USS Forrest Sherman Destroyer

This kit is a very old Revell kit. The hull is 1 piece the shafts rudders and props give no problems. The guns well they use a technique that's not good. A tub is molded on the deck you put the gun in the terret and then put turret on the tub thus squeezing the gun in position. Problem is the caps holding the turret down allow way too much play which allows the gun to rattle loose. I sometimes can get the system to work but it's hit or miss. So i just glue that gun mount down problem solved. The guns elevate and all gun mounts turn. The 3' 50's do not elevate and the detail for them is lacking. The kit was missing 1 anchor and the molding for the reload depth charge rack was a total loss so just did without them still looks very good when done. This kit was made when kids put there models in the tub. With a little ballast this kit will be a handsome bath tub warrior.

Overall just an Average model. This model looks old and is old...which I knew that when I bought it. But I had several issues with building it. There are some serious fit issues and the way the model is laid out don't make any sense. For example the Bridge. To build the bridge you have to connect all the four walls together and put the roof on it. The guns just don't fit right. I had to do a lot of carving to make this model look good. I'm proud to have it and it looks good on my shelve. Just don't expect to buy it and expect it to come together easily

This was the last all-gun destroyer class built for the US Navy. This kit dates back to the early-sixties and it shows in the thick moldings, fit the box scale and the weapons suite. I received this kit twice as a kid, once in 1970 and in 1973 so I'm no stranger to this ancient Revell kit. I saw that Atlantis had re-issued it and I had been given photos of the USS Turner Joy, taken at Pier no.1 in 1979 at 32nd Street Naval Base San Diego. I removed the hand rails from around the main deck, upper decks and the bridge and replaced them with photoetched ones from a generic set for 1/350th ships. Although they are a smaller scale there were some on the frets that were a good match for rail height and stanchion spacing. I removed the 3/50 Mk.33 gun mounts and depth charge rack since they removed them during her career. I also replaced the torpedo tubes with Mk.32 triple tube launchers. I replaced the radar antennas with ones from a Flagship Models photoetch set and the scale size difference didn't seem to be all that much and I added some of the later style antennas to the yards of the tripods. The Mk.42 5/45 gun mounts are pretty rough so I replaced them with 3-D printed ones from Model Monkey along with a pair of Mk.56 gun directors. The propeller shafts were replaced with aluminum rod and the v-struts were cleaned up and drilled for the rods. The model was painted with Gunze Sanyo USN Haze Grey on the hull, superstructure and weapons. Tamiya RLM 66 Black-Gray for the decks and Tamiya Hull Red for the hull below the waterline with a black boot topping. Although mine isn't museum quality it more closely represents the ship I saw 43 years ago, just before this once 17 year old boy started a journey that lasted 22 years. It now holds a place of honor on a former crewman's mantle.