I'm working on the Dumas Crockett kit and quite frankly the plans they provide leave a lot to be desired. I'm in the finish and detail stage and I can't find any descent reference material to help. I have checked out Navsource but they only have the typical US Navy pictures that don't show much detail (at least what I'm looking for), I have a plan set from The floating dry dock which help some but still lack some things that a good picture would give me. I also have been visiting a site The model marina discussion board and I'm getting some help there but there doesn't seem to be any good information on this particular vessel. What I'm looking for is any website, book or any thing with pictures of this class or boat, even if it's someone else's build. I've even tried looking on the National archives web site here in the U.S. but no luck, I guess I don't know the super secret squirrel hand shake to find what I'm after. I primarily build subs and I thought information on them was hard to find. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I trying to have this thing built and R/C'd by this spring.
Thanks in advance.
Don

Hi Don

Have you checked all the photos of the Ashville class PG at navsource.org?
Other option would be to visit or ask for specific help on http://www.gunboatriders.com/

Hope this helps
Skipper

Thanks skipper,
I have looked at both of those places and just rechecked, just in case, but no luck. One of the big things I'm looking for is a good picture of the Pelorus. The pictures from the sites you mentioned are taken too far away to help. I must admit up until 15 minutes ago I didn't even know what a pelorus was.
Don

Ahoy Don.
Have you seen THIS site?
Some decent shots of other R/C Crocketts as well.........

Thanks Gunny,
As a matter of fact I'm a member of that forum and I have a build thread there for my Crockett. No one there was able to find much information either. I was hoping on a long shot that someone here may have something. I'm trying to use all available resources. I think I'll shoot an email to Dumas and see if they have something already made or a drawing. There is nothing on their plans that show how this thing looks so maybe they have it premade. They show how to make all the other detail parts but this one. Push come to shove I'll run without it till I can find what I'm looking for, it's out there somewhere I just haven't tripped over it yet.
Don

I'm rebuilding the old Revell kit myself currently so I feel you pain! Good luck....

Tracy, I'll let you know if I find anything. Got any pictures of the old revell kit?
Don

It's in progress; I can shoot some if you're interested. Whacked off a bunch of stuff and am sanding down a lot of raised details, etc. I decided to redo the railings completely since the kit ones were pretty blobby. Unfortunately I have some good info on the Mk 63 Gun Fire Director so I guess I'll have to scratch build that....

Funny you should mention the MK 63, I'm almost done scratch building that myself. A few pictures would be cool at your leisure. I'd post pictures of what I have but at the moment my camera is dead.

Well, it's a page in progress and there may be differences between the booklet I have and when the PGs got them, but you might want to give this a look-see.

Below is the status as of today; it was largely in this shape when I stopped working on it 10-15 years ago. I've been filling in things I didn't do before and hacking off parts I'll be scratchbuilding. The holes in the deck ahead of the superstructure are for the replacement ready-service lockers.



Lots of subtle differences between ships as well as the Tacoma and Asheville class.

Tracy be careful. If I understand the link you provided it's for WWII vessels. The Crockett wasn't built until 1967. I also noted that the shape of the main funnel with the mist eliminator duct work tends to look an awful lot like the Tacoma. I can check the plans I have on the Tacoma later if you'd like (they are at home I'm at work). I finished getting the gun directer built yesterday, it's got a coat of primer on it at the moment so I can fix the small imperfections. It's based off the Dumas plans so I'm not sure how accurate it is.
Yes there are a lot of differences between the boats of this class. They were known as the pirate navy because none of them were really standard.

Yes, it is. The Mk 63 was a Mk 51 Mod 7 and Mk 28 radar, and you can see that the radar on the Asheville and Tacoma was different, and I would imagine that the Mk 51 might be as well, but the differences would be somewhat minor; perhaps an updated gun sight with a few extra boxes here and there. I haven't found any really close photos yet. If it's the same Mk 51 mount as previous versions, the drawing definitely serves as a good starting point to replace what's in the kit.

O.K. going to try to post an image of the gun director.

[img]/data/500/thumbs/Gun_director1.jpg" BORDER="0">[/img]

well that didn't work. Click on the link I guess.

Came across a couple of photos for you; a ModelWarships.com user posted notice of his Photobucket account and he has the following Ashville pictures:
http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg21/Fleetkeeper/ships%20up%20close/?action=view¤t=80-0609.jpg
http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg21/Fleetkeeper/ships%20up%20close/?action=view¤t=80-0608.jpg

User name is FleetKeeper if those links don't work... go to "ships up close"

Found some more:
http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg21/Fleetkeeper/Ship%20Pics/?action=view¤t=80-0619.jpg
[URL=http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg21/Fleetkeeper/Ship%20Pics/?action=view¤t=80-0607USSAshville.jpg]]http://s244.photobucket.com/albums/gg21/Fleetkeeper/Ship%20Pics/?action=view¤t=80-0607USSAshville.jpg[.URL]