The kit arrived from Squadron today. it is impressive. The length is about 21.75 inches, one piece whole hull. The bilge keels are present, perhaps a bit chunky. There is some shell plating on the sides. There is no underwater detail, sonar domes or engine intakes/exhausts. The deck fits well, with maybe a 1/32 gapping at the bow. The deck has some raised walkways. These are designed to be covered with the included deck decals. Speaking of decals, included are only pre-war/post-war shaded numeral. The smaller white (for dark hulls) or black (for light hull patches) are not provided. An aftermarket opportunity.
Out of the box the armament includes 5x 5-inch guns with your choice of fixed barrels with blast bags, or elevatable barrels. There are 1x twin 40mm mount for placement in the raised circular gun tub between mounts 53 and 54. I would call the molding barely average. There are better 3D options available. There are six 20mm guns. As kitted this model will make into only the Fletcher (DD445), Radford (DD446), Jenkins (DD447), or LaVallette (DD448). These will be good for 1942 to early 1943
Replacing the twin 40mm and MK51 director with a 1.1-inch gun and MK49 director allows you to model the Nicholas (DD449), O’Bannon (DD450), or Chevalier (DD451). Again these versions will be 1942 and early to mid 1943.
What I’m looking for are additional gun tub types: waist for twin 40’s. fantail teardrop for twin 40’s, and raised mount teardrop for twin 4o’s. These would open up so many more options for subjects. I see that DiStefano 3D makes some in other scales. Scaling up to 200 should be no problem, but I have seen some of his stuff and there may be sone concerns.
I would have liked to have gotten the Pringle/Stanley/Stevens aircraft catapult version but I’ve been told is that production has been halted in China due to the current situation. That and the square-bridge version of the Sullivans.
There is a hundred dollars of modeling in the box. If you were thinking of getting one you might want to consider sooner than later as the prices are bound to continue to rise
Well, it’s the story of my life,“You snooze, You lose.” I went back & forth trying to decide if I should order the new 1/200 Fletcher destroyer kits but tonight I decided to go for it and wouldn’t you know, Squadron is sold out!!! The story of my life.
I received my kit this week. It looks like a very nice model, but, I have only looked closely at the instructions…which I will say the following about.
Myself not being an expert on ships, yet not a complete dummy either, I found that it would have been very helpful and informative if the parts would have been labeled with their names. This is especially true with a lot of the smaller detail parts. While I know what depth charges and guns are, some of these smaller details remain unknown. If the parts were named, maybe it would help one decide what colors to paint them.
One other thing that I noticed as I looked through the instructions last night was that there was nothing that showed how to rig or wire anything such as antenna, flag signals, life boats, etc.
Wrong. The original plan was for the Mk 49 director to be the director for the 40-mm guns. But, delayed manufacturing because of performance issues and supply chain delays resulted in the “interim” Mk 51 director (utilizing the same Mk 14 gunsight used on 20-mm guns) being developed and installed initially on twin and quad 40-mm mounts across the fleet. The Mk 49 directors finally made it into fleet service, but were found less effective than the Mk 51 director. In October 1943, production of Mk 49 directors were cancelled. Slowly they were replaced by the Mk 51 director.
As for USS NICHOLAS, O’BANNON, and CHEVALIER (only FLETCHER’s with quad 1.1-in mounts) actually completed without ANY director for the quad 1.1-in mount (as did the new-built BENSON-GLEAVES units with quad 1.1-in mounts). CHEVALIER had a Mk 51 director (and a single 20-mm installed on a centerline platform before the bridge) installed prior to going to the Pacific. NICHOLAS and O’BANNON had Mk 51 directors installed in the South Pacific (exact date unknown). Not a hard task since the wiring had already been installed for either the Mk 49 or Mk 51 director.
Also, all four of the Federal-built units completed with the one deck higher twin 40-mm mount between 53 and 54 mounts (along with the Mk 51 director) had the fantail twin 40-mm mount installed in post-shakedown availabilities. Also, RADFORD due to a grounding accident, was available to get the lower mount installed between 53 and 54 mounts at Norfolk.
I too jumped on getting the new 1/200 USS Fletcher from Trumpeter. It looks to be a fun build. I figured I would start with the smaller Tamiya kit as prototype to work out paint colors and patterns. I also picked up Trumpeter’s 1/350 issue of the USS The Sullivans. Together they will offer the opportunity to experiement with a couple different camouflage patters while refining my masking skills. There are many printed references regarding the Fletcher class to guide the builder in the details. Two that I picked up are from Classic Warships Publishing that profile both the early “round bridge” Fletchers (Warship Pictorial 42) and the later “square bridge” Fletchers (Warship Pictorial 45). Together they offer an extensive photographic record of the weapons and equipment installed on these ship’s throughout their operational careers. What’s amazing to me is that many of these ships saw active service well into the 1960s, a testiment to their exceptional design. As for the real thing, three exist today as museum ships: USS The Sullivans (DD 537) in Buffalo, NY; USS Kidd (DD 661) in Baton Rouge, LA; and USS Cassin Young (DD 793) in Boston, MA.
I cannot imagine building a 1/200 naval vessel but if I were to build one, I would take on a Fletcher class destroyer and build it as the USS Johnston. This will be one impressive build for sure @EdGrune .
Check too Davis’ Round-bridge Fletcher book for Classic Warships for weapon evolution
The kit comes with a round gun tub between 5-inch mounts 53 and 54 and a single twin 40mm to put in that tub, You can get to several other ships if you replace the twin 40 with a 1,1-inch gun. Then you get a second 40mm gun in a tear-drop shaped tub on the fantail. The round raised tub evolved into a lower teardrop shaped tub before ultimately evolving into a D-shaped tub
You also get evolution of an additional 20mm on the bridge face in addition to the existing two forward, You get two or four 20s at the waist, depending on availability
Later there was a heart shaped tub at the fantail with three 20s, or a truncated heart with two
Then there is the evolution if replacing the forward 20s with twin 40s and adding more twin 40s in raised tubs at the waist.
This is all before you get to the anti-Kamikaze fit represented by the Sullivans. It happened on both round and square bridge versions
Don’t get me started on sensors.
The ships were built in multiple yards. While to a set standard there were yard-specific changes and evolution of armament based on availability and stage of the war
I agree with you mustang1989! The heroics of the USS Johnston along with the other destroyers & destroyer escorts involved in the Battle off Samar are worthy of a dedication build.
Absoultely agree with a tribute kit or two to the destroyer and destroyer escort ships of Taffy 3 in particular! Just finished reading The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy’s Finest Hour by James D. Hornfischer. What those destroyers pulled off during the Battle off Samar is the very definition of heroic.
