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  #21  
Old 06-26-2011, 08:27 PM
GMintz GMintz is offline
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Hello all,

Thank you Dhanners, Kevin, Michael and Yu for your kind comments,

The components that make up the propeller drive shafts for this model are very well designed. Everything fits together solidly and the positioning of the components is clearly marked and it is easy to get them lined up correctly. The aft most struts are, I believe, mislabeled as to right and left but it is easy to see that they should be reversed.

In the following photo the subassemblies are laid out. (The strange color shift happened when I went to lighten the exposure.) A template is provided for the long shaft and I would have used brass rod but I did not have any 2mm with me. I took the 1.2 mm brass rod that I did have and wrapped it with typing paper until I got it close to 2mm and then glued the long edge of the paper with Aleene's tacky glue.



Here I have assembled the components on the shaft but not yet glued them in place. The cylinder on the far right slides into an ovoid hole in the hull plating and has a very solid stop against one of the bulkheads.



The shaft assembly is glued in place with minimal fitting of the struts. The photos in the instructions show what I assume are thin wire reinforcements that could be placed to reinforce the struts but as assembled they were so solid that I didn't even consider using them.



For the purest (and I am not one of them) who doesn't want to use any metal rod in their paper model, the brass rods are easily removed.



The propellers will be assembled and attached close to the end of the build.

Next I need to get the model mounted on the display base so I can get it home to Augusta, Georgia without destroying it. My plan is to use the base to suspend the model in the middle of a cardboard box. I will post
some pre- and post- shipment photos.

Austin Texas has been great but it is time to go home!!

Best wishes,

Greg
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  #22  
Old 06-26-2011, 09:50 PM
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Padre Padre is offline
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I am following your build with interest and you are doing an excellent job of explaining as you go. I have also ordered this model. Thanks.
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  #23  
Old 06-26-2011, 11:58 PM
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Jim Nunn Jim Nunn is offline
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Greg,

I'm enjoying your build, and excellent modeling.

Jim Nunn
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  #24  
Old 06-27-2011, 11:20 AM
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marco1971 marco1971 is offline
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Hello Greg. I love how you work, attentive to detail and your detailed explanations during construction. Keep it up, Bravo!

Marco
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  #25  
Old 07-10-2011, 06:39 PM
GMintz GMintz is offline
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Shipping, bilge keels, and propellers

Thank you Padre, Jim and Marco,

I finally got the model cemented onto the display base using epoxy cement. The base is a great handle for holding the model while building.



A more important use of the display base was to hold the model in a cardboard box for shipping. I glued an extra layer of cardboard to reinforce the base and spot glued the display board with a few dots of epoxy cement.



A few strips of cardboard were placed over the display base and glued to the cardboard on each side.



I reinforced the sides with some scrap cardboard, sealed it up and sent it by UPS.

Here it is after shipping with the cardboard box cut open and, fortunately, no damage.



The bilge keels were designed with tabs



which are supposed to be inserted into slots in the hull plates.



This seems like a nice feature but I wasn't sure I could get the hull plates lined up perfectly so the holes for the tabs would be in the right place. In the end I cut off the tabs and glued the keel in place without problems.



The propeller blades that come with the kit look to me like the blades on a ceiling fan so I put some curve into them and thinned them down.

In the following photo 1) is the blade as assembled according to the kit instruction, 2) I put some curve in it by bending it against a small dowel, 3) it was impregnated with thin ca cement and then sanded, 4) a few coats of light gray, 5) and finally Vallejo Model Color brass acrylic paint.



Here are the original and the new version side by side.



I cannot recommend enough the Model Color brass paint by Vallejo. If you have ever used the Model Master Acryl brass paint then you have experienced the pain of the pigment settling out and having to be stirred at length to get it dispersed. If you are putting on multiple coats it can be a bother. The Vallejo paint is thicker and the pigment stays dispersed. No stirring needed - a few shakes of the squeeze bottle and a few drops of paint which can then be thinned with a little water. What a pleasure!!

Here are the propellers assembled.



Best wishes,

Greg
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  #26  
Old 07-11-2011, 05:50 AM
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Michael Mash Michael Mash is offline
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She is really looking good Greg.
If I am not mistaken, this is the first report on this forum for the construction of Roman's destroyer. You are setting a high standard.
Mike
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  #27  
Old 07-12-2011, 12:46 PM
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marco1971 marco1971 is offline
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Congratulations on the propellers that look like they are so well made

Marco
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  #28  
Old 07-30-2011, 10:33 AM
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OhioMike OhioMike is offline
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Awesome build.....I plan on ordering the Fletcher version but i see he will do custom numbering and nameing so my plan is the Buchanan DD484. Same color scheme as Roman has displayed. Again, Great build Gmintz!
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  #29  
Old 07-31-2011, 09:37 AM
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F131 F131 is offline
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Excellent work here!
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  #30  
Old 08-16-2011, 01:42 PM
GMintz GMintz is offline
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An update, a woe, and a whoops!

