Ship Mania!!! (Pic intensive on page 8)

[Jschmus]

I like it!

[proditor]

NICE!!!

You better watch, between you and Joe, I just might try and finish one of my ships, and we all know that me finishing a kit is one of the signs of the apocalypse.

Do you want that on your head?!?!

Okay, more seriously, nice work, I really dig your cruiser work.   

[anthonyp]

Thanks, guys!  The Constitution turned out a lot better than I thought it would.  I just need to add lifeboats and what not (and figure out proper colors, dangit!).

I've begun construction on some modified Burkes, as well as a stretched Tico.  The Burkes I got inspired to do by two different sources, while the Tico was just to get a ship out of the way I've been meaning to do for a while.

I saw on this board where someone was going to build a "railgun CG(X)" based on a stretched Burke.  He basically cut the hull in three, then inserted hull sections.  I did the same with the first mod, adding hull sections to make it approximately the same size as Ticos and Sprucans overall.  I'll probably just make it a straight on CG version of the Burkes.

The second is based on the first, just nuclear powered.  There's a pic in this article on Defensenews.com that's a photoshopped Burke into a DDGN of sorts.  There's been talk on the Hill about doing away with DDG-1000 and building nuclear Burkes instead.  Really just one congress-critter's pipe dream since the Navy doesn't want them, and the CG(X) is projected to be at least 20,000 tons (whereas a nuke Burke would be just over 10,000).  I decided to do a CGN based on the Burke, and stretched.  I cut the molded uptake off, and stretched it, and that's the extent of the mods so far.

The third hull I went nuts on, but I am basing this ship on the old Alaska class BCGN from Harpoon II (and III).  The photoshopped pic in the game had a stretched Tico superstructure on a Kirov's hull.  Seeing as how expensive Trumpeter Kirov's are, I'm not going that route.  Instead I stretched an Arii Tico/Sprucan hull, and am going to build up the Alaska on it.  I seem to remember the ship having like four 64-cell Mk.41 VLS, 2 8" guns, four LAMPS III's, SPY-1A, etc.  Actually, a goofy ship, but one I've wanted to do for a while.

Also got part of the Reprisal's airwing from Joe today (Thanks, Joe!).  F-16J's...  Yep, gettin' more and more unique each day...

[anthonyp]

I've been under stress, lately.  Lot's and lots of work stress.  Y'all know that translates into building...

First up was a dinky little one that hit me one day.  LCAC's seem to be in every ARII Sprucan/Tico kit, and everyone seems to have their own idea of how to do up some other variant of that little craft, with the "PGAC/PMAC" being a very common variant.  Here's my incarnation of the PMAC (Patrol, Missile, Air Cushion):

USS Orion PMAC-1 (1 76mm OTO, 4 RGM-84's).




Just built it out of one of those ARII LCAC's with some sheet styrene, and some leftover bits from the PHM's.

Next up are two currently unnamed classes.

Here's my USN DDH.  It's slightly smaller than a Sprucan, has one 64 cell VLS and 5" gun forward, 8 Harpoons aft, and two Phalanx.  I see her able to deploy four Seahawks.  I took the hull from a Pit-Road Haruna class ship, and thought "Hmmm, this might look good with a Sprucan structure on it."  Took the superstructure from a Sprucan, modified it, and put it on.  I figure there'd be a nice towed array between the Harpoons aft.  I see VL Asrocs and Tomahawks mainly in the VLS, with maybe eight reserved for VL Sea Sparrow (later, ESSM x4 per cell).




Up next is another Pit-Road JMSDF hull done up for the USN, though this one's taking a bit longer to get completed than I first expected.  I forget which class it is, but it's smaller than the Haruna.  I took it's superstructure, beefed it up a little, added the superstructure from some Airfix RN ship (forget which) and added a Sprucan stack.  It's far from being completed, though the armament is coming together.  I cut the 32-cell forward VLS off a Burke model, put that forward the structure, as well as a 5" gun.  Don't know the size of her hangar, or whether she'll have Harpoons or not.

[anthonyp]

Next up are my stretched Burkes.  I actually got inspired to do these from two different sources as outlined above, but here's the pic from the article on Defense News that got me thinking on the CGN(X) variant of the Burke:



While it's a neat photo-shop, it's actually one fugly ship.  I thought I could do better.

First up is just the straight Burke stretch based on that "Railgun CG(X)" from the Warships Projects board thread.  I just took a 1/700 Dragon Flight IIA Burke, chopped it in three, and added hull sections.  I then added some sheet styrene amid-ships, because the mid-deck looked a little low.  I still have to putty the hell outta this thing.



Her armament consists of 160 VLS cells (2x 64 cell VLS, 1x 32 cell VLS), 1 5" gun, 2 Phalanx, and 16 Harpoons.  She'd also embark two Seahawks for various duties.  Modern armament I imagine would have the forward 32 cell VLS be dedicated to Tomahawks or SM-2's, the forward 64-cell VLS to SM-3's, and the aft to a combo of SM-2's, Tomahawks, and maybe VL-Asroc's, possibly even ESSM's.  I didn't want to put RAM launchers on it, only because I have so few of them.  At the time of launch in 2000, the class would have been designed to field a combination of SM-2's, VL-Asroc's, and Tomahawks.



I imagine these would begin construction in the mid to late 90's, as a follow up to the last of the Tico's, being a logical evolution of the Burke IIA hull.  This particular one is USS Crown Point CG-75, second of the Lexington class guided missile cruisers.

