1/125 scale Battleship

Boy, did you ever walk into a minefield... While I hate to sound like I've got an ego (who me?) I wrote an article a number of years ago about all the things you need to do to the Lindbergh kit...it's located here:

http://www.steelnavy.com/BDFletcher.htm

Recommendations about the Lindbergh kit...give it to a neighbor kid and go out and buy the Bluejacket 1/192 Fletcher if you want an accurate one. You've heard they're bad, well, you're right, they're bad. As for aftermarket, the only stuff out there are the white metal 20mm and 40mm AA guns from HR Products, available through the Floating Drydock (www.floatingdrydock.com). The parts are a marginal improvement at best, and it takes HR centuries to get stuff to Floating Drydock.

Information about the Fletchers...well, there's a book out there called Warship Perspectives: Fletcher, Gearing and Sumner Class Destroyers in WW2, written by some fella named Herne...it has camo design sheets, detail photos, line drawings, and a complete listing of ships of the class, hull numbers, mods made to the ships (like Emergency AA fits and bridge types), and all sorts of trivial stuff.

As for Fletchers in the Aleutians...nope, sorry. Fletchers operated in the central and south Pacific with the carriers. By the time the Aleutians were secured, the Fletchers were needed elsewhere. I'm sure there were instances of one or two passing through the region while en route, but the Aleutians received many of the slower, older destroyers that weren't able to keep up with the task groups.

As for decals, well, all you'll need are hull numbers and draft marks, and those can be had in generic forms in various scales. The numbers should not be more than 24" high in scale...so you can probably get away with 1/48 USAF style numbers. No one does any that are custom, although you might be able to find some in a closer scale, say 1/96 or 1/100.

Good news is...if you're still deciding to plow ahead with this project...is that I can help you out, having been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt. Tom's Modelworks is also preparing a photoetched detail set specifically for this model. It's to be a limited run, so you might want to contact him if you're interested in getting one.

Hope that answers your questions.

OK. Just to start an argument, I disagree with Jeff. Not because of any factual error. Everything he said was true. I disagree with his conclusions. This is an excellent "First Model. It's comparatively simple and straight-forward.

It gives the novice a chance to get familiar with the different glues and how they behave. And, how best to use them.

Parts are large enough to be easy to handle. Which means they're easy to paint before installation. Also the size makes painting easier, and errors easier to spot and correct. You lean what to look for, in a finished paint job.

No matter how badly it turns out, you can still throw it in the river and watch it run around in circles.

And, lastly, it' also give the first timer a chance to try his/her hand at R/Cing a model.

Just one final point. It's been my experience that, (if you stay away from modelers) even people who have visited a real Fletcher museum ship, will comment on how close it is to the real thing. People don't really see as much as they think they do.

If you're planning to take the finished model down to the local museum for display, Jeff is spot on. But if you're just getting you feet wet and want to try a model for fun, I think this model is a great start.

Let the rock throwing begin.
"Bridge. From the Captain; "Dive the boat"" (Translation: "I'm outa here!")
Mike K.

Why you...I oughta....

Actually, put both of our posts together and you've nailed the complete answer. We tend to lose track of things like that...you do this for so long that you forget that not everyone wants to build something that'll win the Nats.

My Fletcher was actually the second one I've done, I did one back in the 70s along with the Lindbergh Bismarck. Had a great time sailing them on the pond, changing cam gears and waiting for it to drift back to shore after making a dozen figure-eights and wearing the batteries down. Back then, it didn't matter if it was accurate, it was cool...

Jeff

Jeff ... did we grow up together? I did the same thing with the same ships (but in the late 60s) and after they were broke and fixed a hundred times, we learned how to acquire and destroy targets with a Daisy pump. The Blue Devil took a lot more rounds to sink than KM Bismarck, though.

Late 60s...early 70s...it's all a big blur...

I think my first encounter with the Lindbergh kit was about 1974...my recollection of the Revell 1/32 Corsair goes back to about 1972...

