1/350 USS Mills DER-383 (Scratch-conversion)
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by Richard Sliwka |
1/350 USS Mills DER-383 (Scratch-conversion)
A number of years ago, I saw a photograph of a 1950's DER and thought it would be fun to build a model of a unique ship that would never appear as a 1/350 scale kit. Two things stopped me from that quest--the modification needed for the built-up O-1 deck structure and the lack of a PE SPS-8 radar. Then, I read that the DER hull/O-1 deck were very similar to the APD DE conversion of WWII; and, an ISW kit was available. At about the same time, I discovered that Gold Medal Models revised Modern Warship PE sheet did include a SPS-8 radar. So, with those two problems solved, I proceed with this build.My basic references were numerous photos of the various DERs on the Navsource web site and Squadron's "Destroyer Escorts in action" book. There may be DER plans available; but, I couldn't locate any. I used the various photos to determine design features and specific equipment locations. Overall, I estimate that the model is about 95 percent accurate--I did find some potential mistakes after I completed the build and too difficult to correct.
The hull is from the ISW Lloyd APD kit. All superstructures and deck detail were removed and the O-1 deck extended, platforms added, and fore and aft deck areas modified. The enclosed bridge/forward, funnel, and aft radar superstructures were fabricated using plastic sheet and scrape resin parts. Of these, the most difficult was the mid-ship funnel structure with its fan rooms, venting, etc. The Edsall Class DER funnels are shaped differently than other DE funnels. I modified a scrap funnel by removing sections to get the basic funnel shape and then added the various attached rooms and venting. The most difficult and time-consuming parts of this build were the two tripod masts. These were built from many, many pieces (70+ for the fore mast and 50+ for the aft mast) of brass rod, tubing, and sheet. The SPS-10, SPS-10, and SPS-28 radars were modified parts from the GMM PE sheet. The single 3" 50 enclosed mounts were modified ISW parts from the spare box ; and, the Mk-63 gun directors were scratch-built. The Mk-15 trainable hedgehog was scratch-built using some parts from the NIKO Mk-12 hedgehog set. The numbers deck vents were made from plastic stock. I also used Veteran's triple torpedo tubes and L'Arsenal's whale boat and railings.
Overall, I would estimate that 60-70 percent of this build was scratch-built, 25-30 percent modified other kit parts, and 5 percent stock parts. I spent about 200 hours on this build. Much of that was due to the research, reviewing photos to determine the correct configuration, and building the two tripod masts. I am very satisfied with the resulting model of a ship that spent most of its operational career steaming in circles in the middle of an ocean.
