USS Thatcher DD-514 by Ringadingdong - Tamiya - 1/350 - PLASTIC

[Ringadingdong]

As I mentioned in my introduction, I am currently working on Tamiya's 1/350 Fletcher. As I'm genetically unable to simply build a kit as provided, I'm trying to build her as USS Thatcher DD-514, as she appeared ca. February 1944 after she was rebuilt at Mare Island. That requires some extra work, as the kit covers only the earliest (6?) Fletchers, which differed a little in their AA arrangement Thankfully, I could borrow a couple of the required parts from Trumpeter's 'The Sullivans' kit. Furthermore, I'm throwing in some aftermarket for additional excitement.

 

Enough of the words for the moment, here she as she currently appears:

There's still quite some way to go, apparently...

[yvesvidal]

10 minutes ago, Ringadingdong said:

 As I'm genetically unable to simply build a kit as provided, I'm trying to build her as USS Thatcher DD-514, as she appeared ca.

We are quite numerous to suffer from the same debilitating disease.

 

Yves

[Ringadingdong]

7 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

We are quite numerous to suffer from the same debilitating disease.

 

Yves

Maybe we should establish a support group?

 

"Hello, my name is Michael, and I'm unable to build kits as intended!"

 

Anyways, todays harvest, a little work on the funnels. Funnel caps, the whistle platform and the center tube leading up to the ship's whistle. More tubework ahead!

 

[Ringadingdong]

Two weeks and a couple of unquotable exclamations later, main work on the funnels is done. The rear one was pretty straightforward, but the forward one almost gave me the fits. I had to make 8 of the large whistle, and for the small one, I went through about 10 cm of 0.75 mm plastic rod. That railing around the middle platform went through three or four iterations, and then, the platform itself wouldn't want to stick at the first attempt, as well. The railing on the searchlight platform is from the Tom's Modelworks set, which is made from a somewhat soft brass and thus pretty delicate. That definitely still needs a little extra care.

The forward funnel still needs the persenning around the searchlight platform and some floater baskets, and both still need ladders. And a good cleanup, as the makro reveals...

Unfortunately, I lost a significant piece of ladder from the rear funnel and need a replacement. The ones from the Eduard set are much smaller than the ladders from the Tom's set, so I'm looking for some generic ladders in a comparable size.

[Ringadingdong]

To chill down inbetween, the direction finder received some attention:

Also, checking the few pictures of the ship I have, I suddenly realised Thatcher had the revised stern Bofors platform. Running a bit out of motivation to modify the kit-supplied platform (especially after I already put a few hours effort in it), I made an order at Shapeways and got that lil' gem:

 

I'm certain it'll look awesome once it got some paint!

[Ringadingdong]

I also started work on the reinforcements on the forward quad Bofors and gun director platforms. While the platforms were pretty quickly done with some 0.5 mm plastic and some brass sheet (and to my surprise, unlike some funnel parts, just the plastic parts needed more than one attempt!), it took me a while to find a solution for those reinforcements. In the end, I decided to try some 0.25mm plastic strips:

Still quite a way to go, but it seems I can pull that off!

Missing some basic supplies usually isn't a big thing, but what's 'usual' these days? Thanks to everything closed due to Corona, I had to place an order for 5€ worth of plastic (okay, 10 € of plastic and 15 more for paint...) and had to wait five days until the parcel arrived. Oh, well...

 

Overall view:

 

and because it is so nice, a better view on the funnels:

Thanks for watching! :)

[Tigerdvr]

A nice project. Sharing the same ailment you are experiencing. I recently finished building 1/350 USS Kidd using the Trumpeter The Sullivans kit as a base and a combination

of aftermarket and scratch built items to bring her to the anti-kamikaze configuration.

Fortunately the Kidd is preserved in Baton Rouge in her late WWII configuration providing a great information source in addition to all the many other good sources.

Looking forward to following your Thatcher build.

Enjoy.

 

[Ringadingdong]

Just had a look at your USS Kidd, very nice! I have two of those kits in my posession, I bought the first to borrow some parts for Thatcher and build it in a '45 configuration with the remaining parts. Then I got a offer for the second kit which I just couldn't ignore. That'll end up in a 60's configuration, if I can find some 3" guns. Oh well, so many ideas and such slow progress...

I saw you also used the Black Cat Oerlikons. Is there anything on these that needs some extra attention?

[Tigerdvr]

I believe I used them as is with painting of course. Off hand, I would think Shapeway is the best bet to find the 3" twins.

I understand the overload of ideas. Every time I opened USS Kidd On Deck I saw another little detail and started thinking how

I could replicate that on the model. Must be part of the disease! 

[Papa]

 “As I'm genetically unable to simply build a kit as provided, I'm trying to build her as USS Thatcher DD-514, as she appeared”

i have the opposite problem. I have trouble building a plastic model as intended. 

[RGL]

Love to see a kit bash 

[Ringadingdong]

I can almost smell the primer!

 

 

 

[lmagna]

Nice progress

[Ringadingdong]

Now to the fun part. Everything starts bland in grey primer

Minutes later, some black emphasizes the areas that usually see now light:

 

2 1/2 hours and various shades of grey, brown, orange, green and white later break the monotony of the surface:

 

Time for coffee. Next time you see her, she'll have a red bum, err, bottom!

 

[Ringadingdong]

And red:

5 parts Vallejo hull red and 1 part Vallejo flat red, as the hull red is a bit too dark for my taste. Camera sucks, I have to realise again. Its definitely nicer than it shows up here. Thanks for watching!

[RGL]

Are you going to oil can her?

[Ringadingdong]

10 hours ago, RGL said:

Are you going to oil can her?

I gave it a thought, but I'll save that for a later project. I have to keep complexity managable, because I tend to work all over the place, and the paintwork on this one will already give me a good amount of headache...

[Ringadingdong]

Time for an update:

Now everything is in a grey haze, err, Haze Grey, we can move on to the camouflage, nuffin' more than a little bit of colour by numbers:

Should be a walk in the park! :D I just bulked up my inventory, just in case...

What else? Ah, I made a base:

That's it for today. Thanks for watching!

[Ringadingdong]

I'll have to rework a few blemishes, but overall I'm quite pleased how it turned out:

 

I don't know what I'm going to build next, but one thing I know for sure: it'll have a far less complex paint scheme! 😉 

 

Also, I got some valuable informations regarding the forward funnel, though I'm still short of appropriately sized ladders.

 

Thanks for watching!