Once again, I am amazed at how HUGE "destroyers" - those SpruCans and Burkes - are, nowadays! They look like a trio of light (if not even heavy) cruisers, in my book. Originally named for "torpedo-boat destroyers", their erstwhile prey the torpedo boat doesn't (except for the submarine kind) even exist anymore! On the other hand, with all their missiles - AND guns and torpedoes - they have become truly "Anything-that-Flies, -Swims or -Floats Destroyers", so maybe today the name is even more fitting than ever! Either way, excellent work as always, buddy.
But of course what I'm REALLY jazzed about is your Washington and Kirishima - I have plans to build that pair, respectively in 1/570 (Revell) and 1/600 (Bandai) scales, myself - and will shamelessly use both of yours as references, I guarantee!
Regarding which, your Washington is the first I had ever seen of that type of large, curved-bedspring antenna on a MAIN Battery FC director before. So I just visited NavSource, and of course found them shown - both fore and aft, just as on your build - in the following pic, dated 8/21/42 and captioned "...This was the rig that she was in at Guadalcanal when she took on Kirishima..."
HOWEVER, on NavSource's page which actually COVERS the date of the battle, I also found the following, captioned "...after the night action of 14-15 November 1942..."
Note this pic clearly shows the forward Main Battery FC antenna now to be the squat, wide curved-bedspring (Mk8, IIRC) - and the aft Main FC antenna appears similarly squat, if not identical.
Obviously, either the caption on the first is flat wrong, or the second is highly misleading - and it was taken SIGNIFICANTLY "AFTER" the battle. In its defense, the background landscape in this second pic does indeed look like a remote SoPac anchorage - where it's difficult to believe such heavy FC antennae could already have been swapped-out, absent any (re)visit to Pearl, or Australia, and their decent dockyard cranes. Unfortunately, neither pic has a date actually scribed into it - though the following one clearly proves the taller-type curved bedspring was installed - at least, on the foretop - as of 8/14/42.
Note in that last pic disruptive-type camo remains on (at least) the Mk37 director and wind deflector, at its base. Was this still in place when she shipped out to meet Kirishima - and if not, could a further dockyard stay for repainting also have included swapping out the above Main Battery FC antennae (and again the first caption, above, is just flat wrong)? The mystery only deepens - as The World Wonders... Or at least, I do!
And I am highly motivated to get at the definitive answer now, as YOUR Rusty-W build is inspiring me to (at long last) start my own, Donny! GREAT update, and Happy New Year, buddy!
Cheers,
-Matty
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