Frank Knox (DD-742) was launched 17 September 1944 by Bath Iron Works
Corp., Bath, Maine; sponsored by Mrs. Frank Knox, widow of Secretary Knox;
and commissioned 11 December 1944, Commander J. C. Ford, Jr., in command.
She was redesignated DDR742 on 18 March 1949.
After extensive training on both coasts, Frank Knox arrived in San Pedro
Bay, P.I., 16 June 1945 to join the fast carrier task forces in their raids
against the Japanese home islands. With such a force, she entered Sagami
Wan 27 August, and was present in Tokyo Bay during the surrender ceremonies
on 2 September. She served on occupation duty in the Far East until sailing
for San Diego, her home port, 4 January 1946.
In 1947 and 1948, Frank Knox completed tours of duty in the Far East,
and upon the outbreak of the Korean war, sailed 6 July 1950 to join the
7th Fleet's fast carrier task force in air operations against North Korea.
During her tour of duty, she also took part in the Inchon invasion, conducted
shore bombardments, patrolled the Taiwan Straits, and on 30 January 1951
joined in a mock invasion of the North Korean coast. This deception proved
so effective that Communist troops were withdrawn from central Korea for
a time. A final 40-day period was spent in bombardment of the east coast
rail centers, Chongjin and Songjin, cutting supply and communications routes.
Returning to San Diego 11 April 1951, Frank Knox operated along the
west coast and in the Hawaiians until 19 April 1952, when she sailed for
Korean service again. Her duty, similar to that of her first wartime tour,
included several weeks in Wonsan Harbor to give fire support to minesweepers.
The destroyer returned to west coast duty 18 November 1952. During her
1953 Far Eastern cruise, which coincided with the Korean armistice, Frank
Knox conducted patrols, and covered the transportation of former Chinese
prisoners of war who had elected to go to Taiwan rather than return from
Korea to mainland Communist China.
Her next tour of duty in the western Pacific, in 1955, found Frank Knox
taking part in the evacuation of the Tachen Islands. Her annual deployments
to the Far East through 1962 included intensive training operations, often
with ships of foreign navies, and good will visits to many ports under
the President's "People-to-People" program. Several times she visited ports
in Australia and New Zealand.
Frank Knox received one battle star for World War II service, and five
for Korean war service.
DANFS
Like the real life DDR upgrade, this new kit is an upgrade of the Dragon
USS Gearing and Chevalier
kit. The kit represents the Frank Knox in 1945 while she still had
her aft torpedo tubes. It is a only slightly different than the USS Chevalier
DDR that had no torpedo tubes and instead fitted a quad 40 mm gun in that
position. Knox later had the torpedo launchers removed as well and a quad
40 was fitted.
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| Before you read this review, you should be aware that I had a hand
in the design of this kit. My opinions are a little biased, but I will
try to contain myself and let the pictures do the talking. |
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| SPRUE A Newly
tooled |
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| The first sprue consists of the main deck and most of the
superstructure parts. This is a new sprue modified to fit the DDR conversion
of the Gearing class. In place of the forward torpedo launcher, are locator
spots for the large tripod mast that was fitted to these ships. The aft
gun tub found on the Gearing and Chevalier is replaced by a mounting hole
for the quintuple torpedo mount. Notice the deck has a long graceful arc
to it much like the real ship. There are nice thin splinter shields that
are not compromised by excessive taper. Those that overhang also have underside
bracing. The walls have extensive detail molded on and include open doorways
with nice raised lips and gutters overhead. You will find an abundance
of lockers and hose reels and many other details molded on. Some of these
details are also provided as separate parts. |
Click
images
to enlarge |
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| SPRUE B |
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| The second sprue includes the upper hull, bridge funnels, and other
parts. The hull includes nice hawse pipe detail, and lines that compare
nicely to the real ship. The bridge includes recessed position lights and
lots of detail on the inside of the wings. The funnels are slide molded
as single pieces with separate base and caps. A nice insert gives the funnel
fantastic detailing. The caps are nicely done and the separate piping and
vent grills will make these look awesome even without photo etch. |
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| SPRUE C |
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| This sprue features the deck propeller gear and lower hull and main
deck. The main deck has a cambered surface like a real ship and a nice
waterway molded all the way around the perimeter. Note, this comes in handy
if you add railings as they mount along the edge. The superstructures parts
are located by the recesses in the deck. This sprue has also been modified
for the DDR kit with a revised stern gun tub layout. |
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| Bits are included as separate parts that have really nice
detail for this small size.
