1/144 USS Fletcher, anybody built it

not hard at all just big!

see my review of build here:

http://www.modelingmadness.com/reviews/misc/ships/robfletch.htm

This now resides at my local VFW hall...

Len

jetmodeler

I thought about getting it and was wondering if it is as good as everybody says it is. If I get it, it will only be my second ship. So I want something that isn't a realllllllllly hard build.

Thanks

James Corley at Nautilus Models gave me one of his square-bridge conversions to review (more later) so I went & picked up a kit today.  I was able to get a decent discount as part of Squadron's EagleQuest event.

Its big,  but it is really no bigger than a 1:350 scale Nimitz carrier.   Like Len noted in his article the hull goes together well.    Also like he notes the individual stanchions and thread railing are too much.    I will probably opt for the Nautilus or Eduard PE

What caught my eye however is the subtle sink marks on the after deck piece imparted by the thicker deck bracing on the under side of the deck.    I may be able to address the problem because, since I'll be doing a square-bridge version, I'm going to be adding the heart-shaped gun tub to the aft deck and updating the K-gun stations.  Removing and replacing the details may lessen the appearance of the sink marks.  

Revell calls the kit a level 5 (most demanding) kit,   probably due to the number of small parts.   If you've build a bunch of models including some of the current armor kits with their small parts you can probably handle this one.    I would say that the skills required are more akin to those used by armor modelers.   Its my opinion that plastic ship kits in  1:144 and larger are more akin to armor than to ship models in the smaller scale.   Skills which you may acquire building may not directly transfer to smaller scale kits

Thanks.