I just saw on The Modeling News that "I Love Kit has a new 1/35 USS Stevens DD-479 kit coming out in 2025. With the 1/200 Trumpetr kit and now this 1/350 kit, is 2025 going to be the year of the Fletcher Class Destroyer?(I’m so happy)
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Very well could be. Trumpy is alleged to be putting the 1/200 Stevens on the shelves in July-August.
That’s great news since I was too late to order one from this first batch of releases. To top it off, my birthday is August too so I guess it could be a present to myself. I just hope that the tariffs don’t drive the prices through the roof.
The scuttlebutt was that it was going to be Fletcher, The Sulivans, then Stevens, about 90-100 day apart.
Is the USS Stevens the only one with the catapult?
No, USS Pringle DD-477 and USS Halford DD-480 were also fit with a catapult.
All three had the 40mm mount moved to just ahead of the stern DC roller racks, and retained the gun shield even after being converted back into five-turret Fletchers. (As a result, they never recieved “reload” DC racks, for lack of room.)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/USS_Halford_%28DD-480%29%2C_July_1943.jpg
Pringle was sunk after taking a kamikaze hit to the bridge. Both Stevens and Halford survived the war, to be laid up in mothballs until scrapped.
None of the three were operational with an embarked Kingfisher. During sea trials the centerline boom and kingpost proved unacceptable and a redesign was ordered. They had the catapults and aircraft handling equipment removed. An acceptable redesign never happened, The Stanley may have gotten the farthest with a port-side crane.
Love Kits are a Chinese product and unless they have landed they will be subject to tariff. I have heard that Trumpeter has paused production on some products pending market stability
Wrong, USS PRINGLE evaluated the original Kingpost Crane in November 1942 and found the arrange unworkable. PRINGLE’s captain banned using the aircraft, but it was carried on one operational mission where they were tasked to help escort a beat-up convoy into Halifax. Two other destroyers being completed with the original Kingpost Crane, USS HUTCHINS (DD-476) and USS STANLY (DD-478) … which actually had the catapult installed for less than a week, and PRINGLE had the Aircraft-Handling gear removed and a 5-in gun installed and operated in an non-conventional configuration into 1944.
Both USS STEVENS (DD-479) (did an extensive evaluation in Chesapeake Bay in 1943) and USS HALFORD (DD-480) with a more useful crane did operate in the Pacific with a Carrier Task Force in mid-1943. They did misc tasks with their seaplanes, like ASW patrol and other message and small delivery missions. Found to not be worth the effort since they were limited to aircraft recovery in almost still waters, they were ordered back stateside and converted to Fleet Destroyers.
The end of FDR’s idea.