Got an email from Dragon today, my USS Buchanan model in on it’s way and should be here in a couple days.
Yep, mines due on Thursday according to the FedEx tracker assigned to it
Mine arrived yesterday, just as FedEx promised
WOW! Everything in the previous review and more!
I was afraid that it might be something like a Dragon armor kit – why do something in 5 parts when 20 will do. But the parts breakdown is logical and unused parts on the frets hint at kits to come.
The basic brass fret included with the set covers ladders, braces, brackets and other small details which are beyond the limits of injection styrene. The kit includes bending forms for complex shapes. The basic brass also includes hatches. The superstructure bulkheads are molded with depressions which represent the hatchways. Cement the PE brass hatch to the side of the depression and you have an open hatchway. Check your references for paint colors applied to interior surfaces.
I got the bonus pre-order brass set. It includes a nicely pre-formed MK37 radar with supports as well as railings with dodgers and netting. Very well done. There will be little the aftermarket guys can do for this kit.
The included figures are nice and in natural poses. Very unlike the new Gumbie-like figures from Tamiya. I wish there were more of them. Perhaps Dragon will offer a pack like their aftermarket aircraft sets.
The non-skid tile decals for the decks are nice too. I want Dragon to offer the decals as aftermarket too.
The painting diagram for the Ms12R camouflage is full size for the kit. A little bit of creative Xerography and it will be useable as painting masks. For the camouflage faint of heart there is also a Ms21 scheme (overall Navy Blue) identified for the Battle of Kolombangara (Solomons campaign) in 1943.
The bar has been raised. This is the kit that the Trumpeter Sullivans should have been! The Tamiya Fletcher pales in the comparison.
This is my new recommendation for the first ship with rails & details.
Thanks for the report, now I can’t wait until I get mine. It looks like mine will have to wait until Tuesday because of the holiday.
Paint yer dadburn ants light and dark blue, no self respecting squid wears dress whites unless he is made to!
Well, of course there ain’t no such thing as a self-respecting squid! Besides, they sell more icecream in the dress whites (an’ the Airforce pick up more bus fares when they wear their blues!)!
Good point.
Yes the Benson/Gleaves class was a precursor to the Fletchers, but they were far from being World War One destroyers.
The Bensons were built under FY 1938 defense authorizations. The firrst Gleaves (i.e. the Buchanan and her sisters) were authorized under FY 1940 spending.
Once again I’ll recommend Steve Backer’s article on the development of the US Destroyer force following the first World War.
http://www.steelnavy.com/DragonBuchanan1942.htm
The Navy had almost 300 destroyers available or under construction at the end of WWI. The Navy did not begin looking at modernizing their destroyer fleet until 1927, and contracts for the first of the post-war destroyer classes, the Farragut, were not funded until 1931. Between 1931 and 1938 there were several additional destroyer contracts let which were incremental improvements in capability. Evolution was rapid.
If the Fletchers were the ultimate WWII destroyer (some may argue in favor of the Sumner or Gearings), the Benson/Gleaves were the penultimate class
Correct. I can’t think of any WW1 US destroyers that weren’t ‘four-stackers’ like USS Ward and USS Cambeltown. The Gleaves class is entirely different and far more modern…
The HMS Campbeltown (I 42) was formerly the USS Buchanan (DD131)
The US Navy’s destroyer force during WWI included all of the Navy’s destroyers dating back to the Bainbridge (DD-1), from the birth of the destroyer force in 1902. Most had four stacks, but some of the Smiths & Pauldings had three (two engines were trunked together into one broad funnel).
There were also some Spanish American War-era torpedo boats still operating. Most had two funnels
…I was thinking of those that made it to WW2 service…
You’re right ,Puma. My Tamiya swabbies arrived today, and they do look just like gingerbread men ! I expected better from them ! My 1/350th Fujimi Kongo arrived today, it included about a thousand or so Japanese swabbies and they’re in 3-D ,unfortunately they’re all walking , saluting, standing at attention ,or an officer holding his binoculars. Still not as good as the ones included in the Dragon kit. They are sold separately! Cheers, Flyguy
Just got my ‘Buchanan’ yesterday, and it really is very nicely detailed, and should make up into a very fine model. As I am still working on ‘Atago,’ it will be a while before I get to it, but one thing has struck home… One of the reasons I try to get my models in the same scale is for the purposes of comparison, and as I am now building the Aoshima 1/350 ‘Atago,’ of course I put the hull of the USS Buchanan alongside. All I can say is to remark on how brave the ‘Tin Can’ sailors must have been, including my uncle, as the USS Buchanan looks like a dinghy alongside the hulking mass of ‘Atago!’ It must have taken enormous bravery to charge a heavy Japanese cruiser like this in something so tiny and unprotected… I think if it had been me, I would have been paddling just as fast as I could in the other direction!