Joseph Stalin's Pre WWII Fleet Buldup

[Comerade Ivan]

Normally this referes to soviet carrier operations during the cold war, assuming they happened on a scale as those of the west.  Despite occsaional buildups, russia has generally allowed her fleet to rot in favor of her army and more recently her airforce and strategic missiles.  Had Stalin been able to build her fleet (stopped by WWII and scraped afterwards as obsolete) this hybrid beauty would have been one of the ships built.

http://www.steelnavy.com/1250AnkerOlsen.htm

[Joe C-P]

Part of what makes this group fun is considering what might have happened to such vessels later in their careers.

Unfortunately for this big beast, converting it to operate jets, or even late-model carrier aircraft, would have been impossible without a major rebuild, removing at least the two superimposed turrets to lengthen the too-short flight deck.

Perhaps instead it would have operated helicopters and even gyrocopters; the Soviets experimented with the latter pre-WW2. Let's imagine Uncle Joe "motivates" his technicians into creating a somewhat practical gyrocopter. A group of 30 two-seat gyrocopters could give this ship at least a good ASW capability. And if it lasted long enough, the YaK-38 would fit her to a "T".

Iosef R

[cthulhu77]

The hull lines are very close to the Iowa class ships too...with some serious modifications, I wonder how hard it would be to make a 350th scale knock off??
     Hmmm.

           (eyeing my uss new jersey)  Greg

[Joe C-P]

This ship was to be about 20,000 tonnes larger than the Iowas. But it was an American design, so that would be a good starting point. You'll need two kits, plus a lot of sheet styrene to build that castle of a superstructure/hangar.

I'd _love_ to see the final result.    

[cthulhu77]

hmmm...I doubt I can swing two Tamiya BB's plus the styrene...may have to look at Heller or something.

   It does sound cool though.

            greg

[proditor]

Eh, they don't need the Focke Wulf, they had Kamov.    They were making armed auotgiros in 1934.

(At least, according to here: http://www.aviation.ru/Ka/ )

[elmayerle]

Eh, they don't need the Focke Wulf, they had Kamov.    They were making armed auotgiros in 1934.

(At least, according to here: http://www.aviation.ru/Ka/ )

Yep, a whole string of them were done by Kamov in the thirties, one of the reasons his design bureau has done so well.  They look quite functional, too.