1/144 Jorge Juan (ex USS McGowan)

[Willie]

The other bulkhead needs a further element, another standing exhaust of quite different shape, which was made following the same method:

Once everything is set in place, I would say the effcet is quite convincing:

I will try to add some more details tomorrow.
I hope you like it, and best regards from the North Atlantic,

Willie.[/size]

[Willie]

Hi all again,

I thought today that I could give some further details to the stacks, starting with the steam tubes for the typhoon in the forward stack, but before this I had to paint the inside of it, and then set the cap in place. But just in case I had to delete things, I judged advisable to make all the hand/footrails around the caps on both stacks before anything else.
The first surprise came when I was gathering info for this. I could see that USS The Sullivans (and many other Fletchers too, as I could inmediately see) had these caps built with four elements:

On the other hand, this excelent picture of Jorge Juan shows that her caps were made with only three, so problem was not solved, it was simply non-existing. Great.

The hand/footrails we are talking about are actually like this:

These elements are very visible even from some distance away, as it can be seen in the otherwise not too clear picture of Jorge Juan before, so any thought of passing by them on tip toes has to be thrown overboard.

After some hesitation, I thought that I could solve the problem with pieces of 1.5 mm. Evergreen angle, opening the holes with a 0.5 mm. drill. At least I could give a try. Something like this:

These elements are anyhow too thick and big, so it was necessary to omit some of them so that the effect was not too rough.
Once in place, they can be further reduced with fine sandpaper, which is what I did:

The effect is inmediately much better:

Once the sets were dry, I simply made a thread circle with stretched sprue, and passed it through every hole.

The thread fits so tightly that the same tension of the circle makes glue unnecessary for the moment.

I have to say that I am not 100% satisfied with this solution: the pieces are way too few and way to thick for my like, but I think that this may be because of the strong contrast between the pure white of the pieces and the medium grey of the stacks, and that everything will look better when the whole lot is painted in black, with a light wash in medium/dark grey. Actually, the thread itself does not look so out of place, and it is too thick as well --but grey, not white.

Please give me your views on this, and let me know if you know any better solution.

TIA, and very best regards from the North Atlantic,

Willie.[/size]

[Willie]

Other than this, I realized as well that the stacks have two openings at front, covered with a double plate. What they are for, I have no idea. This is what I mean :

Making these elements is nothing at all --styrene and stretched sprue pieces-- and they offer further notes to the overall detailing:

Again best regards from this side,

Willie.[/size]

[Kubilay]

Very sharp craftmanship, amazing details. It's very enjoyable to follow this topic when we stay at home.

[marijn van gils]

Great work as always!

I agree however that the handrail supports are oversized. I think with your abilities, you can do those much smaller.
You can make it easier for yourself by not trying to drill holes and insert the wire through it. Also, don't use angled profiles as these will always be too thick and clunky.
Instead:
- cut small elongated 'triangles' from thin plastic sheet
- square the 'tips' a little (the wire will be glued against this)
- glue them to the stack
- glue the stretched sprue directly to the 'tips'
You can also use finer stretched sprue.

HTH,

Marijn

[Willie]

Hi there Marijn and all,

I agree that the handrail supports are oversized. I think with your abilities, you can do those much smaller.
You can make it easier for yourself by not trying to drill holes and insert the wire through it. Also, don't use angled profiles as these will always be too thick and clunky.
Instead:
- cut small elongated 'triangles' from thin plastic sheet
- square the 'tips' a little (the wire will be glued against this)
- glue them to the stack
- glue the stretched sprue directly to the 'tips'
You can also use finer stretched sprue.

Thanks a lot for your interest. I had already come to the same conclusion before reading your post: The effect is too over scaled, and it would better go with nothing at all rather than with this, so I have deleted the whole lot. Too bad. I will try your method, probably using CA, instead of liquid poly.

Actually it took longer to delete the supports than setting them in place.

