patrickmil

Hello Everybody! Glad to be in 2024, lol.
 
Thank you for all the likes and the comments so far; they are appreciated. I put down XF-53 over the entire deck and then took some painstaking efforts to mask off most of it to apply a darker "trim" color, XF-24. The colors look pretty stark in contrast and the main deck color might look a little light at the moment. After hours and hours of looking at pictures of the real thing, the colors are the closest my eyes will let me pick. That said, the main deck color will be deepening a bit with a clear coat and then darken up a bit with weathering, filters, and washes. I think it will tie things together nicely once done. Oh, as for the where the "trim" color goes, that was another interpretation and how I wished to represent the USS Curtis Wilbur. Unfortunately, there are no pictures that cover every inch of deck during the 90's, so I did the best I could and went with what I thought looked logical and had a nice aesthetic. Well, I brought more pictures.
 
 
Oh, I owe an explanation for below, lol. I had ordered much wider masking tape; it just wasn't going to get here as soon as I wanted, so I used 6mm. I'm a glutton for punishment.




Unfortunately, the color depth from black-basing beneath the XF-12 (JN Grey) isn't showing up terribly well on the camera, but it looks nice in real life.
 
Thanks for looking in!
 

Hi Jeff! I'm jealous that you got the opportunity to check one of these out. The McFaul, if I'm reading Wikipedia correctly, is a Flight II ship in that class; she still didn't get hangers and the length is the same. Converting this kit to the McFaul wouldn't be too hard.
 
Overall, my rating of the kit is very high. The moldings are all very crisp and the detail provided is plenty enough to not lament not having a Pontos set. I would give it a 9/10 and only because the instructions, like all Trumpeter instructions, suck. No color call-outs, some of the placement isn't very well shown, and there is absolutely NOTHING written about the subject.
 
Thanks for checking in,
Patrick

The kit adds those mounts on Page 20, step 21. Just two little pieces of PE with three bends apiece.

The kit adds those mounts on Page 20, step 21. Just two little pieces of PE with three bends apiece.

The kit adds those mounts on Page 20, step 21. Just two little pieces of PE with three bends apiece.

The kit adds those mounts on Page 20, step 21. Just two little pieces of PE with three bends apiece.

Hi Tom- @uncarina
Great catch! So I did a little investigating…
Here’s a shot of the HS upgrade. Looks like those HF antenna mounts are photoetch that didn’t show up in the CAD renderings we saw-


cheers
Pete

Just so you know - those are High Frequency(HF) fan antennas, 3 thin wires coming down to a common securing point with an insulator. Since the base is not painted with red as a warning for HF burn hazards they are likely receive antennas vice transmit. Either black thread or silver wire can be used to simulate them.

I’m with you Pete in wondering about this. These images show a rigging anchor point that appears to be missing from both the kit and the HS upgrade: 

I’m late to this party but Patrick I have great respect for your build and have been taking notes!
 
Cheers,  Tom 

Thanks Patrick for the thoughtful reply, and the link as well! I’ve learned a lot from watching your YouTube channel- your videos are great and your models are outstanding. Thanks for all the effort you put in to sharing what you know.
 
appreciate the kind words as well! The big SmurfJet is a labor of love for me- thanks for following along 
 
best
Pete

Hi Patrick-
looks great! Been watching on YouTube as well!
question: have you found any good references for rigging the Mast? I’m still searching….
 
cheers
Pete

Hi all!
 
Thanks for your likes and following along. I applied decals on the hull and the deck. These were sealed in with clear coats and the carrier film on the decals is almost non-existent now. The deck is glued in place and currently under clamps until I'm certain the glue has fully cured. Also pictured are the propellers that I polished until the plastic parts were shiny, primed with Alclad II Gloss Black Base, and then painted with Bronze top-coated with Gold Titanium. To me, the propellers more closely match pictures of the real things in online resources. I have some pictures of my progress to date. Now begins all of the "fun stuff" with the superstructure and weapon systems.
 






Until next time, thank you and be safe!

Hello Everybody! Glad to be in 2024, lol.
 
