SPA Modeler

Some time ago I was asked by a close friend if I could build a model of this particular ship for him, a John Butler Class Destroyer Escort. He was a former sailor and served on FFGs in the 80’s and early 90’s, but this ship was before his time. Why did he want a build of this particular ship? It was one of many of the class built, participated in no major engagements, and was mothballed shortly after WWII. Just another small ship with a small part in a big war. But.... the man for which the ship was named was his great uncle, Lance Corporal USMC, Silver Star recipient, killed in action on Guadalcanal. My friend has the paperwork, medal and champagne bottle top from the ships commissioning to back it all up. He wanted a model to display along with his uncles medal, citation, and ship stuff in his home. How do you say no to that?
So since then I have been slowly researching the Butler Class, and gathering the items I would need to make this happen, and make it happen properly. A 1/350 DE is a tad bit too small to display with the medal, citation, and photos. But 1/300 is a bit bigger and would look ok. Lindberg makes a Rudderow Class DE kit in 1/300. The Rudderow Class and Butler Class were visually identical, but had different power plants. And the old Linberg kit, well it needs help. Quite a bit of help. 3-D printed items from Shapeways and a 1/300 PE set for the Revell USCG Roger B Taney will help. As for anything else that comes up along the way, modeling skills required.

So here is the real thing....



And here is my starting point kit



Last night I began construction...

The hull had some very pronounced weld lines, as do the decks and bulkheads.



So I sanded them down a bit. In photos of Butler Class DEs, the weld lines are visible, so I just toned them down a bit by sanding





And again after examining every photo on Navsource of Butler and Rudderow Class DEs, and finding none visible, I decided to sand off the deck weld seam lines, and thin down the thickness on some of the deck fittings. I also sanded off the anchor chains, drilled out their openings, and filed the slots where the anchors sit on the deck. All your Navy types please forgive me for not knowing the proper terms.





It looks a bit rough now, but I’m sure that it will look better after primer and paint later on...

Can't wait to see what you do with this old thing.

Thank you. The bug is starting to bite me on this one and I’m really wanting to push forward.

Hi Carlos! What an incredible project! If you have not read through this RC build, I would give it your attention. There's gold in here!

http://geneberger-models.com/uss-kendall-c-campbell/

speedgraflex wrote:Hi Carlos! What an incredible project! If you have not read through this RC build, I would give it your attention. There's gold in here!

http://geneberger-models.com/uss-kendall-c-campbell/

Uh, wow....somehow, that doesn't do it justice. Simply amazing.

speedgraflex wrote:Hi Carlos! What an incredible project! If you have not read through this RC build, I would give it your attention. There's gold in here!

http://geneberger-models.com/uss-kendall-c-campbell/

Bruce, thank you! The detail here is what has been lacking in what I have found so far. Now any question that I had are answered. Although I have noticed some differences in the bridge areas in this one and others. I would guess due to mods made in the class due to wartime experience. Being smaller scale, I won’t be able to pull off all of those details as here, but this helps me fill in on what I needed. Thanks again!

This is some pretty great building on this guy, Carlos.

Lyle, he did some incredible work. Very inspirational and useful for my project. 1/96 scale can be detailed up beautifully. Like he did here.

As for me, I spent some time raiding my spares bin and other kits for excess parts to make up shortfalls that Bruce’s link revealed to me. Now I’m just wondering, do I have it in me to solder up a mast like he did with brass tubing...