By Richard Sliwka
1/350 USS Cassin Young -793 (Yankee Model Works)
My basic references were Jeff Herne's The kit used was Blue Water
Navy's (now Yankee
Modelworks kit) USS Johnston Fletcher Class destroyer. Since
I wanted to model a deatroyer using one of the distruptive camouflage measures,
I elected to model the USS Cassin Young--especially since there are quite
a few references and photos of the Young.
My basic reference was J. Scott Harmon's "U.S.S. Cassin Young (DD-793)"
book. Other references were Raven's "Fletcher-Class Destroyers" and
Herne's "Warship
Perspectives, Fletcher, Gearing and Sumner Class Destroyers in World War
Two".
The kit model's lenght is approximately 11/32" too short or about 1/360
scale so I reduced the Alan Chesley line and camouflage drawings in the
Harmon book to 1/360 scale at a local print shop. Comparing those
drawings(and other Fletcher line drawings) to the kit, I determined the
foreward bridge superstructure and gun mount 51 were 3/16" too far aft.
I used a razor saw to carefully remove the bridge superstructure and repositioned
it and the 51 gun ring 3/16" foreward. (Actually, the kit is acceptable
without this modification; but, I wanted my model to be slighty more accurate.)
The lower hull (this is a two piece hull kit) was about 1/8" shorter
than the upper hull. I elected to cut the lower hull in two sections
cutting near the stern with a razor saw. Then, I matched the stern
and bows glueing with 5-minute epoxy, filled the resulting 1/8" gap with
scrap resin and super glue, filled all mating lines with 3-M Acryl-Blue
Glazing Putty, primed with Dupli-Color Filler Primer (outside using an
respirator--vapors are bad), and sanded with 400-600 wet/dry sanding paper.
I painted the model as the Young appeared in 1944 in the Measure 32/7D
scheme using the camouflage drawing and The
Floating Drydock Measure 32/7D camouflage sheet. I masked and
air brushed Model Masters Marine Acryl 5-L light gray and Dull Black for
vertical surfaces above the water line and Boottop Black and Anti-fouling
Red below. The decks were hand painted using Poly Scale 20-B Deck
Blue and 5-O Ocean Gray.
Minor modifications were made to reflect the Young's configuration--moved
the mid-ship 20mm gun shielding, scratched-built stack platforms, added
a Sonar dome made from resin scraps and slightly modified the aft 40mm
structure. The mast and prop shafts were replaced with brass tubing.
Non-kit parts used were L'Arsenal's 26' whale boats and Mk 51 directors
(the kit's are acceptable; but, these are more detailed), Tom's
Modelworks SC-2 radar (the kit's appear to be over-scale), and Gold
Medal Models's floater net baskets. The 20mm guns were a combination
of L'Arsenal (base, gun carrige & shield), kit (gun barrel), and GMM
(wheel). Rigging was .002", .003", and .004" nylon fishing line for
halyards, radio wire, and supporting lines, respectively.
The model took approximately 90-100 hours to complete.
Overall, this is an excellent kit with outstanding photo-etch (well-detailed
and very forgiving when there are mis-steps). The "railing/life-lines"
are especially nice with its delicate netting. (However, the pre-measured
photo-etch railings need to be cut into smaller sections for the bow and
stern locations to prevent warp/mis-shaping after glueing as the provided
sections are straight and don't match the deck line curve.)
