Fletcher Class Destroyer- 1/350 Tamiya

[MichaelHoffman]

Well, little did I know that this would be a serious research project on top of building a true to history diorama. First some History.



The Fletcher class was a class of destroyers built by the United States during World War II. The class was designed in 1939, as a result of dissatisfaction with the earlier destroyer leader types of the Porter and Somers classes. Some went on to serve during the Korean War and into the Vietnam War.

The United States Navy commissioned 175 Fletcher-class destroyers between 1942 and 1944, more than any other destroyer class, and the design was generally regarded as highly successful. Fletchers had a design speed of 38 knots, and an armament of five 5" guns in single mounts with 10 21" torpedoes in two quintuple centerline mounts. The Allen M. Sumner and Gearing classes were Fletcher derivatives.

The long-range Fletcher-class ships performed every task asked of a destroyer, from anti-submarine warfare and anti-aircraft warfare to surface action. They could cover the vast distances required by fleet actions in the Pacific. In fact, they served almost exclusively in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II, during which they accounted for 29 Imperial Japanese Navy submarines sunk. In a massive effort, the Fletchers were built by shipyards across the United States and, after World War II ended, 11 were sold to countries they had been built to fight against: Italy, Germany, and Japan, as well as other navies, where they would go on to have even longer, distinguished careers.
The Fletcher class (named for Admiral Frank F. Fletcher) was the largest class of destroyer ordered, and was also one of the most successful and popular with the destroyer men themselves. Compared to earlier classes built for the Navy, they carried a significant increase in anti-aircraft weapons and other weaponry, which caused displacements to rise. Their flush deck construction added structural strength, although it did make them rather cramped, as less space was available below decks compared with a raised forecastle.
The Fletcher-class was the first generation of destroyers designed after the series of Naval Treaties that had limited ship designs heretofore. The growth in the design was in part to answer a question that always dogged U.S. Navy designs, that being the long range required by operations in the Pacific Ocean. They were also to carry no less than five 5 in (127 mm) guns and ten deck-mounted torpedo tubes on the centerline, allowing them to meet any foreign design on equal terms. Compared to earlier designs, the Fletchers were large, allowing them to eventually absorb the addition of two 40 mm Bofors quadruple mount AA guns as well as six 20 mm Oerlikon dual AA gun positions. This addition to the AA suite required the deletion of the forward quintuple torpedo mount, a change done under the 4 April 1945 anti-kamikaze program.
Fletchers were also much less top-heavy than previous classes, allowing them to take on additional equipment and weapons without major redesign. They were fortunate in catching American production at the right moment, becoming "the" destroyer design, and only Fletcher-class derivatives, the Sumner and Gearing classes, would follow it. The first design inputs were in the fall of 1939 from questionnaires distributed around design bureaus and the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. The design parameters were the armaments desired of the next destroyer. As such, the questions were of how many guns, torpedoes, and depth charges were seen as desirable. Also asked was at what point would the design grow large enough to become a torpedo target instead of a torpedo delivery system. The answer that came back was that five 5 in (127 mm) dual purpose guns, twelve torpedoes, and twenty-eight depth charges would be ideal, while a return to the 1500-ton designs of the past was seen as undesirable. Speed requirements varied from 35 to 38 kn (40 to 44 mph; 65 to 70 km/h), and shortcomings in the earlier Sims class, which were top heavy and needed lead ballast to correct it, caused the Fletcher design to be widened by 18 in (46 cm) of beam. As with other previous U.S. flush deck destroyer designs, seagoing performance suffered. This was mitigated by deployment to the Pacific Ocean, which is relatively calm.
To achieve 38 kn (44 mph; 70 km/h) with a 500-ton increase in displacement, shaft horsepower was increased from 50,000 to 60,000 compared to the previous Benson and Gleaves classes. The Fletchers featured air-encased boilers producing steam at 600 psi (4,100 kPa) and 850 °F (454 °C), with emergency diesel generators providing 80 kW of electric power. Typically, Babcock & Wilcox boilers and General Electric geared steam turbines were equipped, although other designs and manufacturers were probably used to maximize the rate of production.
The main gun armament was five dual-purpose 5 inch/38 caliber (127 mm) guns in single mounts, guided by a Mark 37 Gun Fire Control System, including a Mk 12 fire control radar and a Mk 22 height-finder (both replaced by the circular Mk 25 radar postwar) linked by a Mark 1A Fire Control Computer and stabilized by a Mk 6 8,500 rpm gyro. Ten 21 in (530 mm) torpedo tubes were fitted in two quintuple centerline mounts, firing the Mark 15 torpedo. Initial designed anti-aircraft armament was a quadruple 1.1"/75 caliber gun mount and six .50 caliber machine guns; however, as the attack on Pearl Harbor had shown the need for increased light AA weapons, later ships were typically fitted with two twin 40 mm Bofors mounts plus seven single 20 mm Oerlikon weapons. Anti-submarine armament was initially two depth charge racks at the stern, augmented by up to six K-gun depth charge throwers as the war progressed.

