Don Murphy Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 Back in 2004, I was building a Blue Water Navy resin destroyer kit for a former crewmember. Well, it went pretty well, but UPS destroyed it during shipping: It all started when they punched through the 1/8th inch thick plexiglass display case... Things went downhill from there... All the photo etch was ripped off as well as the mast shattered, nose broken, etc. I filed a claim and UPS ponied up. They paid for everything. Funny enough, they never wanted the pieces back. So I just threw the carcass in my "junk" box and got on with my life. The kit was weird because although it was the two hanger version, the client wanted the no hanger version (Flight I). So I had special ordered a duplicate PE fret, some extra resin pieces, etc. Well as you can imagine, I was clearing out the garage for the 9000 time and I came across an unmarked box. Inside was the carcass and the extra PE and resin pieces. Hmmmm... I sanded down the dents and dings and added putty to fill in the parts that were really destroyed. It didn't take that long and I made the decision to rebuild the thing. For the mast, I used some resin parts "trees" that I had laying around and put a silver nail on top for the topmast. The spare photo etch and resin funnels were used to replace UPS damaged parts. Two 1/35th scale tank pieces were used for braces for the main mast. All the mast pieces are scratchbuilt using photo etch scraps and a piece or two from the replacement parts fret. I had to rebuild most of the superstructure. I'm glad I saved her cuz back in the day, she was a $200 - $250 kit and the only game in town in 1/350th scale of a Burke Class destroyer. I'll be building her as USS The Sullivans. She's completed except for making two props and I have to scratchbuild some helo deck safety netting. Cheers, Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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