The 14 hour Fletcher...

Jeff:
Whenever I hear these stories it motivates me to model.
Good on you,
Bruce

I got a call from him the day after Christmas thanking me...The first question I asked was 'What ship were you on??' and explained the lack of hull number as being too obvious as to give away the surprise. When I told him I was playing 20 questions with his daughter....'Does Fletcher sound familiar? How about Nicholas, Radford, Jenkins, O'Bannon??? He got a big kick out of the that...

Much to my surprise, I found out that he actually was on the O'Bannon, so I sent him a set of waterslide decals of '450' today. He insures me he's done decals before and he promises not to mess it up...

Although the money was nice...it really means alot to hear someone 1200 miles away get choked up because you took time to model 'his' ship correctly. Had I had more time, I would have put 40-60 hours into it really done it justice... but then again, I don't think he really cares, he's got his ship model.

Happy New Year folks...and if you make any kind of New Year's resolution, build a model for a vet...you'll be happy you did, whether you get paid for it or not.

Jeff

Jeff:
Just out of curiosity, did the plank owner supply the hull number for you to add later?
Regards,
Bruce

Gotta look at individual ships...my photos of O'bannon show her with camo on the turret tops when she was working up (without her SC or FC radars) but show her turret tops dark blue going under the Golden Gate bridge en route to the Pacific...

The plankowner also stated that he remembers the turret tops being blue when she was in her dapple pattern...since I built it for him, that's the way it went, accurate or not... :-)

J

Jeff I noticed you painted the tops of the 5" gun mounts and Torpedo Tubes Deck Blue. How common was this during the war? My refs say to paint as part of the cammo. Just wondering, guess it really doesn't matter too much.

Go to a craft store and spend $8 on a pre-cut wooden name board...these are the boards you put the numbers and letters on for your house...ya know 'The Hernes' or #43...

A $12 tube of acrylic gel medium and you're good to go...I cut the hull, glued it to the board and poured some resin inside...let it kick, attached the deck, and built it right on the board. Painted it, and sprayed the board with deck blue and navy blue left over from the airbrush... Once the major building was done, I added the gel medium and went to sleep, when I woke up, it was dry. Finished the model, rails, etc, and Dullcoted it...put a wash of blue paint over the gel medium, added the white for the wake and bow wave, then coated it in Future floor wax. And done....

The base is the easy part...

Jeff

Hey, the money was good. But remember, you just got one more happy father for Christmas. That was the best return on both you Jeff and your customer.

Noel

Yeah, it's the diorama base that would throw me,...
I am used to just setting my models right into the pond. :D

All that and a diorama base too! You're a scary dude Jeff ...
Regards,
Bruce

truely amazing that you pulled it of in only 14 hours, guess the paint still must have been wet when she came to pick it up : )

Extremly nice job. I have a shop full of woodworking tools and it probably woud have taken me that long to just do the base.

When it rains, it pours. Sounds great about that commission. I like ones where there are not a lot of required details.

If it were any other time of year, no dice...she would have had to wait in line...but it's Christmas, and I used the money to get the missus a new living room set (well, a good portion of it anyways).

So chalk on up for the modeler!!

Jeff

Nice job Jeff. Just think I've got one I've been working on for 2 and a half months.

Nice job, Jeff. I think she got her money's worth.