DD-670 USS Dortch 1-350, Take two (Complete, pg 2)

Hello everybody,

This is my next project, and it's a revisit to an old project.  I built this rendition of the USS Dortch in 2007 & 2008, and it looked good.  I was very happy with it, and it was my first and only ship.  

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/7/t/86108.aspx?page=2

However, that model got destroyed in an unfortunate accident in which nobody got hurt.  An entire glass display case got knocked over.  It had about a dozen models in it, including this destroyer.  The incident could have easily injured somebody, and I'm glad that didn't happen.    

I'll take more pictures as I go, but this is what I have so far.  It is the hull from Tamiya's 1:350 USS Fletcher, and it has superstructure parts from Trumpeter's USS The Sullivans.  

L'Arsenal resin weapons sets have been washed of mold release.  These include the 5-inch 38 calibre turrets, 40mm Bofors, 20mm Oerlikons, and gun directors.  I have the Gold Medal Model's Fletcher class destroyer PE set, and I've ordered GMM Floater net baskets and fire hoses.  I'm going overboard. 

I believe that this is the Dortch leaving New Jersey for fitting out at Bethlehem Steel on Staten Island, NY.  I believe that fitting out included reshaping the gun tubs under the bridge to accommodate twin Boffors.  (I'm relying on unfamiliar references in timing and dating these photos, but they seem legit.)

I believe that this picture shows the Dortch in the Pacific between 43 and late March 1945.  She recieved the Kamakaze anti-aircraft fitting in San Francisco starting in March '45, so I know it's before then.  I do wish this photo wasn't so grainy.

Just for the heck of it.  Here is a picture of her postwar.

There are very few wartime photos available of this ship.  I have found two more photos in my reference books, and they both show the vessel as she was being refitted in San Francisco in March and April of 1945.  I will reference from other square bridge Fletchers, and I'll pay special attention to Kearny, NJ built vessels.  I intend to build the vessel as she looked on February 18, 1945, when she sunk the Japanese auxiliary submarine chaser Ayukawa Maru northwest of Iwo Jima.