LCS-2 USS Independence

[icchan]

Considering a project of my own like this, based on the upgunned version shown on the bottom of the PDF.  Question, between the Bronco and Trumpeter kits, which might be the better starting point, especially for high accuracy and detail?  Of course, I'm modding the superstructure, but the hull itself I want to look really nice.

[Mossie]

On Secret Projects there's a good amount of info on LCS-I, which was a proposed adaptaion of LCS-1 for Israel.  It includes the VLS mentioned earlier alongside the narrower hangeralong with other mods.  You could basically transfer the mods to LCS-2.
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,8848.0/highlight,lcs-i.html



I bought the Cyber Hobby 1/700 kit a few months back with the idea of building it oob for the R&D SIG's stealth display at Telford, but I only got it about 2/3rd's finished.  One thought was to paint in a camo pattern that appeared on concept images, maybe replace the Seahawks with the Commanches from the Skywave set.

[Mossie]

I've been messing around with my 1/700 kit, and I've found you can turn it into a Harrier Aviation Transport and have 6 Harriers on the aft deck and still launch them.  I might end up calling it "Littoral CAS support ship" if I end up doing it that way.

The unfortunate part of the Independence class is the beam.  It's about as wide as an Iowa class battleship!  At 1/350, scale-o-ramed to 1/700, it'd be wider than a USN carrier, though it would make a nice base for that BAE Systems UCAV support ship that we came up with a model of a year or so ago.

And its knickname is "Klingon Warship" so...

That's something that struck me.  The size of the heli-deck on the LCS-2 is pretty enormous & gives us a fair bit of scope for whiffery compared to LCS-1.  You could widen & lengthen the superstrucre & still have a significant aircraft handling area.

There's a link here that attempts to compare LCS-1 & LCS-2 to the Absalon class & F-125.  The comparison is a little simplistic, but it give's some useful head on & overhead views scaled to the other classes of ships as well as an overview of the capabilites.
http://www.network54.com/Forum/211833/thread/1231709727/last-1249958524/F125+vs.+Absalom+vs.+LCS1+vs.+LCS2