Calling all Arleigh Burke-class (DDG-51) fans

[Unicorn]

Given the tiny scales you guys are working in, I thought you might like to see a lager scale Arleigh Burke, USS Winston Churchill in 1:72.











regards

Unicorn

[navydavesof]

Unicorn, what you have looks awesome. The models you have produced have been truly remarkable!!! Your posts have been great. Can you share any of your building techniques? Would you please post more picutures of your large Burke DDGs?

[Unicorn]

Winston Churchill is not mine, rather built by the proprietor of Defence Models and Graphics (http://defencemodels.com.au) , a professional model builder who also builds radio-controlled models for pleasure.

He is a member of Task Force 72 (http://www.taskforce72.org), an association of builders of R/C models in 1:72 scale with past and present members in Australia, NZ, the UK, Canada and elsewhere.

The hull is a one piece fibreglass hull, made by APS Models of Australia, with the superstructure built of sheets of styrene. The main deck is wood, coated with fiberglass resin to enhance strength and to make it waterproof. This is supported by strips of wood fxed to the inside of the hull below deck level with commercial car filler putty. This is then supported by cross-members which hold the hull at the correct width and they all then support the wooden decks, which are also affixed in place with car filler.

The deck is then pierced at appropriate points to allow access to the hull for batteries, electronics, rudders, motors and such, with the superstructure then built up around the access points. Coamings are normally fitted to ensure no water enters the hull itself while operating, no matter how rough it may get.

Many of the fittings are available in resin castings, such as Harpoon racks, phalanx, 5 inch guns, chaff launchers, Nulka decoy launchers, phased arrays, Satcom aerials, fire hose racks, doors and such, others have been hand made from Evergreen styrene.

Churchill's builder, Russ French, is one of the best modelers in Task Force 72 , however there are a number of other, non-professional modelers who build similarly outstanding models, on a wide variety of subjects, all of which are working models (including submarines).

A number of detail shots can be found on my photobucket account (http://s554.photobucket.com/albums/jj41 ... ?start=all). You may also like the sub-directory on the new Australian Air Warfare Destroyer, the new RAN destroyer based on the Spanish F100 Aegis destroyer, the model was also built by Russ French (http://s554.photobucket.com/albums/jj41 ... %20Hobart/)

Regards

Unicorn

[navydavesof]

Unicorn,
Thanks a lot for the follow-up post. Larger-scale models have fascinated me for a while. I can see it affords a lot more detail and produces an inspiring product.

[USN_Matt]

My next build will be one of the Arleigh Burke class destoyers. Any ideas on which one I should build? I am planning on getting the Trumpeteer 1/350. Any of the Arleigh Burke's would look good next to my Arthur W. Radford!

[navydavesof]

My next build will be one of the Arleigh Burke class destoyers. Any ideas on which one I should build? I am planning on getting the Trumpeteer 1/350. Any of the Arleigh Burke's would look good next to my Arthur W. Radford!

I would suggest if you are doing a Flight I/IA then you might comsider either the John Paul Jones or the Benfold. JPJ was a remarkable man of the sea, truely a bad@$$ and the modern Navy would do well to have another like him. The Benfold was the example for unconventionAl and effective naval leadership for a number of years as a result of the incredible command of CDR D. Mike Abrshoff. Those are my two suggestions, sir. I hope that helps!

[Tracy White]

Oh, for names there's lots of amazing namesakes. In addition to John Paul Jones, I'm partial to Chung-Hoon and Momsen.

One of my hopes is to have the three JPJs (DD-230 DD-932/DDG-32, DDG-53) together to show the evolution of US Destroyers over time.

[NukeMM]

Oh, for names there's lots of amazing namesakes. In addition to John Paul Jones, I'm partial to Chung-Hoon and Momsen.

One of my hopes is to have the three JPJs (DD-230 DD-932/DDG-32, DDG-53) together to show the evolution of US Destroyers over time.

Tracy,

I, too, find thrill in the heritage and lineage of destroyer namesakes. If I had interest in WWII and pre-WWII destroyers and that I didn't have other priorities, I'd make the earlier USS Sampsons to compliment my "Two Mighty Sampsons".

[USN_Matt]

Navydavesof:

I'm actually researching on which one of the Arleigh Burke destroyers served with the Uss Arthur W. Radford. All i know is she served in the Atlantic Fleet but don't know which group. But I'll find out soon!

NukeMM

Those ships look good BTW! I have a good idea for that if anyone would do it. I might as a future project, but i was thinking doing that with the Uss Porter. That namesake was used in a Tucker class destroyer comissioned in 1916, a lead ship in the Porter Class in 1936, also a ship in the Fletcher class comissioned in 1944. There was also a torpedo boat with the same namesake launched in 1896. So it literally is "Destroyers Through the Ages!"

[NukeMM]

NukeMM

Those ships look good BTW! I have a good idea for that if anyone would do it. I might as a future project, but i was thinking doing that with the Uss Porter. That namesake was used in a Tucker class destroyer comissioned in 1916, a lead ship in the Porter Class in 1936, also a ship in the Fletcher class comissioned in 1944. There was also a torpedo boat with the same namesake launched in 1896. So it literally is "Destroyers Through the Ages!"

Thanks, Matt!

