How about a 1:72 Destroyer Escort??

Modeling Subjects Ships
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After reading the other “Leading the Revell horse to water but it won’t take a drink” postings I have given up on the folks at Revell as to correcting its older kits in todays market place. And as for the hope of offering to the model community a line of new sailing ships or ocean liners forget it. If you want to grab the big American bucks the kit has to have a gun some where on the sprue. This is a fact. Compare the number of commercial ship models on the market to new model warship kit releases. New Bismarks, Hoods, Yamatos, Iowa class battleships etc., seem to sprout up like perenial flowers without any need to test the market place. Got a torpedo tube or gun turret on the hull? If so, you’ve got a profit maker. Just offer it in a new scale, some one will buy it…

My suggestion to Revell of Europe is think global, “out side the same old warship in another scale box” . How about a 1:72 American WWII destroyer escort?

The old Flower Class Corvette (Ex Matchbox) kit has been around since 1980 and despite it’s ancient kit quality (throw everything out just use the hull and superstrcture) it’s been in production for thirty years and folks keep purchasing it, must be a profit in there somewhere. Some builders do a great job with this kit, it has a lot of followers.

Consider the DE was a WWII “hero” it would have appeal to the WWII crowd. PLUS it saw service with the Royal Navy, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, Korea, Philipine, Portugal, Holland and Thailand Navies. What a marketing bonus, I’m sure the ship builders around the world would be interested in a new larger kit of a famous WARSHIP. Plus the USCG fielded the Edsall class in the 1950’s, same armament, trading navy gray for white paint.

The only difficult part would be in choosing what hull to model: Buckley, Edsall, perhaps the Butler Class???

Even the R/C builders would like be interested in a kit this size, another group of perspective buyers. I base this on the number of Revell corvettes in magazine “how to adapt the Flower class corvette to pond sailing so it won’t sink” articles since the early 1980’s.

Heck the “Best of Show” at the plastic Nationals went to a rusty version of the corvette old kit (a well deserved award in my opinion).

So come on Revell of Europe , take a chance and make a buck in the process. The Revell clan here in the States are hide bound to keep churning out the same old 1950’s era dreck. I don’t hold any hope of innovation on this side of the Atlantic.

If not Revell, perhaps those ambitious folks over in Asia know a sure thing when they see it.

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No, not in 1:72 scale. Those who wants it can get the old Matchbox repop kit.

Make a 1:144 scale destroyer escort. It will look fantastic along side the 1:144 fletcher kit. I will run down to my LHS to buy one in no time.

The Revell post WW2 Schnellboat kit (#05005), Gepard Klasse 143A in 1:144 is a cheap, but fun kit to build. This scale offers a lot of potential for detail without being too big to desplay for destroyer and small ships.

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1/72 would be fun, but 1/144 is much more likely.

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What do you mean? Did matchbox ever make a 1/72 destoyer?

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To our friend in Norway: Matchbox made the 1:72 scale Flower Class corvette in 1979. The kit’s parts were molded in gray, blue and tan plastic. At some point (probably when Matchbox went out of business) Revell took ownership of the molds and it became the Revell Flower class corvette.

The 1:144 scale would work with the 1:144 scale destroyer but a 52" plastic DE model would be an impressive kit.

My point referring to the Corvette kits’ long production run is to illustrate the probability of a long production life for a 1:72 DE kit if a company would produce one. The fact that the DE’s saw a long service life in a variety of different navies would offer a broad appeal to builders around the world, not just the US market.

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I’d buy a 1/144 Butler-class DE in a heartbeat. Hello Samuel B. Roberts…

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The things that give many of us pause with these types of kits can be broken down into two main areas: 1) Size. Where the heck are you going to put something that big? That’s the main reason I build in 1/700, because space is at a premium where I live, and 2) Cost. I can only imagine what a 1/72 plastic DE kit would cost. Probably about what I could buy an entire task force for in 1/700.

But that’s just me.

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I agree and I don’t. I do think 1/72 would be prohibitive, even for me. A Butler-class DE is around 300 feet long, which in 1/72 would work out to OVER FOUR FEET. That’s bigger, by like a foot, than Tamiya’s monstrous 1/350 Enterprise.

In 1/144 it works out to something like 25 inches, but they would be 25 BIG inches comparatively. I mean, RoG’s Fletcher-class is a little over 30, and just the hull on it looks monstrous.

http://s780.photobucket.com/albums/yy86/doogsatx/DD-445%20USS%20Fletcher%20-%20144th/?action=view&current=b6e447fd.jpg

But in 1/350, anything smaller than a cruiser starts looking all fiddly to me. I’m gearing up to work on Dragon’s USS Laffey, and it’s basically shorter and narrower than a ruler. In 1/700 it’d be what, 5.5" long? I can’t imagine working with something that size…and I do have a penchant for builds with presence.

Honestly, I wish an in-between scale existed. Like 1/225 or something. That’d put a Fletcher-class at 20", cruisers at bigger, DE’s at slightly smaller.

