Just staking out the space for the build here. More coming soon. I will be building Revell's offering using the Big Ed PE set and metal barrels from WEM. Paint colors not yet decided (big issue with USN vessels).
Cheers,

Julian

Will watch this one with great interest also Julien. I have this Kit as well with all the Eduard Sets to go with it......Cheers Mark

Hi there Mark,
Have the hull together and am rather impressed with the heavy duty screwshafts hanging underneath the Fletcher: seem ready to transfer a lot of force from the hull to the water. One single barn door rudder and not a nice curve on her A rather utilitarian design ready for mass production I have fallen in love already, (will try and get some snaps up this weekend). Jury is still out on the colors though, (I have noticed that Lifecolor is bringing out 2 sets of USN colors, might try and get hold of them).
Cheers mate,
Julian

January 21st update: Started the build last weekend, lets see where this leads to.
The model itself is nicely detailed, no flash but it does show some mold lines that I had to remove with my Dremel. Plastic is nice grey, not too soft but certainly not brittle. The Eduard PE is excellent as usual and a relief to be working with after 6 months of Fujimi PE. Eduard even included very precise instructions, what a good idea . The fit so far is excellent with the deck fitting onto two "tabs" fitted on top of the two strengthening bulkheads, (maybe time for me to clean my workbench......):

The screw shafts are very long and rest in two huge supports in front of the single rudder. I would hazard a guess that there was an awful lot of vibration at the stern of these ships, (maybe someone can give some more information on that:



The Eduard PE is used to add and improve on the details molded on to the ship, which are a bit soft and bland here and there:


If anyone has good links to photo's, information or drawings of the Fletchers please drop an e-mail.
Cheers,
Julian

Julian,
Looking great so far Is the Eduard PE brass or nichel? From the pictures, it looks like you had to do some puttying and sanding around the prop shafts and supports.
Waiting for the next update

Hi Bruce, thanks for the kind remarks. The Eduard set isn't brass, probably nickel. Its certainly nice to work with. The stern needed a bit of work: the shaft supports had a pronounced mold line that had to be grinded off with the Dremel. The putty work is actually Mr. Surfacer, used to make the shaft inserts less visible. looks pretty dire now but with a coat of paint it will be ok.
cheers,
Julian

February 28th update: I have removed the waist 20mm shields and the stern shields fitted behind the smoke cilinders. Lots of careful cutting and grinding with the dremel and then a last touch up with a micro chisel. Some sanding and Mr. Surfacer and everything is ready for the Eduard shields to be fitted. The exit hatches have been grond down as well so that the more detailed PE can be fitted here too:




All for now,
Cheers,
Julian

Update January 29th: the Eduard PE shields have been fitted. Visually not much of an improvement at the moment because they stick out like a sore thumb. Things will look better after a ground coat. The thickness of these parts is much more in scale now though. I have also started work on the stacks now:







Cheers,
Julian

Update January 29th 2: I finished stack #1 and I wanted to check if the PE would look ok once painted. I gave the parts a quick spray with Vallejo's grey ground which IMHO is excellent paint to work with. I also include one snap of stack #2 being "bent & bashed" into shape:




This photo puts into focus why we do battle with PE parts, you can't do this OOB:

Stack #2:

Thats all for now as I have an excellent Italian Chianti ready to go,
cheers,
Julian

Italian Chianti, that is a good way to finish off a few hours of bench time. I am a Riesling fan myself.

Great work thus far.

Riesling, gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris? Most definately!
Cheers Jim!


Julian

Excellent work Julian!

Loved watching your Haruna build, and look forward to seeing this one!

Wish i could build 'em as quick as you!

Russ

Oh yes. I know there are a couple others and my German is beyond rotten. One day I hope to travel back to Germany and enjoy a bottle or two while sitting on a balcony over looking the Rhine valley. OK, enough talk about that stuff, back to some ship building!

Hi Russell, thank you, glad I didn't bore everybody to tears with the Haruna
I am enjoying the Fletcher build already, with things coming together quite well,( except for deciding with paint scheme and colours to use).

You should try the Gewurztraminer with Sauerkraut, potatoes and bacon Jim, goes together really well
cheers,
Julian

Some misinformation from me here I am afraid, while filing a PE support frame I discovered that the Eduard PE set consists of a brass core coated with some form of nickel. Sorry for that
Cheers,
Julian

February 6th update:
Sack two fitted out with PE, float baskets added although the aft two have to be rounded out a bit:



Working on the deckhouse PE, removing the molded doors and replacing them with PE examples, (also removing large chunks of fingers while doing this ).
On completion grounding things with Vallejo acrylic grey ground:




Not much else happening at the moment
Cheers,
Julian

Looking very nice Julian. I am using this as a guide when I eventually build mine.....Cheers Mark

Thanks Mark, not sure if I would recommend my build as a guide
Cheers,
Julian

lookin swweeet! there Julian.I bet this 1:144 scale is much friendly to work in isn't it??

Not only is the model terrific, so are the pictures. My pics are terrible. What kind of camera and lense settings do you use?

EJ

Good morning Kevin,
Yes and no: the size of the pieces suit my 55 year old eyesight better but faults in the build are easier to spot. Still a long way to go at the moment.
Hi Eugene,
I use to very c*** cameras: a cheap Cannon automatic, (does have a good macro setting), and my Blackberry for quick snaps during the build.
Cheers,
Julian

February 10th update: Still working out which colors to use on this build. I have decided to go for the Chevalier which has a more simple camo scheme. I have used a very light blue grey from Vallejo on the deck houses but am not too sure if I will leave this on. I have ordered the new Life Color US navy sets which should have the authentic tints. I have also started working on some PE bulwark replacement parts:






I also have a question for the USN experten: were ladders painted gray or black? On most tugs and suppliers I worked on ladders, hatch clips, winch handels etc. were always painted black so that grease marks from dirty hands and shoes wouldn't show up so much.
Hope someone can supply an answer.
Cheers,
Julian

February 13th update: more of the same and first filters added to deckhouses:






Hoping to start painting the hull today,
cheers,
Julian

I have to say it looks really good...

Just wondering how you find the time (and focus) to build at that rate...



Harm

Hi Harm, thanks, I can recommend this model. Plenty of scope for detailing and the fit isn't too bad at all.
In answer to your question about finding the time I guess the weather is still too bad to be sent into the garden by mrs. Grem56 and with both my sons having finished their studies and left home there seems to be a lot of time to "play" with my model collection
As for the focus I find trying to get nearly microscopic pieces of PE to fit and stay fitted a great distraction from thinking about problems at work etc.
Cheers,
Julian