Revell 1:306 Fletcher Re-issue

RTimmer

Hi All,

I saw that this kit is now available.  Anyone built this in the past or can otherwise comment on whether this can be built into a reasonably accurate Fletcher?  I did a quick check of Gold Medal, Tom['s Modelworks, and WEM which leads me to the conclusion there is no AM PE for this kit.

Thanks, Rick

You got it. 1:300-ish is a bast**d scale which is not supported by the aftermarket manufacturers.   350 scale is still 14% too small and will just not look right.

Took the time to do a bit-o-research on the kit.    According to Rajen's Kit List it dates back to 1954, and was originally boxed as USS The Sullivans.  It has also been sold time to time as the Fletcher and Radford.    It is NOT a pantograph of their 1:144 kit.  Pictures of the kit from the Revell website show it to be a square-bridge variant.   That would be correct for the Sullivans.  However the picture also shows a large shaded (i.e. postwar) 445 on the bow.   That would make it the Fletcher.   The Fletcher was a round-bridge variant - so the kit is incorrect there (but back in the 50s how were you supposed to know that?)

Pictures show sloped sides on the 5" gun houses.   This was the available injection molding technology of the mid-50s.   The gunhouses should have veritcal sides.  They need some attention.  The secondary armament needs to be addressed too, ditto: directors,  quint torpedo tubes, depth charges... 

The MSRP for the re-release of the Fletcher is 26 USD.    Even though it has problems of its own, the Trumpeter 1:350 Fletcher kit, sold as the USS The Sullivans, is about 35.  It is a square-bridge.    The Tam round-bridge Fletcher is also about 30 - 35.   You can find other prices by shopping.    If youu want a reasonable representation of a Fletcher-class destroyer, with aftermarket support - go with either the Tam or Trump.   If you want nostalgia - go with Revell

Thanks, Ed - excellent synopsis.  I have to say that the attraction was partly out of nostalgia, but nostalgia tempered by a desire for a modest level of accuracy.  I may get it anyway, forego the accuracy and simply go for a quick, fun build.  I have both the Trumpeter and Tamiya 1:350 Fletcher kits as well.

Cheers, Rick

Rick:

The Revell 1:301 Fletcher DD is a rather old kit and may be one of the earliest kits offerred by Revell.

Typical of kits at that time, there aren't very many parts to it and the amount of detail is very limited (the two quad 40mm mounts in the waist and the twin 40's are plastic blobs with gun barrels, the twin 20mm mounts are basically flat blobs that mount on raised pins in the waist, and the single 5"/38 mounts are very simplistic).  The hull is a flat-bottomed just below the waterline and is a general approximation of a Fletcher hull - no shafts and props.

 If you just want to build the kit for the sake of nostalgia, go ahead, but if you're looking to turn it into a serious model of a late-war, square bridge, radar picket DD, I'm afraid that you have a bit of a challenge ahead.

Mike