USS Basilone DD-824 by schooner - FINISHED - BlueJacket Shipcrafters - Scale 1:192 - from USS Gearing kit

[schooner]

Thanks for the kind words Brian. The finished model may end up bad but at least it will be bad in a detailed way...

 

 

The only good thing about having the Washington Redskins as my local team is that I can work on the model with the game on and not have to worry about missing any good plays, so here we go...

 

Radar Antennas

 

The FRAMs had 2 search radars; the SPS-10 Surface Search Radar and an air search radar. About half of the ships had the SPS-40 Air Search Radar, like Basilone, the rest had the SPS-29, the kit provides PE to build either of the air search radars.

 

Here’s the PE for the SPS-40:

The scorpion-shaped piece (the RF Feedhorn assembly) is folded into a crescent shape. My recommendations for anyone doing it are to 1) study some photos of the radar online so you understand how this will be shaped 2) take your time and carefully fold it first 3) then glue small sections at a time using medium CA with a spray of zip kicker when the pieces are aligned properly. Here’s the finished piece:

The other 2 pieces are the array and the rear support structure (the mounting base is a piece of cast metal). The array is given a gentle cure bend into a parabolic shape and then the support piece is glued to the back. The instructions don’t mention it, but the rear piece should have it’s center section removed (after it is glued in place) so that the back of the array rests against the crescent piece discussed in the previous paragraph. Here are the 2 pieces glued together:

The SPS-10 is similar but much simpler to assemble. Here’s the finished assembly:

Here’s the finished and painted radars:

Edited December 7, 2014 by schooner

[schooner]

Main Mast

 

The mast is fabricated out of brass tubing, rod, some PE and laser-cut plastic.

 

I’m not great at soldering so I wasn’t looking forward to this part of the build but I did find something that helped a lot. This may not be news to anyone but me but they sell solder paste that has both the solder and flux combined in one. It goes on easily, you can easily control where you want it, it stays in place (unlike tiny pieces of solder), heats up quickly with a flame jet, doesn't run when it melts  and has no slag that needs to be cleaned up. I don't know if it would work for high-temp soldering or how strong it is compared to other methods but it worked fine for this application.

The kit provides a very handy jig that ensures that the 3 legs of the mast are properly spaced - very important since it’s proper location on the signal bridge places the 2 rear legs on the deck edge so there is no room for error. I recommend that you solder the 3 legs together and then test them on their final location before adding the rest of the stuff to the mast - you may have to re-do it like I did. The bottom of the jig has an extra piece of wood that I added to match the depth of the main leg’s hole on the model. Here’s the extent of my soldering - everything after this is glued.

The plans call for the support braces to be made of  .020, 1/32 and 1/16 brass rod - I did that except I substituted 1/16 plastic rod since is is easier to shape than brass. The upper platform was replaced with a wider piece to better accommodate the motor on the base of the SPS-10 radar.

 

The following pix show the mast as per the kit plans except the railings have not been added to the platforms yet. 

My next post will cover scratch details. 

Edited December 11, 2014 by schooner

[patrickmil]

Tim, I'm just catching up on your Basilone. Outstanding work on her!

[schooner]

Great to hear from you again Patrick! Hope you will be posting again soon.

[schooner]

Main Mast (cont)

 

Details were fabricated out of brass wire and styrene:

Here they are after painting, to include several small whip antennas, 2 UHF antennas, masthead and range lights (the ones with the sector shields), the lights on the outer yardarms are omni-directional blinkers for sending messages to several ships simultaneously at night, just inboard of them are the Nancy lights, which perform the same function except stealthily using IR. The other lights include the yellow ASW light and red aircraft-warning lights on the masthead,  and the red and white man overboard /task lights on the starboard mast leg. The small yardarm is actually a antenna spreader for a fan antenna that will be anchored on the forward stack, and last but not least there has to be a wind bird (anemometer) at the mast tip:

 

Here’s what it will look like with the radar antennas and the signal shelter / ops office:

 

 

I prefer the look of black masts on naval ships and Basilone had a black mast starting in the late 60’s but at the time I selected to depict her (1966) it was still grey (albeit, the big black radar antenna defeated much of the camouflage effect).  USN masts have alternated between black and grey several times over the last hundred years as the emphasis shifts back and forth between the tactically prudent and the aesthetically pleasing. About 15 years ago they went back to the more tactically prudent grey again. 

