.

-Devin

[Devin]

With all of the major sub assemblies except for the weapons assembled, I can start filling seams. The kit has the blessing of a lot of very fine surface details, but the curse of having a lot of those fine details intersected or adjacent to seams that need filling. The hull isn't an issue, as without porthole gutters, or "eyebrows" it's a simple matter of filling with Mr. Surfacer then sanding. Old school and simple.

On the superstrucure parts with the hand rails, electrical conduits, and door coamings, I could go scorched-earth and just sand it all smooth -- which I may still do -- but I wanted to see if I could preserve the detail. The uppermost level of the forward superstructure received very precise applications of Mr. Surfacer with a fine brush. After that had dried for over an hour, I dampened a Q-Tip in nail polish remover and started erasing: rub back and forth over the area, perpendicular to the seam. At first nothing happens, but as the remover works its way into the Surfacer, it begins to rub off of the raised portions (the surface and the details) and remain in the recesses (the seam). I won't be able to tell if it worked well enough until I get a proper coat of primer on the piece, but so far it looks pretty good. I'll still remove some of the detail that'll look better with PE aftermarket, such as life rings, fire stations, etc., but the fine hand rails and conduits that would be over-scale with styrene replacements may be saved after all.

A little extra work, but I'm glad the kit has these details, allowing me the option of using them or sanding them away and making my own.

Some photos:

[Devin]

As I predicted, I ended up sanding off the molded in hand rails. They just didn't have enough of a 3D look to them. I'm using some .5mm round styrene strip to replace them. It's tricky work getting the strips lined up and then putting on enough glue to hold them in place, what not putting on too much that'll run, puddle, or warp the fine strip.

As far as the doors go, I'm stuck. The one on the right is the molded styrene version, which snaps wonderfully right into the opening. The problem is they stick out a bit too far and are overscale.

The provided PE doors look good, but they're just a hair too small. It takes a good two minutes to line each one up in place (try taking that much time with even a slow drying glue like Gator Glue), and then they don't quite cover everything. In the photo you can see there's a slight gap at the top.

My third option is to try aftermarket PE doors, but as luck would have it, from the literal dozens and dozens of envelopes of 1/350th scale WWII photo etch I have in the house, not ONE is a door set.

Just one photo tonight:

[Devin]

Actually, one more photo tonight. After walking away and coming back with fresh eyes, the styrene door doesn't look that bad. A little thick, but under that overhang, with railings and other details between it and the viewer... Plus,using them will save me literally hours of work. The brass door is thinner, but not by leaps and bounds, and I'm not one to use PE just for the sake of it.

I'll sleep on it, look again in the morning.

[LE BOSCO]

Nice start Devin I keep a eye on your project
cheers
Nicolas