Two South Pacific Destroyers Refight Vella Gulf in 1/700: Complete Build

In this project I wanted to model two of the most famous destroyers of the Pacific War: USS Maury and IJN Shigure. Although both ships we in the thick of things throughout the war (Shigure was sunk by submarine in January 1945) both made their mark in the vicious surface engagements that characterized the South Pacific Theater from August 1942 until January 1944. They met once at the Battle of Vella Gulf in August 1943. In this battle (at night as they all were) six US destroyers with Maury in the attack van ambushed four Japanese destroyers including Shigure that were evacuating Japanese troops from a bypassed garrison. Three Japanese destroyers were struck by torpedoes before a gun was fired and sank. Shigure survived because it was struck by a dud. A small battle, but it signified that the US had worked out its problems with doctrine and technical problems with torpedoes and radar. From this point forward the USN had a clear superiority in night combat – the only form of naval warfare that Japan had shown an edge until this time. As the US fleet built in size, this turn of events left Japanese naval power inferior in every way and prepared the crushing American maritime offensive of 1944-45.

The Kits:

At the start I should mention that I didn't have the kind of photo record of Maury or Shigure that I would have liked. I found more photos of other Gridley's but not many in 1943 garb. Things were worse with Shigure. The Japanese photo record, especially in color, doesn't compare with the USN's. The best photos of Japanese destroyers were prewar. I did know from the records that Shigure had all of its main mounts at Vella Gulf and that was a help. I bought Mark Stille's USN Destroyer Vs IJN Destroyer: Pacific 1943 (Duel) but the IJN photo record there was disappointing. The best reference for Shigure (and a good one for Maury) came from models displayed on the Model Warship Gallery. Of equal benefit was the Japanese model vendor site 1999 that includes PDF files of instructions of most of their kits. Pit Road and Fujimi had four Shiratsuyu kits, one with full PE, and I was able to look at things in far greater detail than would have been possible. I really must buy a kit from this place – it's not the first time I've used it as a resource.

Both models were critized on the boards and for good reason. The Midship Models “Gridley” was the only choice in styrene for Maury. At first glance everything looked okay if a little simple. For some reason the instructions that came with Gridley made calls to parts clearly intended to build a Benham. You know the advice you get to examine the instructions and parts closely before starting? I learned it was good. The Benham funnel was so badly off I was thinking of junking the project. Fortunately after looking closely it was clear that fully half the parts were not referred to in the instructions and one was an alternate funnel that was pretty close to a Gridley. There was also an octagonal top for the rear deckhouse which mounted 20mm flak and was adequate. A flak mount that was directly rear of the mount was also there although unmentioned. But vague instructions were only a part of the story. The parts fit miserably and it wasn't until I was nearly done that it was clear that the deckhouse was set much too far back and had to be moved to the middle so the torpedo launchers would fit. I also scratch built a rear segment of the bridge superstructure. I was greatly helped because I had bought Dragon's 1/700 Benham Class Monssen/Livermore 1942 1+1 kits. In almost every case the DML parts were much better molded so I stole as many as possible: rafts, a boat and davits, complex deck fittings near the rear main mounts, the 5” director, the 20mm guns and shields and the 20mm tubs meant for the side of the funnel. (In general I added several parts to both models to simply add to clutter: one thing clear about the photo record is that destroyers carried all sorts of stuff and were hopelessly untidy.) The DML mast was complex but much too fragile and it's radar was lame so I scratch built both masts with brass rod, styrene strips and wire mesh. There was some DML PE and I grabbed a couple of ladders, a funnel grill, mounts for rafts, some deck fittings and properller guards. (Why didn't I build one of the DML destroyers? Clearly they were vastly superior kits but none were at Vella Gulf.) Railing turned into a little adventure. I had some WEM 1/700 “Fine” rails and ladders. I found these things hard to use and harder to keep undamaged. Fortunately I had some WEM generic ladders and rails and these were more rugged and worked wonderfully.

