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USS Shaw, pre Pearl Harbor


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Normally I build aircraft, but I'm also a closet ship builder to break the routine. So, this is my first ship thred, and I'm going to be backdating Midship Models USS Mahan to be the USS Shaw (DD-373) to the way she looked before she was sunk at Pearl Harbor.

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Here's a picture after she was blown up and sunk in dry dock

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Here is the kit that I'll be using, sort of a basic kit, not overly impressed. Tons of flash, light on detail and what is there is sort of heavy, no marks for lining up the superstructure and so on.

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Needless to say, PE is in order for this build, along with a ton of scratch building. I've only started on the aft funnel, and have already found a pipe, the ships horn, a platform, and two rigging brackets that will need to be built. Here is the PE I'll be using, Eduard and Lions Roar.

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Thanks for looking, thoughts and comments welcome!

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So I got a little work done on the aft funnel, first I started with thinning the inside of the tube, the kit top is too toyish looking for what I'm trying to do, plus it would make the top to tall, so I will be adding wire to the inside

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So here is what the funnel actually looked like, I know the photo says '45, but if you compare it to pictures of the ship from the late 30's the parts are all the same, rigging guide, platform, horn, radome tube in the front.

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Here is the work so far, the rigging guide are made from untwisted lamp cord wire, first I drilled three tiny holes per side, appiled CA, insterted wire and let dry

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Then cut wire to the correct length, bent to the correct shape, and added a drop of CA to where they all meet.

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Next up will be working on the platform at the top, that will involve cutting a piece from a PE fret to make the platform itself, then bending and cutting wire to make the rail. The ladder will come from the Lions Roar set.

After that as a warm up to detailing ships, I'm gonna start sanding off kit parts on the main deck, adding hatches, railing and such, then painting the hull.

Thanks for looking.

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So, it doesn't really seem that anyone is watching this thread, but I'm gonna continue to post anyway :taunt: so there!!! :D

So I finished the aft funnel, just needs paint, but that will be further down the road. The hand rails and the rigging guides are made from lamp chord wire. The platform was going to be made from brass sheet as I said earlier, but it proved to be harder to cut and file being that small, so looking around my work bench for what I could use, I realized that the box my toothpicks are in is very thin cardboard........did the trick perfect. I cut it to size and shape, test fit, the dabbed CA on it to strengthen it. The ladder is from Lions Roar, not happy with my job with that, but this is my first real attempet at a ship. I think I'm gonna loose some of the rungs with paint because I think I went a little heavy on accident with the CA and seeped in. So here are some pictures of the progress.

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Next, now that I'm warmed up to the scale and the ship, I'm gonna start on the hull and the deck. There will be a lot of sanding off detail, adding PE hatches, rails and so forth.

Thanks for looking!! As always, tips/comments welcome!

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Got a little work done over the weekend, I sanded of the crude molded on hatch, and added a new on from White Ensign in the closed position, not really happy with my folding efforts, but in this scale I think its pretty good. Then I made the splash gaurd (which oddly Midship Models left off, since it is common to the whole class, no matter what verson). I made it out of .010 styrene, to get the curve, I held my thumb on the edge of a pen and pulled the styrene in a circular motion over the pen, under the thumb to bend it, it was a little off, but CA took care of the rest. Right know I am working on the forward super structure, and all the fiddly bits, but I'll post pictures of whats going to be done to all that tomorrow. Here is the progress so far.

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Heres adecent photo of the fore deck later in the war, but the main parts were the same

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And to recap, here is a picture of the Shaw exploding at Pearl Harbor..........

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This build is going out to all the brave shipmates, that served on the Shaw, before and after disaster.

Thanks for looking!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think it is going to be awhile before the non-aircraft stuff really takes off, but it nice to see. I'm not a big ship builder either but I've been curious about some of the smaller companies like Midship, so it's nice to see what one gets in the box. Looks like you have your hands full, but sometimes that is half the fun.

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Thanks Arron, Midship does leave you with a lot to do if you want an accurate model.

So while doing research for the ladder going to the bridge, I discovered that midship molded the back of the foward superstructure wrong

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The back portion should be square as best as I can tell like in this photo

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Sort of hard to see, I had to use a magnifying glass and 5 other photos, but I knew that the ladder had to go somewhere. So what I am going to do is to sand off the existing portion and replace it with stock styrene, easy fix. No the problem is where on earth does the ladder go down to from there!!!!!!!!!! Oh well, thats the fun of it all.

In parting here is a picture I found of here crew earlier in '41

shawcrew2.jpg

Thanks for looking

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Nice to see this project; I used to run a Shaw website and might be able to provide some help. One minor correction to your original post; Shaw didn't actually sink. The bow was "blown off" but actually remained attached by a strip of the keel, so this weight and flooding in the forward fire room gave her a bow-down attitude, but she was definitely still afloat.

There are some plans of a sister ship of hers online which might be of some help; they're dated roughly 1942:

http://www.hnsa.org/doc/plans/dd376.pdf

Interesting coincidence: DD-373 was the second Shaw; the first one also lost her bow:

http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/068.htm

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OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!!!!! Thats a huge help Tracy, thanks. Looks like my suspicion was about the ladder was correct??? It comes down off the forward superstructure for about 6 steps or so, meets a platform, then goes down between the ducts for the foward stack? And it looks like a vertical ladder on either side?

There will be some more work later today, I have some yard work to do, another model that needs some attention, then its back to the Shaw.

Guess I just consider anything at Pearl Harbor put out of action, temporary or permanant sunk, guess we meant the same thing.

Thanks again for the help

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I have to say again Tracy THANKS!!!!!!!!!!! You just answered everything I have been trying to figure out with printed pictures and a magnafying glass. Now I see how those ladders go, I was wrong, actually two ladders from the main deck on either side of the uptake vents to the bridge level.