Brgds from this side,

Willie.[/size]

[Willie]

Hi all again,

After the stack fiasco, I have changed the subject for the moment, and have dedicated some attention to the depth charge rack in the stern.
Jorge Juan had of course one, in the usual place, and it seems to be the standard mk.3 rack, as it can be observed in this picture in the day of her transfer to the Spanish Navy, that is why she displays a Spanish flag and an American name :

Revell�s offer is again no good, actually very crude, so it has to be completely replaced.

I have no clear pictures of the specific rack on board Jorge Juan, but I could make some in my visit to USS The Sullivans:

This rack seems to have been completely dismantled when the ship was taken over as a museum, and therefore lacks many of the working elements.
The inside comes from USS Cassin Young, but it is again a mk.3 rack:

Once the elements to build are clear, the process itself is not complicated. Here the basic pieces:

And here the first element of the structure. Tricky at times, but very easy to build:

[/size]

[Willie]

In between the glue in the structure dried out, I tried to complete the aft part. The pictures of USS The Sullivans are not too useful, because as I said before, all the mobile elements have been removed, but I noticed some interesting points:

And these parts match this other pic of another mk.3 rack:

Doing this was very easy, and it adds again realism to the rack:

I will try to advance the construction tomorrow.

Brgds from this side,

Willie.[/size]

[Willie]

Hi all again.

Once the first part had dried more or less completely, the next step was to finish the basic structure, that is this, without any refining yet :

So the rest of the elements that have to be constructed are these

This basic sketch allows to understand what is what in this mk.3 rack:

At the same time, all the previous pictures show clearly the large amount of working elements that are missing in the rack on board USS The Sullivans, which is virtually an empty frame :

[/size]

[Willie]

And hi again.

After the basic structure is complete, it can be detailed without further problems. Some of the pieces are again tricky, specially as they have to be set in place sorting the interference of other elements, but nothing too serious.

Once complete, the whole rack set is like this:

I have discovered a nasty habit of styrene when glued with liquid poly, which is that it is alive for sometime after the pieces are finished, and can twist a bit, so it is necessary to wait for couple of days, so that the glue dries out completely, before making the final corrections.
After taking these pics, I can see some small details that have to be refined, but all things considered, I feel much batter now than after the stacks fiasco.

Very best regards from this side,

Willie.[/size]

[Willie]

Hi all modelers again,

The rudder that is offered in the box is excellent, and can be used as it is, but can be anyhow detailed a bit, as much as a rudder can be detailed.
I have found very few pics of a Fletcher rudder, and of them only two that can be used, these two, showing two simetrical square plates on both sides and one single oblong plate on starboard side:

To add these plates is the easiest thing ever, and the rudder looks a bit more complete now as well.

Nice going,

Willie.[/size]

[Willie]

And hi again.

One further detail that has puzzled me for a long time is a kind of strange cage that Jorge Juan had in the port side, aft of the aft structure:

After my question in a different thread, Mr. Rick E. Davis was kind enough to let me know that this cage structure was designed for capturing spent shell casings from the RFG 3-in guns, and to upload three excellent pictures. Thanks again Mr. Davis. It is always good to know that an expert is nearby !!!!

These pictures show that this structure could vary from ship to ship, that it was apparently not permanent, and could therefore be folded away, and one of them shows clearly that one of the corners was raised above deck to allow access to the vent opening underneath:

The frames are made with 0.4x0.75 mm. Evergreen styrene. I had to simplify the frames a bit to adapt them to a piece of PE net that I have at home, so that the PE could give the net effect, to say so, without being ruined with an accident with CA. This is the first step, after glueing the frames to the PE:

Then cutting, refining and sanding, to get this :

And the final product, set in place and further detailed with 0.64 mm. Evergreen rod and stretched sprue:

I would say that when everything is set in place under the aft structure, the effect is not perfect but good enough, and will be better when painted :

I hope you like it, and very best regards from this side,

Willie.[/size]

[Rick E Davis]

Willie,

The spent round cage looks great. There were capture cages for the waist 3-in mounts, placed outboard so that crewmen could traverse behind them. Actually, I suspect that the "cage" was either folded up against the outboard frame or the spent shells were allowed to collect on the deck and were kept from going overboard by the frame and screen. The design of shell "catching" changed over time.

