1/700 HMS Dorsetshire

[Weaver]

Looking at the pics just gave me another idea (yeah I know, too late now...): if you shortened or left off the aft portion of the flight deck, you could have a Niteroi-style Ikara launcher on the quarter-deck.

[Thorvic]

I did toy with Ikara in place of the ASROC but went with Excocet instead as would lead an Ikara Leander and they have the Helicopters for Sub Hunting.

The stern has a lot of moulded on detail along with towed sonar so would have needed to be cut down and built afresh but it could work but would have taken me longer to build.

[Thorvic]

In the 70's when it became apparent that the Invincible class through deck cruisers would in effect be small VTOL carriers, it was realised that their shortfall in ASW Helicopter capacity would need to be carried over to other ships in the fleet to maintain the cover. The RFA stores ships of the Fort Class would be able to accommodate some but the Tiger class cruiser conversions of the late 60s were old, outdated and expensive to man and maintain. As a result it was decided to replace the last two of the Batch III Type 42 destroyers with a larger helicopter cruiser along the lines of the Italian and planned Japanese ships. These new cruisers would be similar to the Type 42's  in terms of Armament and systems but with ASW sensors and act as flotilla leaders of ASW task groups. To give it an offensive punch, Exocet missile were fitted in favour of a possible Ikara fit to give the ships a more flexible capability. The airgroup was intended to be 3 Westland Sea King HAS2 ASW helicopters but it was realised a Sea King could be replaced by a pair of Westland Lynx HAS2 helicopters which in addition to working with the Sea Kings in the hunter killer role, could also use the new Sea Skua air to surface missiles to counter fast attack craft.

The two ships built were HMS Dorsetshire and HMS Suffolk and both joined the fleet in the early 80's, Dorsetshire joining the Falklands task force towards the end of hostilities after a rushed refit and workup following first of class trials in 81. Whilst not in action, her capabilities relied some of the pressure on fleet resources. Following the lessons learnt from the conflict studies were made into enhancing the close in weapons systems and ships capabilities.....

P1000662 by Geoff Baker, on Flickr

P1000665 by Geoff Baker, on Flickr

P1000666 by Geoff Baker, on Flickr

P1000664 by Geoff Baker, on Flickr

P1000663 by Geoff Baker, on Flickr

The model is based on the 1/700 Skywave JMSDF DDH Karuna class with a parts from the spares box to switch the look and feel to a Royal Navy warship of the period.

[Weaver]

Excellent end result - well done! 

The use of the Invincible funnel is particularly good because it means the uptakes below it would be a narrow as possible, thus maximising space in the hangar.

[Gondor]

Very nice 

Gondor

[Captain Canada]

That is really great Geoff ! Defo saving the idea. I love the shape, armament and especially the choppers ! Cheers.

[Thorvic]

That is really great Geoff ! Defo saving the idea. I love the shape, armament and especially the choppers ! Cheers.

Would work quite good in Canadian service along side the smaller Huron class, you can keep the ASROC then and play around with the Armament and superstructure etc

[Chris Payne]

Looks really good.

[sandiego89]

Love it!  Those Karuna hangars are great.  Looks very UK.

[proditor]

Wow, that is a stunner! 

[Glenn Gilbertson]

I really like that!

[zenrat]

Thats very good.

[DogfighterZen]

Very good indeed!

[NARSES2]

Nice looking ship