Next up is the CGN version of the above ship.  Let's say that after the first eight Lexingtons, the USN was pressured to begin construction of nuclear surface combatants again.  Congress wanted a "quick" design, so their decree was that a new hull be designed.  After howls of protestation from not only the USN on cost, but myriads of naval engineers, architects and budget watch-dogs, a slightly enlarged Lexington class hull would be used.  The Navy was still not pleased, but they went along anyways.

The Wisconsin class was built concurrently with the Lexington class ships beginning in 2003.  Orders for the Lexington class are beginning to be cut (it was at two ships per year for the first six years, one ship per year for the next six) while Wisconsin class ships are expected to remain steady until the expected large, 25,000 ton CGN(X) is ordered early next decade.  Orders for the Lexington class will total no more than 18, while the Wisconsin class is expected to number about 15.



This is how far the Illinois is right now (third of the class).  I cut off the stacks from both structures, lengthened the hull a little further than the above Lexington, but I imagine armament will be similar, if not exactly the same.  Still need to putty the crap outta the hull, and add sensors and the mast.



Finally are comparison pictures of the above two:

[anthonyp]

Finally, here's the one that just sorta came together earlier this week.  I call it the JDS Myoko, a sister ship to the the Chokai and Atago.  I rebuilt her similarly to the models that Canis posted links to, just with my own twist.

I took a Pit-Road 1/700 Chokai kit, and decided to modernize it.  I built the kit up pretty standard up till I got to the stacks and hangar area.  At that point, I took the uptakes and mast from a Hasegawa 1/700 Kongo class DDG, as well as the Phalanxes, and decided to have fun.  I built up the forward structure, as well as the catapult area, with some sheet styrene.  I then built up the forward C turret assembly so that it was superfiring over the A and B turrets (never liked the Nelson class turret arangement).  at this point it was almost done, but I figured that adding a 64-cell VLS wouldn't be out of the question... it's just too bad the JMSDF can't put anything into it other than SM-2's/SM-3's and VL-Asrocs.  Wish I'd have thought of that while building the thing (I forgot the JMSDF is outlawed from having things like Tomahawks).



It's still not done, but I wanted to show it off.  I'm thinking of mounting another two Phalanx, and possible some Harpoon canisters.



I figure the backstory would be that the Myoko survived WWII, only to become a museum ship, where it would remain until the late 90's, when China and North Korea started misbehaving.  With the USA's (and SEATO's) blessings, the JMSDF took the ship and refit it into a capable ship.  I figure the ship would have been gutted and totally refit.  An enlarged Kongo class powerplant would have been used since it was already in production and could be adapted for the Myoko.

Below are the refit heavy cruisers USS Lake Huron and JSD Myoko.



EDIT:  Now that I think about it, I think I'll allow the JMSDF to field VL-SLAM-ER's in the VLS.  That's actually one variant of the Harpoon I've been thinking about mocking up in 1/72 to see how it looks.  I think it could work if VL'ed.  Plus, it's not as long ranged as a Tomahawk, and is not nuclear capable.  A 64-cell VLS full of them couldn't do THAT much damage...  (compared to a 64-cell VLS full of Tomahawks, that is.)

[Joe C-P]

Hey anthonyp! Keep up the good work! Very inventive, as always. 

JoeP

[anthonyp]

Thanks, Joe!  I've got a small fleet's worth of ship kits that are going to be built, eventually.

Below is a chart I've been meaning to post for a while.  It's from the July 23, 2007 issue of Defense News (Vol. 22, Issue 29).  It shows a conjectural 25,000 ton CGN(X) silhouette compared to a number of other ships.  I'm working my way up to scratch-building it.

[Sauragnmon]

Holy Crap, Anthony, seriously wicked stuff!!

I, like you, seem to be accumulating damn Spruance plans in my skull.

[anthonyp]

Thanks!

Don't forget my other ship thread here.  More fun stuff in it.

[Sauragnmon]

Damn, Anthony, that's some wicked ship stuff there.

Seriously, we should start a Ship Whiffer SIG - it'd be great to see all the ship stuff in one area, I might not feel so damn alone in my ships some days!

[ChernayaAkula]

Whoa! Some jolly good stuff there!  Especially like the design of the CSGN. 

[Sauragnmon]

Cute little monster I have to admit...   RN 4.5 twins, and 128 cells VLS.

[Sauragnmon]

Hindsight thought - Chokai is one of the Takao class - different build from the Myoko class, in truth - the superstructure design was different, among other things.  Takaos were a newer build at the time.

One critique I could think if, would be to blend C-turret's tower into the structure, as it is, she looks too tall and flimsy, she'd look much better as a stepped extension of the bridge tower, and you could go so far as to angle the outsides of the tower so it joins with the sloping of the structure sides, maybe even blending B-Turret's barbette into the mixture, but that's getting possibly a little carried away.

Additionally, you might look up a supplier for JAG Collective stuff, they do a decent set of RAM in 1/700 - I've got them on my Mightier Mo build, they come four to a set, at a decent price.

[anthonyp]

I sunk the Myoko and had another one built in the Takao class.  Reason for the superfiring goofy look is I didn't have any cylanders at the time, and just wanted to get it done.  Backstory would state that it was a "rush" job 

I forgot JAG does add-ons.  I've got to revisit that site, but only when I've paid off my recent additions.  I'd be too tempted to by either a USCG Hamilton class and/or (ok, let's be honest, it'd be "and") a USN Virginia class.

BTW, got the Alaska the other day, and am really surprised at the size of the thing.  It's HUGE!  Almost as big as an Iowa.  I'm going to have fun building it.  Midship Models is one top-notch garage kit company!  I REALLY recommend them for their detail, and to anyone up for a challenge.