fletcher calss destroyer

Check out the Revell 1/144 scale Fletcher.  It is a thing of beauty, and is large enough for anyone!

Bill Morrison

Unfortunately for the big Revell kit,  the USS Trathan was a square-bridge Fletcher,  The bigt Revell is a round-bridge version.    If you want to go the big Fletcher route you will need to spring for the Nautilus Models resin square-bridge conversion plus aftermarket guns.

It may be cheaper to go with a Yankee Modelworks resin square-bridge kit in 1:350 scale.   It will have all the parts necessary to build a Trathan without having to cobble together aftermarket bits

You didn't mention what year to want to model the ship for. There were many upgrades to many of these "greatest destroyers" of all times.When I desided to model the USS INGERSOLL DD652 ,I bought the Tamiya,round bridge.kit and got Tom's square bridge conversion kit.I had started work on it when Trumpter came out with the USS The SULLIVANS,DD537,square bridge kit and I bought it.As a matter of fact I bought 4 of them as I wanted to model my ship as seen in '43,'55 &'65. I used most of the Trumpter kit with a few parts from the Tamiya kit,bought some PE frets and did alot of scratch building.There are several after market parts out there to assist you in making the ship close to what you want,but depending how accurate you want to be you'll have to scratch build several yourself. These are in 1/350 scale by the way.I have managed to get a set of 1943 construction dwgs and a set of ship yard dwgs for 1965 when we came out of dry dock for upgrades. I agree with the eyes getting old !!!

 I have completed the 1965 version up to 95% and started on the 1943-44 version. If I could figure out how to get some pics on here I would.

 Good luck on your project.

Haze Grey and Under Way

The Trumpeter USS The Sullivans, coupled with the L'Arsenal resin and PE upgrade set, builds into a nice square bridge Fletcher in 1/350.  I haven't checked the price of the upgrade set recently but at last year's prices, both ship and set were less than $100.00 totalled.  I converted mine into the USS Morrison.

Pacific Front Hobbies usually carries the set.  You can check them out, as well as other distributors at www.steelnavy.com.

Bill Morrison

thanks all. I checked out all of the kits mentioned and decided to go with the big Revell kit with square bridge convertion. even at 1/350 scale, she would only be just over 12" long. A bit on the small size. wasn't to worried about a specific time period as this ship is for my father-in-law who bears the same last name. My wife found the info that there was a ship with the name "Trathen" and asked me to see if there was a kit available to build for her dad. So here we are. i will be building her as she looked at commissioning. Now how cool is this to have a wife that not only puts up with my hobby, but encourages it and in this case is willing to fund it!!!

Now that you've sprung for the big Revell kit and the square-bridge conversion --- there arn't enough guns in the box.    You'll need to go farther down the aftermarket route.   

The Trathan spent most of her career with 5x40mm twins and 7x20mm singles.    John Snyder at WEM has said that they're working on some resin/white metal/brass of the twin 40's.    But their held up by caster resources.    Ernie Gee of G-Force models has some cast brass twin 40s that he sells with a Mk51 director, 20mm, and ready service locker.   They're currently available.

I checked out G-force models,but all they had listed was figures and busts. maybe i was at the wrong site ? a link to their site would help. I'll keep looking. thanks

http://store.spruebrothers.com/1144-g-factor-fletcher-armament-rev-kit-14402-p23943.aspx

Check with Sprue Brothers on expected availability.   They're currently out of stock

cool. so it was g-Factor not g-force. so i wasen't going crazy. lol  thanks for the link Ed.

Hi ;  I will say this, the REVELL kit is nice but I am overwhelmed with ships of a large size. I did as many who answered the post have suggested. I bought 4 TAMIYA kits and 2 TRUMPETER kits. I wound up with a square bridge FLETCHER and a round bridge version as well as two full on conversions of late war FLETCHERS . There are so many ways you can go with this ship. Some were (in 1959) still in service. I got to go aboard one . What a difference between it and my ship a frammed GEARING ! I wish you luck on the project  .     tankerbuilder