Hi guys,

Wondering if one of you might know if some after market company makes a kit to change one of the two 1/350 destroyer models into the Johnston? Trumps is close ( I think) and Tamiyas isnt close.

Thanks

Johnston was a square bridge Fletcher. The Tamiya kit is a round bridge. The Trumpeter kit let's you build an early or late square bridge, so you should be able to build the Johnston from that kit. There is no specific after market conversion available. There are, however, after market accessories available to upgrade the Sullivans.

If you are planning on using Photo-etch or upgrading the kit in anyway, I'd recommend just paying a little extra money and getting the Yankee Modelworks kit of the Johnston, which builds into a nice kit:


I build mine as DD-547, Cowell, from the YMW Johnston kit.

Be advised. THe YKM kit is RESIN not injected plastic. A lot more difficult to build . The pieces are more brittle, but the kit would be pretty much all you would need as it would already have all the super details as cast metal and photo-etched. ON the other hand, you can probably pick up the Dragon sullivans for $30 or so and the PE set for around the same. I usually catch stuff like that on ebay. I don't think too many modifications or any (unless you are a stickler for 100% absolute accuaracy) would be required.

thanks guys

Saw the Sullivans at hobby lobby for 27$ print the 40% coupon off thier internet ad and - there you go
BTW isnt that god awful Lindberg Blue Devil a Fletcher ?

If you're going to use the term "god awful" you really ought to include the Trumpeter Sullivans too.

Resin is not that difficult to work with; it's just different.

Riiiiiiiiiight, plastic is like making Kraft macaroni and Cheese while resin is no more difficult than boiling water, adding elbow macaroni, drain, put back in pot, add a dab of butter, a splash of milk, grated cheese and stir.

Resin is actually easier to build because it has far fewer seams to fill, does not flex while sanding and if you had a clue about the current resins used by YMW you'd know it was actually far less brittle than polystyrene. Add to that the fact the Trumpeter "kit" is 90% junk that needs to be replaced, unless you really like details as crude as a cereal box toy, with resin replacements or major parts from the Tamiya kit...you might as well spend the money on the resin kit and not have to fix the oiece of junk Trumpeter molded in the first place.

Oh wait, kumbayah Trumpeter made it and we should be thankful for overpriced junk, kumbayah how dare we criticize a bad kit, kumbayah!

Actually there IS another alternative, which is what I'm planning on since I started obtaining things before the Trumpeter square bridge kit was released. Toms Modelworks has a square bridge conversion kit specifically designed to convert the Tamiya round bridge (early war) into a square bridge. With the right PE set you should be able to make just about any variation of Fletcher (with the possible exception of the few which had catapults added) with this kit. I'm not sure if it's still available, but I have one which I'm going to use and it seems like a very good kit to me with a few resin and some white metal parts.

http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/misc/toms/tmw-square-bridge.html

Tom

You're link's broken... it's got an extra "ere" at the end you didn't clear out.

Square bridge conversion isn't showing on Tom's site right now, albeit it's setup is a little confusing and I may have missed it.

Thanks, Tracy, it should be working now.

I also was not able to find it on the Tom's website either, so I'm not sure whether it's still available or not. Not sure exactly how long ago I bought it (certainly no more than about 2 years ago), nor whether I ordered it directly from Tom's. (Probably).

It's a nice set, and the availability of the square bridge Trumpeter kit now has not convinced me that using that to do a square bridge rather than convert the Tamiya round bridge is a better plan.

Besides, I already have the stuff (and I know I'll wind up doing extra stuff anyway!!) so why not???

Tom

Could you use parts from the Trump on the Tamiya kit??? Or is that asking for trouble?

hi guys,
just to help with the questions raised here, this is my email to Tom Harrison at Tom's Modelworks on 26 March this year:

"hi Tom,
I am working on a tamiya fletcher 1/350 destroyer, intending to convert it into a mid-war version with the added 40mm gun mounts midships and triple 20mm platform at the stern. I just looked through modelwarships.com and saw a USS Albert W. Grant done by Dave Becker using your conversion set. I can't find it on your website catalog. I assume you no longer produce that set, but if you have one still lying around, I'll be happy to get it off you. It would save me some scratchbuilding!

regards,
Tee Lim "

and his prompt reply:

"Sorry nothing left, but Trumpeter new kit of the Sullivans will have what you need. They had my conversion when they were designing the kit
Tom"

I suggest using the Tamiya kit as a base, and just steal the square bridge of the trumpeter kit. if you don't want to buy two kits and then make just one model, it is possible to scratch build the square bridge. Get hold of Alan Raven's book on Fletcher destroyers and there are enough drawings and photos to get it done.

my project has stalled due to work, bad health, family, builder's block and just plain laziness. I need to only scratchbuild the practiceloader, the supports for the midships 40mm mounts and i might actually get it finished. Good luck on your project! PM if you need any references.

I think that in the abstract sense the answer to your first question is probably yes, but in the specific sense, you'd have to make the judgement on a part for part basis. The answer to your second question is a "maybe" but overall that "trouble" may be less in the long run than scratch building all those parts.

My experience with mixing parts from multiple sources on both my 1/350 Missouri, and a 1/35th M54 5 Ton conversion, leads me to believe that any scale differences would probably be minor and hardly noticeable. And if minor differences lead to fit problems, I think that I'd probably be able to work around them since I am comfortable doing scratch build work already so finessing parts together that don't quite match is something I'd probably be willing to do if the quality of the part is better from the "donor" kit.

I haven't seen the Trumpeter kit, so I won't pass judgement on its quality. The Tamiya kit seems decent enough, but then again, I'm already planning on adding aftermarket parts for the 40mm and 20mm guns, and fire direction units and PE radar and railing etc., so it's not going to be OOB regardless.

If money isn't your primary concern, having both kits in front of you (along with a good PE set) and picking the best of either kit to build what you want is the way to go.

If you already have the Tamiya kit, and want a square bridge, since it appears that the Tom's set isn't available any longer, looks like your choices are to buy a Trumpeter kit, giving you the luxury of picking and choosing, with the down side of having to perhaps do some finessing and throwing away a bunch of stuff, or scratchbuilding everything you see in the photos that's not in the box.

Either way, you can be sure that the people here at MSW will be glad to help!

Tom