The lower hull includes molded on bilge keels accomplished using slides
in the mold. The twin rudder setup is realistic and is molded in two parts.
The prop shafts and props are well done for those who like full hull models. |
| SPRUE D |
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| This sprue is from the Buchanan
and provides the quintuple torpedo mounts and right hand practice loading
machine. The torpedo mount has fine detailing and a separate control stand.
The practice loading machine is done in three parts, a base, gun assembly,
and gear motor. All more detailed than anything else on the market in plastic. |
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| As a bonus you get a lot of parts that can be used to upgrade
other kits.
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| SPRUE E |
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| The sprue contains the radar and directors. It is the same as
the one in the Buchanan,
but without the Mk-37 director front. The parts that you will use on this
kit are the SC radar antenna, the Mk 12 antenna mounts, and the Mk-51
directors. The radar antenna are nice for plastic, but I would recommend
replacing them with photo etch. Dragon now includes an SC style photo etch
antenna in their kit and the instructions show how to modify the plastic
mount for the PE. |
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| SPRUE F |
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| The strange looking parts on this sprue are actually forming tools.
Another smart feature of this kit. They are used to form the photo etch
life raft supports and the propeller guards. The latter is a great idea
as I'm sure I am not alone in having a hard time folding these to shape.
Use this tool to form near perfect shaped prop guards for your ship. Note,
the propeller guards are typical of those used on other USN destroyers,
so hold onto this tool it make come in handy for other projects. |
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| SPRUE G (x2) |
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| Separate plastic doors are included on this sprue as well as some nice
300 lb.. depth racks. The latter include photo etch parts to finish the
assembly. Many of the deck fittings are included on this sprue such as
bents, anchor well covers, and chocks. The funnel piping and grills are
also include on this sprue and the molded on louvers are awesome. There
are even separate oxy/acetylene bottles for your damage control crews to
use. |
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| SPRUE H (x2) Newly
tooled |
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| One of the slight differences in this ship and earlier ones is the
reinforcing added to the forward 5" gun mounts. This is reflected on this
newly tooled sprue. Note, this sprue is called out as the M sprue on the
instructions. The new reinforced turret goes in the numbe 1 spot. The other
two are the plain style. These turrets are extremely detailed with raised
rivets, and nice recessed hatch details. Extensive use of slides in the
mold allowed Dragon to preserve a lot of the detail on this part. That
not only allows a great looking parts, but it results in fewer seams for
the modeler to fill. |
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| These gun mounts have hollowed out gun barrels, separate
gun captain hoods that can be left off as many ships only used these
when there was another turret directly behind the mount. Traverse stops
on the front give it that extra fine detail look. Sighting hoods, and raised
lips around the gun slots are among the features that make this mount very
realistic.
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| SPRUE J |
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| This sprue contains two 36" searchlight lenses. Just the lenses so
if you don't like the brittle nature of clear parts, you will appreciate
that the main part of that searchlight is good old gray plastic as shown
below on the K sprue. The surface of the lenses even has the cross lines
of the real ones. |
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| SPRUE K |
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| This is the fittings sprue from the Buchanan.
It includes a multitude of parts, many not used on this kit. The ones you
will use are the two piece deck winches, K-guns, davits, doors, pelorus,
and 12" searchlights. The others are a bonus for your other projects. |
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| Note to Carl M, this is the kit you need to stock
up on accurate closed chocks!
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| SPRUE L x2 |
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This sprue includes the 20 mm twin mounts. Molded similar to the 20
mm singles these also have separate ammo cans that you can leave off if
you find them too small to handle. The electric gun sights are also included
and if you examine them under a magnifying glass you will be impressed.
Plastic shields are included or you can use the photo etch ones provided
as an option. Notice that even on simple little parts like these, that
Dragon went to the extra expense to add a slide in the mold so that detail
could be included on three sides of the gun barrels. |
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| SPRUE N |
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| This sprue includes the later Mk-37 mount with the open director captains
spot. A separate canvas cover is provided to close it up. Once again Dragon
used slide molding to allow maximum detailing to be included on each part.
