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| Skywave has been filling the voids in the 1/700 Waterline series of warships for over 20 years. Releasing many different ship and accessory items that are a welcome addition to us 700 scale addicts. This kit is one of their later releases. The molding is crisp and the detail is pretty sharp. The hull is molded in one three pieces with a bow insert, and a waterline bottom. Unfortunately the hull has one very noticeable flaw. this involves the hull sheer. The horizontal line of the deck should sloop gently from the bow to the stern. Instead it is two straight lines intersecting at the center of the kit. This might not be an objectionable feature to some, but will stand out to others. While it is not easy to fix, it is not impossible if you want to attempt it. Larry Gertner did just that in the 1997/3 issue of Plastic Ship Modeler, by warming the hull and placing laying it upside down and in the middle. When you place the waterline insert into the bottom, you will have a gap in the center. Fill in the large gaps with styrene strips and then putty the rest in. You will have to do some light sanding to the sides of the various walls to get them to sit on the deck properly after this is done. He also describes how to correct the excessive flare of the bow, if you wish to correct this as well. |
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| One of the Skywave weapons sprue's is included for the guns and other fittings. I like this approach as I get to accumulate a lot of extra parts for spares. The 5" 38 cal dual gun turrets are the best available in plastic. |  |
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| A generic decal set is provided with hull numbers and flags of many Nations. You can refer to the box art on the back for a color guide to the Camouflage measure worn by the Allen M. Sumner. |  |
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| The instructions are well done, and illustrate the weapons you will
need from the weapons sprue on the first page. There are a couple of exploded
views showing where all the parts go and even the beginner will have no
problem assembling this kit.
All in all this is a nice kit of an important class of Destroyer, but it's hard to look beyond the incorrect hull sheer. Only the hard core ship modelers will want to correct this. If you chose to paint her in the dazzel scheme then most of us wont notice the sheer anyway. |
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| References:
Warship Perspectives #1 Fletcher Gearing and Sumner Class Destroyers of WW2 by Jeff Herne |
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