Reviews : Tamiya USS Fletcher DD445 Destroyer Waterline

Nice little ship to build as this is the lead ship of the class along with a few others before modernization. Used the hull number 446 USS Radford that comes with the decal sheet. Deck and hull are a single piece so was easy to paint deck in weather deck blue and vertical upper superstructures in light gray. Paint those parts before assembly, much easier to control any over paint of spray. All horizontal surfaces also paint in same as deck. Painted torpedo tubes in medium gray as well as the AA guns, but painted 20mm & 40mm barrels in gunmetal, 5 inch barrels are painted in Model Master Steel, and blast bags are done in a darker gray, turrets in light gray. The hull is painted from the boot top (black waterline) to the deck at its lowest point in RAF Sea Gray for darker look. Overall, took about 4 days to complete with waiting times for the paint and cement to dry. Will dull coat after waiting 24 hours for paint to cure. Painted mast radar in Steel instead of silver. You want to stay away from using silver paint at all times. Photos to follow.

I had been looking for U.S. destroyer model kits for some time & was thrilled when I found this one. Although it has some incredibly tiny parts which were difficult to handle for some with large fingers like me, I was still impressed with the end result of this kit. I have actually built more than 1 of this kit as I have been trying to create a group of destroyers of sufficient size.

This model has some small parts and some care must be use went remove from the stem the parts fit well the decals are two ships and is shows the ship in it early cofig. The inst are good and color chart is good to a good model for the first timer.

Thhis is a great waterline destroyer form Tamiya. Very similar to the USS Cushing model by Tamiya. No full hull, butgreat quality model. Nice detail.

A great kit but only has one problem. The 5 inch guns are under-scale but still a great kit.

Small but fun very affordable I’m looking forward to collecting the other in the series.