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Not to meantion Capital ships (Cruisers Carriers and Battleships) cost a pretty penny as well my Essex and Hornet Carriers set me back at least $120 each and my Nimitz cost me $221 (All 1/350)

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Having recently completed Revell’s 1/144 Fletcher I would think that a DE in the same scale would be suitably impressive. As with one of the posts above, I have a penchant for builds with “presence”, and, I find working with such kits as Dragon’s 1/350 DDs to be very difficult for a modeler with aging eyes and gorilla fingers. Very fiddly indeed. A 1/144 DE would be an impresive display and large enough for those of us who have difficulty with fiddly parts to attempt without pulling out our remaining hair.

IMHO,

Bob

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i am currently building the USS Ward in 1/72 scale and yes, shes big The hull is Vacuform everything else is scratch

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Hmmm;

I don’t know about 1/72 . My 1/72 Flower class is LARGE . It has never leaked , and performs very good as an R.C.Build . I took it to real time weather conditions to do all the testing . I bought it when it was a MatchBox kit .

I don’t think a Buckley that size would be doable . 1/144 maybe . I have one in 1/96 and it ain’t small . It is just a little over 39" long . It performs well , but to fudge for stability I have to use a clip on keel .

I agree that they have forgone anything that doesn’t have a gun or torpedo tube somewhere .They could do the Queen Mary as a troop ship ( she was armed . )in a larger scale and then you could build it with the de-gaussing system and the guns .

The whole thing is silly I think .They had some of the best civilian small ship models around . They had the Oriana , The Brasil /Argentina and many others .Some other companies came out with some of their choices but size and detail wise I liked REVELL’S offerings. I didn’t care if some were semi - waterline or not or full hull .They were just neat .

Imai has done some in 1/400 that are cool too . T.B.

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Hi,

Although I do have a 1/72 scale Flower Class that I hope to build someday, I fear that 1/72 scale might be a bit big for any larger ship. However, I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing something like a US destroyer escort, a PCE, a Castle class corvette, a River class frigate, a Hunt class escort destroyer, or perhaps a Grimsby Class or Black Swan class sloop (or similar type vessel) in 1/144.

Pat

PS to the above, I wouldn’t mind maybe seeing a 1/72 scale MCM, reserach ship, or maybe a fishing boat, or gunboat though (though 1/144 would also be good too).

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PFJN;

Hello . I need to tell you about a company I did some work for .It was called BaD Shipmodels ( still is ? ) . I helped on the Wisconsin model on display at the Nauticus Museum where the real ship is .Their P.C. is almost 24 inches long .We are talking about 1:96 scale here .The Wisconsin was 16.75 feet long .

Now if REVELL Doubled the size of their Buckley they would have a winner , I think . T.B.

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The law of scales is that doubling the scale of a model, i.e changing from 1/144 to 1/72, produces an object is eight times as large.

Twice as long, twice as high, twice as wide.

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Hi,

I do have to admit the thoughts of a relatively smaller ship at a large scale does appeal to me. (I just recieved an old 1/131 scale Revell USS Defiance/Asheville class gunboat from eBay in the mail today, and I also have a 1/144 scale Revell Type 143 Fast Attack Craft model, that I’m looking forward to buidling).

Pat

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Yeah , Hi Back PFJN !

I have built many of the Ashevilles from the time they hit the market . Always have liked them . The thing is now in my mind what about a Buckley that is larger than the REVELL offering but not more than say four or five inches longer ?

I believe the Buckley/Campelltown/Buchanon were the best efforts REVELL ever did . I would Not Like to see a Battleship in that scale though .Can you imagine what size an Iowa would be ?

It would probably be neat to build , But do you have a Mantel over the fireplace that large ? there were some kids in the Golden Gate Model Yacht Club that powered the Asheville kits with micro electronics .The thing is they were very characteristic of the actual vessel .

An Asheville would float bow down at rest because the bow was so narrow underwater it affected their bouyancy . So batteries went full aft . T.B.

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Emden

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Hi,

The Emden, Olympia or the Imperial Russian cruiser Aurora would all be nice at a large scale, but 1/72 may be a bit too large. Maybe 1/144 or 1/200 might be better (the Emden looks to have been 388ft (64.67in @ 1/72 scale, 32.33in @ 1/144, or 23.28in @ 1/200), the Aurora 416ft (69.33 in @ 1/72 scale, 34.67 in @ 1/144, or ~25in @ 1/200), and the Olympia 344ft (57.33in @ 1/72, 28.67in @ 1/144, or 20.64in @ 1/200))

Pat

20

While an excellt thought eercise, it might be a bit futile.

“Destroyer Escort” actually covers a large range of ships for a potential kit manufacturer. Most of the Fletchers and Gearing/Summers were later reclassified as DDE. By the time the DE-size ships were added back into inventory, they had become FF, and were rather larger.

IIRC, a 172 Fletcher is 71" long–you’d need a 12" x 84" shelf to display her on. Seven feet is as long as an average bed.
A Knox Class frigate would be 73" x 8" and likely near 18" tall.

Now, cosider the size of the box that kit would have to come in.

It would make the box for the Dora railroad gun or the Merit 1/200 Hornet come i seem seem small. Even with a 4 peice hul, the box needs to be more than 36’ long.

Now, and argument could be made for 1/200, to match up with that growing line of kits. Or, alternately, to embrace 1/144 as an existing scale (even, perhaps to including 1/150 as a “close enough”). Forking over $100-200 for a three foot Fletcher, a 32" Buckeley or the like would be seen as reasonable.

Or, at least that’s my 2¢