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

[Devin]

The K Gun holes didn't turn out to be an issue at all. I wet sanded most of it smooth, and the stuff near the edge detail I hit with a Q-Tip soaked in acetone.

I actually found a stash of the Model Master acrylic ship colors that I bought some years ago -- 20 bottles worth -- and I have a SINGLE bottle of the #5 Navy Gray in the batch. That was a relief, as mixing a light gray is no problem, but getting that very subtle blue tinge to it drives me nuts. Gordon sent me a bottle of anti-fouling red, and I'll use a "close enough" dark gray from Vallejo for the decks, and a Vallejo German Gray for the black of the boot topping and stack covers.

I've been talking with Dan Kaplan this week about the possibility of having Benson done for the Nationals next month, and it's going to be close. Writer's conference this weekend, doing photography for my wife's yoga retreat next weekend. I'm going to try, but the time is slipping away.

[Devin]

It's been a while since I posted. Been traveling nearly every weekend since the 4th of July, and when I haven't been on the go I've either been at work or at home catching up on everything I don't get done on the weekends away.

Progress has been made, even though Benson is still in primer gray. Joining the upper and lower hulls. Holy hell, now I know why the full-hull builders want the hulls molded in one piece. This thing fit like a GLOVE, upper and lower, and I still had to make at least 8 passes of filling and sanding to get rid of all the visible seams. It just reaffirms my decision to build waterline for most projects.

I did a little primer build-up on the hull to give the impression of a strake that's pretty visible in photos. Not sure how it'll look in the end, though. Even though it's photo accurate as far as I can tell, the weld lines aren't parallel to the porthole run and it looks a little odd in the photo below (but better in person).

I've got her mounted on the working block, but I'll remove her once more to clean up over-spray on the lower hull and to spray the hull red. I'm ready for paint now, but, of course, have a wedding out of town this coming weekend.

[Dan K]

Aha, the ol' tape strake trick. Nice to see progress, D.

[Devin]

A little progress to show. I was looking forward to a three-day weekend of nothing but model building, but there were social opportunities, trips to buy a stove, a little shopping with the wife, and grilling to be done and beer to be drunk. You know: the usual.

There's a post elsewhere on the board now about how to do boot striping. I agree with the consensus that a height gauge with a pencil is the best way to do this, or failing that, a book or some such with a pencil taped at the appropriate height to mark the line, then mask away. The problem with this DD is that the lower hull doesn't have a true flat spot on it. So, how do you know it's level before you start drawing on the line? I fiddled with it on the wood mount I have, took it off, set it on the bench, propped it up and used a picture level, etc. In the end it was too much work. I simply took a 2.5mm strip of tape and started laying it on the hull, reapplying it a good dozen times to find where it looked right, and then reapplying another dozen times to get it perfectly straight. Fortunately the DD hull DOES have nearly vertical sides, so a single strip of tape did the job except for the extreme stern, where I used 1mm strips to make it all line up. The thing to remember is that the top and the bottom of the boot strips aren't necessarily parallel to each other on the hull, especially if it curves, but that the top and bottom of the stripe needs to be parallel to the waterline and keel.

The black is Vallejo Model Air Black Gray (Panzer Grey). The red is Anti Fouling Red from the Testor's Model Master Acrylic line that Gordon Bjorklund was kind enough to send me. It's really humid here today and for the next few days, so this will sit as-is for a couple of evenings to make sure it's all set up and dry before I re-attach it to the working base and mask off the red and start painting the pre-war gray.

[MartinJQuinn]

Progress!!

[Devin]

Still more progress, but nowhere near done. I even started this build earlier than I thought necessary to make sure I got done by the club group build deadline of this coming Friday, but I guess one can't anticipate health issues.

I've got the pre-2ar #5 gray on the hull. Had a little grainy texture near the bow, but a sanding stick knocked that down. After removing the masking there's a bit of build up at the boot stripe, but I'll knock that down with some polishing as well.

One issue that I thought might be an issue was the color of the primer and the paint. Mr. Surfacer is damn close to the same color as #5 gray. When spraying I could only go on the glossiness of the paint to tell where I'd actually sprayed. The dark gray overspray on the hull helped a bit, but the superstructure parts were a real challenge. Next time I do a #5 scheme, the primer will be either black or white.

[MartinJQuinn]

She is looking good!

[PetrolGator]

Very nice man.

[Devin]

Thanks, guys.

Question: Does anyone know if #250 Deck Gray was a blue-based color? I assume it was, but can find no mention of it anywhere. I don't have any of the Testor's #250, so think I'll take a very dark Vallejo gray and cut it just a bit with a light blue to give a slight hue to it.

[MartinJQuinn]

I'd ask Tracy. I would say 'yes', but I think Tracy found some documentation that some of pre-war colors were neutral greys.

[hypno7]

Very nice work Devin! Thats a beautiful hull and the 5 inch mounts are specially nice.

[Gordon Bjorklund]

Great looking update pictures. It's nice to see progress.
Tony Bunch posted that he used "Gunship Gray" for the deck on his prewar Honolulu build but I don't remember if it was acrylic paint or not.
I used MM Acryl Gunship Gray (36118) #4752 for the Deck Gray #20 my prewar Benson build. I don't know how accurate the color is but it looked good to me.

Looking forward to more pictures.

[Devin]

Thanks. I did a few test sprays on a sample piece tonight and it's down to either Dark Sea Gray or Dark Gray Green, both from Vallejo. I like the tint of the Gray Green, but it's a little light, and the Sea Gray is a little dark, so I'll probably go with a 50/50 mix of the two and be done with it.

[hypno7]

Hi Devin,

About the deck color, if you are looking to put #20 Deck Gray (is it #250?) with Vallejo paints, here is a nice conversion chart:

http://www.ipmsswamp.com/files/VallejoW ... alents.pdf

according to this table, and exact match to the the deck gray should be Vallejo paint # 816 (Luftwaffe Uniform WWII)

I want to try one day to use acrylics... are these Vallejo paints good? I heard good things about Lifecolor too.

Hope it helps

[Devin]

Yes, #20 Deck Gray. Sorry, my numbers tend to get all jumbled when I do this from memory.

I have that chart and looked at that equivelent and can say without a doubt that shade is in no way close to the same as #20 deck gray. Strange, as that chart is usually pretty spot-on, but Luftwaffe Uniform is way too light and blue to be of any use.

I really like Vallejo paints, both the Model Color series, and the pre-thinned Model Air colors. I use them almost exclusively unless I need to prime or do metallics, then I use the Mr. Color lacquers. If I need a specific color match, like the Testors naval colors, then I'll use those, otherwise it's all Vallejo.

[Devin]

Deck gray all done. Mostly. I still have to do the inside of the after control station and the searchlight platform. They require some fancy masking and I'm burned out for the night.

Lots of tape applied, 30 seconds of painting, then pulling it all off. I actually enjoy it. Most of the time. Glad it's done and I can start dealing with more construction and turning my attention to the smaller details and photo etch.

[Dan K]

Looking good.

[Devin]

Long time no post. I haven't been building much lately, haven't really felt like it, and I've been concentrating on writing more as of late.

Anyway, the pedestals for the 5" mounts are separate pieces on the main deck, which makes them easy to paint before attaching to the ship. The deck house pedestals, however, are molded in. To paint circles it's great to have a hole punch, or in this case, a punch-and-die set purchased through Harbor Freight Tools.

[MartinJQuinn]

Nice trick! Looks good - glad to see you making some progress.

[Goodwood]

Glad to see some progress on this neat build.

Just out of curiosity, what are you writing about?