Edited December 15, 2014 by schooner

[patrickmil]

The detail work in incredible Tim. Outstanding work!

[WackoWolf]

patrickmil beat me to what I was going to say. Excellent detail work

[schooner]

Thanks guys - I was afraid I was maybe becoming a little OCD about it all ...

[schooner]

Inflatable liferafts

 

Basilone was equipped with 19 25-man inflatable life rafts. The kit provides 9 cast rafts but the size and shape didn’t look right to me so I decided to scratch my own. The rafts were usually stowed in racks that resembled park benches like these:

 

Half of the racks were on top of the hanger and the others were arranged on both sides of the forward superstructure:

 

The rafts were stacked 2 to a rack and covered in rubberized canvas and secured with lines that ran to a hydrostatic release device that could be tripped manually or, if the ship sank, would release them at a relatively shallow depth.

I scratched the rafts from strip wood of the right width, glued up to the right height, and then cut to length. The edges were rounded and the faces roughed up with a saw blade to simulate canvas. The racks are just a loop of soldered wire, bent and side rails added, with plastic slats. Here’s the stuff before painting (one of the cast kit rafts is on the left):

And here is the finished product:

Edited December 23, 2014 by schooner

[patrickmil]

Tim, the life rafts and park benches look great. I'm anxious to see the pics of them mounted to your ship.

[schooner]

Thanks for the kind words Patrick. I'm aware that what I'm doing here is just swatting flies compared to the reconstructive surgery you are carrying out on your constitution - amazing work, I have trouble even conceptualizing that kind of stuff in 3D let alone doing it.

[schooner]

Odds and Ends

 

While finishing up the display board I kept busy on some really small details

 

Basilone carried 2 Stokes litters like this topside:

I put together a couple out of wire and styrene, along with 3 helmet racks:

This photo shows, in addition to another stretcher, some of the topside firefighting equipment.

The kit provides several hose racks and associated 1/1/2 inch fireman risers in cast metal, both nicely done. Something I’ve noticed on ship models of USN ships of the period is that the canvas hoses are usually painted a very light tan color. That would stand to reason since you would assume that canvas exposed to salt water and sunlight would bleach out but in my experience a darker, dirtier brown is more accurate. New hoses came out of the shipping box a cardboard color and since they were constantly being taken of the racks for fire drills, saltwater wash downs and hydrostatic testing they got grungier with use until, when they finally wore out they were pretty gnarly, like the hose shown in the photo above.

Associated FF equipment that was stored near the hose racks were the fog applicators that turned high pressure saltwater streams into a fine mist to shield the hose teams fighting fires in an enclosed space. They came in 4, 10, and 12 ft lengths and also special, unbent applicators that were stored near the gun mounts for emergency cooling of the inside of the barrels in case a round became jammed in a gun hot enough to cause it to cook off inside the barrel. Firing the guns once that point had been reached was always nerve-wracking. Here’s what I came up with using wire with CA globs for the tips, along with a couple of vertical and horizontal multi-valve 2 1/2 fireman risers (minus PE hand wheels enroute from L’Arsenal):

  

I can finally put away the tweezers and hang up the magna visor for awhile as I shift to painting the hull, mounting it on the display board and pushing on to final assembly of the model.

Edited January 19, 2015 by schooner

[patrickmil]

That is some incredibly small detail Tim. I can't wait to see this in place.

