The Ship Model Forum

This is my attempt at turning the well known early Revell's Fletcher to a late round bridge. I chose USS Killen for her fine MS 31 scheme, and for having found enough photos that showed both her sides and her details. Other candidates were USS Leutze DD 481, but I have already built her in 1/350, and USS Willie Dee DD 579, but I didn't find enough photos of her. Besides that, Killen had a fine service history: she joined the war late, but was present at Surigao Straits and it seems that her torpedoes struck Yamashiro: a quite unknown ship, but surely not an anonymous one.
Killen was a Puget Sound Navy Yard product. She shared some particularities with a quartet of round bridge Fletchers that were built by that yard already in the improved AA configuration. My references are the fundamental NavSource photo archive and the booklet of general plans of USS Sigsbee, DD 502, found at HNSA. I wish all the navies had such a quantity of references avaiable on the net!
At first, I wanted her to be a RC model, but then, assuming that she wouldn't be fit for open sea (I have no lakes nor ponds to make my RC boats steam, just a river and the Mediterranean... ) I renounced. I bought some PE sets instead, and I'm waiting for them. Unfortunately Nautilus' PE was beyond my financial reach, and Tom's were already discontinued. I turned to Eduard's that are not perfectly fit for that version, but still have a stack of useful missing details.

Here is what I have achieved so far

Looks good. Keep the pictures coming.

looks like you have a good start, can't wait to see more.

les wrote:Looks good. Keep the pictures coming.

Will do

Avery Boyer wrote:looks like you have a good start, can't wait to see more.

Me too I can't wait . But currently I'm waiting for the PE sets before to proceed, as I will make my planning accordingly.

No, it isn't true the problem is that we are having a so hellish hot summer that very often I just can't sit at my workbench, 'cause I always feel tired and I think it's best to wait for a cooler season than to work without concentration.
So I try to avoid difficult tasks and in the meantime, I take on some small easy details such as building the 4 missing Bofors and sanding the propellers

Eduard's PE finally arrived. It was battered & bent because of a hard trip in a poor package, some parts went directly to the trash I will use some parts from it and some others from Nautilus', hoping that I will receive it in a better shape. The spare parts of the two sets will be used on a much simpler USS Chevalier that I will evenctually build to sell it and raise some money.

Now, to the photos

Ciao Secondo
Big job
Anch'io ho il Fletcher in 1/144
Non so quando lo far�, ma....
seguo con interesse il tuo wip
Luciano

Grazie Luciano, sono onorato del tuo interesse! Puoi seguirmi anche su Betasom

One thing that was puzzling me more was the horizontal pattern of Measure 31, Design 11d, applied on USS Killen. Vertical surfaces were very well documented in the photos taken after her commissioning, decks were not.
I had luck finding the plate that showed the master pattern of that design as foreseen for the Fletcher class. It also seems that on Killen the paint job was executed with great accuracy, as the camouflage of the ship matches almost perfectly the master pattern
So I think there are good chanches that the "invisible" horizontal surfaces were painted exactly as shown on the drawing. Special thanks to Rick E. Davis for the photos he kindly sent to me, I owe him a quantum leap of the accuracy of my build

Ciao Secondo
Ok!
Anche se purtroppo non riesco a seguire tutti i Forum
Va bene qui!!
Luciano

Minor progresses being achieved
I copied Rotorhead's water scoops and then added the second sonar fairwater (being empty, I supposed it had to be plated over; I'm neither sure it had to be right there, but it's a nice addition even if inaccurate). On the upper structures, I'm concentrating on the bridge area and some other modifications were to be done, as in fact the Killen, as Rick told me, was a round bridge that shared many features of the square bridges. I'm using Eduard's PE parts for now, as I wish to use the majority of the Nautilus' set for my O'Bannon. I'm not really satisfied with Eduard's so far, I had many fitting troubles on the radar, and the sheets offer replacements for parts that could be left standing, or easily scratchbuilt, while omitting more useful details.

Secondo,

Good job on those intake scoops. Any more detail shots on your sonar application? Looks interesting.

Regards
Steve

Sonar dome looks nice, but it shall be placed off keel axis, towards port board.

Rotorhead wrote:Secondo,

Good job on those intake scoops. Any more detail shots on your sonar application? Looks interesting.