Thank you for all the likes and the comments so far; they are appreciated. I put down XF-53 over the entire deck and then took some painstaking efforts to mask off most of it to apply a darker "trim" color, XF-24. The colors look pretty stark in contrast and the main deck color might look a little light at the moment. After hours and hours of looking at pictures of the real thing, the colors are the closest my eyes will let me pick. That said, the main deck color will be deepening a bit with a clear coat and then darken up a bit with weathering, filters, and washes. I think it will tie things together nicely once done. Oh, as for the where the "trim" color goes, that was another interpretation and how I wished to represent the USS Curtis Wilbur. Unfortunately, there are no pictures that cover every inch of deck during the 90's, so I did the best I could and went with what I thought looked logical and had a nice aesthetic. Well, I brought more pictures.
 
 
Oh, I owe an explanation for below, lol. I had ordered much wider masking tape; it just wasn't going to get here as soon as I wanted, so I used 6mm. I'm a glutton for punishment.




Unfortunately, the color depth from black-basing beneath the XF-12 (JN Grey) isn't showing up terribly well on the camera, but it looks nice in real life.
 
Thanks for looking in!
 

Ok... Earlier I mentioned a YouTube channel. It's new to me and I'm learning as I go. If you wish to view a video version of my USS Curtis Wilbur exploits, you can see them at the following link:
 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2OLZJD_BYzN_99bynZ8wyQ
 
That's right, it's called Patrick's Scale Studio; don't blame me, blame AI. AI's channel name ideas were waaaaay better than mine. I'm just trying something new and I get that some of it may be remedial for most, but I also used my wife and two daughters as sounding boards and their advice was "Pretend like I don't know anything about this hobby, and truly I don't; just convince your audience in case they're like me." At least they're supportive 😆
 
That said, I'll gladly receive any and all constructive criticism. I don't necessarily put that to use always, but I can take it.
 
Thanks!
Patrick

Hi Pete!
 
I gotta admit, I follow you on LSP. Your builds are incredible! Just literally finished checking in on your Smurf jet. My best resource has been seaforces.org. https://www.seaforces.org/usnships/ddg/DDG-54-USS-Curtis-Wilbur.htm
 
I have not seen anything definitive on one set way of rigging from one DDG to another, but in the kit there are rails that get mounted just in front of the flag bags (hopefully someone can correct me if this is the wrong term). The lines for the signal flags go from these rails, around the back of the tripod, to the lower yard. There are also two pair of three antenna lines that go from those mountings on the front of the bridge piece to the upper yard. There is one last line for the ensign (I think?) that gets tied off to a mounting spot on the rear of the mast and goes to the same railing as for the signal flags.
 
I have quite a bit to update on the forum with my recent progress on CW. From what I've seen so far, I don't know if the huge aftermarket sets are worth the cost, but that's only my opinion. The kit is fairly well detailed but also kind of a work of fiction as there are some configurations that do not add up to what is present in online pictures.
 
They are also releasing a Flight IIa kit soon, but I'd be willing to bet they use the same hull which would be off by about five scale feet in addition to other shape concerns.
 
All that said, I've really enjoyed working on her and overall it's been a rewarding project so far.
 
Thanks,
Patrick

Hi Pete!
 
I gotta admit, I follow you on LSP. Your builds are incredible! Just literally finished checking in on your Smurf jet. My best resource has been seaforces.org. https://www.seaforces.org/usnships/ddg/DDG-54-USS-Curtis-Wilbur.htm
 
I have not seen anything definitive on one set way of rigging from one DDG to another, but in the kit there are rails that get mounted just in front of the flag bags (hopefully someone can correct me if this is the wrong term). The lines for the signal flags go from these rails, around the back of the tripod, to the lower yard. There are also two pair of three antenna lines that go from those mountings on the front of the bridge piece to the upper yard. There is one last line for the ensign (I think?) that gets tied off to a mounting spot on the rear of the mast and goes to the same railing as for the signal flags.
 
I have quite a bit to update on the forum with my recent progress on CW. From what I've seen so far, I don't know if the huge aftermarket sets are worth the cost, but that's only my opinion. The kit is fairly well detailed but also kind of a work of fiction as there are some configurations that do not add up to what is present in online pictures.
 
They are also releasing a Flight IIa kit soon, but I'd be willing to bet they use the same hull which would be off by about five scale feet in addition to other shape concerns.
 
All that said, I've really enjoyed working on her and overall it's been a rewarding project so far.
 
Thanks,
Patrick

Hi Pete!
 
