USCG Sentinel Class
Fast Response Cutter (FRC) 

Black Cat Models No. 350018, 1/350th Scale Printed Resin

Reviewed by Devin Poore, August 2024
Designed by the Damen Group based in the Netherlands, the Sentinel class FRCs (Fast Response Cutters) are built by the Bollinger Shipyards in Louisiana. The first of the proposed 67 vessels, the USCGC Bernard C. Webber was launched in 2011 and commissioned in 2012. The Sentinel class, a replacement for the older Island class cutters, are all to be named for Coast Guard enlisted heroes.

Armed with one MK 38 25mm gun and four Browning M2 machine guns, the ships are capable of 28 knots and have an endurance of five days underway for their four officer and 20 enlisted crew. Their missions include port security, law enforcement, drug interdiction, marine safety, environment protection, and the Coast Guard's bread and butter: search and rescue. Over 50 of the vessels have been delivered and commissioned since 2012, with eleven of the ships still under construction or under contract.
The USCGC Forrest Rednour underway

 
HULL 
The hull is a once-piece print, hollow. It was hard to get an exact measurement with my calipers, but the thickness of the decks and hull are between .060" and .070" thick (approximately 1.8mm). A thick central beam runs the length of the hull interior, making it quite stable and sturdy. Openings in the forward bulwarks are... open, as are the incredibly fine chocks, which is excellent as I have reviewed many resin and even styrene kits that make these items solid, to be drilled-out by the modeler. The bulwarks themselves are thin and straight, with fine reinforcement detail on the inner side. As this is a 3D print, it was supported during the printing process. The supports have been removed, but there are remainders of the connection points along the bottom of the hull and the very stern. The entire stern will have need some flat sanding-block love, as the support contacts are prominent and varied, but the entire area affected is less than a square inch.

There are slight layer lines visible on the bottom of the hull and at points along the main deck. These are very faint, and should disappear under a coat of primer and a light pass with a sanding stick.

All of the online sources I found list the full-sized Sentinel's as 154' (46.8m) in length. Overall length of the model's hull comes in at 5.23", which is nearly spot-on for 1/350th scale. 
SUPERSTRUCTURE 
The main superstructure consists of two printed components: a deck house and bridge. Details are sharp with watertight doors, hatches, and hand rails finely depicted and thinner than any photo etch would be able to depict. Bulwarks are extremely fine. Like the hull, slight recessed lines give a nice parts placement guide. As with the hull, there are some print artifacts to be dealt with. At the forward curve of the deck house there are slight stepping lines that show more as a difference in light reflection than physical artifacts, as they aren't detectable to touch. The bottom mounting surfaces of both the deck house and bridge do have a bit of a wavy appearance, again, from the attachment points of the printing supports. Both will need to be lightly sanded with a sanding block to even them up, just be sure not to sand them flat as the deck house has sheer to match with the hull's main deck.

As can be seen, I quickly stuck these parts to the hull and even without tape or clamps, they fit nicely. Once sanding is done, they should match-up seamlessly.
SHIP PARTS
The remainder of the printed resin components come on five separate printing rafts. These are secured inside of two plastic clam shell cases, as Black Cat uses for all of their accessories, to ensure that everything arrives unbroken. The parts are extremely delicate, exemplified by my breaking free one of the ladders while removing the parts from the cases for photography. The ladder itself is fine and still usable, it just came free of its supports. These rafts are called out in the instructions as Bar A, Bar B, Bar C, Bar D, and Bar E. A includes all of the small bits, such as hatches, life rings, bitts, ventilation pipes, etc. Bar B included larger deck fittings and the screws, among other parts. Bar C has the rudders, another set of screws, and the forward gun mount, and the M2 mounts. Those M2 mounts show the only warpage visible in the entire kit, as the barrels on two of the pieces are bent slightly to one side. These can likely be straightened with a little heat. Bar D contains the printed railings and door for the RHIB well deck at the stern. Finally, Bar E has the one-piece mast assembly and ladders (the one I broke loose), a life raft, and the one-piece RHIB. Other than the mentioned warped barrels on two of the M2 mounts and the ladder I broke free with my fat fingers, every piece in this extensive set of fittings is cleanly printed, with no visible deformities or surface bubbles. It's all very impressive.
PHOTO ETCHED BRASS AND DECALS
The photo etch is almost entirely deck railings and guard rails around various structures. The railing is very fine, so care needs to be exercised in cutting it free. The two deck awnings are brass as well. At first I thought the rigid nature of the brass wouldn't translate well to a canvas covering, but photos of the actual ships show these awnings stretched extremely tight, so brass will do fine.

All of the parts are clearly numbered, which correspond to annotations in the instruction sheet. The only rails I had trouble identifying in the instructions are the main deck railings, as in my copy they aren't as clearly annotated as the railings in other steps, but they are the longest and most easily identifiable rails, so even if you have the same issue spotting them in the instructions that I did, they're still easy to find and place.

The decal sheet is small, but has a lot to offer. Names and hull numbers for seven boats are included, along with decals for the hull identification stripes, Coast Guard insignias, and even the black exhaust stain guards for the after hull. One omission is the lack of any national insignia flags. Sure, they're easy to come by and most people have some in their stash, but it's struck me odd to not include them.

Three short sections of brass wire are also included as antennas.
DECK MASKS
Confession time: I've been bugging Ben at Black Cat Models for some time now about deck masks. I find they make the process of painting a ship so much easier, neater, and more enjoyable. And, if someone is designing the ship kit digitally, then they already have the necessary line work to cut masks. The Sentinel kit comes with two sheets, one for the main deck, and one for the 01 level on top of the deck house. Each sheet has two masks, one that covers the entire deck, and another that has multiple panels to depict anti-skid covering. 

The masking material itself is a thin, adhesive backed, paper type, not vinyl. They remind me of aftermarket masks I've purchased from Flyhawk and other vendors, so they should be easy to work with.
INSTRUCTIONS
Instructions are the typical Black Cat full-color booklet. Sixteen pages cover a short history of the class, a parts layout with numbers of all pieces, printed, brass and decals, and eleven construction steps. As per other models, each part is numbered and color coded (red for printed part, orange for brass, etc) and shown in detailed perspective views. As stated earlier, on first studying the instructions I did have difficulty picking out the main deck railing install (Step 3), and I completely missed Step 11 which shows the screw and rudder installs. Long story short, with so many small parts, read the instructions carefully before beginning construction. Everything you need to know to build the kit is in those pages, so make good use of them.

The last two pages of the instructions have color profiles in perspective as well as plan and profile. Color call outs are made with PMS (Pantone) and FS numbers where appropriate. 
 
CONCLUSIONS
I still prefer that hulls be printed, cleaned-up, then cast for kits, but in this case, due to the small size of the subject and the ability to print the hull hollow, it works. The print clean up is minimal. And it's not like we never had to clean up resin cast hulls in the past; instead of dealing with resin mold split lines and air bubbles, now we're dealing with print supports and layer lines. As long as the positioning of the printed parts are well considered -- as they are here -- this is the easier task.

As I worked on the review of the kit, I had to keep reminding myself that it's 1/350th scale and not 1/700th. At just over 5" long, it's a small kit, and there are a lot of parts. Despite the fine nature of some of those parts, such as the printed mast, brass railings, etc., I think this would be a good subject for a first or second printed resin kit. As long as one's careful and works slowly, especially with removing the printed parts from the print supports, this should build up into a nice model.

Highly recommended. Thank you to Black Cat Models for this review sample. You can find their kits online at various retailers, which are linked at their website via their logo to the right.

© ModelWarships.com