USS Morton scale model

Something a little different. This is the old Revell (now Atlantis) 1:320 scale model of the USS Forrest Sherman. I have done it as the sister ship USS Morton when my dad served on it in 1961. The kit mold was made in 1957 and it shows. I had to remove dozens of ejection pin holes (over 30 just on the main deck alone), grind and sand off all the solid "faux" railings, and used a ton of putty to make everything sort of fit. I replaced that with photoetch railing. I also used some photoetch deck hatches and closed superstructure hatches, and radars. The main guns and forward rangefinder are 3D prints from ModelMonkey in the correct scale. The rear rangefinder was a resin and photoetch part. The dual 3-inch guns, Mk 32 triple torpedo tubes, anchors and chain, bollards and hedgehog were 3D printed from various vendors and some Shapeways guys. Most aftermarket for ships is in 1:350 scale so some of the parts are a little small, but it is hard to tell without my pointing them out. Some of the guys on Shapeways custom scaled their 1:350 parts to 1:320 scale for me. I scratch built the propeller guards and some other details. The brass nameplate was also ModelMonkey through Shapeways. It took me a year and a half to build this. I really stepped up the pace the last 6 months because I just wanted to get the darn thing done! The main error is the forecastle. After the first four ships in the class the forecastle was raised to a steeper slope to reduce "wetness" forward. USS Morton had the raised forecastle, but altering the hull and deck for that was a bit too far beyond my modeling skills. Morton was given an ASW refit in 1962 or 63 and altered quite a bit to add an ASROC launcher. Fortunately, that was right after my dad served on her.

Port side:



Bow:



Stern: