Reviewed by Timothy Dike
| The Gearing class was an upgraded Sumner class. They were larger but otherwise externally similar. They were the ultimate war time destroyer and were widely used to screen carrier task groups. Many were fitted to act as picket destroyers to warn the fleet of incoming air attacks. These well designed ships served well into the cold war with the help of the FRAM upgrades. | |||
| This is an older kit that is now out of production. In it's day it was pretty nice and a step up from other kits of that era. The hull is actually fairly well done and has a better shape than the old Pit-Road Skywave Gearing/Sumner kits. It has the correct sheer and flair and appears to match the prototype dimensions. The details are a bit heavy and lack a sharp appearance. The splinter shields are too thick and really should be replaced with thin brass or styrene. The superstructure parts are similar, but buildable. | click to
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Instructions are pretty straightforward as this is a simple
kit. They are adequate to build the ship out of the box.
While these kits are hard to find they still show up at swap meets and on E-Bay from time to time. I would recommend getting this kit simply for the hull and using the parts from a Pit-Road Gearing kit for the other parts. This kit is similar to the Sumner kit with the exception of the hull which is longer on this ship. |
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