I've finally finished my 1/240 scale USS Buckley destroyer escort (old Revell kit) - here are 10 pictures
showing various views of the completed model. 9 of the pictures are links (to make things easier for those
with 56k connections, like me) - copy + paste them into your browser to see the image.
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pinniger/models/ship/buckley2.jpg
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pinniger/models/ship/buckley3.jpg
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pinniger/models/ship/buckley4.jpg
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pinniger/models/ship/buckley5.jpg
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pinniger/models/ship/buckley6.jpg
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pinniger/models/ship/buckley7.jpg
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pinniger/models/ship/buckley8.jpg
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pinniger/models/ship/buckley9.jpg
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pinniger/models/ship/buckley10.jpg
As anyone who's built this kit will know, the hull and superstructure
are very detailed + accurate for a 1960s kit (though they don't fit too
well) but the smaller fittings, particularly the armament, are
extremely crude.
I scratchbuilt replacements for all of the armament and some of the
fittings, and added extra detail to most of the original kit parts, but
the hull and main superstructure parts were basically left "out of the
box".
A lot of cleaning up was required - many of the parts have part numbers
and/or ejector pin marks on the joining surfaces, and there were some
nasty seams and sink-marks. The worst offenders were the stanchions
which are attached to a tab slotting between the deck and hull. They
fit very poorly, with a gap of up to 1mm, which I filled with a
combination of styrene strip and gap-filler CA depending on the
thickness of the gap. It really would have been much better if the
stanchions were individually moulded and fitted into holes in the deck.
Most of them snapped off during assembly and had to be glued on in any
case.
Here's a list of all the changes I made to the kit:
- Bevelled the edges of the gun tubs and superstructure shields to give them a thinner appearance. (I didn't really want
to scratchbuild replacements for them all, so this was a reasonable compromise).
- Added some extra details to the searchlights.
- Reshaped the life rafts, and relocated the rear pair of rafts
- Added a replacement canvas cover for the "whaler" lifeboat.
- Added extra detail to the torpedo tubes.
- Reworked the funnel top detail.
- Replaced the bridge "windshield" with a scratchbuilt one using clear styrene sheet.
- Scratchbuilt a replacement torpedo crane.
- Scratchbuilt the gun director, as this part was missing from the kit.
- Scratchbuilt replacement 3' guns. The ones supplied with the kit are rather underscale and very crude in appearance.
- Scratchbuilt a replacement twin 40mm Bofors AA gun mount. Again, the kit parts are very crude and resemble a scaled-down
version of the kit 3' guns.
- Scratchbuilt replacement 20mm Oerlikon AA guns. I originally intended to just improve the kit parts, but eventually
decided they were too crude to be worth it (the shield, breech and base are all moulded together). The C-shaped handles
were made by cutting a thin slice from a 2mm styrene tube, then cutting the slice in half.
- Added a replacement forward flag mast and an additional flag mast at the rear.
- Added railings (metal wire), anchor chain (brass) and rigging (nylon fishing line).
Here's a photo of the unpainted ship to give an idea of the changes made - all the white parts are scratchbuilt.
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pinniger/models/ship/buckley_unpainted1.jpg
It was quite an involved project but well worth it I think. I wish we'd see some new-tool kits of WW2 warships in this
sort of scale! Only Trumpeter seem to be interested in the 1/150-1/200 range however, and most of their kits are of modern
Chinese and Soviet ships.