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Ok, so I made a little progress. Thanks to the blue prints, I discovered that Midship kind of hosed up the after section of the foward superstructure. They made it so that it comes straight down, when in fact the lowest portion sticks out and is wider on the sides, in fact this is the ships laundry, then on the level above that, they got the width correct, but it goes back to far.

In the picture you can see where I widend the struture with evergreen, and cut back the upper portion to make the deck that wraps around. I thought of using a little PE sheet to make the deck, but it was much easier to fill the resulting holes with putty and lightly sand it smooth to make the deck and the rear bulkhead. The rear bulkhead is a little rough, but a hatch goes over that to what I assume is an office, since the blue prints have it labled as W.C. at frame 70 and it joins to the supply office, I figure W.C. is Work Center. The portion below is the laundry.

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I just need to make a couple small angled pieces to go against the bulkhead foward of the laundry, then I can add those ladders. After that I will be add a little card stock to the aft portion of the superstructure where the next level of ladders will go. But enough tiny work for one night, I'll save all that for another day.

Thanks for looking!!

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It's actually fairly over-simplified in general. I went and marked up part of the plans; the red indicates bulkheads on the deck and the green is platforms overhanging; as you can see there's a lot of open space underneath. I don't know that it's worth trying to represent this in 700th scale though.

DD376MainDeck.jpg

Drop me an e-mail; I've got some other photos I can send to help you.

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  • 2 months later...

How is this one coming, any updates? I was searching for a model of the Shaw & pics when I came across your post. I had to register so I can follow updates & thank you. It's been 15+ years since I've done a serious model, but your pictures have me excited about it.

Thinking about doing one for a display with my grandfathers flag & a few pics. He was on the Shaw in Pearl & even though my kids weren't able to hear his stories I want them to have some idea about him. He was just a machinist, and was lucky to survive.

THANK YOU very much for doing this post. All of the information & the pics will be very helpful.

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Thanks for the reply SD, that is cool that grandfather was on the Shaw. I'm getting ready to start again. I'm not really a ship builder so I took a break to work on some other projects. I'll get some pics up as soon as I can get some significant work done. Thanks for looking

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  • 2 months later...

Hey Bill. Just registered to let you know that my husband and I stumbled upon your page here, and that we're going to keep an eye on your progress. My husband's grandfather was killed aboard the Shaw in Pearl Harbor. We look forward to watching you complete each stage of build.

On Memorial Day 2012, P & K Gosnell

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  • 1 month later...

I know it's been a while since I have updated this thread, I got distracted with some other projects. But thank you all very much for the posts and the comments, and it makes this build so much more rewarding know that people are watching that have a direct connection to Shaw. So now on to the updates.

This kit is actually quite basic and honestly poor fitting, but I am doing the best that I can and think its turning out alright. There are some major seams and injector pin marks in some very unfortunate spots.

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I think the filling turned out alright.

I got the prewar Haze Grey on the sides of the hull, and ended up drilling out the port holes, it just look better IMO. Tomorrow morning when it's not 8000 degrees I'm gonna spray the dark grey on the decks. I also started to assemble the superstructures, the port holes are drilled, and I got a few hatches on. Tomorrow I'll put on the rest of the hatches and ladders, then pour over the rest of my references to make sure I'm not missing oblivious.

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Thanks for looking!

Bill

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  • 5 months later...

Thanks Shawn, to tell you the truth, I sort of put this project to the side for a while. I got myself in over my head a little with my nil experience with ships, so I moved on to a boat load (pun intended) of other projects. I started bigger ship, the Zerstorer, and a lot of planes. I have gotten a little work done of Shaw, she's on the shelf so from time to time I look at her and do some work.

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I obviously painted the decks, and I also folded and installed a tiny little PE ladder behind the superstructure. Comments always respark interest in any build so I appreciate you looking. What ship are you going to be building?

Bill

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Im glad to see you pick her back up as its looking fine!

Im going to be doing a Type C2 Troop Ship the S.S. Santa Isabel (aka the U.S.S. Florence Nightengale) as my grandfather server aboard her during WW2.

I've ordered the resin kit from Battlefleet Models along with the TOMS PE kits.

http://www.battlefleetmodels.com/id11.html

How are you bending that microscopic PE? I was gonna use razor blades or fine tweezers.

Edited by Shawn M
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So, it doesn't really seem that anyone is watching this thread, but I'm gonna continue to post anyway :taunt:/>/> so there!!! :D/>/>

I think I'm gonna loose some of the rungs with paint because I think I went a little heavy on accident with the CA and seeped in. So here are some pictures of the progress.

IMG_0090.jpg

I did not see this thread until today. So, true, I was not looking...

But now. How about brushing some CA debonder on the ladder a little at a time to remove some of the 'excess' glue? Might sharpen it up a little.

Nice job so far!

John

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Im going to be doing a Type C2 Troop Ship the S.S. Santa Isabel (aka the U.S.S. Florence Nightengale) as my grandfather server aboard her during WW2.

How are you bending that microscopic PE? I was gonna use razor blades or fine tweezers.

That would be a cool build to see, i hope to see a thread soon! My dad was on two different Cruisers in WWII, the Wilkes-Barre and the Portsmouth. As for the ladders I have an etchmate, and that thing was a god send for folding that small of stuff.

I did not see this thread until today. So, true, I was not looking...

But now. How about brushing some CA debonder on the ladder a little at a time to remove some of the 'excess' glue? Might sharpen it up a little.

Nice job so far!

John

Thanks for the nice words John. That debonder tip is great, never thought of that. I was getting a little frustrated with those tiny parts, that's part of the reason I put her away for a while to practice ship building in a larger scale.

Bill

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  • 5 months later...

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