Not too bad considering I can't remember what I had for lunch today...lol.

JH

Man the 1/32 corsair!

I musta built that kit a dozen times as a kid. Baa Baa Black sheep combat and more!

Ric

Is really bad enough that I should give it away? I mean, I put down good money for it(apparently more than I should have). I don't really want to put the motors in it, as I simply build models to display them(or, if they were bad, shove them full of firecrackers). My local hobby store might buy it, but there is no one in my general area who builds models I could dump it on. I thought the size might be good, but now that I think about, I don't really have anywhere to put it!! Thanks anyways. On another note, collectors, tell me how much I should try to sell it for.

About the Fletchers not serving in Alaska, I found this website:
http://www.answers.com/topic/uss-abner-read
I don't know if this is correct or not, but this is where I got the information from.

Well whattya know...

I stand corrected. :-)

Jeff

QUOTE: Originally posted by modelingmonkey On another note, collectors, tell me how much I should try to sell it for.

I'm not a collecter, but one of my local shops has one on sale for 4,000 yen, which is about $37 USD.

I feel I have just been gipped out of a lot of money. And the moral of the story is, never buy a model from the gift shop of the museum.

How much did you pay for it?
This is one ship model I'd really like to add to my collection (along with the Flower-class corvette, which I'll probably buy in the fairly near future as it's quite widely available in shops here) but it isn't available anywhere in the UK.
Some US eBay sellers have it, but it's such a large, heavy kit that the postage costs to the UK would probably be horrendous, even if you don't get stuck with customs/import fees.

I know that it's inaccurate and the detail is poor, but I was intending simply to use the hull and as much of the superstructure and other parts as were salvageable, and scratchbuild the rest! This is what I plan to do with the 1/350 Lindberg HMS Hood I bought recently (similarly inaccurate and basic, but available widely and cheaply here in the UK now).

It would seem to me that Modeling Monkey needs to email Drawde and discuss things...

Jeff

Biggest problem: the deck is too long for the hull. It is going to require major sanding for it to fit.

Drawde, to answer your question: too much. But more acurately, about $70(about 40 pounds)

Jeff, sorry about changing the topic here. But just recently purchased the Tamiya 1/350 Fletcher. Need some reference material, and it sounds like your book might just be right up my alley. Have any ideas where I might be able to pick myself up a copy?

Mike Gray HTC USN Ret.

You can pick up my book through Pacific Front Hobbies, White Ensign Hobbies, Floating Drydock, or some of the better stocked local shops.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, appreciate the help.

Mike

Speaking of old Lindberg kits, my friend and I back in the early 70's recreated the Hood/Bismarck battle. I bought the Lindberg 1/350 Hood, he bought the Bismarck. (It was actually the Tirpitz, but close enough for us) Inside the hull, we made "waterproof" compartments and even came up with an idea for armor plating where we lamimated strips of aluminum cut from soda cans between two pieces of bulsa wood and epoxyed them to the inside of the hull. Each of our interior compartment designs were "Top Secret" but each of us had to use only approved (mutually agreed upon) materials. When we were finished we took our ships down to an old farm pond near our house that was about knee deep. The ships were motorized, so we'd set the rudders to run in a long lazy circle, stepped back onto the shore, and pumped up our trusty Crossman BB guns and fired away. After one of them sank, we'd wade out to the ships, retrieve them, repair the damage, and have at it again. Sometimes we'd have to scratch build pieces that got obliterated by a direct hit. It was a lot of fun. We did that a total of three times before there was not much left to either ship. Sorry to say, the Hood lost those three battles as well. Though the Bismarck was reduced to just a floating hull on two of those battles. I managed to blow away her entire superstructure on the last battle, but just could not get in enough waterline shots. And all of this was before RC naval combat became popular. But, Lindberg kits were perfect for that sort of thing. Not much detail, and what there was was thick and bulky. For that reason, no matter what they look like, Lindberg kits will always hold a soft spot in my heart.

