WW2 Destroyer Escort 1:108 scale

thingiverse

World War Two Cannon Class destroyer escort, similar to the Fletcher class destroyer seen in the recent movie "Greyhound". I wanted more of a toy than a model but I was still careful to make it to scale. I used internet searches to locate diagrams, blueprints, and pictures of the real ships for reference. The website for the USS Slater (a surviving museum ship) was particularly helpful. As the war went on there were upgrades and changes made to these ships so this is more of a composite than a model of a specific ship. A word about accuracy; the real-life ships had two propellers and two rudders. Given that this was first-and-foremost a toy (and you can’t tell when it is in the water) I went with the simplicity of one propeller and one rudder. This is modeled in 1:108 scale. (15mm wargaming scale). Real world dimensions it is about 34” long. My print bed is 10”x6”x6” tall so the parts were designed to fit onto that. However it's a complicated assembly with many parts and not for the faint of heart. Parts are grouped somewhat how it goes together and as follows: (D)estroyer then (D)eck, (E)xtras, (F)ront structure, (G)un positions, (H)ull, (M)id structure, and (R)ear structure. I needed about 1.2kg of filament to make this model, roughly $25 worth of plastic. The boat in the pictures is remote control. If assembling to put on the water be sure to caulk the hull sections together including all around the assembly bolts. I also added ballast (around 5 pounds) to get it to sit at the right depth in the water but it is not as stable as the Liberty ship I made. High speed turns are not recommended. I took the electronic parts out of my first Liberty and installed them into this. It’s zippy and moves on the water at much faster than scale speeds. It's probably easiest to buy a cheap $30 r/c boat online and put the electrical components into this one....it will be fast enough. Veteran’s Day 2020, I /cannot/ express enough how grateful I am to past and present members of our Armed Forces. Without you and the sacrifices you make I would not be able to live in peace and freedom and make silly little toys like these. Thank you for your service.