USS England (DE-635) by Jack12477 - FINISHED - Trumpeter - 1:350 - PLASTIC

[Jack12477]

For my 3rd plastic kit build, I've chosen the 1:350 Trumpeter USS England (DE-635) Destroyer Escort kit.

 

Background:

 

USS England DE-635
Length : 93.2 m (305.77 ft)
Beam : 11.2 m (36.7 ft)
Displacement : 1400K (1.377 Long tons)

 

The USS England was one of 142 turbo-electric (TE) series destroyer escorts commissioned between April 1943 and March 1944. Named after Ensign Charles England who was killed onboard the Oklahoma (BB-37) on 7 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. She was commissioned on 10 December 1943, arrived at Espiritu Santo on 12 March 1944, from where she was engaged in escort duties.

 

Between 19 May and 31 May 1944, England, in company with George (DE-657), Raby (DE-698), and Spangler (DE-696), stalked and sank six Japanese submarines. with MK-10 "Hedgehog"  Projector and Depth Charges. Following the successes against the six submarines, England continued to operate as convoy escort and was involved with operations against Leyte, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. In the end of the war, England was decomissioned on 10 December 1945.

 

The kit includes PE Brass depth charge racks, and I've also purchase the Tom's ModelWorks PE kit for this model. I will be painting it with the WWII "razzle-dazzle" camouflage, using as a reference the actual museum ship, Destroyer Escort USS Slater (DE-766), which is on display just north of me in Albany, NY.

 

Obligatory box photos:

 

 

Included PE

 

 

 

Tom's ModelWorks PE alongside the kit supplied PE

 

 

The "razzle-dazzle" camo scheme:  Photos from the USS Slater website

 

 

 

 

 

[CDW]

Very nice project Jack. You going to do the dazzle paint job? 

[Jack12477]

13 minutes ago, CDW said:

Very nice project Jack. You going to do the dazzle paint job? 

I'm going to try   Problem is the model is soooo small that I'm having trouble duplicating the proportions on the original (USS Slater), and the Slater museum doesn't reopen for tours until late April. So touring the actual ship will have to wait till then

[lmagna]

Glad to see you doing the England Jack.

 

I always thought sub #6 was an outstanding story. The England stood aside and watched the other DEs work over the sub for over 25 hours with Hedge Hogs and depth charges. Then at last Commander Hains told her "Oh hell, go ahead England" and she made one pass and sank the sub with one pattern of Hedge Hogs!

 

The kit looks really nice. I wonder how much nicer it will be compared to the older and bigger Revell Buckley would be with GMM photo etch? Are you going to look into 3D guns and stuff?

[Canute]

I'm in Jack. Check into Gator Masks. Same guy as the glue maker. The Measure 32 schemes are complex.

[Jack12477]

Ken, in researching color schemes I found that the Slater and England both had the same razzle dazzle measure number, since I have photos of  Slater in her dazzle scheme and I can easily drive to her dock, I decided to use her as my reference.  I checked Gator website, he doesn't have masks for destroyer escorts, so I will use the photos. 

[Canute]

No love for the little ones.

[lmagna]

15 hours ago, Jack12477 said:

he doesn't have masks for destroyer escorts,

http://gatorsmask.com/ddde.html

 

He lists them under Buckley.

[Jack12477]

57 minutes ago, lmagna said:

http://gatorsmask.com/ddde.html

 

He lists them under Buckley.

Yes, but none of his currently available masks come anywhere near matching the pattern on the Slater which I'm using for reference. 

[RGL]

Nice. I’m in. 

[Jack12477]

Glad to have you Greg

[cog]

You start to build your own fleet of destroyers ... gettin' like me

 

On 2/19/2019 at 8:39 PM, Jack12477 said:

I'm going to try   Problem is the model is soooo small that I'm having trouble duplicating the proportions on the original (USS Slater), and the Slater museum doesn't reopen for tours until late April. So touring the actual ship will have to wait till then

If you have a dazzle image taken square of the side of the ship, you could enlarge it to the size of your build and transpose it on to the hull. EIther by cutting it out and make a template with mask paper/tape, or draw it onto the hull. I used the former method for the H-class tribal I'm building. I scanned the required image from a book, cut out the different parts and copied them by tracing the shape on Tamiya masking tape the 2" width one. You should take into account, you will be painting from light to darker, as light doesn't cover a dark underground as well as vice versa. I painted the entire hull in the lightest colour, and then moved to a darker shade. I'll photograph the sequences in my next dazzled body build ... should have thought about ithat.

