by Paul Helfrich
1/300 USS Ramsey DEG-2 (Monogram)
This is the old Monogram kit of the Brooke class guided-missile-destroyer-escort USS Ramsey, DEG 2. These escort ships were basically another version of the earlier Garcia class with expanded anti-aircraft armament.
Along with her 5 sisters, the Ramsey entered service in the late 1960s. They were all re-classified as guided missile frigates or FFGs in 1975. They carried a single 5" 38 gun, ASROC, torpedo tubes, and a single Tartar Mk 22 missile launcher.
This is a fairly old kit which is not easy to find any more. I got mine a good 15 years ago. The masts have been repaired several times over the years. The kit came with a toy-like feature that turned the 5" gun turret if you turned the gun director, and turned the missile launcher if you turned one of the radars.
It's a nice kit. It's too bad Revell and Monogram no longer make many models like this - it's a nice-sized representation of an unusual ship.
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