Official Discussion Thread: Bancroft 1/72 scale Fletcher WW2 Destroyer -RTR

[pdansalvish]

For the Fletcher's captains I have a few questions. First, how many motors are installed in the Fletcher? Has any captain have an ESC issues? The reason I am asking is a number of PT captains are having ESC's burn up.

[RCjetdude]

I've gotten a little weathering done on it. My first time applying a pin wash. I have also applied some Modern Masters Metal Effects Oxidizing Iron paint, old rust powder pigment and some white pigment.

[Peterboi]

Very Nice I'm impressed..thank you for sharing your upload on the Bancroft 1/72 scale Fletcher WW2 Destroyer -RTR

[RCjetdude]

As I mentioned earlier, mine was missing a ladder. I copied the dimensions of other ladders present on the boat and designed a ladder in Fusion 360 then printed it with ASA. Viola! All better now.

[RCGuy83]

I moved the rudder pushrod one hole closer to center to give it a little more turning authority but got her to the lake this afternoon. She handles well and has what appears to be a higher than scale top end speed. Here is video of her maiden voyage.

Looking good! Were you able to sink the sub hunting for you?

[RCjetdude]

I moved the rudder pushrod one hole closer to center to give it a little more turning authority but got her to the lake this afternoon. She handles well and has what appears to be a higher than scale top end speed. Here is video of her maiden voyage.

[RCjetdude]

She's ready for the lake.

[RCjetdude]

I got mine over the weekend while I was at Subfest in Cohutta, GA. We had a great event. Wished the Fletcher could have made it in time. I too had some minor damage of bent rails and parts that fell off and one gun barrel needed the heat gun treatment to straighten it out. I checked everything thoroughly but could not locate one small ladder. No biggie as I will 3D print a new one from ASA. None of the damage was a show stopper as already mentioned and it is a gorgeous boat. I am just a boat/sub nut having never served in the Navy so I plan a simple Greyhound scheme. Here are some right out of the box after a couple hours of TLC shots. I still need to add some ballast but hope to soon have some nice shots of her at the local lake. It would have been nice to have a diagram for where things went and how the rigging was supposed to go but I figured it out. Overall very pleased. I would ultimately like to add smoke, some lights, maybe automate a few turrets and add some weathering.

[twodawgs]

Alpha My first ship in the US Navy was USS CUSHING DD-985 the last Spruance class DD in US service and I was part of the Crew that brought her home for Decommissioning. Some ship names you find yourself looking for as they become special to you. Plus of the 5 ships I have served on She is the only one with a Fletcher in her lineage. And don't be too hard on UPS it was FEDEX....
The Yamamoto box was actually a bit more beaten up and she basically had Zero damage. Bent rails that were easily stood back up.
Advice for anyone though is DON'T pick the ships up out of the box by the two vertical foam pieces they are open at the bottom. Grab the hull. Almost dropped her myself doing that.
Edit Also with how well they actually were packed standing them on their end should be fine I would suggest bow up but still fine. The damage looked like the structures own mass took it off more than direct damage too it. Like a heavy jarring while it was on its side or some such.

[patmat2350]

The stickers mean nothing and will not be honored by UPS, USPS, FedEx or anyone else for claims.
A carton strapped to a shipping pallet and sent truck freight has a chance. But I even had UPS deliver a palletized carton to a customer and set it on-end at his door.

Cartons MUST be packed in a way that can accept pretty hard hits on any surface, and allow the carton to be tumbled with no internal damage. "If you can't take the hits, stay out of the shipping department".

[Alpha]

twodawgs I agree, she's gorgeous and you sound well equipped for a repaint and a bit of extra detailing. Please post photos of your progress! I'm curious, why did you choose to depict the USS Cushing? Measure 31 camo will look great! I can't wait to see it!


Thanks for the shipping photos, I'll pass those along to be shown to the UPS guys. Patman2350 is right, the factory/container/freight chain from Asia across the Pacific to Chicago is reliably tidy because everything remains packed tightly throughout the transit all the way to our warehouse. It's the "last mile" carriers once we ship it who tend to ignore our prominent insistence of "THIS SIDE UP" and "FRAGILE".

[patmat2350]

The overseas shipping is the easy part... the cartons are all stacked on pallets and shrink-wrapped together, and loaded level into the container.
The dangerous part comes in local ground shipping, where cartons are tumbled, kicked, dropped, and drop kicked all the way to your door.

I worked at a company that built dealer-install AC systems for Nissans... that was a thing, all the imported cars came non-A/C, and dealers installed it as an option. Anyway, imagine everything in an AC system- compressor, condenser, evap, lines, hardware, all in one carton. We designed that carton and all the stuffing. And it didn't stop there- we tested the cartons. 30G shaker table, drop tests, tumbling, etc. And afterwards, everything had to be in good shape.

KY/Bancroft has it harder, as they're not dealing with robust hardware like AC compressors... but 3d printed plastics, photoetched railings, an usually no good places to solidly strap the model down.

[twodawgs]

Just got my Fletcher home and opened her up right away.... She's GORGEOUS.

Little bit of minor shipping damage but nothing I'd count as show stopping. And a few of those loose parts looked to be loose on purpose to clear some packing.

Fwd Superstructure was pushed to one side but no major damage done looks like an easy fix and if anything helpful for a repaint As 797 USS Cushing in measure 31.

I do recommend labeling the packing so you can puzzle it back together if you need to store or move her it's fairly simple but....
EDIT she did just survive a overseas shipment and ground shipping from Motion. Kicked myself afterwards when i realized i was close enough to have maybe picked her up yesterday. My own fault there.

[Sekhet]

Well poo... Just like Patmat, I signed up for notification for the Fletcher. When I checked my email this morning I got the note that the Fletcher was in and when I clicked the buy now button it was not in stock!

Alpha When is the next shipment due to arrive? I only ask as this was to be a gift for my son's birthday (September 30th) and he was dead set on the Fletcher.
I wish we had been able to pre-order.

[Alpha]

patmat2350 I'm really, really sorry to hear that, Pat. The Fletchers flew off the shelves in a matter of a couple hours. Our email system notifies people in the order they were received and hundreds of emails were sent out already, yet the models already sold out before the complete email list could be notified. The good news is that we have more shipping soon, and the notifications will continue to be sent.

[patmat2350]

Sweet... I signed up for email notification on the Fletcher. Got no email, and after months of waiting, already sold out.
Harumph.

[twodawgs]

WOW dem fletchers jumped out of the shipment fast I just took them from 6 to 5 left... Then a darned Yammy jumped into the cart on me too.... Had to kick the Buisy back out... For now.

[RCjetdude]

Welcome to HobbySquawk twodawgs! Nice job with your Fletcher! Looks like quite the project. 1/350th, wow that looks tight.

[twodawgs]

So I got tired of waiting for the 1/72 Fletcher to come in and took matters into my own hands.... TiredIronGRB and his work on his Patrol Boat inspired me to admit to my insanity. She floats a bit deep on her waterline and has had extensive work done with a dremil to cut weight but she floats and goes foward.... Rudder turns but is too small to do much and she shoots forward (didn't get one of the shafts quite lined up so it sticks at low power) But with a 13in hull and 1.22in beam she floats upright and is watertight-ish. Main deck just sits in the hull and most water just runs off.

[RCjetdude]

One word, Greyhound...