Reviewed by Timothy Dike |
| The USS Sims was commissioned on August
1, 1939 at Bath, Maine. She operated in the Atlantic
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, warships were urgently needed
in the Pacific and Sims departed December 16, 1941 to join the task force
formed around the USS Yorktown CV-5. See her full DANFS
entry here.
This Yankee Modelworks kit has been around for a while, it the old Classic
Warships kit with some photo etch upgrades. It is still the best available
in this scale. It depicts the USS Sims in 1942 at the time of her loss
at the Battle of the Coral Sea. |
| HULL |
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| The hull is cast in the waterline style with a separate
lower hull. There is plenty of detail on both parts. The profile of the
hull looks accurate and the deck rounding on the bow is done right. The
various superstructure deckhouses and funnel trunking look good too. You
will have to do some sanding to join the two sections for a full hull display.
But good news they seem to line up nicely. |
click images
to enlarge
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| SUPERSTRUCTURE, WEAPONS, FITTINGS,
AND SMALL PARTS |
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| The Bridge, and other parts are cast on a thin resin wafer. The casting
is pretty good and the shapes are pretty accurate. |
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| The wafer makes the parts look a little
rough so I peeled it away from the edges so you could see the individual
parts better. |
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| The various superstructure decks are
separate so there will be few seems to fill. Both the foreword and aft
decks have nice thin splinter shields cast on. The funnel is well done
with a hollowed out top and vent piping molded on. |
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| METAL PARTS |
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| The 5" gun mounts are cast in metal. One turret even has a simulated
canvas top, correct for the Sims class from 42 on. The guns are cast with
the mounting ring on the bottom. Some of the parts have excessive flash
on them, others such as the life boats and davits look crisp and clean.
A little cleanup with a file will be necessary on some of the parts, but
the shapes appear accurate. |
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| PHOTO ETCH |
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| A photo etch fret supplies all the railings and other items such as
radar's, bridge wing supports, and depth charge racks. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS |
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| The instructions are six pages with a bill of materials,
plans and elevation views, exploded views and camo sheets. Pretty good
overall.
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| CONCLUSIONS |
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This kit was state of the art when it was first released. It is still
a very good kit with lots of detailing possibilities. This is Kit #YKM-35012
with a list price of $130.00, not bad especially when you can find it for
a lot less online. This is only one of the many USN destroyers produced
by Yankee
Modelworks see the whole line on their website. |
