USS Bagley (DD-386) by catopower - 1/200 - Avangard - CARD

[catopower]

5 hours ago, ccoyle said:

 

You gotta go wherever the mood leads!

I know, but when you're a moody person, it can get you into a lot of trouble... 😶

 

These paper models are friggin' addictive! And, unfortunately, I'm finding the Avangard kits to be too alluring. Now that I've posted that picture of USS Aaron Ward, I'm thinking it's an awfully interesting looking build. But, I was also realizing Avangard's other Treaty Era destroyer kit, USS Farragut, is also calling to me, as the ship has the Mare Island connection of having been named after the first Commandant of Mare Island, David Glasgow Porter...

 

Clearly, there are way too many interesting models to build, and I can't go fast enough.

 

I've been working on the construction of the Bagley's large searchlight, located amidships, and it's slow going. Lots of parts. In between work on that, I've had to take breaks and work on things less involved. However, if this keeps up, I'm going to run out of those less involved assemblies, and it's going to be nothing but tiny, tiny details with lots of parts in a pretty short time. Just not yet!

 

Searchlight base construction...

Various searchlight parts assembled. Not shown are the seats for the operators, and two little pieces that fit on top of the searchlight...

 

This short tower is where the searchlight will be mounted. There are also 5 other small instruments that fit up here. I don't know the details, but they kind of look a lot like the instruments you would find on the bridge. was this a backup, in case the main bridge was damaged?

Note above and below, I was relieved to discover that the hatch wheels were provided in the laser cut details set. I'd been trying to figure out how I was going to make these wheels look decent, given that they are just way too small for me to cut the individual spokes of the printed parts, and those areas between the spokes were plain white as provided. 

 

The printed wheels were black. I don't know what color they would have actually been. I just left these laser-cut parts unpainted. They all come in basic gray. Anyway, this is an example of one of those less demanding details, gluing on the hatches, ventilator grilles, etc.

 

 

[James H]

That really does look very nice 🥰

[catopower]

Thank you James!

 

No time to work on USS Bagley until tomorrow, but here's how she looks today, with deck structures test fit.

 

Long ways to go...

 

I'm now considering how I want to deal with the railings. I have some PE railings I purchased, but it would be nice to make railings that have their stanchions in the right locations. That might be a bit much for me to deal with though. 

 

On V108, I used PE railings and modified them in places, so that I had stanchions properly located at corners. I suppose I can try that on this model too. Just have a lot more corners to worry about here.

 

[Richard44]

4 hours ago, catopower said:

I'm now considering how I want to deal with the railings. I have some PE railings I purchased, but it would be nice to make railings that have their stanchions in the right locations. That might be a bit much for me to deal with though. 

 

Hi Clare,

I came across this Ebay website while browsing the net. The stanchions appear to be resin, but no indication of how many in a pack. It might be worth your while to check them out. Link here. Cheers.

[catopower]

Thanks Richard! I checked out the link. These are PE, photo-etched parts. While I have some PE railings, they are premade with rails and stations. These are nice because they're individual stanchions.

 

One of my plastic modeler friends suggested something like these. I'm not keen on the flatness of the stanchions, but I may have to give something like these a try. I'm a bit spoiled by the images I see from some of those Eastern European builders, but I think their paper modeling skills are just insane. I think I'm seeing a lot of soldered railings in model photos(!).

 

EDIT: Went ahead and ordered the stanchions just now. Might as well try them out. Maybe this is just what I'm looking for?

Edited Monday at 08:13 PM by catopower

[catopower]

Today, I think I found the first actual error in Avangard's USS Bagley kit.

 

Several days ago, I though I'd discovered some parts were missing, but I finally found them. Today, however, I found what appears to be an actual problem. The bridge structure consists of a lower structure with a slightly larger structure that sits atop it. No problem there.

The outer printed part for the lower section fits fine...

However, the upper section is about 1.5mm too tall for the printed part that covers the sides. Red arrow marks top of the printed paper part. It should line up with the top edge of the laser-cut cardboard piece, marked by the green arrow...

Verifying the issue, I stacked up the two structures and there is a single printed piece that covers the foreward face of the whole bridge structure, and it too comes up short. So, it's not that the printed part is too short, it's that the upper section is too tall. Again, the red arrow marks top of the printed paper part, which is supposed to line up with the top edge of the laser-cut cardboard piece, marked by the green arrow...

 

 

It's also not an error specific to the laser-cut parts, as I compared them to the printed paper version of the internal structure, and the error is present there too.

 

I sent a message to Avangard asking about the issue. However, I think I can fix the issue pretty easily, and I'm not expecting the kit publisher to provide new parts or anything. I can just disassemble that upper bridge structure, cut down the vertical formers by 1.5mm, and glue it all back together. I don't think there will be any remaining visible issues.

[catopower]

Good news! Sorta...

 

Well, let's say there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is that I'm not crazy, and Avangard checked their CAD files and confirmed that there is actually an error on their end. Of course, the bad news is that there's an error in the kit, and I'm going to have to fix the issue on my model. 😕

 

I have to say that I'm impressed with how quickly Avangard responded to my query, and how seriously they took it. I imagine they'll fix the issue for some future production run. Anyway, this is the only actual error I've found in the kit, so far, unless you consider the lack of clarity on the hawse pipe construction, I suppose. Still, finding this a great kit, and I'm really enjoying the build.

 

Fortunately, as I stated last time, this should be a pretty easy fix. Worst case, I can always use the printed paper parts and make new cardboard framework for the bridge, but I don't think that'll be necessary. But, just in case, wish me luck!

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, catopower said:

I imagine they'll fix the issue for some future production run.

 

I kinda doubt that. In all my years of building card models, I've seen very few reprints, if any. Usually the print run sells out, and that's that. A more likely possibility, though still uncommon, is that Avangard may offer the corrected part in either a future kit or as a downloadable file.