Throughout the course of World War II, the number of anti-aircraft weapons increased, typically resulting in five twin 40 mm Bofors mounts plus seven single 20 mm Oerlikons by 1945. Due to the increasing threat from kamikaze attacks, fifty-one ships received further AA modifications beginning in 1945, replacing the forward torpedo tubes and midships 40 mm twin Bofors with two quadruple 40 mm for a total of 14 barrels, and the seven 20 mm singles with six 20 mm twins. Three (Pringle, Stevens, and Halford) were built (six planned) with aircraft catapults, resulting in the deletion of the rear torpedo tube mount and 5-inch mount number 3. This alteration was not a success in service and was not repeated. These three destroyers were later converted to the normal Fletcher-class configuration.
Nineteen were lost during World War II; six more were damaged and not repaired. Postwar, the remainder were decommissioned and put into reserve.

With the outbreak of the Korean War many were returned to active duty. During this time 39 were refitted, reducing their overall main armament and the number of torpedo tubes to accommodate other weapons. A new ahead-throwing weapon called Weapon Alpha was installed in many of the ships. Others carried trainable Hedgehogs. Eighteen ships were redesignated as escort destroyers (DDE), optimized for anti-submarine warfare; these reverted to destroyer (DD) designation in 1962. USS Bache (DD-470) grounded on the Isle of Rhodes 6 February 1968 and was scrapped there.

Now that, that is out of the way. Here's the kit. The Tamiya 1/350 Fletcher is small, when compared to the Udaloy1 I built, it is tiny. I knew that destroyer were small, fast and versatile vessel, I served on the USS Southerland (DD 722) for a short while, while this is a Gearing class they were not much bigger.

















I decided to use the Gold Medal Models PE set for this kit. There is a lot of stuff on this single sheet.







Now that all that is sorted, comes the hardest part of this build...which one? where? and doing what?

First..paint. I plan to do a hairspray technique under the paint to show severe weathering, maybe salt, havent decided yet on which will give me the effect i want. And for paint, these ships came in a lot of different camo patterns.









Sorry that this has turned into a PHD dissertation, but this ship deserves some history.

[EasyEight96]

Wonderful kit you got there mate. The Fletcher was one of the underdogs in the pacific war. Cant wait to see more work of this beauty

[pourquoi61]

Looking forward to seeing this done, you must have young eyes to attempt all that brass work.

[MichaelHoffman]

Well it has officially started, Primed up with Ultimate grey primer.





Drilling out the chain hawser, and using 1/350 scale chain for the anchors.

[MichaelHoffman]

Ok, I have decided on paint scheme and weathering. This is gonna be a bear. I am going to try the salt technique, now this is actually easy to do if your only using one color of top coat. But the scheme I am doing is multi colored top coat. So....I basically will be doing it in sections. Mask of the area to be painted one color, and then salt it, remove, rinse and repeat for every other color. To give you an idea what I am going for, and I hope I succeed.



As you can see the paint has been weathered off and chipped. Now i figured that they camo'd these after they were delivered from the shiipyard, so I will start with a standard paint scheme that they came out as, and then salt and camo it.

[MichaelHoffman]

Hull is painted shipyard delivery colors. Dull coated, main deck glued down, and scale chain in place.

[Lysus]

Looking great

(A Vikings fan in LV? I thought it was a law that everyone within a 1,000 miles of Dallas had to be Cowboys fans...)

[Stokesy44]

Looking good and that PE looks amazing. Definitely worth a watch

[MichaelHoffman]

Well, it's has been a busy few days, but, I did get a little work done. Drilled out the Navigating Bridge portholes,

Started the intense PE for this tiny ship.




Lots of Railings and hatches.

Starting to look like a US Navy Destroyer.


The PE kit allows you to have the option of open or closed hatches. Being the Diorama I am building, a few doors will be open.


Still have a lot to do, painting the superstructure, all the guns, even more PE.

[gustavlekstal]

Doing a smashing job with fiddly pe. Keep up the good work and post!

[MichaelHoffman]

Five pieces per turret, and 5 turrets. and the at not even including PE.

