Tamiya 1/350 Fletcher DD445 Destroyer.

[rtfoe]

To start off and get the ball rolling I casted the pedestals using the mold that you soften in boiling water. This was a first for me and the results turned out better than I expected.



Next will be drilling the holes under the hull and shoring up with supports.

Cheers,
Richard

[JR]

I'm in Richard, looking forward to this.
Can I have a portion of butter prawns please with rice ?

[rtfoe]

I'm in Richard, looking forward to this.
Can I have a portion of butter prawns please with rice ?

Sure John, I'll check with chef Ah Kow to see if he has any fresh tiger prawns.
Meanwhile I'll get the exhaust fan working...Ian seems rather bothered with the belacan. :smiling2:

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

Hi,
After getting these two things done, a plastic tube fastened inside the hull for extra strength to hold the pedestal end and the drilling of the hull...



...piecing the rest of the hull together was easy pizzy.
I shaved off some locating strips on the deck and you'll see why it had to be done later in the build.



Only some minor filling needed on the tip of the bow deck using a tiny squeeze of Vallejo Plastic Putty...hmmm the anchor chain needs replacing.



...and there you have it. I will attempt to try engraving some stress marks on the hull plating as Tamiya has some nice plating molded on.



Propeller shafts and rudder attached...the latter is movable. I left off the props to be painted separately and attached later.



I don't remember shaving this off accidentally so I just glued two rods.



I have PE for the prop guards and only found that out after gluing the kit part on which looks okay to me but will decide later on if it needs replacing. The deck is full of those things jutting out of the deck sides which I think needs drilling out.



So far it's been quite pleasant and the breakdown of the assembly from Tamiya is well planned for easy painting as you will see. That's it for tonight. It's been hot these past few days so I'll turn on the aircon for you guys.

Cheers,
Richard

[Jim R]

Hi Richard
Off to a good start. The cast pedestals have worked well. For a Tamiya 1/350 kit those anchor chains are pretty poor.
Jim

[BattleshipBob]

Richard, i can watch and see a proper ship build:thumb2:

[rtfoe]

Hi Richard
Off to a good start. The cast pedestals have worked well. For a Tamiya 1/350 kit those anchor chains are pretty poor.
Jim

Yes Jim, was surprised by it.

Richard, i can watch and see a proper ship build:thumb2:

Bob, it's half the size of your excellent Spee with a slippery deck and no wood. You even did big turrest having only built turretless Stugs. :smiling2:

Okay, it's now onto the sub-assemblies starting with the B gun deck. Here the fit wasn't too good. I let as much glue to ooze out and let it dry before tackling with any putty. This assembly comes in four pieces.



Now you see why I shaved off the locating strips, Tamiya molded this part solid with indents. They are supposed to be hollow to allow any sea water to exit if any waves go over the sides. I spent quite a while filing and removing plastic to get it to look like this. My PE set didn't have a replacement for this however there is one for the 1/700 scale Fletcher.



Dry fitted onto the deck to make sure it sits properly with no gaps. It will be glued on after most of the painting is done. Time for putty.



Cheers,
Richard

[JR]

Rhicard do you know if that moulding material similar too the blue type we have here ?

Look to be the same sort of substance, often though about trying it.
After the warming in hot water the moulds were made in two parts and filled with Milliput and allowed to set. Is this what you did ?

[rtfoe]

Rhicard do you know if that moulding material similar too the blue type we have here ?
[ATTACH=CONFIG]n1167127[/ATTACH]
Look to be the same sort of substance, often though about trying it.
After the warming in hot water the moulds were made in two parts and filled with Milliput and allowed to set. Is this what you did ?

That's right John. Had a few sticks for years and only tried it recently. Surprised at how easily it captures detail. I quicken the process by placing the mold in the fridge to harden. Only problem is finding a less painful way to kneed the material right after taking it out of the hot water.

Cheers,
Richard

[JR]

That's right John. Had a few sticks for years and only tried it recently. Surprised at how easily it captures detail. I quicken the process by placing the mold in the fridge to harden. Only problem is finding a less painful way to kneed the material right after taking it out of the hot water.

Cheers,
Richard

Interesting Richard, there are times when I'd like to be able to replicate small items for dioramas .
Definitely will get some in the future, thanks for bringing this up .

[rtfoe]

Interesting Richard, there are times when I'd like to be able to replicate small items for dioramas .
Definitely will get some in the future, thanks for bringing this up .

You will like it John, there's a little combustion at the beginning of the process to light the stove and boil the water.

Cheers,
Richard

[Jim R]

Hi Richard
I reckon that moulding stuff is very useful for one off pieces. Much quicker and less fuss than rubber and resin. I wonder if it would work with resin?
Jim

[rtfoe]

Hi Richard
I reckon that moulding stuff is very useful for one off pieces. Much quicker and less fuss than rubber and resin. I wonder if it would work with resin?
Jim

I think it should as the two part hard putty is resin based. If you're making half molds with flat back side castings it's a matter of just pouring in and when set poking it out. The mold us quite rubbery when hardened.

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

Hi Richard
I reckon that moulding stuff is very useful for one off pieces. Much quicker and less fuss than rubber and resin. I wonder if it would work with resin?
Jim

Another note is that it is reusable.

Cheers,
Richard

Hi,
I filled the gaps and minor sanding to the forward gun deck. Looks rough hear but some primer will show a passable finish.



Besides the forward gun deck, all secondary decks also were assembled very quickly and tested for fitting onto the main deck. These were the mid-upper and rear decks...



I sanded the edges of the platforms prior to gluing but as you can see extra glue needs to be sanded off as well. Slight mis-alignments as well will be dealt with a little sanding.



I think I will replace the doors and ladders with PE as they're quite soft in detail.



Anti skid walk-ways are raised which will help in masking and painting but with Tamiyas reputation I thought a little tread detail would have been nice.
I decided to assemble the rangefinder and radar with its pedestal together as they were in the same color and for easy painting. There is a poly cap to hold the rangefinder and pedestal together free to rotate. The radar looks to need replacement in the close up but looks okay from a safe distance. The PE is perforated and will look better. I was trying to save it for the other destroyer as the Gold Medal set comes with two sets of railings with and without netting and with and without canvas covering. Enough gun shields and sights for the 20mm and 40mm guns including platform railings for the quad guns. There are early and late SC radars and both destroyers are early and late models.


More later. Call out for more refreshments...I'll get Ah Kow to prepare more fritters as that's going fast. Pass around the box of tissues for the oily fingers. Nothing like savoury local hors d'oeuvres and sweet tea combination.

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

Hi, today it's the 40mm gun tub and the rangefinder that sits on the center rear between the 5 inch gun turrets...



The soft detail of the door needs replacing. I'm at two minds to replace the ladders as they seem okay...I guess they should have a space between it and the body.
If you'll notice I'm progressing bit by bit basically gluing all the main components into sub-assemblies. This is one approach to minimize complications in painting but sometimes I can get ahead of myself like the funnel smoke stacks...



I shouldn't have glued the funnel caps if I wanted to save on using PE by just drilling out from the inside and thinning out the metch cage. The pipe ends will be drilled out. The large circular pin marks on the searchlight platform need to be sanded off. The tub covers can be replaced with railings but I will leave this as canvas covers bu thinning it and adding railing detail on the inside...we'll see. I do have the PE for it but rather try with this method first.

Cheers,
Richard