Update January 29th: the Eduard PE shields have been fitted. Visually not much of an improvement at the moment because they stick out like a sore thumb. Things will look better after a ground coat. The thickness of these parts is much more in scale now though. I have also started work on the stacks now:







Cheers,
Julian

February 28th update: I have removed the waist 20mm shields and the stern shields fitted behind the smoke cilinders. Lots of careful cutting and grinding with the dremel and then a last touch up with a micro chisel. Some sanding and Mr. Surfacer and everything is ready for the Eduard shields to be fitted. The exit hatches have been grond down as well so that the more detailed PE can be fitted here too:




All for now,
Cheers,
Julian

Hi Bruce, thanks for the kind remarks. The Eduard set isn't brass, probably nickel. Its certainly nice to work with. The stern needed a bit of work: the shaft supports had a pronounced mold line that had to be grinded off with the Dremel. The putty work is actually Mr. Surfacer, used to make the shaft inserts less visible. looks pretty dire now but with a coat of paint it will be ok.
cheers,
Julian

Julian,
Looking great so far Is the Eduard PE brass or nichel? From the pictures, it looks like you had to do some puttying and sanding around the prop shafts and supports.
Waiting for the next update

January 21st update: Started the build last weekend, lets see where this leads to.
The model itself is nicely detailed, no flash but it does show some mold lines that I had to remove with my Dremel. Plastic is nice grey, not too soft but certainly not brittle. The Eduard PE is excellent as usual and a relief to be working with after 6 months of Fujimi PE. Eduard even included very precise instructions, what a good idea . The fit so far is excellent with the deck fitting onto two "tabs" fitted on top of the two strengthening bulkheads, (maybe time for me to clean my workbench......):

The screw shafts are very long and rest in two huge supports in front of the single rudder. I would hazard a guess that there was an awful lot of vibration at the stern of these ships, (maybe someone can give some more information on that:



The Eduard PE is used to add and improve on the details molded on to the ship, which are a bit soft and bland here and there:


If anyone has good links to photo's, information or drawings of the Fletchers please drop an e-mail.
Cheers,
Julian

Hi there Mark,
Have the hull together and am rather impressed with the heavy duty screwshafts hanging underneath the Fletcher: seem ready to transfer a lot of force from the hull to the water. One single barn door rudder and not a nice curve on her A rather utilitarian design ready for mass production I have fallen in love already, (will try and get some snaps up this weekend). Jury is still out on the colors though, (I have noticed that Lifecolor is bringing out 2 sets of USN colors, might try and get hold of them).
Cheers mate,
Julian

Will watch this one with great interest also Julien. I have this Kit as well with all the Eduard Sets to go with it......Cheers Mark

Just staking out the space for the build here. More coming soon. I will be building Revell's offering using the Big Ed PE set and metal barrels from WEM. Paint colors not yet decided (big issue with USN vessels).
Cheers,

Julian