I never did the BB gun thing, or firecrackers for that matter. I usually broke the crap out of my models by playing with them.

By the way Jeff...You act like you wrote the book AND the article on the Fletchers!

Ric

I have the Blue Devil and I'm gonna have a go at it. I read that fella's book, what his name... Oh, yeah...Herne and viewed his web tutorial before i even considered buying it. Lot's of good info and lot's of work ahead of me.
So, Jeff, er excuse me, Mr. Herne... If I go crazy sometime in the next few year building and reworking this hunk of plastic, I'm sending my pet goldfish after you!!!
Thanks for the inspiration!!!

By the way Jeff...You act like you wrote the book AND the article on the Fletchers!

You can't prove a thing, I wasn't even in the Navy yard at the time...err....

My grandfather served on the Cushing (DD-797), so I've always had a fondness for Fletchers. When I wrote the book in '96-'97, I realized that I had compiled all the of the information I needed to fix the Lindbergh kit, which had been sitting on my shelf for some time. When you immerse yourself in writing a book, you learn alot about the technical side of the ships, their fits, design doctrines, etc...but when you couple that with trying to correct a model, and not trusting the accuracy of anything in the kit, you learn about the visual aspects of the ships as well.

So while I will never venture to say that I've done anything definitive in the Fletcher-history world, I can say that I've done my fair share of research. Does that make me an expert? No way...but I certainly have enough resources at my disposal to answer most questions about the class, at least until 1945. After that, forget it, I'm clueless.

A couple of other things...I've never been intimidated by goldfish...trout, salmon, walleye, and the occasional bass, yes, goldfish, no. And Mister Herne is my father....

Have a good weekend !

Jeff

You wont believe this, I was hosting a yard sale today at Graceland, (err Rhinelander, yeah Rhinelander) and this elderly gentleman walks up looking at my Revell USS Ward I had for sale. He then tells me he served on the Fletcher back in WWII. We chatted for a little while till his wife dragged him off. Really nice to meet a vet and just yack for awhile.

Ric

Hope you don't mind me asking this, but (to Modelingmonkey) - are you intending to build the kit? If not, I might be interested
in buying it.

No problems at all if you do want to build it, I just couldn't bear the thought of it being blown up with firecrackers :D

(I don't think I could EVER do that to a model I built :D - old/unwanted models, such as the ones I built years ago before I'd heard of things like acrylic paint, filler putty and masking tape (or even sandpaper and retouching paintwork for that matter) usually end up being either broken up for spares, used for testing paint schemes, donated to friends, or sold on eBay as a "scrapyard" lot in the hope that someone else will be able to restore them or use them for spare parts)

Drawde

There are 2 Blue Devils on Ebay ending today or tomorrow at $22 and change.

They don't show up on any searches so I assume that they don't ship to the UK/Europe. (either that or they've ended now).
There's one for sale in Belgium, but it has a starting bid of around £35, excluding postage.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Drawde Hope you don't mind me asking this, but (to Modelingmonkey) - are you intending to build the kit? If not, I might be interested in buying it. No problems at all if you do want to build it, I just couldn't bear the thought of it being blown up with firecrackers :D

Hey, it was the 4th of July here, and I still have several large fire-crackers and a monsterous 1000-cracker "land mine". Ka-Boom

QUOTE: Originally posted by Drawde Hope you don't mind me asking this, but (to Modelingmonkey) - are you intending to build the kit? If not, I might be interested in buying it. No problems at all if you do want to build it, I just couldn't bear the thought of it being blown up with firecrackers :D

Hey, it was the 4th of July here, and I still have several large fire-crackers and a monsterous 1000-cracker "land mine". Ka-Boom

Stupid internet connection. But, no, I don't even blow up my old models; you know, the ones we all have: no paint, no decals, seam lines a cm high. Suddenly I have a strong to desire to get out the fire-crackers.