¹⁄700

Andrea Doria D553 (Italian DDG)

"MSW crew-mate David J. Salvin shares his build story of Delphis Models Andrea Doria D553, in this MSW Feature!"

Kit Details:

Andrea Doria D553. (Italian DDG)
Scale: 1/700
Manufacturer: Delphis Models (Italy)
Medium: Resin

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Andrea Doria Class of Ships you can find HERE!

The Kit:

Continuing on my tour of strange and unusual ships and kits is the Italian Anti-Air Warfair Destroyer Andrea Doria. Again, having a patron with exotic tastes has its advantages. I had never seen or heard of Delphis models before (of course, I don’t get out that much).

This kit comes with the hull, deck and major superstructure assemblies already molded together. However, the stacks, radar towers and upper structures come as separate pieces. The major problem was that the mold was off and so they looked like decks of cards that needed to be smacked on the table. In model terms, it required A LOT of sanding and adjustments.

Additionally, for whatever reason, even after washing with dish-washing detergent, there were spots on the ship where even my Tamiya enamel surface primer wouldn’t stick and came right off with even the least tacky masking tape. This complicated construction and painting as many of the areas were where the small amount of detail existed on this otherwise stark modern hull.

Overall, molding was fair, and few hull details are shown. Of course with modern, semi-stealth ships, there tends to be little detail or "nooks and crannies" like we see on WWII ships etc.

With the detailed pictures on the site listed above, detailing was easy. Despite the lack of many different resin parts.

The Build:

The build is mainly OOB, with the addition of Lion Roar railings and flight deck netting, as well as considerable radar tower enhancement with bits and pieces from the left-over drawer.

Tamiya acrylics are used for all surfaces and I applied minor weathering (as seen in the pictures) with pastels. Additionally, no decals were provided, so I had Starfighter Models custom make the hull numbers, letters and flight deck striping.