I am planning on building a Fletcher Class Destroyer for my grandfather. He crewed one of the ships that sailed into Tokyo Harbor during WWII. My question is, Revell's Dt.Zerstorer Z1/Z5 05097 a representation of a ship operating in the U.S. Navy during WWII? Also, would Revell's US Navy Fletcher Class Destroyer - RVL5091 the correct kit to go with? I don't build many ships and have no idea which way to go. Thank you for any help.

Which ship was he on? That will tell you if it was the initial round bridge or a later square bridge Fletcher. Once you have that, you can begin to break down what modifications his ship might have had. I have a list of regular sites I go to for information. http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-ships.html is a good start as it links to most of the other sites. There is a full listing of destroyers, with information posted from the dictionary of fighting ships.

The german Fletchers were originally round bridge types, but heavily modified after the war(much larger bridge was one of the mods).
I would suggest to go with the"Fletcher" kit. If your fathers ship was a square bridge you probably have to scratchbuild the bridge amid other mods.

Another good source is: http://www.navsource.org
The have pics of all WWII US destroyers.

My grandfather served on the USS Brown during WWII and on the USS Yarnell during Korea.

Here you can see why its called squarebridge: DD-546 Brown hhttp://www.navsource.org/archives/05/0554620.jpg
I asssume it is Yarnall (DD-541). http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/0554126.jpg A squarebridge, too.
Just for comparison DD-445 Fletcher http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/0544504.jpg as in the Revell model, with a round bridge
I don't know if anybody has a conversion set in 1/144.
In 1/350 there is a kit from trumpeter for DD-537 Sullivans
Hope that helps a bit for general understanding

Would the Tamiya 1:350 DD Fletcher be correct? I can mate this with my 350 Missouri build. He watched the Japanese surrender from the deck of the Brown.

Matt, I suggest to get your question answered you go over to modelwarships.com and check out their forum. They have a "Calling All Ship Fans" section with a thread dedicated to the Fletchers. There are a few resident experts on the Fletcher class DDs that can answer about any questions you might have.

Bob

No,DD-445Fletcher is a round bridge (early type).Both your grandfathers ships have the different, lower squarebridge. The only mainstream kit I know of is the Trumpeter kit for DD537 "Sullivans" in 1/350. This kit is for a wartime destroyer, however I do not know all the small differences between the "Sullivans" and the"Brown".
There will be more differences to the postwar version of "Yarnall" (eg. changed AA )
Look at the pics on the websites i mentioned earlier