Midship Model 1/700
Gridley/Bagley/Benham Class Destroyers
USS Henley DD-391
USS Stack DD-406
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History
During 1935, a new destroyer was designed for the US Navy by Bethlehem
Steel. This design was to form the basis for 22 basically similar ships
of the Gridley, Bagley and Benham classes. Originally Bethlehem built
two (Gridley and Craven, later called the Gridley Class), while four Navy
yards built eight ships which were termed the Bagley Class. Later, Bethlehem
did two repeat Gridleys (McCall and Maury), while ten slightly modified
ships were built as the Benham class.
The Kit
 The
actual kit consists of two sprues, which are just loaded with parts.
The first sprue contains the hull, and superstructure. The combination
of parts chosen determines the ship class. There are two different funnel
styles for the Gridley/Bagley or Benham. The smaller profile one being
for the latter option, three different bridge decks and two styles of
bridge windows, fore and aft superstructure with and without 20mm AA tubs.
There are also searchlight and AA platforms. The superstructure is molded
akin to the Airfix 1/600 ships with separate decks and bulkheads.
 The
second sprue has the armament, boats and radar. Armamment includes: open
and closed 5" mounts, quad and twin 40mm Bofors, 20mm Oerlikons,
Quad 1.1" AA, torpedo tubes, rafts.
To round off the contents there is a very good set of decals which contain
hull numbers, signal flags and two sizes of US Flag.
Gridley, Bagley or Benham?
 Midship
Model has entered the 1/700 field with a bang. Their first release is
not one, but four ships. This isn't as odd as it sounds as all four kits
are exactly the same, differing in just boxtop artwork and instructions.
All four kits have the exact same parts, which means that any of the kits
can be built into any of the 22 ships of the three classes. Differences
in the instructions and the parts used determine just which ship is modeled.
The four basic options offered are
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USS Gridley, DD-380. kit 00701
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USS Benham, DD-397. kit 00702
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USS Henley, DD391. kit 00703
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USS Stack, DD-406. kit 00704
Each kit is from a different time period, allowing for a variety in
superstructure and armament. This is supposed to be explained in the instructions
and boxtops, however my samples have some anomalies in the documentation
supplied. The boxtops provide the ship name and number as well as the
class it belongs to and then the side panel lists all the ships in the
particular class. I have the last two releases, which according to the
box tops are Henley, a Gridley Class Destroyer; and Stack, a Benham. Both
say that they are in prewar fit – this is where things start to go
awry.
Henley is actually a Bagley class ship, the class listing on the side
gives the correct four Gridleys, but then lists eight 'Benhams', starting
with USS Benham, DD-386. This should actually be the Bagley Class and
the first ship was named Bagley. The Stack box also has the same two classes
incorrectly listed, and none of the correct Benham class to which Stack
belonged.
The instructions for both ships are exactly the same, which results
in both having mid-war AA fits of five 20mm Oerlikons, but the two-view
colour drawings show Stack with a prewar fit of no AA, and searchlights
on the aft superstructure.
The class lists on the Henley instructions give the correct ship/class
names for the Gridley/Bagley class.
Conclusion
These four kits are an ambitious start and any of them can be used
to build any of the 22 ships with a little research. The only negative
I can come up with is the boxtop mixup. Hopefully this is just a small
snafu that will be fixed in future releases.
As it is I have no hesitation in recommending any of them, and if the
instructions are corrected, then I would also suggest that all four would
provide a nice collection. especially if widely differing fits are chosen.
Thanks to Chris Decker at Trident
Models for the review sample
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