Calling all Fletcher-class (DD-445) fans

[Navboyry]

Those prints are what I'm using.

I'm just doing idiot work, completing lines, adding detail the scanner missed . . .

Besides mabye I can turn it in as an assignment when I take drafting classes.

[Gordon Bjorklund]

The USS Colhoun DD-801 is the Fletcher class ship at the end of this video
http://www.seattlechannel.org/videos/vi ... ID=4030729.
I just saw the whole thing on the tv and at the end the 801 is clearly visible on the bow.

[Brian]

Gordon,

Great link! Thanks for posting.

Brian

[Reid]

where do u get plans like that?? National Archives??

[Rick E Davis]

Reid,

Not sure which plans you are referring to specifically ... either for specific ships, configurations or time-frame. At the top of this page, "SamuriPaddler" has posted a link to online drawings of the Bath Iron Works Fletcher class ships they built. You can get these same drawings on a DVD from the Destroyer History Organization ... http://www.destroyerhistory.org/destroyers/store.html ... that costs about $35.00 (I'm not sure if the on-line version have all of the drawings on the DVD). I have posted a few snap-shots from these drawings or made my own sketches based on more detailed drawings from these Also, Floating Drydock has a Fletcher class Design e-Book ... http://www.floatingdrydock.com/books.html ... that has other drawings and photos that costs about $25.95. There are other drawings available at the NARA, that I have not dug into personally and they get pricey to get reproduced. Floating Drydock also has a whole host of other ship drawings including post-war Fletcher class versions.

Rick

[Reid]

yes.. i was referring to the Abbot plans... is that DVD just for the abbot or other ships (of the class) as well... i should have been more specific...

[Rick E Davis]

Reid,

Both the plans on the Abbot website and the DVD cover all of the four configurations of Fletchers that BIW built ... a) the first three units built with the quad 1.1-in. mount, b) the two twin 40-mm mount (one on the fantail) configuration, c) the three twin 40-mm configuration (their first square-front open bridge units), d) and the five twin 40-mm mount configuration. Abbot was completed in the three twin 40-mm mount configuration going to the Pacific so configured and had the twin 40-mm mounts added before the bridge at Pearl Harbor at the same time she was repaired after a collision.

Rick

[Mike Glasgow]

Hello, another scratchbuilding question: On the 1945 Fletchers there were two flag lockers (bags) on the navigation deck right behind the pilot house on both sides of the main mast. Between the port side flag locker and main mast there was a "flag speed bag", storage for I guess fast flag operations. My plans even has a callout for a "desk" in the same location. I need to scratchbuild something there (1/96 scale) so does anyone have a picture or can someone just describe it to me. The pictures I have seen of this area shows some kind of canvas cover over the desk, maybe the flag speed bag was under or in back of the desk? Thanks in advance for any help.

Mike Glasgow

[Rick E Davis]

Mike,

I'm not sure that these images will help. With the mast and searchlight, at times, in the way, getting a clear view of what I think you are interested in, is not easy. I have no onboard photos that would be looking at the "desk" from the bridge. Here are four views of this area as best I could find quickly of Fletchers taken in 1945: 1) Heermann (DD-532) on 11 January 1945, 2) Hale (DD-642) plus a sister on 8 February 1945, 3) Clarence K. Bronson (DD-668) on 17 June 1945, 4) Picking (DD-685) on 5 September 1945. The first two ships were still in the five twin 40-mm mount configuration and the last two had been updated to the Anti-Kamikaze 14-40mm configuration. There does seem to be a difference between these two groups in how the "desk" or whatever it is, is configured. It could be due to the Anti-Kamikaze mod or differences between the different builders? In looking at several other ships, it appears that there were different "builders" configurations to the "desk" and it's cover independent of time period. I know I have been in this area on the museum ship USS Cassin Young at Boston, but i don't remember what it looked like. Besides she was modified in the 1950's so everything likely was different given the tripod mast.

[Zach P.]

Hi Rick, thanks for posting this link in the other thread.

I am actually doing DD-448 USS La Vallette in Measure 12 camoflage and depicting her as launched prior to her refit in 1942 after being damaged.

I am using the Tamiya round bridge fletcher kit as a base and adding bits from the Midship Models USN Weapons set. So far this has included depth charge throwers/K-guns, torpedo tubes, director, carly floats, twin bofors (ended up looking too big), Twenty mils, searchlights.

I also what is left from GMM's USN Cruiser, Destroyer fret for the radar, laders, depth charge racks, inclined ladders, and various PE rails from a few different Frets.

WIll try to post some pictures of progress here or in picture post forum.

