1/350 Benson Class Destroyer USS Laffey DDG-459 1942

The USS Laffey saw plenty of action in the Pacific during WWII, from the Battle of Cape Esperance to the Battle of Guadalcanal, where she met her fate in a point-blank gun duel with Japanese ships. Dragon's kit of this Benson-class destroyer is one of their "Smart Kit" releases, offering maximum detail with minimum hassle. Dragon's Laffey can be built as either a waterline or full-hull model, and includes a very nice stand to display the full-hull version on. Other features include gun barrels with hollow muzzle ends, guns with or without canvas boots, photo-etched metal detail parts, correct sponsons achieved by slide-mold technology, moveable rudder, ultra-thin propellers (screws), and decals by Cartograf not only for the Laffey's markings, but also to represent the wooden plank walkways found around the ship. Nice! Another cool feature of this kit is the figures; you get six nicely molded 1/350 sailors to crew the ship (these 3D figures are much more realistic than the currently popular 2D photo-etched figures in the same scale). Also includes signal flags rendered as "pliant and robust stickers." A great kit for any 1/350 ship collection!