by Martin J. Quinn
1/350 USS Duncan DD-485 (Dragon)
When the fabulous Dragon Buchanan hit the market, I immediately picked one up, along with the Cyber Hobby photo-etch set from Dragon USA. Shortly afterward, Tim Dike sent the same kit to a group of message board moderators for us to build. Since I now had two Buchanan kits, I decided I wanted to do one just about "out of the box" with the CyberHobby photo etch. I also wanted to do one overall Navy Blue (Measure 21). Instead of just doing a second Buchanan, I decided to build the USS Duncan, which was sunk at the Battle of Cape Esperance, October 11-12, 1942. The only changes from the Buchanan that I could find in my limited 'research' was that Duncan carried the alternate searchlight platform. Fortunately, that platform is included on one of the generic sprues in the Buchanan kit, so I was good to go.
As has previously been mentioned, this is a unbelievably detailed and molded kit. The level of detail is really outstanding. It's also been noted that the kit isn't a "shake the box" model - this is actually a challenging kit to build. There are a few fit problems - noticeably with the midships deckhouse - and the instructions aren't always clear (why do manufacturers insist on telling you to add the lower hull AFTER the model is finished?). Additionally, a few parts are mislabled in the instructions, and some parts (certain chocks) aren't shown at all. Even with these few shortcomings, it's clearly the best injection molded ship model on the market today.
Unfortunately, for me, this happen to be "one of those builds". Right from the start, I was beset by troubles - losing parts (the sheilds for the sky lookouts), having trouble getting the midship deck house to fit, problems with the decals (the anti-skid markings are too long, in my opinon), and getting the spray shields on either side of the hull to stay on. I want to be clear that other than the midship deck house and decals, the issues were all of my own making, not the fault of the kit.
As this was an "out of the box" build, I used the kit mast, which is very nicely details, but a bit fragile. Next one of these I build, I substitute brass rod for the mast and yard arm. As I previously mentioned, I also used the CyberHobby photo-etch set for this kit, which I now regret. The railings - especially for the superstructure - don't fit, and require a fair amount of trimming to get right. The railings that go along the pilot house roof were especially vexing. This was made to appear as if it had canvas dodgers, and was very hard to bend to shape. Since I was using the alternate searchlight platform, I had to dip into the spares box to find some scrap PE railing to use.
At the very end of construction, I managed to knock the top part of the kit mast with the radar (I did substitute a radar out of the spares box for the plastic part) off the model and onto the floor as I was finishing up the rigging. This offering to the carpet monster was never heard from again. I sprayed the model with Model Master Laquer Flat and considered it done, albiet missing the radar. Not being completely satisfied, a few days later I looked in my other Buchanan kits to see if there was an extra of the lost part that I could use. Luckily, the 1945 Buchanan kit has an extra sprue that had the missing part on it, so I was able to swipe the extra and find another radar from the spares box to really complete the model.
Feeling that I had finally gotten the better of this kit, I broke out a new bottle of Polly Scale Acrylic flat to give it one last light coat of flat to even out a few shiny spots I saw, before taking pictures for the gallery. In the end, the kit had the "last laugh" though, as the acrylic flat frosted the finish of the model. It's not as noticeable if you stand back from the model say, about 20 feet, but she's looks like shes been pulling arctic convoy duty the closer you get.
My ham handed approach to modeling aside, I found this kit to be - overall - a really nice kit and a welcome addition to my scale fleet.
