USS Allen (DD-66) 

Combrig Models, 1/700th Scale Cast and Print Resin.

Reviewed by Devin Poore, July 2023
USS Allen, DD-66, was a member of the six-ship Sampson class, a class that, along with four other classes, made up the 26 ship "Thousand tonners". Displacing just over 1000 tons, the ships were larger and improved over the preceding Paulding class, boasting larger range, the first to carry the new 4" 50 cal deck guns, and increased torpedo capacity. The Sampson class, the final class to make up the group, carried twelve 21 inch torpedo tubes in four triple mounts.

USS Allen launched in 1916, then commissioned in January of 1917. By 14 June of 1917, she escorted one of the first convoys bound for Europe, after which she joined the U.S. destroyer squadron based out of Queenstown, Ireland. She spent the remainder of the war at Queenstown, performing U-boat patrols, and escorting east-bound convoys on the final leg of their journey.

Between the wars, Allen spent her time patrolling the East Coast of the U.S., and as a training ship. She also spent the years of 1922-1925 and 1928-1940 out of commission, in reserve. Reactivated in August of 1940, USS Allen transferred to Pearl Harbor, and was present for the Japanese attack on December 7th. Her gunners claimed to assist in the downing of three attacking aircraft, but it doesn't appear as if those kills were ever verified.

Allen spent the entirety of the war based out of Pearl Harbor, both on anti-submarine patrol, and as a training ship. Her armament was upgraded various times throughout the war. When she was put out of commission for the final time in October of 1945, she was the longest serving destroyer in the U.S. Navy.

 
USS Allen in 1918. Photo via navsource.org.

 
HULL 
The biggest component in the kit box is the ship's hull, naturally, even though in this scale even that isn't that big, at just under 5.5" long. What there is, though, is extremely sharply cast: bitts and chocks are part of the hull, all crisp and without a single bit of breakage. The only slight flash on the casting is along the waterline at the bow and stern, and even that is so fine that it scrapes off with a fingernail. Keeping portholes straight and aligned seems to be a tricky proposition (judging by most of the kits in my stash), but Combrig has got done a fine job with them here; everything is nicely aligned. The portholes on the lower forward hull and forward superstructure do appear just a bit soft, though, so a slight twist with a drill bit will nicely sharpen those up.

Various holes and divots dot the deck, which are mounting points for the ship's stacks, guns, and vents. These will help greatly with placing those items, both in alignment and giving added stability with the peg-in-hole approach. 

The full size USS Allen is listed as measuring 315' and 3". That converts to 5.4" (137.3mm) in 1/700. The kit hull measures precisely at 5.4", or 137.28mm, which is perfect. 

 
CAST RESIN PARTS
The majority of the parts are cast resin. There's one small sheet of resin with the bridge level and top of the after superstructure. These two decks sit on a very thin sheet of resin that should sand off very easily, and both decks have the same style of mounting holes for the deck equipment to mount into. The deck for the after superstructure has a slight bow/warp to it, but the resin is extremely thin, and glues onto a solid resin superstructure, so what little warping there is won't show in the final build.

The rest of the parts come on resin blocks/runners. A single runner holds the four 4" guns, which get further detailed with photoetch. Another block has the ship's boats and searchlight tubs. The boats are lightly detailed but the seats and other items that are there are quite sharp and clean. The four, triple torpedo tubes and four stacks make up another block of castings; detail on the tube mounts is sharp, and the stacks have well rendered banding and are nicely hollow. The remainder of the parts come on three casting blocks, and make up the bulk of the fine details. Life rafts have ample floor detail, while the cowl vents are just hollow enough that in this scale they'll more than look the part with a light pin-wash in the opening. There are also small gun mounts (the Sampson class carried two 1-pound mounts). The balance of the parts are super-tiny bits that look to be compasses, pelorus, voice tubes, and other deck components to detail out the bridge and other locations. I can not find a single air bubble or short-cast part in the entire kit.
BRASS
A single small sheet of etched brass includes the lifelines, ladders, funnel cap, searchlight towers, and various small platforms. The fret is labeled "US Destroyers-WWI", so it's used for all of the Combrig destroyer kits; for USS Allen, only a small part of the pieces included will be needed. The kit's instructions have two block diagrams that show the fret-specific parts, which are mostly boat davits and trussed platforms. There are sections of railings/lifelines on the fret as well, but they are not shown installed anywhere on the instructions; you'll have to refer to photos.

The brass is extremely thin, just over .1mm (.004") thick, yet feels to have a bit of rigidity to it, which should make it easier and more forgiving to work with. This is a welcome improvement over the older, softer brass that Combrig once used.
INSTRUCTIONS
Instructions consist of 4 sheets of 8.5" x 11", printed on the front and back of two sheets of paper. The first two sheets are plan and profile drawings of the completed model, along with a parts inventory of the resin components and brass sheets. Seven parts need to be made from brass (masts, yardarms, etc); these are indicated in full-scale on the inventory sheet, which will allow the modeler to take measurements to cut brass rod to length. Aftermarket turned and tapered brass masts and yardarms would be put to good use here.

Assembly is covered on only two pages, exploded view. Specific assembly steps are called out for the boat davits, gun mounts, the bridge and after superstructure deck, and a few other small assemblies. The remaining components are shown with leader lines indicating where they are to be placed on the deck. Be sure to continually reference both sides of the instruction sheet, as sub-assembly guides may be shown on one side, while their placement is covered on the opposite sheet. The plan and profile cover page shows enough rigging to figure out what's going on, but it may be simplified. One omission is the lack of any sort of paint callouts. Allen wore a dramatic camouflage scheme, but no pattern or colors are shown at all. The builder will have to do some research into the pattern and colors on this one.
CONCLUSIONS
Overall this is a lovely little kit. Cleanly cast and highly detailed, it'll make a beautiful model, but due to the fine parts and the complex nature of the photo etch, it's not for a first-time resin kit builder. It would've been nice to get some indication of colors and pattern for Allen's complex camouflage scheme, and turned brass masts and yardarms would be nice, but those are minor complaints.

Combrig kits are tricky to find currently, for probably obvious reasons. Freetime Hobbies does have stock of some of the U.S. WWI destroyer kits, but not Allen. The kits are in the $50 price range, so the recommendation would be to keep an eye on their site for future stock. 

Highly recommended. Thank you to Combrig for the review sample.

 

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