MSW crew-mate Jay Massey (treadhead1952) shares his thoughts and opinions of Tamiya Models 1/350 scale plastic injection kit of the USS Fletcher, in this "inbox" style review.

Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!
~Gunny

Tamiya 's 1/350 scale USS Fletcher is a good starter kit for someone who wants to try building a ship in a larger scale. The detail is good, the number of parts is not overwhelming, and it can look good right out of the box. G.M.M. or Tom's make P.E. sets that can really add to this kit if you have worked with brass frets.

Mr. Smith, a good review, but your specs. are slightly off - Fletcher class D.D. carried quintuple (5 tube) torpedo tube launchers.

Very helpful review. I have this kit in my stash, and will revisit this review when I moves its way to the top of the pile.

Thank you for your hard work.

Cheers,
Mike

great timing, this is the one I was planning on building for Rui's camo GB
cheers

Well, gee, sorry Andrew, I got stuck on the original specifications for the ship from the Department of the Navy, but indeed, the Fletchers came out with 5 tube torpedo launchers. The model reflects this as well.

Even despite my error, this is still an excellent kit and value for 1/350 scale builders. Between it and Trumpeters' USS The Sullivans round bridge designed Fletcher class, there are a host of possibilities to enjoy building up with the longevity of the design. With the number of aftermarket parts available to toss in the mix, some deep digging on the web and other sources would enable the modeler to come up with several variations on a theme. Many of these ships had different shaped gun tubs for their 40MM Bofors mounts depending on where they were added or modified for the fleet so changes aren't that difficult.

Gator (Kenny) offers masks for the complex camouflage paint jobs on his site and then there were several variations of paint work depending on when you care to represent the ship as well as what countrys' fell heir to them during and after the war. Some of them were still in various fleets up into the 70's so you have a thirty year life span to run around in on that point.

To correct a couple of errors above, Fletcher and other early Fletcher class had the CURVED bridges, The Sullivans, Kydd, and other late class had the SQUARE bridges. Dragon should produce a 2-in-1 kit of a Fletcher-class with both bridge options.