Never seen one of these built but it always intrigued me. I reacll it was made for R/c and detail was secondary. Anyone have any first-hand experience with it?

Nostalgia only. With more recent 1/144 scale kits or even 1/350 kits having better detail.

I do, as I've built two in my lifetime. My recommendation is to save your money. I built one with my Dad in the 60s (which we "deep sixed" in a nearby lake), the other for commission. And I hope I never have to build another-- although its a quick build as a large scale ship goes. Scale is anybody's guess, as its off dimensionally in several areas. I'm not sure if it represents any hull class of ship in the USN, and details in guns, radars, superstructure and other areas are soft and toylike. I guess it makes a good R/C "starter" hull. If you really want something nice, fairly accurate, and worth the money, go with Revell's 1/144 scale early Fletcher Class destroyer, which was much more rewarding. I built one for commission, after building the Lindberg kit for the same customer. He, like me, was pretty disgusted with the built up model, and finally sprang for the Revell kit and Eduard detail set I recommended in the first place, but he thought the Lindberg kit could be built into a destroyer representing the USS Johnston. Not so, it really doesn't resemble anything "real". VR, Russ