by Martin J. Quinn
1/350 1/350 USS Gearing DD-710 (Yankee ModelWorks)
I bought this kit in 2002 or 2003, when I was building an old Tom's ModelWorks Sumner class DD kit for a friend. The Toms kit had no instructions (heck, it wasn't even a complete kit), so I thought building the Gearing kit at the same time would help me along. I finished the Tom's Sumner (as USS Moale) back in 2004, leaving this kit to languish until now. It's built pretty much 'out of the box', except for the mast, which is brass rod. The brass for the bridge and 40mm quad splinter shields, as well as for the amidships passageway were very persnickety, but the rest of the kit was pretty straightforward to build. Model was painted with WEM colourcoats and weathered with artists oils. Rigging is .003 Dai Riki monofilament, the "water" - which I put on much too heavy - is acrylic gel.
