by Erik Welch
1/350 USS Nields DD-616 (Dragon)
This is the USS Nields DD-616. The Nields was a Benson class destroyer commissioned on 15 January 1943 . I modeled her as she appeared after her late war anti-kamikaze refit in mid-1945. The main changes during this refit were removing her torpedo tubes as well as her starboard anchor and whaleboat to allow for the addition of more anti-aircraft guns.
DD-616 USS Nields was named after one of my relatives (my grandmother's maiden name is Nields). Henry C. Nields was an officer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. Assigned to USS Metacomet, he distinguished himself for his part in the rescue of survivors from USS Tecumseh after that monitor had gone down, mined within 600 yards of Confederate guns during the Battle of Mobile Bay in August 1864.
The signal flags on my model of the Nields spell out my name, ERIK on the port side and that of my nephew NOAH on the starboard side.
I worked on the Nields on and off over the last year. I have no idea how many hours I spent total, but it was quite a few I'm sure. I managed to pack 736 individual pieces into this 11 ½ inch model! The starting point for this conversion was the Dragon USS Laffey. In addition to scratch building some parts out of styrene, brass and phosphor bronze, I used the following items to detail the Nields:
