Battleships

RP1 · August 20, 2008, 06:29:21 PM

I should also add that this thread makes me a little sad. Revell used to do a very cheap, very basic, kit of KGV. I had such glorious plans, mostly involving buying about a dozen (yes, they were that cheap and that basic) and producing a whole range of variants. Battlecruiser KGV, missile cruiser KGV, freaky double ended Lion designs, air capable KGVs with Sea Furies (Hmmmm.... Sea Furies). Then Revell stopped making it, in favour of MOAR L33T GERMAN BATTLESHIPS OMFGROFLOL101ONE!

RP1

Joe C-P · August 21, 2008, 10:56:36 AM

Ah, but that battleship was a lie. It claimed to be in 1/720 scale, but was really around 1/570, so you couldn't use all the wonderful 1/700 detail sets to jazz it up, and there are no aircraft to put on the flight deck.

The Tamiya KGVs can be bought for less than US$20 online, and you can gussy them up with lots of aftermarket products.

pyro-manic · August 21, 2008, 11:27:29 AM

The Airfix 1:600 one is pretty cheap as well.

RP1 · August 21, 2008, 06:03:14 PM

QuoteThe Airfix 1:600 one is pretty cheap as well.

By "cheap" I hope you mean "free" - I have suffered the Airfix Iron Duke. Oh, the pain.

Sauragnmon · September 17, 2008, 09:12:10 PM

Hey, nothing wrong with the German Battleships... the Bismarck is sexy, and my god, I did a nice 38cm armed Gneiseau earlier this year, though the end result came out as a pre-hangar-mod version since I didn't know and fell into the trap of not knowing all the refits of the Scharnhorst class. Pictures as follows:

Note - no, that's not rigging gone bad, that's a hair of mine that landed there without my knowing. Yes, marking lines have been cleaned up a little, what can you expect for 100% freehand work.

I'm actually warming up to do an N3 class Battleship in 1/700, which should look pretty damn cool. To do that I'm also picking up a Rodney to get the detail parts (the N3 is a craftsman kit) which will leave things such as the turrets and barbettes free. From there I plan on acquiring a KGV so I have the hull in late-war fitting, which I'll transom the stern on, take the saw and putty, put in Barbette B from the Rodney, and render it into a Lion!

I've got a 1980's Missouri I'm going to be picking up as well, and whifbashing into a seriously Modern Missouri, with things like VLS replacing the old clunky ABL's and the like. I've also got AEGIS plates on the way to help with that. It should look quite different by the time I'm done with my Whifflehammer and the ship.

I'm also whifbashing a few Bismarcks - one into an H-39, one into a Soviet-captured Tirpitz with missiles and refitted AA guns, one into a Grossflugzeugkreuzer A IIa. The Gneiseau provided the triple 11" mounts for that last one.

I've also got an Aoshima Nagato that's still to be ordered, which will contribute to two projects, one of them being an IJN Amagi Battlecruiser craftsman kit from Mirage Ocean.

Joe C-P · September 19, 2008, 09:51:57 AM

Nice work! Glad to see someone else around here who likes floaty things.

A captured Tirpitz - I wish I'd thought of that.

For your Lion, I recommend extending the bow a little, and adding some rise forward. The RN learned the hard way that 0 degree firing over the bow wasn't really all that important or useful compared to seakeeping and water over the bow.

Looking forward to more of your projects!

(Hair. I used to have hair, long hair, on my head.

Now it's all short and thin. Ah well.)

Sauragnmon · September 19, 2008, 03:38:31 PM

Thanks for the compliment, it was the first of the ships, and trust me when I say, first of many.

I haven't got big progress on any of my other large surface combatants, so I think I'll have to make a thread for all my projects over in the projects board so it's all in one centralized location.

So for the lion, slope the deck up some... gotcha. The foredeck's going to be a little longer anyways, remember, I have to add spacing for the rebuilt B Turret position anyways, the barbette's a lot bigger, and I'll stretch in some extra spacing from the Rodney to help with that.

Another thought is going through Tamiya to get an extra quad 14" gun mount, Americanizing the three of them and putting them on a North Carolina for a Treaty Battleship look.

sequoiaranger · September 19, 2008, 03:46:19 PM

>Another thought is going through Tamiya to get an extra quad 14" gun mount, Americanizing the three of them and putting them on a North Carolina for a Treaty Battleship look.<

The North Carolina **WAS** a treaty battleship--one of the very best of the kind. Even the follow-on South Dakota's were, too, though the Treaty was no longer in effect when they began building, so some added weight was allowable. But the North Carolina and Washington were "35,000-tonners".

Have you been on the North Carolina in Wilmington, N. Carolina?? I have---AWESOME!! I clandestinely put some "bullet hole" stickers on the faceplate of the rear turret!!

Brian da Basher · September 19, 2008, 04:31:32 PM

That's one mean looking battle wagon there Sauragnmon! I especially like the camo and the red on top of the turrets as well as your detailing on the spotter plane. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your projects!

Brian da Basher

Sauragnmon · September 19, 2008, 04:36:05 PM

No, I haven't been to the North Carolina, I haven't been able to travel a whole lot, and trust me, if I had the money, I bloody well would.

As to North Carolina Treaty, I was meaning more towards the As Planned look, with the three quads instead of three triples. I thought it might be a nice change from the usual North Carolinas out there.

Brian, if you want more, I just put up a massive post on the board. The camo was inspired by Scharnhorst Operation Cerberus, the red turret tops was another common use of markings on the German Battleships. I freehanded the camo on it, and actually went so far as to line up the camo so at flat angle, it blended the outlines.

GTX · September 26, 2008, 01:22:22 PM

Here's one I'm not sure has been mentioned before:

What if the Admiral Graf Spee hadn't been scuttled but rather had been interned by Uruguay and then survived the war. The result could be a South American (say Uruguayan Navy or even Argentine Navy - say Uruguay sold it to Argentina after) or even German post war (say in the '50s the West German Navy somehow re-acquires it) Graf Spee. Maybe update it with modern weapons and helicopter deck etc...

Any other thoughts?

Regards,

Greg

pyro-manic · September 26, 2008, 02:00:57 PM

She' be a nice juicy target for HMS Conqueror in 1982.

r16 · September 27, 2008, 04:42:14 AM

what makes is so certain that Argentinians would not have an SSN of their own?

GTX · September 27, 2008, 12:13:25 PM

Quote from: r16 on September 27, 2008, 04:42:14 AM
what makes is so certain that Argentinians would not have an SSN of their own?

Huh???

Sauragnmon · September 27, 2008, 01:33:28 PM

I think he's suggesting what's to say that the Argentinians wouldn't have a submarine of their own to combat the HMS Conqueror threat. I would have loved to see an old gunship in a country visited by Gerald Bull, as that would have seen some Serious modernizations. Could you imagine the look on somebody's face when they realized that the artillery shell that just hit them came from a hundred clicks away? Oh yeah, that would be so worth it.