My two models are actually on separate bases. I took these pics with a piece of water between them.

Whoops! They zig-zag'd and switched positions.....

[USN_Matt]

Ur welcome NukeMM!
what scale r the Sampsons?
If i ever do decide to do the USS Porter, they'd be in 1/700

I've decided instead of just one destroyer from the Arleigh Burke class, Im gunna make the entire Destroyer Squadron 26 from 2000. This will consist of the USS Arthur W. Radford (DD-968 already made) USS Barry(DDG-52), USS Mahan(DDG-72), USS Laboom(DDG-58), and USS Kauffman(FFG-59). All 1/350 so this would be fun!




Edited by Tracy: Capitalized USS in all cases.

[Thundergrunt]

Good Call Matt on your Desron, I was gonna say JPJ,Benfold or Millius being a San Diego Guy and all but one of my best buds in the Navy was on Laboon from 99-02 amd i got to get on her in Norfolk, and he is now on Farragaut. looking forward to your builds, im doing Howard,Higgins and Mclusky for my 350's

[USN_Matt]

nice, it will look good when they are all finished!
Thanks btw, i'll keep ya'll posted on them when i get them!

Im taking a break for a while from building any more models as im planning on making a few diorahmas for some of my ships.

*edit*

But what im thinking of doing cause i have been having issues finding the DML Arleigh Burke class on 1/350, I might just do em on 1/700 scale if anything

[navydavesof]

I haven't been able to find it in the kit, so I think I'm going to try my hand at scratch building.

If anyone has one I would appreciate if you could shoot me the dimensions.

Hey, Bigdaddy, first off, super mega awesome on dominating those badguys. Sucks about the fire, but you took it pretty well, man. I give you HUGE props on that one. Great job training Hit Girl! She really seems like she can handle herself. So, since you are such a total and serious bad@$$ the very, very least I can do for you is show you how I built up the Phalanx chairs. Like Timmy said, there are different versions of the Phalanx chairs. The ones I have on my Iowa and Spruance models are US Navy standard, kind of blocky, but the ones on the Burkes are set up to reduce radar cross section.

So, here's how I did it:

I first started off with square stock for the base and cut it to appropriate length and stacked them side-by-side. I cut to length thinner but wider rectangle stock for the arms and back of the chair. I individually sanded the sides of the arms at an angle.

I roughly placed them all (all but one piece here) together to make sure they are good.

Next I glued them all together with Testors liquid cement. I wound up using that because the blobby stuff is wonderful for gluing big parts, but gluing little stuff where glue between fingers and plastic makes molded-on fingerprints is not so hot.

I let the glue cure over night and did some uniform sanding to make the tiny corrections necessary to bring the angles together. I do it like this, because if you just wait until you're done to sand everything for the first time, one error and you have to do the whole thing over again. This way, you produce a far more reliable product.

As you can see here, the chair is very close to the kit piece.

I hope that helps out. I am going to be putting these "chairs" on my USS Momsen and USS Forrest Sherman.

[Bigdaddy Mark]

Thanks for the step by step! I think that's how I will do it.

[navydavesof]

Thanks for the step by step! I think that's how I will do it.

Bigdaddy,
I am glad this helps. I saw your other website and your efforts building the Momsen. I am very glad I can help, and I hope the technique helps you build the Phalanx chairs/facilities. Just remember, the chairs aft don't have to be super smooth and angled. They can be squared off if you want them to be, much like what I have posted here in this forum, and squared off is a lot easier than angled if you want it to be.

[Bigdaddy Mark]

Bigdaddy,
I am glad this helps. I saw your other website and your efforts building the Momsen. I am very glad I can help, and I hope the technique helps you build the Phalanx chairs/facilities. Just remember, the chairs aft don't have to be super smooth and angled. They can be squared off if you want them to be, much like what I have posted here in this forum, and squared off is a lot easier than angled if you want it to be.

Oh boy do I need to update the other site, and post some up to date pictures.

I was talking to Zach last night, and he had a great idea.
I�m going to make this one without the CWIS mount, and then next year build the same ship Full Hull in heavy seas with the CWIS mount. He said it would be neat to see my improvement over a year�s time.

So it�s back to work, and I�ll post some updated pictures ASAP

[volkmari]

hi,

i'm new in this forum and of course --arleigh burke fan.
my current project is to build a ddg destroyer preferentially flight I on a scale of 1:75.
currently i am searching detailed ship plans or drawings.
it seems very difficult to found such things.
anybody got some tipps or conections for me ?
thanks in advance !

Volker

[Robin]

I just got the Dragon 1/350 Arleigh Burke kit. I have to say I am very disappointed in the kit. The hull is just terrible. So, I am thinking of get the Trumpy 1/350 Arleigh Burke and would like to know if it is better, because it does cost more.

[Timmy C]

There is much discussion on the differences between the two kits in this thread already

But to sum it up:
1. Yes, Trumpeter's is better. More accurate dimensions (hangar/helideck length) and propellers (especially). Some inconclusive suspicions on the length of the hull (might be too short in length). Overall much better detailed.

2. Dragon's is the old Panda kit and thus quite a bit older than the Trumpeter kit. Several versions have been made over the years to try to make it more attractive, but in the end it's still the old kit with some goodies added, much like their "Premium Edition" 1/700 kits.