[schooner]

Hull painting and display board

 

Finished up with the display board and then painted the hull. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a note for anyone building this kit: When it comes time to mark the waterline go with the side view on the kit plans, don’t reference the stern view, it’s height is off. I think since it is just a partial view it is supplied only to help locate the ship’s name decal. You don’t need it to locate the waterline anyway so just ignore it or you will spend 30 minutes trying to figure out why things don't line up (like I did).

I’ll probably apply the decals to the hull next since I won’t want to have to handle the hull after all the delicate stuff is added topside. Then I will cover the hull sides and the board in protective paper until the end of the build. 

Edited January 25, 2015 by schooner

[patrickmil]

Great paint job Tim!!!! Can't wait to see everything mounted.

[schooner]

Thanks Patrick!

Compared to cutting in a waterline on a planked sailing ship this was a piece of cake; no stem, no wales, no sternpost, no planking seams to suck paint where it doesn't belong.....

[schooner]

Hull decals

 

The kit provides a decal sheet with the hull numbers for the USS Gearing, a name decal for the stern, 6 arabic numeral draft marks and the squadron shield. Since I’m modeling a ship other than the Gearing I had to look elsewhere for decals.

I found what I needed from Gold Medal Model’s 1/192 USN decal sheet. For only $5 you get a wealth of shaded numbers, draft marks, warning signs, etc. If you want to duplicate the USN blueprints you will have to order 2 sheets because for some strange reason they only provide 1 white plimsoll mark (the asterisk looking thing) per sheet. 

 A total of 12 roman numeral draft marks are required but they contain only 2 per sheet, however, there are so many numerals (I to XXXX), and they are right-justified, so that with a little careful work with a razor you can trim off the extra X’s and get what you need. The name decal was printed on blank decal paper.

Applying them was easy with using Microscale’s MicroSet to pre-wet the surface and help the decals adhere without problems.

Edited April 18, 2015 by schooner

[schooner]

Superstructure details

 

Prior to mounting the 2 main superstructure pieces to the hull I wanted to add the watertight doors, portholes and hose racks since it is easier to do while holding the larger pieces rather than the hull.

 

There are about 30 WTDs on the ship, about 1/3 are what are referred to as “water tight doors” that have 8 individual dogs that have to be opened, these are used on doors that are not frequently used, like fan rooms, here’s what one looks like:

The majority of the doors are “Quick-acting” type where all the dogs are connected by linkages. During WWII the USN used a style that had a hand wheel in the center and the linkages mounted on the door like this:

Later they went to an improved design that has a lever and the linkages are mounted on the door frame so they are not so prone to get out of adjustment from the door slamming, here’s one:

The kit provides PE doors for the WTDs and the QAWTDs:

The kit WTDs (on the left above) are great, the thickness is right and the dogs are prominent. The kit QAWTDs are also fine but they are the WWII type and Basilone had hers removed during the FRAM upgrade and replaced with the modern ones with levers. So I ordered a fret of 1/192 USN doors from Tom’s Modelworks. They provide a wide range of door designs with waffle imprints , flat, and both exterior and interior sides. The doors come with a separate frame in case you want to model them in the open position, here’s one on the far right:

The only problem with them is that there is no lever provided so I had to make my own. A 2 foot long lever scales out to 1/8 of an inch. I needed to include a 90 degree bend and 2 45 degree bends since the levers have a dog leg in them. I made a "3-step" jig that imparts the bends when the 

.010 wire is crimped to the jig with pliers and when the wire is clipped at the jig edge the length is correct.

Making 20+ levers didn’t take too long. Each lever has a small bit of CA on the end to simulate the knob and then they were painted silver since the levers were usually left as unpainted steel. Here’s what a couple of them look like:

After adding the doors I attached the 2 main superstructure pieces to the hull. I’ll be adding more details to the main deck bulkheads next because large areas of them will be obstructed with stanchions and bulwarks later on. I’ll continue with those details that show up on the blueprints like doors, stowed davits, etc and then fit in other details like drain pipes, fuel tank vents, grab rails etc using photos for reference. 

