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

[Devin]

Thanks, guys.

Sean, the most recent thing I completed was another piece for the New York Times and their "Disunion" Civil War feature; I've been doing articles about the Navy during that conflict: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/devin-poore/ The latest one is about the submarine Saint Patrick, and I believe it will be published in January.

I also write short stories and novels, generally of the urban fantasy and horror-esque flavor. I've got links to a few published short stories on my website: http://www.devinjpoore.com/writing.html

I'm still seeking representation and a book contract on my two novels, so nothing to show as of yet. It's a long drawn out process.

[Devin]

Just a single photo so I can say I did SOMETHING and posted proof. Long story short, I've been dealing with some health issues these past few months that have left me not feeling like sitting in a chair at a bench. While I'm still having said issues, I am coping with it better, and there's (hopefully) a light at the end of the tunnel, so I'm forcing myself to get back into my regular routines.

The amidships breakwaters on the Benson kit are the first parts I've really had an issue with. While they're wonderfully thin for a scale appearance, there's no real locators or pins to hold them in place. I futzed around with them a lot and finally decided to use the ol' Silly Putty Temporary Support trick (the same trick I use to position and glue photo etch railings).

Not much to show. I basically stuck the aft end of the breakwater in a glob of Silly Putty, then poked and prodded until the forward most part was lined up. I then applied liquid cement on the inside of the seam with a fine paint brush, checked alignment again, and done. I'll let it sit over night to get good and set, then tomorrow I'll pick out the Putty and glue the rest of the run. Once that's done I can airbrush the breakwaters and any surrounding damage, and then I believe I' can start attaching deck houses and photo etch railings.

[MartinJQuinn]

I had issues with those too - they are quite tricky to attach. I like your method. May have to try that when I get around to trying to finish Livermore.

[Dan K]

Good to see progress.

[Devin]

Ten days off for the holidays, so time to get as much done on this as I can. I'm at the point now where things start going together. Big assemblies are good, but the detailing of them takes a bit of time. These Dragon kits have a TON of minute parts, all well done and very nice, but detaching, filing, sanding, priming and painting each of them takes a lot of time. A couple of photos:

[Devin]

Yesterday morning I was perusing the directions and realized that it was an opportune time to add the walkway decals. Two days later, I've finally finished them and am now able to start actual building again. This is the earliest I've ever applied glosscoat during a build, but I'm glad I realized to do them now rather than later when the superstructure and fine detail parts are in the way. As always with long decal runs, it helped a lot to cut the 3" and longer runs into smaller sections. The decals did behave well with setting solution. The only issue is that they're so close in shade to the deck gray that I don't know how visible they'll be after final finishing. Oh well, I tried.

[MartinJQuinn]

Shaping up nicely. Look forward to seeing her in February at the rescheduled "Tin Can Build" night.

[Gordon Bjorklund]

Devin, I also spent two days working on those pesky decals with mixed results but at least they are done now.

Yours turned out looking very nice. It looks like you got them all to lay down flat and I wish I could say the same for mine but they could have been better.

Looking forward to your next Benson post.

[Dan K]

[Devin]

Gordon,

I put down a serious gloss coat of Future before the decals, and that helped with being able to move them about during placement. I did use decal setting solution, which will start to dissolve the Future slightly and make the whole area cloudy and make you think that you've screwed up royally, but it seems that the softening of the Future helps with getting everything to snug down tight.

Also it's critical that the longer runs be cut into multiple pieces.

[wing_nut]

Hey Devin. 1st log in since completing the Buchanan back in April and yours was the 1st post I saw. Looks good. And I like the tip about the epoxied nuts in the hull. I'll steal that one when I (eventually) get the 144th Fletcher on the bench. A question that is likely obvious to you ship guys but you mentioned something about a tape method for the plate strake. What's that?

[Devin]

Hey, good to see you back on the board!

The tape method is just basically taping off the alternate strakes for the hull plating, give the hull a good thick coat of primer, then remove the tape.

Paul Budzik has a great video on a few different methods for hull plating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVULb3sOd2w

[Devin]

Working on the mast these past couple of evenings. I really wanted to just use the kit parts and be done with it, but I can't talk myself into not rigging this thing, so brass it is. Mast itself is three sections of telescoping micro-tubing, the cross member is brass solid stock. I realize now I should have assembled the cross member to the vertical first, then started adding in the details and crow's nest. Oh well, if the alignment is off, I can just strip it down and start over.

[Devin]

Two days later and still working on the mast. When I said I may have to tear it all apart and start over, I was right. Nothing was plumb, parallel, or horizontal. I started over from scratch, building the vertical once again with telescoping tubing. I then put the cross member (yard arms) using a square to make sure it was perfectly 90 degrees, fixed it with super glue, then reinforced the joint with 30 minute, 2 ton epoxy. In the photo you can see the white plastic square fixture I built on the flag bag deck to give it the proper position and support, and a tiny disk of styrene at the base of the mast that I punched and drilled to fill the too-large opening. I still need to add the crow's nest and other little bits. Trying to decide if I should do that now, or wait until the superstructure and mast are fixed permanently, so I can be sure of alignment.

You can also see small sections of railing that I glued to the front of each flag bag to give something to tie off the halyards to. I have the specific Dragon photo etch set for the kit, and there's a section of railing that's supposed to go there, but it's no where near the right size, so I cut out single sections to make these items.

[Devin]

The upper superstructure and railing has to be finished and installed before the mast can go in, but I have to have them both dry fit so I can judge where to drill the holes for the rigging attachment points.

I've built two Benson class DDs in resin before, so I KNOW I've done the railing on top of the deck house, but I don't remember it being so difficult. I started out with the PE bit from the Dragon set, and found it as useless as the railing for the flag bag area. I'm seeing a disturbing trend here. I have a set of Classic Warships generic PE that came with the USS Wichita kit, so I cut some sections from that. Very fine PE, too fine for this instance of multiple curved bends. I'm cutting it down into sections to make it workable. Once it's all in, I'll be coating this upper section with white glue to replicate the canvas dodgers/windscreens.

Lots of work for a single photo. It's taken at least an hour to get this simple bit of railing in place.

[Mgunns]

Hello Devin:

Just catching up on your build here. This is coming along nicely. I like your build log and comments, very useful. Thanks for putting all that in there.
Looking forward to seeing the next update and your progress.

[Devin]

More small details that have to be added before final assembly begins. For the canvas rails on the top of the bridge I'm using something shown elsewhere on this site (maybe Jim Bauman?) that utilizes white glue. The mast is also finished and ready to install, and I've started drilling for the super tiny rigging points.

[PetrolGator]

Killer work, Devin.

[Gordon Bjorklund]

Nice update. I did not even think of cutting the bridge railing in to smaller pieces like you did. I struggled to bend a long single piece that rook a long time and was pain to do. Good tip for next time.

[Devin]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Gordon, the railing trick was out of necessity, I tried for about an hour to get a single run folded correctly, but it just wasn't working, and I was losing my mind.

I have the forward superstructure ready to glue to the hull. I'm going to let the paint dry over night, then mount it and the mast tomorrow. It looks like I'm going to have Tuesday off from work due to Blizzardzilla here in NYC, so I'll make as much progress as I can then.