More Mk-51's are included with separate base and sight details. |
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| SPRUE P x2 |
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| Finally a detailed and accurate 40 mm quad mount in plastic. Dragon
has molded this one similar to the twin mount. It include separate twin
barrel assemblies with nice flared out ends that even have simulated hollow
ends and nice recoil springs. The base includes lots of detail with shell
extraction chutes and detailed yoke and even some underside detailing. |
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| SPRUE Q x2 |
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| Several twin 40 mm mounts are included in this kit. Far more detailed
than any other plastic gun mount in this scale, it even outclassed all
but a couple of aftermarket resin versions. The mount includes a separate
base, yoke, and barrels. Dragon even went the extra mile and added a slide
in the mold to hollow out the ends of the barrels. The platform includes
the shell ejection chutes. Photo etch sights, seats and foot pedals are
included to give it that extra touch. The best thing about this mount is
that it can be elevated and shown at all the same angles of the real one. |
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| SPRUE R |
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| This sprue is all new for this kit. It features new bridge parts with
the subtle changes of this ship as well as the tripod radar mast assembly
that distinguished the DDR upgrade these ships underwent. Those mast parts
are very nicely done with nice platforms featuring a mesh pattern. The
latter would look better as Photo etch upgrades, but we will leave that
to the aftermarket folks. |
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| Also new on this sprue is the 4 bladed props that many
Gearing class destroyers were updated to.
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| PHOTOETCH |
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| Two brass photo etch frets are included with the finer details that
just can't be done in plastic. These include relief etching to make the
otherwise flat details stand out. SC radar antenna, ladders, chain, and
gun details are all included. Supports for the Mk-51 director tubs are
included in case you don't wish to use the plastic ones. This fret gives
the modeler a lot of choices. |
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| The second fret includes the optional doors. These are nice and are
relief etched on both sides. Four types are included in 60" 66" styles. |
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| DECALS |
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| New anti skid walkway decals are provided with a series of patterns
to fit around the ship. These are divided up into sections so you can use
them to do most any pattern that would fit on a Gearing class DD. The ships
crest is also included on this sheet. |
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| A second decal sheet includes large and small plain hull numbers without
shadows. |
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| A third decal sheet is provided for the flags printed on self adhesive
vinyl. These include the straight and wavy flags, and a token amount of
signal flags. |
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| SPRUE Z (Base) |
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| A new base for this kit has been designed based on how most modelers
like to display their ships in full hull mode. The stands which resemble
lamp finales are even slide molded so they can be done without seams. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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| The kit includes an eight page step by step instruction booklet. These
are broken down into subassembly views building up to the final assembly.
The last two pages show the Ms-22 camo and it's colors. |
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| Study the instructions carefully. You may find it easier
to assemble and paint the hull and deck before adding details.
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| BONUS CREW MEMBERS |
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| Seven crew members are included with this kit. Three served on the
Livermore and have been reassigned to the Knox. Four others are included,
two each standing at ease and two at attention. These are 3D figures and
the best available in plastic. Each one has it's own personality and you
can even make out the facial features. |
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| Hopefully soon Dragon will release these as separate figure
sets, but until then if you want them you will have to buy this kit.
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| These are photos of a fully assembled production version
of this kit shown below.
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| CONCLUSIONS |
|
 This
early DDR is a welcome addition to the Dragon Smart Kit line and a great
upgrade of the Gearing kit. It combines the features of the Gearing
and Chevalier and
adds some nice reinforced turrets. For me the real bonus in this kit is
that it has the parts to allow you to do an as-built Gearing with the two
sets of torpedo tubes. With this kit, you should be about to model most
any version of the Gearing during WW2 or with a few teaks a Korean War
version. Let's not forget that this is yet another ship that was present
in Tokyo Bay for the surrender signing. Now all we need are some FRAM upgrades!
This is kit number DRA-1045 with a suggested retail price of $52.95
as of June 2012. It should be available at Dragon
USA now. This is a fantastic price when you consider all that you get. |
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