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

[anthonyp]

Another thread surfacing...

OK, pulled out this bugger last night, and began to find pieces of it in the various parts boxes I've got.  Still unsure of the final reconstruction look, but I'm getting back to building, so I know it'll be a WIP till I get the decals on her.

Pyro mentioned mounts off the Vanguard, which sparked an old thought.  Does ANYONE make a 1/700 HMS Vanguard Battleship?

[pyro-manic]

There is a resin one, but I can't remember offhand who made it.

EDIT: Here we go - seems it was made by Samek. http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/misc/ships/spahrvan.htm

[Sauragnmon]

Thor - thanks, forgot about those, a Greek I know mentioned he'd gotten his hands on a few of those some time back and I forgot about them since.

Anthony - Read up on it - there was a concept for the Iowas to replace the upper forward 5" mounts with Nato Sea Sparrow launchers hardened to withstand the blast pressure.  People seriously rate that stuff too heavily, as if it's some almighty force of god you can't stop.  I'd bet the Mk25 launcher would be easier to harden with that regard, but the word I hear it was the predecessor to the Mk29 that was going to be used - take from that what you will.  Sea Sparrows on the midship positions might be in order if that's the case.

A little outside-the-box thinking can go a little further than a lot think.  Then again, inside-the-box is the domain of the carrier humpers, and should be avoided at all costs.

[Sauragnmon]

Hmm, the ship in herself might wind up costly, though you could always try looking up Samek and seeing if you can get in touch with them and get just the turrets you need.  That might save you a little cost in the stretch.

[anthonyp]

Actually, I've read extensively on the 80's refits and the proposed ones as well, (got Friedman's US Battleships book as well as Dulin's Battleships book (same dust color cover as Friedman's)), as well as the Des Moines proposals.  I figure why tempt fate, and just rebuild the ships as cheaply and quickly as possible.  Hardening a Sea Sparrow to fire off on an Iowa would seem a bit much in my universe since the goal is to get as many hulls out there as possible, as quickly as possible.  Besides, that's what escorts are for 

I might take one of the other concepts and build a true BBG with buttloads of VLS (as outlined in Dulin's book), doing away with the big guns.  Then there's the BBH concept, with the flight deck.  I've got the old Nichimo 1/800 scale one, and it might look fine on a 1/720 Revell Iowa.  Happily, I've got a lot of Iowas in the stash.   

Hmmm, now that I think about it, what would the flight deck look like on the Lafayette...  Crap, need another Richelieu and sheet styrene!

[anthonyp]

Yes, but I want a Vanguard, so I can give the RN a seriously fun ship for use in the 80's 

Thanks for reminding me about that build.  Too bad I can't find a link anywhere to the site of the kit's manufacturer, and as near as I can tell, it's the only one out there (though someone on Model Warships did a Nelson and Vanguard dio using some kit from Japan).

Maybe Arnold will get into ships one day, and Anigrand will have a new range of fun to beat ourselves up over because we can't afford them 

[proditor]

Thanks for the info on the Exocets Thorvic, I confirmed my order for 4 packs today. 

anthonyp: Sounds like you're doing some serious work!  I'm anxiously awaiting pics!

[proditor]

According to the Ship Models forum, you have a few choices in 1/700 actually.

Models available:
Samek 1/700 waterline (http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... review.htm)(http://www.modelwarships.com/reviews/sh ... ildup.html)
HP-Fun/Arrowmodels 1/700 HMS Vanguard
B-Resina 1/700

Hope this helps!

[Sauragnmon]

LOL  Anthony, you sound like me.  "you know, that would be a great ide-- Crap now I need another one!"  Meanwhile, my stash picks up more and more Iowas, the class of ships I loathe in some degrees and pity in others, in the interest of rebuilding them.  Or else I wind up with five of a hull going "Well, let's see here... what ideas can I come up with for These?"

[Sauragnmon]

I would surmise that the best choice is to find a supplier you can deal with, who can perhaps do talking for you if you want parts.  That'll bring you the ship, and potentially the extra turrets.

[Thorvic]

Thanks for the info on the Exocets Thorvic, I confirmed my order for 4 packs today. 

anthonyp: Sounds like you're doing some serious work!  I'm anxiously awaiting pics!

No problem, did you happen to see their Sea Mines which look a handy add-on for WW2 and early cold war stuff.

Think the Exocets were for the Hamberg class upgrade for their kit, actually that might gibe Ant some pointers as to updates to the German WW2 stuff for cold war Nato fleet, Bofors ASW mortars, French 100mm main guns, Exocets and possibly standard SAM system.

G

[anthonyp]

Think the Exocets were for the Hamberg class upgrade for their kit, actually that might gibe Ant some pointers as to updates to the German WW2 stuff for cold war Nato fleet, Bofors ASW mortars, French 100mm main guns, Exocets and possibly standard SAM system.

G

They do indeed, Geoff, again, thanks!

I'm seeing the modern armament shape up.  Exocets, main guns, secondary guns, Phalanx, and Sea Sparrow, with maybe 76mm OTO's somewhere in there.

[Thorvic]

Ant

Have you got the booklet on Iowa & Alaska class conversion proposals, as that has drawings and painting of some of the propossed Missile conversions which could be used as a basis for the your Richeleiu rebuild ?

BTW which German ships are you rebuilding, i take it Z class destroyers and a Prinz Eugen class cruiser ?.

G

[anthonyp]

There's four:

Tirpitz, Prinz Eugen, Scharnhorst, and Graf Spee.

Backstory would be that the Norwegians refloated and rebuilt Tirpitz as their big gun, mothballed it, then when in the 80's, the fad was "everything old is new again," they pulled her out of mothballs, gussied her up, and sent her out with NATO.  Prinz Eugen and Scharnhorst would get similar histories, while Graf Spee would be refloated down in South America, repaired to a degree, then sent to Portugal (for some reason), where she'd sit in mothballs until the 80's.

I had better stories once upon a time, but I failed to write them down, and they've since been lost to the anals of my brain's history  

And forgot to mention I've got that book too.  Some cool stuff in there.

[Joe C-P]

White Ensign Models for RN parts.