Nice going Dave, those resin 40 tubs look the part and of course you had to remove the old 20 tubs from the Tamiya kit.

What reference did you get to help with your build? I ask because I may have to get hold of it myself for when I get to the Johnston and Heermann.

Good progress here, Dave.

Looking forward to seeing this one move forward now

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the kind comments. This is turning out to be a fun build. I am going to put a stopwork order in for a few days until I can get a couple more AM kits for upgrading the Heermann and for a little more reference material.

Luciano, The reference book I am using is the Fletcher Class by Lester Abby. It is really written for the modeler and has great color photos and line drawings for the USS Hoel, USS Heermann and other Fletcher Class Destroyers. It does not have anything for the USS Johnston though.

I am about to purchase another reference book from the Floating Dry Dock. It claims to be the most comprehensive book / picture book for the Fletcher Class Destroyer. We will see.

Thanks for looking in gents, more to come soon hopefully.

Dave

Hi all,

A little update on the progress of the USS Heermann. I received a package the other day from the Floating Dry Dock with their comprehensive CD for the Fletcher class destroyer. I highly recommend this CD to anyone working on Fletchers as it covers the boat from bow to aft and everything in between.

Ok on to the update. To say the least there was a significant difference between the USS Fletcher and the USS Heermann. So with that I had to fill in a lot of areas on the Fletcher deck.





this will allow me to add the PE depth charge racks and shift the mid deck 20mm positions forward.

Here she is all cleaned up.



I also bought some deck grate from WEM so that I could detail the water tight vents. I am showing the starboard vent open but will figure out a way to detail the remaining vents closed.



The Tamiya Fletcher kit is a great kit. But after receiving the Fletcher Ebook from the Floating Dry dock I have found some areas which could have been better detailed.

No worries though, that is why AM kits exist.

More soon.

Dave

Hi everyone,

I spent a little more time on the Heermann over the past couple of days. Tamiya did a good job detailing the deck, even including the escape trunks. However they left off detail so I used the GMM hatch PE to add the detail.



The next step was painting the hull. I have to thank those who recommended Lifecolor paints. Very easy to work with and I am happy with my results.





there was a little bleed but nothing that wont be easy to fix with the hairy stick.

I am going to tackle the deck tomorrow but after that the Heermann will go on the back burner until the Maya is complete.

well that's it for now. Thanks for looking in.

Dave

Great work here as well, Dave - your camouflage came out very nice!


Really interested to see this one progressing - you started with quite a lot of modifications to the deck! Looking forward to see USS Heermann progressing once Maya is commissioned

Cheers,

Jan

Nice Camo scheme!

Hi everyone,

I completely forgot I had this blog for this build so I have not caught images of my work in progress.

So here she is at this point.











The MK51 shelf, 36 inch searchlight stand, the rear 40mm gun tub, and the rear 20mm gun tub are all from the Trumpeter USS Sullivans kit. Minor modification was required to make it fit but so far I like the look and it is pretty accurate.

The funnels and torpedo tubes are dry fitted for now. I need to upgrade the torpedo tubes.

This is a pretty quick but very fun build.

Hope you enjoy and thanks for stopping in.

Dave

Hi Dave,

the camo looks outstanding! Nice job overall!!

Cheers,

Jan

Jan,

Thanks. I'm pretty happy for my first try at camo. It needed some touch ups but not too much

Hope to get a lot done next week

Dave

Sounds like a case of too many builds, Dave

good to see you back on board though

Russell

You hit the nail on the head...I do have too many builds in the works. I am going to rectify that once I get the shipyard cleared. I am going to restrict available drydocks to two

Lol

Dave

Hey all,

Well it is with great aggravation that I am making what is probably the last post for this thread. After trying to rush to the finish line I realized that I had made too many mistakes and ruined a lot of aspects for what was supposed to be the USS Heermann.













I will be removing that name as the end result is not good enough to carry the name.

One of the major mistakes was not taking the time to measure out the rear 40mm gun tub. Now because of that the rear 5" main guns cannot rotate on their mounts. I also did not spend enough time preparing the 5" main guns and they sit too high.

So instead of wasting the great railing I have from GMM I will be leaving the railing off. I am also going to skip building the depth charge racks and just use the kit ones.

What I plan on doing after finishing the final touch is use this to practice my weathering and water bases. I have learned a lot but the USS Heerman I want to add to the dio must be a better product.

My biggest lesson learned is to not rush just to beat a campaign deadline. You might finish in time but you probably wont be happy with the result.

thanks for all your support throughout this build.

Dave

Don't be too hard on yourself Dave. This is how we learn, after all

and besides, we're meant to be in it for the fun, so like you said, don't try to build just to meet a deadline I learnt that lesson with the KGV which i'm still building

Russell,

Thanks for the kind words. Your right we do build for the fun. I'll always be my harshest critic which pushes me to be better. I'll still find some use for it, just not the original intened use.

Thanks

Dave

Hehe-isn't that the truth Dave? We're always our own worst critic.

from my own experience though, those builds that don't work out often end up being the most fun, since i find a fun use for them where I'm less worried about perfection and more focused on the fun

Russell,

You are so right about them being the most fun. Now that I am less worried about making it look museum quality I plan on testing out some water methods on it.

I have always been afraid to try as I dont want to ruin a perfectly good model by screwing up the water so now I have my opportunity.

As far as the future Heermann, no worries, I still ave two more Fletchers and a USS Sullivans in the stash so I still have what I need. Just need to replace a few peices of etch and I will be ready to go.

This time I think I will wait and build her side by side with the Kongo and not tied to a campaign.

thanks again!!

Dave

Good to hear you'll still find a use for her Dave!

And you'll be keeping the fun element going too, which I find is all too lacking these days in our hobby as prices of kits and the number of rivets go ever higher...

Dave,

I can only second all what Russ said!!

Great to hear that you haven't lost fun during that period, our hobby is a great one, even when sometimes things don't work out the way we were hoping for...

Looking forward to see your next projects, and keep us updated on your work on this one, learning about experiments and how they turn out is extremely helpful!! I know exactly what you mean - I've quite some things on my mind I would like to try but did not dare to do with my REPULSE and will not do with my BELFAST either...

Cheers,

Jan