Haven't built a destroyer before - was wondering which kit might be considered the best 1/350 destroyer?

Peter

Hi Peter,

Plastic or resin? Any specific nationality?

Plastic, USA
(just finishing up a huge Musachi - figured I'd work on an American ship next)

Best I would vote for Hasegawa's Yukikaze, but you want US. So it depends if you want a round bridge or squre bridge FLetcher. I've got the Tamiya version I think if I had't gotten it so cheap (Hobby-Lobby sale) I would have gone with the USS Sullivans

You did not say what era, but these come to mind;
Taymia Fletcher, nice but has some issues
Trumpter Sullivans, nice but also has some issues
Trumpter England, DE, very nice kit

For more modern taste DML/Dragon does a USS Kidd, several Spru cans and a series of Burkes. Others will have to speak as to their quality, not my era.

I on the other hand have The Sullivans. To my mostly untrained eyes it's pretty good. I also got the Tom's Modelworks PE kit for it and that looks decent also. I don't think you'd go very wrong with either kit.

Ahoy Peter.

I have destroyers from Dragon/Panda, Tamiya and Trumpeter. All three are very good kits. If you can find a Panda Burke Class kits, they have a nice pe fret that comes with it.
And, all three run around the same price. So, pick what you want to build and get after it. You can't go wrong with any of the kits.

Thanks all,

I realize I didn't mention an era - WWII. I think I'll look into the Sullivans or the England. But as I mentioned on another post, I've got a bug to do CV-6 Enterprise, so, looks like I'll be building ships long into the cold winter months.

I have both the Fletcher and The Sullivans. While the Sullivans isn't as bad, IMO, as some have reported, I think the Fletcher is a much better kit. My suggestion would be build the Tamiya Fletcher.

Thanks for the suggestions. For the Tamiya Fletcher - any suggestions on which P/E set?

I've got the Tom's kit for mine. It seems to have all the essentials, railing, netting, radars, and depthcharge racks and throwers. Along with a bunch of other stuff I didn't try to identify. If you go to ebay unde military models and scroll down to the store area. AAA hobbies sells it for under $20. I've dne a lot of business with this guy and gotten everthing I ever ordered.

Hmmm... I didn't find AAA hobbies but I tried to do what you suggested. I went to the all category list on ebay, then "models, kits" under Toys and Hobbies. Lets just say the "models" that were the first things listed are the kind SWMBO would prefer I NOT lust after.

I knew you could buy just about anything on ebay, but I didn't know this kind of thing was on there. I wonder how they ship them?

I have the Gold Medal Models set, and it is very good. The Tom's set is pretty nice, but my opinion is the GMM is better. For one thing, I like the thicker brass on the GMM set.

Sorry for the incomplete info Rodger. I have my "setting" for toys,hobbies - model kits - military on ebay then i typed in FLetcher. They have the list of all the stuff up for bid, then as you continue scrolling you run into the "ebay Store section" in which everything is listed as buy it now. You'll see a Fletcher brass set and then see it is from AAA hobbies. He usually sends small PE sets out in an Envelope. I can't tell you how many things I've gotten frm him. I'm not sure if stuff comes out of China or west coast, but I usually have item in hand within a week of ordering. He also stocks a lot of Lionroar stuff which is doing sets of 4x40mm gun mounts...6 in a box in 350 scale which I am considering for my future purchase of the Alabama,

Check this out

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/ships/dd/dd-484/350-dr/dragon-review.html

I think it looks great

The Dragon Kidd Class is a nice kit as well. I am building that one right now. The Sullivans has had some nice reviews.

There is the new one from Dragon coming out the Buchanan, from the buzz it is looking to be a sweet one as well.