Dragon's
Livermore/Gleaves-class destroyer in 1/350 scale covers a long-overdue subject. Dragon picked the right markings: The USS
Buchanan earned 16 battle stars and was in hot stops of the Pacific campaign throughout the war.
The kit provides a choice of full or waterline hull, positional doors, six figures, two forms for shaping photoetched-metal parts, and a single set of markings. An add-on set from cyber-hobby.com included photoetched-metal railings and ranging radar.
I chose to build the full-hull version. Test-fitting the upper and lower hull halves showed no large gaps or mismatch. Still, a little filler and sanding were required to blend the seam.
I painted the hull with Floquil red oxide, the waterline with Floquil weathered black, and topside surfaces Testors navy blue. The metal-shaping tool was handy for consistently forming the bumpers.
I painted SnJ bronze on the propellers as well as the scale lamp finials I used for the display stand; its base is painted Testors aircraft interior black.
There are small gaps between the deck pieces and the hull that need filling. I masked, then painted the deck Testors deck blue. You will need to lighten this color - I found the decals for the planking blended in too well with the deck to be seen at all.
The superstructure comprises several pieces, with an odd seam between portholes that is tricky to clean up. I painted all the structures before gluing them to the hull. Again, the shaping tool came in handy for bending the supports for the liferafts.
The photoetched-metal railings are stiff; annealing them by holding them over a candle makes them more malleable. I super glued the rails, using thin strips of tape to hold them in place.
The kit provides a choice of 5" guns, either movable or fixed with canvas covers. The 20mm anti-aircraft guns include a shield (plastic or photoetched metal), ammo magazine, sight, hand wheel (photo-etched metal), and pedestal base. The tiny photoetched-metal shoulder supports are difficult to shape consistently.
There are no attachment points on the davits for the two launches - making this look right is a real challenge. The Mark 22 radar comprises five tiny photoetched-metal pieces and one piece of wire that has to be cut to fit. For those less inclined to microsurgery, Dragon includes a simplified plastic substitute.
My model was painted in the 1943 Measure 21; instructions for Measure 12 are also included. It seems ships wore a different scheme every time they came to port, so you could have fun and build one in every scheme - except markings are supplied only for the
Buchanan. (Hopefully, the aftermarket will provide more.) The kit contains unused armament, such as four tube torpedo launchers, hinting that another destroyer may be in the works.
My reference for this review was Squadron's
Destroyers in Action: Part 3, by Al Adcock. Special thanks also to Joshua Simon for his technical support.
The kit took me 62 hours to build. With all that detail, experienced modelers can really go to town and build out a great ship model.
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