a glutton for punishment

[gluedandscrewed]

not new but returning, after building my first two models and committing the cardinal sin of building one of those " flying contraptions" i decided to atone for my sin by building a six foot model of a fletcher class destroyer form a three foot lindberg   'blue devil"... for you young uns thats an iconic WW2 destroyer thats as much responsible for winning in the  pacific as any hoity toity aircraft carrier,, may the gods of modelers have mercy on me...cause the wife doesnt,,,,damn, not another one was her only comment!!!

[fnkershner]

ROFL, I remember the Blue Devil. I used to stand in the store just imagining all the battles I would win with her. And lets here it for Adm Burke's Eager Beavers!

 

You could explain to her the alternatives. Such as a real boat! Tell her how Modeling will keep you home and out of trouble. She might even believe it.

 

PS (for Oldsters who do not know) ROFL = Rolling On the Floor with Laughter

[gluedandscrewed]

the real boat wont work,,my first model was a 1:1 scale 25 foot barrel back runabout,, why the next two were 4 footers,,, the alternative that somewhat helped was beer drinking in the titty bar with al bundy kersh

[lmagna]

The Blue Devil was my first foray into motorized ships. I build her right out of the box, set the gearbox to use the figure eight cam and set her on her maiden voyage at my local pond. All went well for the first part of the pattern even though it was a bit scary watching the ship heel when turning. Then half way through the second figure eight, while as far from shore as possible, a slight gust of wind came up broadside and over she went! Capsized and sank almost instantly with the props still turning in the air! I was devastated. I managed to wade out and retrieve the ship but I never sailed it again.

 

I could be wrong, but back when I built it as a kid I think it was possibly the largest, (Longest) model ship you could buy. I don't remember how much it cost back then but it could not have been much more than a few dollars or I would not have been able to afford it.

 

Lou

[reklein]

Lou, I had alsmost the exact same experience. No need to even retell it.

[lmagna]

Bill

 

Oh come on! I can't be the only dumb kid that spend days building this ship for minutes of of fantasy realization! You need to come clean as well and provide the details!  

 

Lou

[reklein]

Well it was the summer of 1967 and I was home to the farm on leave from the Navy. I had bought and built the model on board the destroyer tender I was stationed on and in those days you could take odd carry on things with you on an airliner. After a day or two at home I had time to take it out to the" reservoir",what we called the farm pond and tried her out. I had a cheap R/C transmitter in it instead of the cam controller. However the little breeze that was blowing turned out to be a 1/72 scale cat. 3 hurricane and swamped my destroyer and she went down. I did recover it but she never sailed again. As I recall it was about $35 for that kit at the time. I may have gotten it cheaper at the BX.

[lmagna]

Bill

You have a better memory than I do! I could have not told you the year if my life depended on it, to say nothing of the price.

 

1967 seems about right though. That would have made me about 18 fresh out on my own with a little money to spend on toys now and then and still prior to getting to play in Hueys for Uncle in his tourist resort half way around the world.

 

Lou

[walter1097]

My brother server on the Turner. I remember when he brought home a Turner shoulder patch and a model of the Fletcher for me. I seem to remember him telling me they were almost identical except the Turner had the original 5" mount at the forward upper position whereas the Fletcher had a Hedgehog launcher there (or maybe it was t'other way round, it was probably 55+ years ago) I was in Naval Security Group 68-77. Jim always said I wasn't in the "real Navy" He was right, but I can't say I regretted it. Sleeping in a regular bed every night instead of tossing around the North Atlantic on a tin can somehow seemed better to me.

 

Oh, and what tender? Jim was on the Puget Sound, out of Newport (I think) later in his career.

 

Oops, I did a little research. Looks like the Turner was a Gearing class destroyer. I guess the closest model Jim could find at the time was the Fletcher (by Revell, if I recall) Guess I made the association that the Turner was Fletcher class. I'll ask him about it. I know he was on radar picket ships in the Atlantic (unless I remembered that wrong too)

Edited September 8, 2017 by walter1097
addition

[reklein]

The Yosemite AD19 Newport RI. With a summer in the yards in Boston. I mustered out from her in Dec.68. Went yo Olympic in Bremerton and then to WSU.

 

[geoff]

Welcome back to MSW . All the best, Geoff