Edited February 10, 2015 by schooner

[schooner]

Fwd Refueling Station

 

The FRAM’s primary station for refueling at sea was on the 01 deck forward, just under the bridge wings. The following photo shows the bulkhead fittings for securing blocks, long links and large cleats. It also shows the squat refueling trunk on the deck between the 2 large cleats. Forward of the trunk is a more modern probe receptacle which were added in the early 70’s and are still in use today - much better than lashing an open-ended hose into a trunk and hoping there won’t be spray of bunker oil coming out.

 

I scratched the bulkhead fittings out of brass wire, styrene and paper:

 

Here’s the completed station with the fuel trunk added. Also added is the trunk extension below it leading down to the main deck. The kit plans don’t show it but it is an easy addition:

 

 

 

[schooner]

DASH Control Station

 

THe DASH Drone was controlled from an open air cubicle on the forward edge of the flight deck. It was basically a desk with a little protection in case the drone got too close. All the control electronics were in portable suitcases so the station was minimally equiped.

Here’s what I came up with (the cable cabinet is scratched based on photos):

 

Portable J-davits

 

Simple davits were stored around the weather decks and used for such things as rigging the accommodation ladder and lifting heavy objects from boats alongside, between decks and even up through the large foclse and fantail hatches:

I scratched some out of wire, styrene and paper for the mounting brackets.

When not in use they were usually stowed in brackets on a bulkhead:

Edited February 22, 2015 by schooner

[schooner]

Main Deck Bulkhead details

 

Have been slowly adding small details to the bulkheads on the main deck level. I covered the watertight doors in a previous post.

 

Kit-provided additions since then include vegetable lockers. ladders, large line reel, and grab rails.

 

Aftermarket PE additions include the porthole rims, the hand wheels on the deck (must have been real shin breakers at night), and small line reel.

 

Scratch additions include deck drains, gooseneck vents for fuel tanks, water diverters, vent outlets, fog gong and locker on aft bulkhead, life rings, and oxygen bottles. Still to go are the remote operated valve hand wheels and firefighting equipment.

 

The ugly vertical surface with the exposed I-beam ends will be covered up with a bulwark shortly.

[schooner]

Amidships Bulwarks

 

One of the distinguishing features of the Gearings was there prominent bulwarks with 6 varied openings of circles, ovals and arches. Although during the FRAM modernizations the superstructures were completely removed the bulwarks were rebuilt the same as before - one of the few points of continuity from their pre-modernization appearance.

The kit provides the bulwarks as a single piece of laser cut sheet plastic with a thin section were a bend occurs. One of mine broke at that point but it was just as well, with so many points of contact it would have been difficult to fit it without breaking it down into pieces. It also worked out OK because the door cutout was too big for the PE frame I wanted to use so I made new pieces with slightly smaller door openings.

The first modification, although the kit instructions don’t mention it, the kit plans clearly show that the bottom of the bulwarks do not rest flush on the deck but are supported by the bottom of the interior stiffeners. I cut off 1/16 inch from the bottom, added stiffeners to the inside face and angle braces for the aft section (the rest would not be visible). The other modification was to line each opening with support bracing.

After painting and fitting the bulwarks I printed out the emblems for DESRON TWELVE which BASILONE was assigned to in 1966 in Newport. I got the design for the emblems from a former BASILONE sailor. This small step took an extra trip to the hobby shop since I didn’t think about the fact that printers don’t print white, so back I went to get white decal paper.

Next step will be to add the chocks and bollards to the main deck.

Edited March 14, 2015 by schooner

[schooner]

Amidships Bulwarks Re-Do

 

There’s nothing like a photo (however bad) to bring out the flaws in a model.

 

After looking at the pix I posted something was really bugging me about them - the gap I created at the bottom of the bulwark, while to scale at 12”, was simply too big. 

Fortunately the thickness of the bulwark is a standard size for plastic strips so after a little reconstructive surgery I was able to reduce the gap to what I was after in the first place. 

