Tamiya 1/350 Fletcher DD445 Destroyer.

rtfoe

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Hi Richard
Off to a good start. The cast pedestals have worked well. For a Tamiya 1/350 kit those anchor chains are pretty poor.
Jim
Yes Jim, was surprised by it.

Richard, i can watch and see a proper ship build:thumb2:
Bob, it's half the size of your excellent Spee with a slippery deck and no wood. You even did big turrest having only built turretless Stugs. :smiling2:

Okay, it's now onto the sub-assemblies starting with the B gun deck. Here the fit wasn't too good. I let as much glue to ooze out and let it dry before tackling with any putty. This assembly comes in four pieces.

F9.jpgF10.jpg

Now you see why I shaved off the locating strips, Tamiya molded this part solid with indents. They are supposed to be hollow to allow any sea water to exit if any waves go over the sides. I spent quite a while filing and removing plastic to get it to look like this. My PE set didn't have a replacement for this however there is one for the 1/700 scale Fletcher.

F11.jpg

Dry fitted onto the deck to make sure it sits properly with no gaps. It will be glued on after most of the painting is done. Time for putty.

F12.jpg

Cheers,
Richard
 

JR

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Rhicard do you know if that moulding material similar too the blue type we have here ?
1642346585289.png
Look to be the same sort of substance, often though about trying it.
After the warming in hot water the moulds were made in two parts and filled with Milliput and allowed to set. Is this what you did ?
 

rtfoe

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Rhicard do you know if that moulding material similar too the blue type we have here ?
View attachment 442984
Look to be the same sort of substance, often though about trying it.
After the warming in hot water the moulds were made in two parts and filled with Milliput and allowed to set. Is this what you did ?
That's right John. Had a few sticks for years and only tried it recently. Surprised at how easily it captures detail. I quicken the process by placing the mold in the fridge to harden. Only problem is finding a less painful way to kneed the material right after taking it out of the hot water.

Cheers,
Richard
 

JR

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That's right John. Had a few sticks for years and only tried it recently. Surprised at how easily it captures detail. I quicken the process by placing the mold in the fridge to harden. Only problem is finding a less painful way to kneed the material right after taking it out of the hot water.

Cheers,
Richard
Interesting Richard, there are times when I'd like to be able to replicate small items for dioramas .
Definitely will get some in the future, thanks for bringing this up .
 

rtfoe

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Interesting Richard, there are times when I'd like to be able to replicate small items for dioramas .
Definitely will get some in the future, thanks for bringing this up .
You will like it John, there's a little combustion at the beginning of the process to light the stove and boil the water.

Cheers,
Richard
 

Jim R

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Hi Richard
I reckon that moulding stuff is very useful for one off pieces. Much quicker and less fuss than rubber and resin. I wonder if it would work with resin?
Jim
 

rtfoe

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Hi Richard
I reckon that moulding stuff is very useful for one off pieces. Much quicker and less fuss than rubber and resin. I wonder if it would work with resin?
Jim
I think it should as the two part hard putty is resin based. If you're making half molds with flat back side castings it's a matter of just pouring in and when set poking it out. The mold us quite rubbery when hardened.

Cheers,
Richard
 

rtfoe

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Hi Richard
I reckon that moulding stuff is very useful for one off pieces. Much quicker and less fuss than rubber and resin. I wonder if it would work with resin?
Jim
Another note is that it is reusable.

Cheers,
Richard

Hi,
I filled the gaps and minor sanding to the forward gun deck. Looks rough hear but some primer will show a passable finish.

F23.jpg

Besides the forward gun deck, all secondary decks also were assembled very quickly and tested for fitting onto the main deck. These were the mid-upper and rear decks...

F15.jpg

I sanded the edges of the platforms prior to gluing but as you can see extra glue needs to be sanded off as well. Slight mis-alignments as well will be dealt with a little sanding.

F13.jpg

I think I will replace the doors and ladders with PE as they're quite soft in detail.

F14.jpg

Anti skid walk-ways are raised which will help in masking and painting but with Tamiyas reputation I thought a little tread detail would have been nice.
I decided to assemble the rangefinder and radar with its pedestal together as they were in the same color and for easy painting. There is a poly cap to hold the rangefinder and pedestal together free to rotate. The radar looks to need replacement in the close up but looks okay from a safe distance. The PE is perforated and will look better. I was trying to save it for the other destroyer as the Gold Medal set comes with two sets of railings with and without netting and with and without canvas covering. Enough gun shields and sights for the 20mm and 40mm guns including platform railings for the quad guns. There are early and late SC radars and both destroyers are early and late models.
F20.jpg

More later. Call out for more refreshments...I'll get Ah Kow to prepare more fritters as that's going fast. Pass around the box of tissues for the oily fingers. Nothing like savoury local hors d'oeuvres and sweet tea combination.

Cheers,
Richard
 

rtfoe

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Hi, today it's the 40mm gun tub and the rangefinder that sits on the center rear between the 5 inch gun turrets...

F26.jpg

The soft detail of the door needs replacing. I'm at two minds to replace the ladders as they seem okay...I guess they should have a space between it and the body.
If you'll notice I'm progressing bit by bit basically gluing all the main components into sub-assemblies. This is one approach to minimize complications in painting but sometimes I can get ahead of myself like the funnel smoke stacks...

F21.jpg

I shouldn't have glued the funnel caps if I wanted to save on using PE by just drilling out from the inside and thinning out the metch cage. The pipe ends will be drilled out. The large circular pin marks on the searchlight platform need to be sanded off. The tub covers can be replaced with railings but I will leave this as canvas covers bu thinning it and adding railing detail on the inside...we'll see. I do have the PE for it but rather try with this method first.

Cheers,
Richard
 

Jim R

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Hi Richard
All the little fiddly sub assemblies are coming together nicely. Personally I think the ladders need replacing because they are flat to the wall but up to you. The radar isn't bad. Could it be simply thinned a little?
 

rtfoe

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Hi Richard
All the little fiddly sub assemblies are coming together nicely. Personally I think the ladders need replacing because they are flat to the wall but up to you. The radar isn't bad. Could it be simply thinned a little?
Thanks Jim. Yes I think so too as some are so faint especially the one on the boxed rangefinder. The radar sides are correct but the inside flat areas are supposed to be perforated. Thinning would mean slicing the sides off and scraping panels thinner and drilling tiny holes. I think I'd use the PE. :smiling2:

Cheers,
Richard
 

scottie3158

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Thanks Jim. Yes I think so too as some are so faint especially the one on the boxed rangefinder. The radar sides are correct but the inside flat areas are supposed to be perforated. Thinning would mean slicing the sides off and scraping panels thinner and drilling tiny holes. I think I'd use the PE. :smiling2:

Cheers,
Richard
Richard,
Coming on nicely mate.
 

rtfoe

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Here's another set of sub-assemblies...the five turrets and pedestal...

F24.jpg

The instructions asked to have the pedestal glued onto the platform with the polycap inside but I decided that since the pedestal share the same color, I just inserted the turret rod into the pedestal and have the polycap hold it in place. Later when everything is painted I just pop it in place with a brush of TET.

Cheers,
Richard
 

eddiesolo

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Looking rather good Richard. Nothing fancy in the details, no etch work, just small details to enhance the look, lovely work.
 
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