I have grown very fond of water based acrylics and used them on Maury. For Navy Blue I used Vallejo Model Color Luftwaffe Uniform lightened with Model Color Light Blue Gray for scale and modulation. I used Life Color Deck Blue and Light Gray for the deck. I don't like enamels but I've bought several tins of WEM to use as paint samples including Navy and Deck Blue. If WEM has it right, so did I for the base coat, although one can question the use of scale and modulation. What's striking about the two WEM colors is that they're certainly not the same, but they are similar. And no matter how you cut it, they're both grays. Grays will drive your eyes nuts. Grays will drive your camera nuts. So depending upon the lighting or point of view I would have described the model as light blue or gray. (The photos will illustrate some of this.) I applied three coats of progressively lighter Navy and Deck Blues – the third only on places where sunlight would clearly show. After completion I airbrushed the model with Future to prepare for weathering. Here are steps along the way:

Tamiya's old Shiriyatsuyu also won no praise on the boards. I can't defend the choice other than to note that when I bought the model I had never heard of Pit Road and had not stumbled on Fujimi's kits. Tamiya's kit shows its age and is lean on details. The front portion of the hull was poorly formed and I didn't have hand or courage to replicate both rows of portholes near the bow. (All portholes in both kits were either opened or greatly deepened with a pin vice. None were marked on Shigure so I copied them from other kits.) Dragon had no kits to help me out, but somewhere along the line Tamiya added a fret to their “Waterline” series of ships that included new molds of a number of likely parts for cruisers and destroyers. I used many including new turrets, flak, search lights. There were no markings on the deck so I applied some thin styrene strips to serve as brass fittings to keep the linoleum on. Although I used the styrene braces, I did scratch brass masts. On this matter I did not follow most models that showed Shiratsuyu carrying very elaborate and steeply angled yards, but opted for a much simpler configuration I found in the photo record.

I bought a set of generic 1/700 “IJN Destroyer” PE from Tom's Modeworks. I like Tom's stuff a lot and found this set very helpful. However, after looking at other models and the instructions mentioned it was clear that Shigure's weapons mounts had ladders and grab handles all over them. I dissected some WEM railing and applied it in several places. I also added diminished railings to all of the structures. I used an amputated 1/350 railing for my old Konig to serve as a degaussing cable which I believed was carried by all WWII IJN warships – the stanchion nubs emulated the cable clamps pretty well.

The painting was a serious experiment. I haven't used solvent based paints for over a year despite having maybe 25 bottles of Tamiya or Gunze. I had a perfect match with Vallejo Basalt Gray but used Tamiya Sasebo Arsenal and Linoleum instead. I lightened the Arsenal with Light Gray and Linoleum with Buff. Shigure also got three progressively lighter coats on both hull and deck. However, I knew Shigure was going to get some heavy weathering so on the hull sections I also used salt fading. This technique looks heavy handed at first, but after the dust settles adds to the mottled look that a faded paint job will have. I like it a lot and use it on aircraft and tanks if it suits the emulation desired. After completion (or near completion: I put on prop guards, masts and boats after weathering and before rigging) there was a coat of Future. Here's Shigure coming along:

Weathering and Rigging

I had the privalege in the 90s to interview approximately 200 US and Australian veterans of the South and Southwest Pacific theaters – many of them sailors. One subject came up quickly when talking with a South Pacific veteran regardless of duty: heat. Destroyers in this theater were also very busy. What this meant in practice is that the vessels involved were moving through salt water at good speed, subject to blazing sunlight every day, and poured on intermittently day and night. Add to that the movement of large numbers of men in very small places operating lubricated machinery in wartime conditions and the result is not spit and polish. This realization alone, well buttressed by the US (particularly color) photo record argued for some serious weathering.

