SCADS carrier

[Hobbes]

So, I've just bought a Revell Colombo Express. I want to build this as a SCADS carrier.

I've found the White Ensign site which will provide Harriers, helos and vehicles.

I'd also like to install Sea Wolf and Goalkeeper. What would be a good source for those?

[Thorvic]

ME !!!

[Thorvic]

Joking aside a Sea Wolf and Goalkeeper is included on the Pitroad/Wkywave NATO weapons set which is currently only available as the included sprue on Dragon Type 42 Destroyers, Invincible class Carriers, Type 45 Destroyers or the recent Type 21 frigate. As none of these ships were ever fitted with Sea Wolf then the item is effectively spare as is the Goalkeeper as the Illustrious refitted has its own versions of the goalkeeper in the kit.

BTW the Best SHARs and Sea King are the Orangehobby versions they did for their Hermes kit.

Cheers

Geoff

[PR19_Kit]

That's going to be BIG! 

I bought the Columbo Express too as a scource for some bits for an Atlantic Conveyor and was amazed how large it was.

[Thorvic]

That's going to be BIG! 

I bought the Columbo Express too as a scource for some bits for an Atlantic Conveyor and was amazed how large it was.

Just a shame Revell insist on doing their 1/700 ships as full hull as much easier to utilise a waterline version.

Never mind SCADS its could be a full sized conventional carrier 

[Hobbes]

Here's my plan for this build:
- use the BAe SCADS proposal as the starting point
- modify to suit the much larger ship

Proposed outfit of the ship:
- flight ops ahead of the deckhouse, offloadable supplies aft incl a crane for offloading containers to a smaller ship moored astern (LCAC?)
- Harrier, Sea Harrier,
- Sea King,
- Lynx?
- flight deck vehicles
- 2x Sea Wolf, 2x Goalkeeper
- a couple of machine guns
- some davits for small boats along the sides
- long-range search radar

Any other ideas?

[lenny100]

i would personly have at least 4 Oerlikon 30 mm twin cannon manual systems for close in proctetion

[Captain Canada]

Sounds awesome...you have any pics yet ? Anything with a Harrier and a Sea King has my vote

[PR19_Kit]

Fit a Skyhook aft of the superstructure to bring back Harriers at the same time as launching them from the flight deck, and a suitable taxiway to move them forward again. 

That'd require some creative work with the superstructure to make room for the taxiway of course.

[Hobbes]

Here's a scale comparison between the Colombo Express and the Invincible-class*:



as you can see I can fit all of Invincible's deck area on the front deck of the Colombo Express, and then some.

I've started building the Colombo Express, the hull is together and being painted. Next: building a bazillion containers 


*: drawing sourced from Shipbucket, made by Crazyhorse

[deathjester]

That's a honkin' big ship!!

Should be good - how about fitting an angled deck on the aft section for landing, and splitting the superstructure in two to create a taxiway forward?

[Hobbes]

Nah, not this time. The SCADS concept was a minimal conversion, basically load a bunch of special containers and minimal structural modifications to add a flight deck and hangar roof, they were after a conversion time of just a few days. 

[kerick]

I'm no navel architect so why is it military ships don't make better use of ship tech like this. I mean the hull and propulsion, etc.

[PR19_Kit]

Nah, not this time. The SCADS concept was a minimal conversion, basically load a bunch of special containers and minimal structural modifications to add a flight deck and hangar roof, they were after a conversion time of just a few days. 

Think MEGA-Atlantic Conveyor! 

The Express is about SIX times the size of the AC by tonnage, it used to be the largest container hsip in the world.

[Weaver]

I'm no navel architect so why is it military ships don't make better use of ship tech like this. I mean the hull and propulsion, etc.

She has just ONE huge diesel engine, so she's very vulnerable to it being damaged.

She only does 20 knots, which is too slow for fleet operations.

She has a tiny crew, so damage control capability is limited.

I'll wager that her subdivision and damage control system are nothing like military standard.

Military ships do (increasingly) use diesel engines, particularly if they're amphibious or supply units that don't need to do 30+ knots, sometimes with direct drive and sometimes with electric drive (as in the Type 23s). However they tend to prefer multiple small units to the one big one in ships like the Colombo Express, because it gives more damage resilience and allows them to run economically at a range of speeds by using varying numbers of engines running at their optimum revs, rather than running one big one at non-optimum revs.

The Colombo Express's hull is nothing special: many amphibious ships use a similar hull form, with a deep "square" section amidships for maximum capacity.