[Jack12477]

Thanks Carl, I was thinking of this.  If I can find a decent photo.

 

Fleet?  Not with only 2 ships! 

Edited February 21, 2019 by Jack12477

[popeye the sailor]

really gett'in into the thick of it eh?!?!   looks like a really neat project Jack.......I'll pull up a seat too  

[cog]

27 minutes ago, Jack12477 said:

Fleet?  Not with only 2 ships! 

It'll come when I see the speed you are building ... 1 destroyer, 1 transport, coming up 1 destroyer ...

[popeye the sailor]

it's a stealth fleet........old Indian proverb:     he rides fastest,  who rides alone  

[Jack12477]

1 hour ago, popeye the sailor said:

he rides fastest,  who rides alone

And gets lost quicker too

[cog]

20 hours ago, Jack12477 said:

And gets lost quicker too

if he's a she ... 

[Jack12477]

Moving along:  I've assembled the 3 halves of the hull and deck, given them an initial coat of paint, and installed some of the PE brass doors.

 

 

 

This time the doors remained aligned - I used the Gator brand glue instead of the CA.

 

[Jack12477]

I've been retracing my research after some discussion offline with other members.  I didn't make note of this before but the USS England is a Buckley class DE, while the USS Slater is a Cannon class DE; different power plants, different silhouette, different stacks.  In addition Slater spent most of her WWII service in the North Atlantic before transferring to the Pacific near the War's End, while England spent all of her service in the Pacific.  Camo Measure 32, which the Slater used, is a North Atlantic camo pattern, not used in the Pacific; Measure 21, which the England used, was more heavily used in the Pacific. 

 

After comparing the two measures, I find the Measure 21 "all blue" ship a bit boring and uninteresting, while the Measure 32 pattern has more visual appeal.  So !  I have decided to continue with the Measure 32 for the model since it has, for me at least, more visual appeal.

 

The following photos are ones I took of the Slater as she was being towed back to Albany NY in June 2014 after her re-paint at a shipyard in NYC.  The two photos were taken about 2 minutes apart and after the ship had moved about 100 yards north (up river) - notice the drastic change in color - same camera (digital), same lighting, bright sky bright sun.  The sun is directly behind me shining directly on the ship in both photos.

 

 

I also located the official US Navy Measure 32 pattern diagrams with color designations, these match the colors I have in the LifeColor set I got for the other two kits.

 

This is my interpretation of the Measure 32 pattern.  (Getting a decent lighting is a challenge - I'm using daylight rated LED lighting for the 1st two photos and for the 3rd photo I took the model outdoors under a clear blue sky with the snow acting as an additional reflector)

 

 

 

Edited February 23, 2019 by Jack12477

[Old Collingwood]

Looking smart.

 

OC.

[mtaylor]

By jove, I think you got it!

[RGL]

Well done 

[cog]

Most pacific camouflage is quite boring I found. When I look at the destroyers from the RN, RCN, RAN, and RNZN it's mostly more singel shades of blue/greyish-blue.

 

Thorough paint job, Jack. Did you draw the patern on the hull, or use masking tape?

[Jack12477]

Thanks

I eye-balled the lines - no tracing - used "landmarks" on the superstructure to line the panels up, applied the Tamiya Masking tape, cut some of it to get the curve - then free hand brushed it - one color at a time.

Edited February 24, 2019 by Jack12477

[cog]

Well done

[Canute]

Nice job with the paint scheme. Your indoor pix look like the 2nd live shot and your outdoor one looks like the first Slater pic. Slick.

[Jack12477]

1 hour ago, cog said:

Did you draw the patern on the hull, or use masking tape?

Carl, here's a picture of it taped

 

[lmagna]

Nice job Jack your paint looks fantastic and your doors are straight! You must be a happy camper.

 

I agree on measure 21. One would have to look pretty hard to find a more boring paint scheme. The measure 32 is MUCH better looking and your rendition looks great. As for England vs. Slater and Buckley vs. Cannon, or for that matter turbine vs. diesel, that's pretty easy to fix. One way would be to change the stack. Fairly easy if a 3D version was available, (It's not) but a much easier way would be to look over the list of Buckley or turbine DEs that served in the North Atlantic convoys and it is almost certain it was dressed up in measure 32. Change the name and all is well!

 

But no matter what you call her your work so far is looking good.

Edited February 24, 2019 by lmagna

[BenF89]

This is really neat! I like the camo scheme, even if it is “wrong”- it looks so right! And that’s a clever idea, placing the PE horizontal with the pieces on the sprue.