I gotta admit, I follow you on LSP. Your builds are incredible! Just literally finished checking in on your Smurf jet. My best resource has been seaforces.org. https://www.seaforces.org/usnships/ddg/DDG-54-USS-Curtis-Wilbur.htm
 
I have not seen anything definitive on one set way of rigging from one DDG to another, but in the kit there are rails that get mounted just in front of the flag bags (hopefully someone can correct me if this is the wrong term). The lines for the signal flags go from these rails, around the back of the tripod, to the lower yard. There are also two pair of three antenna lines that go from those mountings on the front of the bridge piece to the upper yard. There is one last line for the ensign (I think?) that gets tied off to a mounting spot on the rear of the mast and goes to the same railing as for the signal flags.
 
I have quite a bit to update on the forum with my recent progress on CW. From what I've seen so far, I don't know if the huge aftermarket sets are worth the cost, but that's only my opinion. The kit is fairly well detailed but also kind of a work of fiction as there are some configurations that do not add up to what is present in online pictures.
 
They are also releasing a Flight IIa kit soon, but I'd be willing to bet they use the same hull which would be off by about five scale feet in addition to other shape concerns.
 
All that said, I've really enjoyed working on her and overall it's been a rewarding project so far.
 
Thanks,
Patrick

Hi all!
 
Since it's only once every four years, figured I might as well post an update on February 29th. Nothing really needs discussed that the images can't show off themselves.
 




 
Thanks for looking!

I've been seeing a lot of pictures for this really big set and other smaller sets from HS Models. The detail looks exquisite but some of it also seems a bit egregious. This is only an assumption, but looking at the pictures, the dark blue details would be resin? And if that really is the case, some of the molded on detail on the bulkheads, such as little thin wires and other things, might be a touch too much to sand off and replace in resin. Looks like they would also have you remove the VLS systems fore and aft. At some point, they might just look at issuing an entire kit, LOL. The extra detail will be lovely, but some of this might be a little over the top, IMHO.

Thank you!
 
 
Apparently there are quite a few upgrades coming out for this kit now. When it's all said and done, I'm willing to bet the cost of all of the upgrades will far exceed the cost of the kit. That said, the upgrades appear to be very detailed. 

Hi all!
 
Since it's only once every four years, figured I might as well post an update on February 29th. Nothing really needs discussed that the images can't show off themselves.
 




 
Thanks for looking!

I appreciate all of the likes and comments; they really provide encouragement when this project throws its curve balls at me. I worked through steps 4-12 in the instructions. These steps have you have add many tiny little deck details. These comprise 200+ tiny little parts and I decided to conquer all of those steps in one large "MEGA-STEP"  🤪. I prepared them by separating them from their sprues, cleaning them up as best I could, and then sticking them in groups to paint stirring sticks with tape sticky-side up. Once primed and painted, I was able to detail paint anything needing it and then they all got stuck on the hull and deck. While it's very far from perfect, I'm happy with my results and it passes muster with a one foot viewing distance.
 



Ugh! The macro lens is brutal. I couldn't see that seam line on the Harpoon launcher until the below picture. Thankfully, after worrying about it for several hours, I figured that it should not be easily visible if at all since that side will be facing the funnel structure in pretty close quarters.

 
Thanks for looking in!
 

Hi all!
 
Thanks for your likes and following along. I applied decals on the hull and the deck. These were sealed in with clear coats and the carrier film on the decals is almost non-existent now. The deck is glued in place and currently under clamps until I'm certain the glue has fully cured. Also pictured are the propellers that I polished until the plastic parts were shiny, primed with Alclad II Gloss Black Base, and then painted with Bronze top-coated with Gold Titanium. To me, the propellers more closely match pictures of the real things in online resources. I have some pictures of my progress to date. Now begins all of the "fun stuff" with the superstructure and weapon systems.
 






Until next time, thank you and be safe!

Hi All!
 
Been awhile since I've shared any modeling on this forum. Figured I'd change that with the new tool kit from I Love Kit (Trumpeter). It's the USS Curtis Wilbur in 1/200 scale. It's an Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer. The kit is based apparently on the destroyer during the mid to late nineties. There is no aftermarket available (that I could find) for the kit yet, so I most likely will be modeling her as I Love Kit (Trumpeter)  intended. This is a placeholder until I can get some shots of the kit sprues once I unbox it. At first glance though, this looks like a very solid attempt by I Love Kit (Trumpeter).
 
I hope you like what you see in upcoming posts in this topic!
 
Patrick