Something I have to point out on rudders on FLETCHERS in the Post-WWII era. The FLETCHER's had a bad reputation for having a poor turning radius. This issue was why the SUMNER/GEARING class units went to a twin rudder arrangement. Post-WWII, when the DDE conversions for FLETCHER's was initiated, an effort was made to study and try to solve this turning radius issue. The research found that adding an extension to the bottom of the existing rudder noticeably improved the turning radius. It was such a success, that when the mobilization for the Korean War brought "Fleet Destroyer" FLETCHER's back to service, one of the first mods authorized was to add this extension. One of the images you posted as an example, was of USS STRONG as built, when she had the original rudder.

As you say, finding images of the rudders (actually most underwater areas photos are rare) for these destroyers. I was lucky to find a great series of images of USS WREN (DD-568) in drydocks, first showing her original rudder in December 1951 and second in May 1957 after she had the extended rudder.

[Willie]

Hi there all modelers,

And thanks Mr. Davis for the further info on the rudder.

I was busy today with the bathythermograph winch that Jorge Juan had in the fantail, this one:

The pic is not very clear, and not too descriptive, but I was lucky to find this other one :

Curiously enough, her twin ship, Alcal� Galiano had the same winch in the same position but exactly in the oposite side, so it looks like reversed, and it allows to see the rear plates of the artifact:

So the construction itself was quite easy, with very basic elements made with Evergreen profiles and stetched sprue:

And this is the final BT:

I hope you like it, and very best regards from these Atlantic shores,

Willie.[/size]

[Rick E Davis]

I'm continually amazed at your efforts at getting the max level of details on this build. I feel I'm more detail oriented that many modelers, but you go way beyond my skill set. But, I work in 1/350 and 1/700 scale and what is possible in those smaller scales is limited.

GREAT WORK!!!

[Willie]

Hi there Mr. Davis and all,

I'm continually amazed at your efforts at getting the max level of details on this build. I feel I'm more detail oriented that many modelers, but you go way beyond my skill set. But, I work in 1/350 and 1/700 scale and what is possible in those smaller scales is limited.

You would not praise my efforts that much if you knew how I can waste them at times. E.g., I devoted the whole day yesterday to try to reproduce this BT winch, the one on board USS The Sullivans:

Crystal clear pics, ideal to build, so after the whole day trying to find the right proportions, I was able to produce this:

I cannot describe my feelings when I came across the first picture in the previous post, and realized what I had done, or better, what I had not done... And that the difference is again inmense to let it go by.

And it is not the first time it happens, to add to my shame.

Thanks again for your help with my questions, and very best regards from this side,

Willie.[/size]

[marijn van gils]

Fantastic scratchbuilding work! This will be a spectacular model when finished!

[Willie]

Hi all again,

Today was mistake-mending day, i.e.: stack hand/foot rails, something that had to be solved since the failure last week.
This time I was using Evergreen 0.4x1.00 mm stripe, much smaller than the 1.5 mm. angles I was using last time:

Again I had to reduce the number of elements in one or two in a couple of places to achieve something real, but, after battling for a couple of hours, I think this time I got it:

Once both caps are set in place, the effect is IMO, excellent, or at least much better than last time:

When compared with what I had done before, I would say the elements are way more discreet, and hence the difference is huge, but this time in the right direction:

Marijn, I think this is exactly the method you suggested last time, something I should have done from the beggining, but I thought it would not work --so, thanks again for your tip, and I hope you like it better this time.

Nice going and best regards from this side,

Willie.[/size]

[marijn van gils]

Much better indeed!

[BB62vet]

Willie,

Your second version of the stack ring brackets is indeed a great improvement! In addition, your modeling of the BT Winch etc. is very well done. I'm watching this carefully as I'll probably need to do so in like fashion when I get to my STODDARD build.

FYI - those two oval covers that you commented about in the front of the stack base - those are actually clean-out covers - they are removed and a worker climbs inside the stack base to do cleaning of accumulated dust, stack gas particles, soot, etc. Usually done during a shipyard overhaul, not something done at sea or when the ship is in operation.

Your build is turning out really nice - keep up the excellent work!

Hank