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

[Sauragnmon]

Yeah, I bought my JAG RAM sets through Freetime, and they aren't excessively expensive, somewhere around five bucks for the set of four.

I'd Love to get my hands on an Alaska and modify the hell out of her too.  Mk-13 GMLS and other setups would look interesting on the hull.

[Joe C-P]

An idea: instead of RAMs do SeaRAMs. Take a Phalanx, cut out the gun part and replace it with a big rectangular block.

Given the problems with the various attempts at a new DDG design, the USN may actually consider an upgraded Burke-based CG. It wouldn't be the first time a cruiser came out of a DD design.

Joep

[Joe C-P]

Can I make a suggestion about your CL? How about chopping out the center gun and updating the turrets to look like those from the Worchester AA CLs? Just an idea.

The others are great! The Kidds were really cruiser-designation-worthy, and so is your version.

JoeP

[thedarkmaster]

I like this, waiting the back story of this RN   

[Weaver]

This thing started life off as an 1/600 Airfix HMS Devonshire, and a 1/700 Minicraft USS Ticonderoga.  In the end, it'll be 1/700 scale, which grows the Devonshire hull a bit, as well as upping the guns it's armed with.

How odd: I was just considering scaleoramaring an Airfix Amazon from 1/600th to 1/700th to make something like an RN equivalent of the Brazillian Niterois.   Other than using 1/700th fittings like wepaons and radars etc.., what are the other issues? I could see moulded-on stuff like ladders or anchor chains being a possible problem....

Nice model! 

[ChernayaAkula]

Very good-lookin' design!

[proditor]

Very nice anthonyp!

If I might make a small aesthetic suggestion?  I'm not sure how much of a PITA it might be at this point in the build, but if you removed a little bit off of the gun turrets to make them sit a little lower, it might look a bit sleeker.

Either way though, it looks the business! 

[anthonyp]

Holy crap!  Didn't think I'd see this thread till the Hood was done!  Update is I waterlined her, and removed the forward weapons.  No idea what the guns will be, but she's been damaged in the reconstruction.  Her aft mast might get replaced, as well as part of her forward superstructure.  No idea, since I've been distracted by my Burke CG/CGN's.

More when I have more patience.

[Sauragnmon]

Anthony,

One thought might be, with the size difference - 5.25's off a KGV, modernized?  WEM did resin 5.25's, three in a pack, you can get them still from Freetime Hobbies out of Georgia - good customer service, it's an option for you.

Keep the faith, man, it'll get done eventually.

[pyro-manic]

Better to go for Vanguard's improved 5.25" turrets, or the auto 6" twins from Tiger/Blake IMO. Interesting looking ship though - looking forward to progress at some point.

[anthonyp]

Thread surfacing...

No pics, but after a long delay at the shipyard for various reasons, construction was resumed on numerous hulls, with one being finally assembled and ready for pre-delivery painting.

The USS Saginaw (Des Moines class CA) was completed today.  She was upgraded for operations in the 80's as part of Reagan's 600 ship navy.  In She kept her 8" guns, but lost the two aft amidships 5" mounts, as well as the odd angled pole mainmasts and all AA guns.  In their place, six ABL launders were added, as well as 4 quad Harpoon launchers, 2 Nato Seasparrow launchers, three Phalanx, and a modified Tico main mast.  She looks surprisingly similar to the USS Lake Huron, which might lead me to rebuild the Lake Huron a bit (removing the Iowa's tower).

The USS Samoa (CB-6) got her guns today, but am still deciding on how to mount the ABL's, Phalanx, and Tomahawks, as well as what type of main mast she'll get.

The USS Lafayette (ex French Richelieu) began construction again.  Going back and forth between Iowa turrets forward, or sticking with the quad turrets.  The aft mounts will be replaced by USN 6" mounts.

Construction was also began on the USS North Dakota (BB-67), an Iowa class ship.

Also pulled out (and dusted) the German WWII vintage NATO squadron I've had in the works for years.  With I had some 1/700 goalkeepers or Exocets for them.  Probably go with Harpoons, Phalanx, and maybe (big maybe) ABL's.

For the future, I managed to get my hands on three more Enterprise CVN-65 kits.  Look for the USS Shangri-la (CVN-68), USS Atlantis (CVN-69), and USS Intrepid (CVN-70) to be built sometime in the future, to various designs, all resembling their original sister.  Need one more, though, to round out the Enterprise class at six ships 

[Joe C-P]

How about, for the USS Lafayette, 2 quad 14" using turrets that had been built for the North Carolinas. They'd be "modern" 14" rifles, longer barreled with heavier shells like the USN did with the 16" between the WW1-era and the Iowa 16"/50, the finest naval rifles ever put into service.

[Sauragnmon]

Sounds like some interesting stuff, Anthony - looking forward to seeing the pics.

Samoa - Midship Alaska?  I'd consider ABLs broadside firing on the center block instead of the plane handling equipment - maybe raise a deckhouse one deck in the area.  Phalanx on the old 40mm mounts, a la Iowa, would be a good idea.  Helipad over the aft blockhouse might work as well.  My concept includes a few Mk13 launchers to include harpoons and Standards in use.

Lafayette - removing her quads might alter her profile a lot, and it'd cut her firepower down a fair chunk too.  I would bargain that to cut down to triple, you'd want some bigger guns in there - one thought to mind is the 18/47's that were semi-theorized - I could imagine they would fit rather decently in formerly 15" Quad mountings.  You'd have to reprofile the front of the turrets, but it would be quite a shift.  Given some of the 6/47 DP mounts on her secondary battery, you could also, if you're fully Americanizing, drop the 100mm mountings and switch them over to something like 3"/50 or 40mm mountings.  There's a company out there that does the 3" in 700 resin, so you could opt for those.  She'd be good for a heavy warship in concept.

North Dakota - interesting choice of name.  Curious to what you'll do with the beast.  I've got Kentucky and Illinois to add in line beside my Mightier Mo, all with varying modifications of the general plan.

German ships - wondering what you've got in mind for them.  I don't know if it's in there, but one of the Skywave sets might have the Exocets, at the least it would likely have Phalanx in either of them.  The E-1 Modern sprue shows Mk13 and a couple of others, suggests it's similar to the sprue in one of the boxes that might have Exocet on it IIRC.  I forget which sprue is the one in the Type 42 box, though alternately you could get one kit and then go to Dragon for "Replacement" parts.

[Thorvic]

Admirality Model Works do 1/700 Exocets (Skywaves are nearer 1/600 scale !!)

http://www.admiraltymodelworks.com/index.php/1/700th-Scale-Accessories/Exocet-MM38/40-SSM/flypage_new.tpl.html

G

[anthonyp]

Awesome, thanks Geoff!

Clarifying some things about the Lafayette, she's gonna be kept on the USN books until Reagan's 600 ship navy concept, and armed up similarly to the Iowas, though she might have some Sea Sparrows installed aft, since they won't have to worry about overpressure from the 6" guns.

Yep, Naval History begins in 1981 with me    Yeah, I've read Red Storm Rising a few too many times...