Thank you Michael, Marco, OhioMike and F131

and hello all,

First, an update to where I am at present











The rest of this post is probably more information than most would want to know and is aimed at the person actually building the kit.

I like the look of the ship but I must add a woe that the instructions leave a lot of room for improvement. The essential problem is that trying to put the different versions of the ship on the same instructions is possible but the differences between the versions should be very clearly labeled (they are not).

Second, there are side views of the different versions showing the camouflage patterns but they are not adequate to see how the superstructures are different between the versions. A view of the versions in "higher definition" would be a great help as well as a view of the different versions looking down on the deck with the parts labeled would be a great help.

Third, there are diagrams of how some subassemblies of the superstructure should be put together there are no overviews of how the subassemblies should come together nor the differences between the versions.

Fourth, there is a beautiful prototype build of one version of the destroyer on the Digital Navy website but it is possible to get very confused if you rely too much on the prototype and are building another version.

Finally, there are unlabeled and mislabeled parts on the diagrams as well the parts sheets. While some may disagree, I believe that every part shown in the instructions should be numbered and everything on the part sheets should have a number and that number should also be referenced in the instructions.

In the big picture of life these problems are easily corrected and revisions can be, and in my opinion, should be posted on the Digital Navy website. The viewer of my posts really needs to be careful about my conclusions until there are postings of builds of the destroyer by other more experienced papermodelers.

When you combine a casual builder (me) with someone ignorant about WWII destroyers (also me) and too cheap to get an appropriate reference early in the build (me too) you can end up making some really dumb mistakes (mine).

Some examples follow which are mostly aimed at anyone building this version:

(I am posting some photos from the instructions but if there are copyright problems I will replace them with drawings)

Here is a view of the first level of the superstructure.



I have labeled the three segments of the superstructure as bow, middle and stern and there are two walkways connecting the sections. The forward walkway connects the middle and bow sections of the superstructure and the rear walkway connects the middle and stern sections.

The instruction for the middle section of the superstructure is shown below and it has a few mistakes.



The rear walkway is shown coming off the aft end of the middle section. (Here labeled with the letter A) IT DOES NOT (at least in my version)!!! The walkway actually comes off the forward end of the stern superstructure assembly. Remember the instructions don't give an overview of how these three superstructure assemblies fit together so someone building the kit is in the dark until they tackle the stern portion of the superstructure. And, even worse, the instructions for the stern part of the superstructure don't show the walkway.

My label C on the instructions points to an edge piece, 45i, and multiple pieces labeled 45j which form the reinforcements under a deck overhang. These are both incorrect.

As shown below on a page of parts, 45j is a short piece of deck edging that fits around the bulge on the deck shown immediately above it. (The instructions in another area clearly show the correct placement of the real part 45j.)



45i on the parts sheet is a small piece of edging that is much to short to cover the area shown in the instructions. I never did figure out what parts if any on the part sheets corresponded to 45j and 45i on the middle section instructions. I left off what would be 45j and used a spare piece of edging (I have two copies of the kit) for 45i.

45h is a piece of deck edging that I believe runs along the inside of the rear walkway but since there is no walkway on the part of the deck it is not much help building the middle section.



45g appears on the part sheet above as a triangular piece (correct) but on the instructions as a rectangular edge piece (incorrect). This grey piece forms the ceiling of the overhang of the deck in this area.

45f is shown in the wrong place in the instructions. Shown below is the correct placement of parts 45e, 45f and 45g which represent the grey ceilings of the deck overhangs on the middle superstructure section.



Referring back to the overview of the instructions for the middle section I have put a letter B which points to a part(s) and a place for the part(s) on the wall. But what is it? Only by referencing the online prototype build is it possible to tell this is a hose and only at the very end of the instructions in the kit is it revealed that the hoses must be scratch built. It would be nice to have this structure labeled and directions for scratch building the hose assembly included in the kit instructions.

The problems with the middle section instructions would be a lot easier to deal with if the stern superstructure instructions were clear, particularly about the walkway. The instruction diagram is shown below:



A small complaint is that 62a and 62b do not exist on the part sheets - at least I never found them.

The bigger problem is that the rear walkway is not shown. I have sketched in where I think it should be in red.

But the actual deck piece for the stern part of the superstructure is shaped differently as shown below.



I should have stopped here and ordered a decent reference on Fletcher class destroyers but I went to the internet where every picture I found showed the rear walkway as I have drawn it in red. And the walkway of the prototype build on the Digital Navy website was the same shape as I have drawn it. So I decided to modify the part to the shape I was expecting which is very much a whoops! (I did not know there were different configurations of the deck in this area - I just assumed it was a mistake in the kit.) Here is my incorrect "corrected" walkway, at least incorrect for the version of the destroyer I am building.



And the version of it as it should have remained.



After all of my ramblings I do have to add that I like the model as it comes together but I wish it had not been such a struggle to get to this point in the build. Several times I was ready to call it quits and that is unfortunate because it is a valuable addition to the model ships in paper and I believe I am going to be happy with it when finished.

Here is hoping for smooth sailing from here on.

Best wishes,

Greg
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