USS Peary DD-226 by rcweir - Tehnoart 1:96

Great looking build. I have always had a soft spot for the Clemson class and four stackers in general.

A couple of questions though if possible. You said you used the Ward for this build. Which model of the Ford did you use? #2 Why the Peary rather than the Ford or one of the other ABDA ships? 

I would have loved to see a build log on this. Congratulations

Thanks for the compliments.  Peary is important to me:  I served on the 3rd Navy ship named after Robert E. Peary and intend to make models of all three.   I did FF-1073 25 years ago.  DD-226 here was finished recently.  Sometime in the future I'll do DE-132.

The Technoart kit I started with was a fiberglass/resin/brass kit they advertised as USS Ward and the kit as supplied would build what a typical Clemson looked like in the early '30s (in my opinion).    By 1941 there was a wide divergence in how they all looked.   So the challenge I ended up with was to choose a date and build the model so that it matched the way that Peary looked on that date.   I chose October 1941 because that month she collided with USS Pillsbury on maneuvers and had to go into the shipyard for repairs.   The war started before those repairs were complete and she was sunk in Feb. 1942 with no chance to ever have more than bandaids for the accumulating damage.

Information that I could find on her appearance in those months was more than nothing but I still ended up making some guesses that aren't going to all be correct.  Like the paint scheme or the absence of the fantail 3" AA gun.   

Yeah she had a tough time of it in the opening days of WWII. She got hit by the bombers at Cavite on Dec 10 when MacArthur was unable to figure out how to operate as a commanding general. She would have been lost then when ordnance in the area started going off but she was towed clear of the dock by the Whippoorwill and the fires put out. Then as Cavite was useless as a repair base she had to make her own way to Darwin where she is still today.

Lack of information on the ABDA ships in those few months is hard to get. I am still finding bits and pieces on the Houston after almost a year of looking and reading.

Thanks for the kit information.

The kit was from a company named Tehnoart, based in Riga, Latvia.  They're now out of business but for a few years produced some amazing kits.   The kit I used for the Peary was actually "#13" out of a limited run of 12.  As best I can tell they produced 7 or 8 commercial kits of which two were relatively high volume:  1:192 kits for Sumner and Gearing class destroyers  (I built a Sumner one before the Peary).    

Are you building a Houston?

Bob

That is an amazing build. What is the length of the finished model?

Thanks.  Yes, it is big - about 39".    It'll be kind of a puzzle what to do with the next one I make that's that large.

Mr. Weir:  My Dad was crewman on USS Peary during the 1930's, China Station and P.I.'s. He would have loved to see this model.

I have some of his pictures of Peary and sister ships as well as Peary with a smashed bow. I wou8ld be please to email them to you.

Kindest regards,

A.E. Fox, Jr. 

My father served aboard USS Hatfield DD 231 from 1929 thru 1934?.  I have some great ship board photos. From detailed plans and those pictures,  I scratch built a 1/48 scale to about 80% b4 we embarked on our FT RV adventure.   The model rests w family members until and if we ever return..lol.

We have a venue called Aquascene in Darwin NT and it was the PBY Catalina base for the Black cats during WW2 and is not far from the grave site of the USS Peary. I am lookig for any modle kits or scale miniatures i can find to sell in the gift shop but i am also very keen to have on display scale models of the quality that you have made here. Do you or anyone you might recomend be able to assist in supplying display models? Even if they are just in kit form I could find someone closer to home to make them.