Regards
Steve

Just ask
The drawing of the sonar fairwater has been posted by Rick at page 39 of the "Calling all USS Fletcher class (DD) fans"
viewtopic.php?f=49&t=8105&start=570

I built my own more or less accordingly to that drawing, but its dimensions and its exact positioning are the result of my guessing. We suppose it should have been placed between the bridge and mount 52, but I sticked it there after having checked the section shown in the drawing, matching the shape of the hull bottom. Positioning of the sonar dome was much easier and accurate, that being proved by drawings and photographic evidence.

Sleepwalker wrote:Sonar dome looks nice, but it shall be placed off keel axis, towards port board.

I red in that topic that it had to be offset to starboard there's also a drawing confirming that the sonar dome was on the starboard side; I'm just not sure about the position of the fairwater. However, I'm starting to consider the option to sand everything down to waterline

I wasn't satisfied with my flying bridge railing, so I redid it. I'm also trying to add the wheelhouse details so that I could leave the doors open, with some people standing on the bridge wings; I ordered some Preiser figures for that. Currently I just have a pair of german artillerymen left from my K 5

A minor update: things are starting to get intensive at the university so I have less free time to spend at the shipyard
I purchased some other aftermarket sets: BMK 5" barrels and L'Arsenal navigation bridge equipment, both really worth their price.
The propellers' struts are horrible and need to be faired; zync dispersers are missing; prop guards may benefit from a bit of PE, but no set has parts for that details.

Ciao Secondo,

I know the kit and in this scale there are a lot of details to add and what you have done on your USS Killen so far looks really good

Thanks for the encouragement Christian, I appreciate it as what I've done so far may look good, but it's what is still missing that frightens me most
I've found a net fine enough to decently represent the flottanet baskets; next challenges will be to decently represent the canvas covers over the 40 mm ready-service ammo racks; I would have loved to show those racks uncovered as if the crew was on general quarters, but that was something that only PE, or a work of inhuman patience, could have achieved.
Another small issue: the mazes of electrical cables that were running on many visible surfaces, i.e. the back of the mast; I would like to find a method for glueing many copper wires or nylon lines together side by side, so that I won't need to put them on one by one.
This is the fantail gun tub: Killen's one was truncated at its aft end to leave some more room for the spare DC racks (still to be invented here )

do you know Nautilus Models? They have an PE set for the Fletcher that should solve some of your problems:
http://nautilusmodels.com/144-203.htm

The set is not cheap but you will find a lot of fine parts to upgrade the kit.

Currently I have made the clamps and hinges for my 1/350 scale Gearing kit. You can take a look to it her in Work in Progress:
viewtopic.php?f=59&t=45015&start=45

I would have loved to show those racks uncovered as if the crew was on general quarters, but that was something that only PE, or a work of inhuman patience, could have achieved.

The thought just crossed my mind. You might try to do it in plastic by taking a thin strip of plastic and gluing it to the gun tub side. Then add a layer of small pieces with space between them. Finish with another layer of plastic. The holes wouldn't be rounded, but the effect would be the same. Possible????

Christian Bruer wrote:do you know Nautilus Models? They have an PE set for the Fletcher that should solve some of your problems:
http://nautilusmodels.com/144-203.htm

The set is not cheap but you will find a lot of fine parts to upgrade the kit.

Currently I have made the clamps and hinges for my 1/350 scale Gearing kit. You can take a look to it her in Work in Progress:
viewtopic.php?f=59&t=45015&start=45

Yes, I have already bought the Nautilus set as it was the only one to have a SC 4 radar and the K guns' DC racks; I'll use the surplus parts on my USS O'Bannon I'm also following your build with much interest as I have also some conversions similar to yours in my planning

The thought just crossed my mind. You might try to do it in plastic by taking a thin strip of plastic and gluing it to the gun tub side. Then add a layer of small pieces with space between them. Finish with another layer of plastic. The holes wouldn't be rounded, but the effect would be the same. Possible????

The problem is the really particular shape of those racks Eduard includes a pair of them in its set, and when I saw those things I realized that only PE could achieve that; I thought about a method similar to yours, just involving copper wire instead of plastic, but when I figured out the cost/effectiveness of the whole work (each gun tub had 4 rows of those racks!), I decided to cover everything with a good ol' canvas.
In the following photo, yu can see the PE rack and a pair of flottanet baskets, not really symmetrical but fine enough to be accepted

Thanks all the same for the advice!

Secondo wrote:I'm also following your build with much interest as I have also some conversions similar to yours in my planning

Thanks, I'm watching yours too