by Carl Musselman
1/700 USS Merrill DD-976 (Skywave/Pit-Road)
I had trouble with the fit between the helo pad and the hangar section. The port side of the hangar, down to the main deck, is anatomically incorrect. Since Skywave uses the same hull for the Aegis CGs and the Spruance DDs, the Spruance hangar doesn't come out right on the port side. The Aegis CGs' hangars come down flush with the hull in this area so it assembles easily enough on those ships. I had to add some strip styrene to the helo pad piece just inside the hangar along the starboard hangar wall, otherwise there was a hole running along the inside starboard wall. The instructions show a walkway along the port side of the hangar above the main deck, but I've seen no Spruances with this feature.
Unless I missed something in how these pieces were to be assembled, in my opinion the Skywave Spruance kit is terribly flawed around the hangar area.
I add the four antennas amidships along with their associated red colored safety railings, and a whip antenna behind the forward stack, along with PE inclined ladders in various places. I added whip antennas port and starboard on the aft missile deck and mounted them in the folded-down position, as well as the antennas on the stern, to depict their positions for helo operations.
The cylindrical deck protrusion on the port side missile deck was cut off and replaced with styrene tubing and located farther aft along with a similar protrusion on the starboard side.
I added some fire hose racks and life rings in various places as well as life raft canisters from a Skywave Modern Equipment Set to the starboard side. I used brass rod for stanchions under the helo pad overhangs and the small boat decks. The water tight doors on the forward bulkhead on the fantail were all wrong for any Spruance, so I scraped them off and add PE doors and fire hose racks.
The SH-3 Sea King helo is from the Skywave Modern Equipment Set and I replaced the kit's CIWS with those from JAG. The warning circles are from JAG as well. Most of the PE railings are from GMM's Modern USN PE set.
