John C Butler Class DE Build

cmdrted

Active Member
Chief, a few of us are "scratch-bashing". I do it alot with aircraft that don't have all the details one could hope for. PModels have great exteriors and wheel wells but need cockpits. There are a bunch of similar aircraft, a little snip and tuck, add a part and there you have it. My first commercial ship was digital navys freebie admirable. I stole er borrowed and cleaned up some twin 40s from the Gpm Saratoga. Darwin and I enlarge the JSC 1/400 kits and borrow detail parts from bigger ships. It is a great idea and method to save alot of design aggravation. I'm practically lazy, if it's been done before and done well what the hey. All those kits you've aquired are great ones. Between them you could have common equipment to build up the entire series of DE s and then some.
 

Chief400

New Member
Starting to look that way! Minor setback yesterday though.....my thumbdrive died, and taking with it all my research and reference data collected thuss far! Luckily I saved teh bookmarks.....and remeber the searches......Hope the Fletcher Class is as much fun as this!
 

Chief400

New Member
Did a major cleanup in my shop today, made room for Cardmodeling, so I don't have to do it at my desk. Dedicated space now so when I'm done for the day I can just leave everything, secure the door, and walk away.

This also gives me ready access to my full modeling arsenal, like the minature beltsander I used to smoothe out the frame for the DE's hull, nice to have such toys. I applied some gueing strips to her ribs to pad things up, then spent a couple hours at the computer mesuring the enlarged printouts of the hullplating and redrawing them in CAD. Theres quite a bit of overlap as you can see, not necessarily a badthing....I'm CADing the bow plating tonight......
 

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jasco

Member
Positively brilliant idea to use parts from other model ships to detail! I love this forum. Your ship is looking great.
 

Chief400

New Member
She's gotta bottom!

Yesterday I finished up the hull botton, everything looks really good if I do say so myself! I did sand down the joints though and touch them up with a marker. I'm gonna paint the bottow anyhow, but the whiteness just gleared at me.
 

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Chief400

New Member
Finally got round to making some progress this weekend. I opted to do a solid grey deck to which I'll add various details and the superstructure. The white paper mockups are of the bridge support and the conn. the 5" mounts are Gremir from USS Selfridge...
 

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Chief400

New Member
Bow and stern plating are in place....just gotta fit stuff in amidships. Painted up her bottom after getting the shafts and supports installed. Not bad fer a Noob huh?
 

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Good looking DE Chief.

I agree, outfitting with other parts in pure genius. I may have to invest in some Gremir models sometime soon. I've always liked their pictures of Repulse.

Keep the updates coming, this is a very interesting build.
 

Chief400

New Member
While babysitting today I redid the bow and stern plates...and managed to finish the whole hull up satisfactorily ........Hoping to get to work on the superstructure tonight......
 

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Chief400

New Member
Hahahaha! Well I snagged the idea off the Cleo thread I think....seen several folks using them. Keeps the hull from getting knocked around the desk too. I still think I'll leave the rudders and props til last though.......
 

jasco

Member
Good idea on the props. I think I'll have to put the prop shaft and braces on the hull before painting. I should be able to fabricate a rudder and then take it off after painting. Then I'll just have to be careful. Sounds like a recipe for disaster!:grin:
 

Chief400

New Member
No new construction over the weekend....but I did find an excellent set of Rudderow Class plans that I spent Sunday afternoon resizing to 1:200 scale.

The Rudderrows are identical to the JCBs with the exception of their power plant and soem minor deck detail......pretty much a few lockers and the position of the life rafts near as I can tell, little bit of railing that is braced externally round the 20 mm platforms below the conn......


I thought they were helpful! Working on refining my superstructure as per the plans....

http://www.ussholt.com/theship/blueprints.asp
 
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