 

One step forward - One step back...

Edited March 15, 2015 by schooner

[schooner]

Bitts & Chocks

 

The kit provides closed chocks and 2 sizes of bitts, all nicely done in Brittania metal. The sockets on the deck edges for the portable davits are scratched.

Signal Bridge detailing

 

I bought some 12” signal lights from HR Products, and while they look good from the front, when viewed from the top or side the lights have no depth, they are almost flat. 

I cut out the lights leaving the yokes and cut plastic rod to size, flat on the front face and curved on the rear, added a dog-leg arm so the light can signal ships astern, and the shutter arms. I also scratched 2 “Big Eye” binoculars.

Here’s the finished signal bridge. As I mentioned previously, the Ops Office/Signal shack is scratched since on the Basilone and the other FRAMs modified at the Philly Navy Yard the structure is significantly larger  than on other ships. The Sig shack is dry fitted and will be glued down when I step the mast. The pyro lockers, sound powered phone boxes, and the unusual knee-high instrument panel that constitutes the flying bridge, and its voice tube are also scratch additions.

Next up will be detailing the bridge level.

Edited March 28, 2015 by schooner

[schooner]

Bridge level details

 

The kit provides pelorus’ for the bridge wings, they look good but when fitted on the model they are too tall (6 ft at scale). Although it would have been a simple matter to trim them by 3/32 or so I happened to have some smaller ones from Bluejacket in my spare parts kit that fit just fine. 

Here’s the finished bridge level. Kit provided items include the deck gratings, vertical ladders, railings and the 2 lockers on the port side. The WTD's (without windows) are aftermarket, everything else is scatch made.

 

Next job will be installing the stanchions that run between the main deck and the 01 level.

Edited April 4, 2015 by schooner

[schooner]

Main deck stanchions

 

One of the unique visual markers of the FRAMs was the widespread use of rather spindly deck stanchions between the main deck and 01 level. USN cruisers and destroyers of the 50’s to 80’s all had a least a few but none as many as the FRAMs. Deck stanchions have pretty much disappeared in more modern ships in an attempt to be more stealthy by eliminating such radar-reflection highpoints.

 

The stanchions are .020 wire per the kit instructions. My only additions are the deck drain pipes and gussets on the after groups.

 

Next up will be detailing the forward 01 level deck.

Edited April 18, 2015 by schooner

[schooner]

FWD Replenishment at Sea Kingpost & catwalk

 

The FRAMs had a short portable king post that could be rigged forward of the bridge, either port or starboard. Here’s a shot of it on the Basilone. 

And here is one in use on another FRAM:

Although it does not look very robust it did not need to be since both the high line and the in-haul lines were hand-tended. When it was not in use it, and its braces were stowed in a rack on the front edge of a catwalk that was used to rig it.

 

Before putting in the catwalk I scratched some lockers that were used for the 5” Practice Loader that will be installed on the 01 level later:

Here’s the various parts after being made from styrene:

Here’s everything assembled on the model:

Next up will be more detailing of the forward 01 level. 

Edited April 27, 2015 by schooner

[Ray]

hi Tim

 Just found this build great detail and building guide after my HMS Diana is finished my next build is a ww2 Hunt class destroyer look forward to more updates.

[schooner]

Hi Ray,

Thanks for checking in. Building the Diana has always been on my dream list, just don't have the room for the finished build and its case.

 A Hunt DD should be a great build, they were amazing ships. I can't recommend too highly the Waterline Warships book I referred to in one of my early posts, wonderful ideas on how to detail a DD (HMS Caesar) , even more relevant for a Hunt than a FRAM. Hope you start a build log when you start that one.

Tim

Edited April 27, 2015 by schooner

[Old Collingwood]

This is a great level of detailed work and i agree what you said about the camera picking up every flaw, its the same with my Warspite build in 350scale dust and scarpping residue seems to collect in corners that are invisiable till i take a picture

 

OC.