by Martin Kohring
1/700 USS Forrest Sherman DD-931 (JAG)
USS Forrest Sherman was the leadship of her class and designated as a destroyer. She was the first ship to be named after admiral Forrest Sherman.
The class of ships eventually numbered 18 vessels and was the first of a new generation of destroyers for the US Navy, which entered service in 1955.
The Forrest Sherman class were the last all gun destroyers - prior to the next generation of guided missile ships. Unlike the WW2 boats, space allocation and comfort for the crew was taken into consideration-and many areas were air-conditioned.
The role of the vessels of the Forrest Sherman class was intended mainly as screen vessels for Aircraft carriers as well as Submarine hunters, they could however also operate independently and with their guns lend artillery support to amphibious landing operations.
These destroyers found themselves in action during the Cuban Missile crisis, and USS MADDOX and TURNER JOY partook in the Tonkin Gulf incident off the Vietnamese coast.
USS FORREST SHERMAN was launched on 5 February 1955, and commissioned in November 1955. She operated initially in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, prior to serving with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean.
She was the first ship of her class to circumnavigate the World in 1958, a voyage of three months. After modernisation with new communications equipment in 1968, the 1970’s found FORREST SHERMAN operating in the Baltic, North Sea and the Northern reaches of the Atlantic.
In the early 1980’s FORREST SHERMAN and USS MULLINEX operated off the East coast of Africa.
In 1982 she was assigned to the Reserve fleet and was taken out of commission.
At the time of building the model the Destroyer lies in the Inactive Ship Facility at Philadelphia and awaits her fate. Technical data:
The model:
The typical for JAG card tube contained model of high casting quality and accuracy. The kit is a multimedia kit consisting of resin, white metal and Photoetched parts. The hull, first and second deck superstructure and the funnels are cast as a single piece, thereby avoiding all seamsmerely the waterline needed deburring. The Resin small parts are partly cast on a resin wafer-others are on a cast sprue. Some of the white metal parts had a bit of flash, however the softness of the metal made the removal of this quick and easy. The photoetch fret included parts of the masts, companionways, propeller guards, as well as various fits of radar equipment. There was also some plastic rod for fabricating the mast. A comprehensive decal sheet rounded off the kit contents.
The construction of the model was straightforward, and fundamentally ‘out-of-the-box’, I merely replaced the 7.62cm gun barrels with brass wire. PE railings from Saemann were used –and the model was painted using WEM Colourcoats.
The ship was rigged using fine stretched spruewith the whip antenna ariel’s being fabricated of sprue also.
Finally she was set into a sea of clear Silicone .
I enjoyed the build; the kit is of high quality-and with the choice of the bridge parts all ships of the early FORREST SHERMAN class can be built.
