Keith Bender
1/350 USS Stickell DDR-888 (Yankee Modelworks)
This was a commission job for a friends father who served aboard her from 1958-62 as a sonar man. I started with a Yankee Model Works Dennis Buckley kit. There was allot of sctrachbuilding to this one to bring it around to a 1959 time period. I think I would have been better off starting with a FRAM version and back fitting it to a DDR but that's past now. I used many photos of Stickell and her sisters from that time frame. these ships changed their appearance every few months it seems so one has to be specific in picking a date per ship. I went with the version when she still had one 3"50 on the aft end just forward of mount 53. All the new superstructure is plastic sheet at .040 thick. The gun tub and bulkheads are .015 thick. All the mast are brass rod soldered and the radars are PE from GMM. The four radar domes on the main mast are turned aluminum. A word of amusement: When I thought the model was complete which was two hours before my friend was to pick it up. My wife was eye-balling it and said "why is there two different numbers on this side and not the other ?" When doing the decal work I ran out of number 8 so I used two 3's and had to paint them 8's but someone forgot to do that. That's why it pays to have an extra set of eyes checking out your work, that cost me one night out, she's worth it. In all this was a good kit to build if you were to do it as "out of box". It also was a good kit to start a conversion project like this. Once again building a former sailors home is a very rewarding thing to do especially when you see the look they have.