Fletchers are my favorite wartime destroyers and I am looking to do this kit nicely. Next will probably be Combrigs prewar Porter but thats another thread,

[Rick E Davis]

Zach,
Fletchers are my favorite as well and I have done years (mostly part-time ) of research on the class. The first nineteen or so Fletchers to arrive in the South Pacific are very interesting.

La Vallette was only in Ms 12R as delivered (11 August) and commissioned on 12 August 1942 and for a short time afterwards. She was completed at New York Navy Yard when the fantail twin 40-mm was added. La Vallette was mostly completed in early September 1942 and went on a shakedown trial with the two twin 40-mm mounts and had her six 20-mm guns reduced to four 20-mm guns, but lacking her Mk 51 directors and was painted still MOSTLY in Ms 12R (the superstructure was painted in Haze Gray only and the hull was still in blotches). She was completed in mid-October 1942 once the Mk 51 directors were installed and painted in Ms 22. La Vallette was one of the Fletchers that went to the North Africa invasion as a convoy escort. After returning from North Africa she was refitted (likely with at least one more 20-mm and maybe more ... maybe repainted to Ms 21?) and went to the South Pacific, arriving in January 1943. She LIKELY had additional 20-mm guns added, but she was damaged by an aerial torpedo on 30 January 1943 and returned to Mare Island Navy Yard for a long repair period lasting until August 1943 when she had been updated to the ten 40-mm configuration and I have not found a photo of her in her January 1943 configuration.

[Zach P.]

Rick,

Thanks that bit of history fills out the bare bones I found through DANFS from the Navsource link.

I am intending to complete her in her as completed fashion with the aft 40mm mount. Navsource had photos of her in October of 42 wearing measure 12. However I do not have a picture showing the placement of this mount. Any help on that front would be appreciated.

[Rick E Davis]

Zach,

LaVallette had the fantail twin 40-mm mount in the typical location between the depth charge tracks on the fantail ... the Tamiya kit has the "tub" for this mount and "blind" locating holes included. La Vallette was one of only three or four Fletchers (Fletcher, Jenkins, La Vallette, and maybe Radford for a short time) that retained the original "High round tub" (intended for the quad 1.1-in. mount) above the secondary conn station on the aft deckhouse between mounts 53 and 54 while having the fantail twin 40-mm mount. The Tamiya kit has only this tub configuration as an option with the "Fletcher" kit (either 1/700 or 1/350) ... a shame because a larger number of other Fletchers had the lower "tear-drop" shape tub. Alan Raven's "Fletcher-Class Destroyers" book, 1986 and long out-of-print, has a photo on page 73 of La Vallette on 5 September 1942 with the fantail twin 40-mm installed, but no Mk 51 directors. I have not found this photo on-line anywhere, and I have not scanned it yet at NARA (or from NHC ... I'm not sure where Alan Raven got this photo from?). In this photo the hull is still painted in Ms12R, but the superstructure has been repainted to a solid Hazy Gray. In the photos of La Vallette taken a month later in early October 1942 when she was actually complete and ready for war ... she is painted in the standard Ms22 scheme.

[strontium dog]

A quick question. I am building my first ship for years and useing the GMM Fletcher set for the Tamiya kit in 350.At the rear of the bridge deckhouse the kit has a molded pair of ladders, should I remove the whole lot or just remove the ladder tread and place the etch over it? I am happy to remove it all but I want to make sure that the ladder wasnt that way on the real thing.

Mark

[Rick E Davis]

Mark,

It is kind of up to what you want to do. Here is an image of a couple of Fletchers that show the ladders behind the bridge area. Be your own judge of which would look best.

[KenG]

To the lower left of the photo posted above, and between the flag locker and the mast, there are what I can best describe as two rectangular boxes with dome-capped cylinders on the outer faces. They feature on other Fletcher photos as well. Can anyone tell me what they are?

[MartinJQuinn]

To the lower left of the photo posted above, and between the flag locker and the mast, there are what I can best describe as two rectangular boxes with dome-capped cylinders on the outer faces. They feature on other Fletcher photos as well. Can anyone tell me what they are?

If they are the same as similar looking items found on San Diego and NJ, those are antenna trunks. Thanks to Tracy White and Ron Smith, who answered a similar query I had about these structure on the San Diego.

[KenG]

Aaah! Now that you've told me what they are, can you tell me what they do?!

[MartinJQuinn]

Aaah! Now that you've told me what they are, can you tell me what they do?!

Well, I didn't ask the same follow up question you did, but I think they are basically insulators for antennas.

[KenG]

Well Martin, You gotta ask d'questions.
I'm working on a dio.in the Solomons and I'm trying to get it as right as I can...........!
And now, another question. Living in Ireland, I'm interested in why you have an Irish harp and shamrocks above your name. You wouldn't be ex-Irish by any chance?