Someone gave me a Trumpeter The Sullivans today and words to accurately sum up just how bad it is would all be censored . I really didn't think it was possible but they made a crappier kit than their North Carolina.
No joke the USS The Sullivans by Trumpeter is an almost complete waste of plastic. You can use the hull and major structures but if you want something that doesn't resemble the old Lindberg motorized battleships you might as well resign yourself to sanding off all the detail including everything but the locators for the deckhouses off the decks. Plan on puttying and sanding the turret seams and replacing the turret hatches, don't even bother looking at the directors, 20mm's and 40mm's Swipe a set of stacks from a Tamiya kit, sand the "walkways" off all the decks, replace all hatches/doors/scuttles. Sand off and replace all the bracing details (a fair number of which are not even close to plumb), don't forget to sand off the half-assed attempts at ladders (at least the aztek stairs are separate parts). Will Trumpeter *ever* get a clue what hawse pipes are and what they look like? Also plan on moving the hull side exits for the hawse pipes, no biggie since what's there is not even a bad joke. While you're swiping the stacks from a Tamiya kit swipe the main director, torpedo tubes, torpedo tube doghouse, rafts and aft prop-shaft brace (the thing Trumpeter molded is more appropriate to a BB it's so clunky). So-so attempt at K-guns. What I think are torpedo and AA directors at best vaguely resemble the real thing.....if that. The depth charge loading davits are clunky (OK, so I'm being overly kind myself there). Plan on somehow making chocks and replacing the anemic bitts.
I'll give them this, while crudely molded the props are slightly better than Tamiya's in shape and you can actually use the prop shafts.
It's obvious they copied Tamiya's kit but the result looks like what a Xerox machine on a bad acid trip might produce. They should slap a $2 price sticker on this pig and sell it at the dollar store to kids. Kids won't mind $2 for something to throw together with tube glue and glossy square bottle Testors paint to have something to shoot at with BB guns then give the old Viking funeral with firecrackers.