[MichaelHoffman]

Well 5 inchers are done. Added the PE, and created the canvas covers for the barrels.



Created ECM Antennas.

Funnels and PE are done.

[Stokesy44]

Looking good. The PE is really making the kit parts 'pop' with detail.

[Hunter]

Good modelling; good looking guns. Is that milliput you've used to form the blast bags?

[demarcation]

Great work so far!!

[MichaelHoffman]

Good modelling; good looking guns. Is that milliput you've used to form the blast bags?

Nope, I use toilet paper and thinned white glue. I cut a rectangle of paper, poked a hole in it, put it over the barrel. And then applied the white glue to it, I then stuffed the paper into the hole around the barrel, and toilet paper dissolves pretty fast so I then formed and shaped it, when it was almost dry i touched it again with some glue, and then let it dry, be sure to figure out the elevation of you guns, because when everything dries, nothing moves.

[MichaelHoffman]

Well, it has been a busy week, with family stuff. I did a test of the weathering I am planning to use on an old arm from a Catwoman build.

First up salt


Then hairspray


Then painted



These are the tools of destruction


The result of the hair spray


The result of the salt


I think I'm going with the salt it seems finer, and placement is easier, and also you can see it better if you need more or less. What I did notice is that the salt also slightly discolored the paint, the hair spray did not, but placement and variations were harder to achieve.

[MichaelHoffman]

Well, it has been a very productive few days. i finished up the main hull for the dazzle camo. i used a salt weathering technique, it was a chore as I had to mask of each color and weather each panel individually, I think it came out ok.

Marking the hull.

Masking.


Salting.

Painting.

Result.



Now all I have to do is translate all this to the superstructure.................sigh

[OliveDrab]

Very cool build, all the extra work with the PE, toilet paper(love this) and salt chipping are making this Fletcher a top dog!!

[EasyEight96]

Very nice work the hull looks amazing. I got a question how do you manage to bend all those tiny pe and glue it?

[MichaelHoffman]

Very nice work the hull looks amazing. I got a question how do you manage to bend all those tiny pe and glue it?

Opti-visor, PE folder, Gel CA with accelerator.

[Lysus]

Very nice work the hull looks amazing. I got a question how do you manage to bend all those tiny pe and glue it?

Opti-visor, PE folder, Gel CA with accelerator.

I really need an opti-visor. They keep making the kits smaller as I get older...

[Aliktren]

Great job, these ships are intriguing but I just nope out at all that pe!

[wookiee76]

She's looking rather nice Michael, was actually watching an old history channel documentary on the fletchers on you tube night before last, never realised just what they did, amazing little ships and crews.

[MichaelHoffman]

Well, I finally got some time on the Fletcher. Continuing painting the superstructure. Adding PE.







20mm guns, stock from kit sans plastic splinter shield.


Each gun has 4 PE parts to it. no.11 blade for scale.


After PE installed.



40mm gun, not much to add to this one.




After paint.



5 inchers installed.


Torpedo tubes installed and 40mm in place.



Next is mast. boats, figures, base, and secret diorama entity.

[OliveDrab]

Holy Smokes this is really looking awesome

[MichaelHoffman]

Got some more time in on the Fletcher. Slow going, as the parts are getting smaller.

Guess what i'm gonna do?


Aft depth charge release racks PE.


And making each and every depth charge, total count so far? 70


K rack PE, 5mm square.


Aft racks assembled. x2


K rack c.1945 assembled and depth charges installed, waiting on a Bosun Mate to paint them proper. x6


Still have a lot to do and a lot of PE yet to put on.

[MichaelHoffman]

Bosun's mate showed up and helped paint the racks.



Racks installed.


Added a little more weathering along the waterline.



Installing small parts and boats.



All that is left is railings, mast, base, and special diorama subject.

[MichaelHoffman]

Starting the base, cut what I need from the pink board. Had a little help from my buddy Haze (paws).


Figuring out positioning on the board.


Planning and more planning, I do this to test out my ideas and what elements are going into the diorama. notice that I defined turn of ship, wave pattern and placement of the special element.


Time to start carving, I cut the ships hole first.

Hogging more out.


Ok since I am going with a calmer sea, as apposed to my Udaloy, I will not be carving into the foam. I just panited the base the color I want, spread silicone real thin and the detail the areas and around the ship.




creating the special element. 1/350 avengers. created the spinning prop. painted, weathered, and decaled.





Added the final railings.




This is the mast supplied in the kit.


this is the PE for it, all that will be saved is the stick.


mast is done.


Oops....


So with only the rigging to do I am calling this done.