by William Bowden
1/350 USS Fletcher DD-445 (Tamiya)
This is yet another commissioned build for my Navy friend Hank, this time for his 23rd birthday. He had been asking about a Fletcher in the past and I decided it would be a quick and simple build, so I went along with it. I used Tom's PE set this time because I hadn't tried any of Tom's stuff before and figured I would give it a shot. The PE was decent, but I still prefer GMM PE despite the higher price. I used Tamiya paints and mixed a couple of my own colors, such as the haze gray. Unfortunately I couldn't get the color how I wanted but it worked well enough. I really wish Tamiya offered some FS colors in their acrylic lineup. The kit itself went together without any problems. I won't comment further on the kit because enough has been said already by many other modelers. What did annoy me was that the swivel mounts for the torpedo racks were missing for some reason...I guess my kit slipped through QC without being noticed, drat. I used masking tape and a knife to cut out the camo pattern for the hull, and then airbrushed as shown in the photos. It came out really well and I will definitely use that technique again for hard-edged blotched schemes. I think the USS Alabama is calling to me now...anyways, I handpainted the blotches on the other vertical surfaces, and was careless enough to miss the fact that there were supposed to be two different gray blotch patterns, rather than one. To the untrained eye the mistake is not noticeable but I'm sure some purists out there will be offended :P
The rigging was EZ line, which has quickly become my favorite. I also added on some Eduard pre-painted figures since I had a number left over from my USS North Carolina. I don't possess a dremel so I couldn't cut away the hull below the waterline. Rather, I chiseled out some space from the base block of pine to mount the boat in. I was successful, and also learned that I want a dremel! The water was done with acrylic gel painted over a couple hues of blue. In retrospect the water should not be as bright and I could have molded it better. Oh well, I'm still practicing. Comments and questions appreciated as always, happy modeling :)
