¹⁄350

Further to this news writers report on the 12th of March 2009 Dragon Models have released detailed information on the impending release of their 1/350 U.S.S. Gearing DD-710, 1945 Smart kit .

The most exciting news is that this kit will be released in May 2009.

The retail price has yet to be announced.

This kit represents the U.S.S. Gearing as she appeared in 1945. It features all-new parts such as the hull and superstructure and the 5-inch gun turrets are accurately rendered by three-directional slide moulds.

Kit features:

• Waterline or full-hull version can be assembled;
  
• New tooled Mk37 gun director w/ith highly detailed Mk12 radar antenna assembly;
  
• New tooled 3-directional slide-molded twin 5-inch gun turret;
  
• New designed bilge keels w/removable sonar dome on lower hull with slide-mold technology;
  
• New tooled front and rear funnels w/DBM antennas;
  
• Photo-etched parts finely reproduced for radar and antennas;
  
• Minor details right down to access ladder and rivet heads are present;
  
• Realistically detailed slide-molded gun barrels withhollow ends;
  
• Twin 40mm Mk4 guns reproduced w/delicate detail;
  
• Finely detailed and newly designed quadruple 40mm Mk4 mount;
  
• Twin 20mm guns finely reproduced w/photo-etched shields;
  
• One-piece slide-molded upper hull with undercut details;
  
• Deck has realistic camber;
  
• Rudder is movable;
  
• Fine photo-etched propeller guards;
  
• True-to-scale ultra-thin propellers;
  
• Shield wall on superstructure and bonus captain's chair both with full detail;
  
• Depth charges molded with extra-fine detail;
  
• Bridge supports portrayed w/photo-etched parts;
  
• Six realistic 1/350 scale figures (4 in fighting poses and 2 in non-combat poses);
  
• Hose and ladder pattern detail on superstructure walls delicately reproduced;
  
• Extra-thin shield walls on superstructure reproduced for accurate 1/350 appearance;
  
• Side door (with optional photo-etched parts) can be assembled open or closed;
  
• Extremely fine parts like davits for whalers;
  
• Whalers w/photo-etched parts newly designed;
  
• Quintuple torpedo launcher in fine detail;
  
• Oval- and square-shaped rafts;
  
• Passageway for crew access realistically presented w/interior detail;
  
• Finely represented Mk51 gun director;
  
• 5-inch practice loading machine in great detail;
  
• Funnels provided with option of molded-on ladders or add-on photo-etched ladders;
  
• Platforms on funnels finely modeled by photo-etched parts;
  
• 12-inch, 24-inch and 36-inch searchlights provided;
  
• Movable mount for 36-inch searchlight w/clear part included.
  

Ship History
USS Gearing (DD-710) was the lead ship of her class of destroyers in the United States Navy.

She was named for three generations of the Gearing family, Commander Henry Chalfant Gearing, Sr., Captain Henry Chalfant Gearing, Jr. and Lieutenant Henry Chalfant Gearing, III.

Gearing was launched on the 18th of February 1945 by the Federal Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Kearny, New Jersey. The Gearing was sponsored by Mrs. Thomas M. Foley, daughter of Commander Gearing and commissioned the 3rd of May 1945 with Commander T. H. Copeman in command.
After shakedown off Cuba, Gearing reached Norfolk on the 22nd of July 1945 and trained precommisioning crews for other destroyers until putting in at Casco Bay, Maine, 5 October. Celebration of Navy Day from 26 to 29 October at New London, Connecticut, gave 5,000 citizens the chance to board the powerful destroyer. Subsequently Gearing put in at Pensacola, Florida, 4 November to screen carrier Ranger during carrier qualification operations.

Returning to Norfolk 21 March 1946, she conducted peacetime operations along the Atlantic coast of North and South America, in the Caribbean, visiting Montevideo, Uruguay; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Gearing sailed 10 November 1947 on her first Mediterranean cruise, calling at Algeria, Malta, Italy, and France before mooring again at Norfolk 11 March 1948.

Peacetime operations along the eastern seaboard and in the Caribbean prepared her for a second cruise to European waters; the destroyer visited most of the nations washed by the Mediterranean from 10 November 1947 to 11 March 1948 and duplicated this long voyage from 4 January to 23 May 1949.
During the fall of 1949 Gearing took part in Operation Frostbite, an Arctic cruise test and development of cold weather techniques and equipment. She continued operations off the east coast of the United States and in the Caribbean through 1950. Another voyage from 10 January to 17 May 1951 brought her from Norfolk to the Mediterranean and return; the remainder of the year was occupied by training cruises as far north as Halifax and south to Cuban waters.

By now Gearing had established the pattern of peacetime operations she followed well into the 1960s: "Med" cruises usually once a year, and exercise in the Atlantic and Caribbean. These kept her in fighting trim for the ceaseless duties of seapower. She was modernized and overhauled late 1961 through early 1962 at Boston.

In October 1962 Gearing took part in the American "quarantine" patrol against Cuba as the world trembled on the brink of war. This swift and classic use of power at sea solved the crisis. On 1 November Gearing returned to Norfolk. Through the remainder of 1962 she continued operations in the Atlantic.
After participating in Operation "Springboard-63." early in 1963, Gearing sailed for the Mediterranean in March serving with the 6th Fleet during the summer. She returned to Newport in September for a "FRAM I" overhaul. Following operations in the Caribbean and North Atlantic in the spring and summer of 1964, Gearing entered the Mediterranean 4 October to rejoin the 6th Fleet. After returning home early in 1965, she continued operating in the Atlantic Fleet into 1967.

She was decommissioned in 1973, stricken on 1 July 1973 and sold for scrap on 6 November 1974.
History courtesy of Wikipedia

Images courtesy of Dragon Models