But how serious? For this question the memoirs of Russell Crenshaw on Maury and Shigure's DesRon commander Tameichi Hara's memoirs were very helpful. Crenshaw noted that Maury was brought to a temporary dry dock on New Caledonia in early July 1943 and given SG radar and a scrapped bottom. I would assume that meant a fresh dose of Measure 21. That said, I doubt Maury was made ready for the Detroit Auto Show and it returned for several weeks of busy duty before Vella Gulf. Thus, what I was aiming for was streaking (which I see on every tanker I drive by five days a week at the Richmond CA oil terminal) and an uneven color on hull and deck to reflect sun, rain, machinery and lots of footprints. I did not want, as they say in the armor world, to “distress” the ship. That's why I didn't use salt fading. You will also notice there is no rust. Weathering went like this. With all ships I use filters to give depth to the base coat. In this case it was thinned AK Wash for German Gray (Panzergrau has a distinct blue tint) and it worked very nicely. For pinwash I used transparent black Iwata Com.Art paint. I really like this stuff for weathering. It leaves a kind of grimy finish and because it doesn't hold well to plastic it is very easy to add or remove. On the deck I also used Iwata trasparant light dust mixed with transparent blue-gray smoke to lighten some parts, and darken others. The idea is always to leave an unevenly colored surface. For the hull I was content to use some light oil paint fading. That succeeded nicely in fading the surface and breaking the color plane. That was about it. Here's an example:

Shigure received rougher treatment. A look at the ship's Tabulation of Movement on the Combined Fleet web site showed a very busy vessel. When Hara first made Shigure his flag in July 1943 he described her as “old”, “decrepit” and “sadly in need of maintenance.” To make the model fit this description I decided on serious fading, prominent streaking, rust and some salt. As noted, the photo record wasn't there to act as a solid guide. However, some photos did get me thinking: two ironically from US vessels. Below are pics of an IJN submarine immediately after surrender at sea in August 1945, a neat photo of “salt encrusted” Maury (the description is from Crenshaw's book) and a color photo of USS Buchanan in 1942 which shows how salt shows up along the waterline:

Lastly there was railing and rigging. I used WEM generic railings and ladders on Maury. Shigure's railing came from Tom's. The rigging was an education. For Maury I tried a braided monofilament that promised good strength and small diameter. As a fisherman I should have known what would happen. Because braided line gets its strength because its a bonded braid of several lines, it was almost impossible to trim. It also was no thinner than 2lb mono – too big for 1/700. So I pulled it all off and rigged Maury again with X7 fly fishing tippet which is about .1mm in diameter and 50 denier. I used the same material for some of Shigure. Then I decided to try to use the 20 denier Uni-Caenis line recommended by Mr. Griffith after past failures. Because the stuff is so thin it lacks tactile feel completely which makes it very hard to direct. (It's also extremely hard to see: I broke out 3.75 reading glasses and worked with my nose in the funnel. I did have an epiphany. I put a piece of white typing paper behind the ship and presto I could see the line – sometimes.) However, I found that if there were attachment points that the line had one huge advantage: once in a simple slip knot, it will tighten completely with very little pressure. If a knot can hold both ends, one is really home free. I did use rubber cement although I'd guess thinned white glue would be just as good. A mini-drop of CA also went on. There is very little residue in attachment so a lot of connections can be made near the same spot. Because of my braided line calamity I bought a pair of Dr. Slick Razor Scissors which are beyond sharp. I've never seen anything like them and trimming was possible with more precision than I'm used to. So about 2/3ds of Shigure is rigged with Uni. It appears to me that rigging line is not all the same thickness regardless so it looks fine. To make matters better, it appears that the warm incense tightens the Uni: it certainly does the tippet mono. Anyway, in future I'll be thinking of installing attachment points during the build process to employ much later when rigging. It is this kind of advance planning that has taken me a long time to learn in ship modeling.

Below are some more pics. The last one is a photo to show how tiny these things are, but instead of using a quarter for comparison, I parked both ships under the wings of my 1/48 build of the wonderful Accurate Miniatures TBM dressed in Atlantic service uniform.

Eric