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

[anthonyp]

Here's a forgotten project.  When I went to take a quick pic of the Deutschland, I remembered I had this thing sitting around, wanting attention.

It's unfinished, and won't be finished before it get's packed up for the move, so I wanted to show it now.

This is the nuclear powered guided missile heavy cruiser HMS Hood.  Got a backstory forming in my head, which involves the early cancellation of the US's CSGN's, and NATO still needing large combatants.

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.

[Captain Canada]

Looking good, Anthony ! I like the idea of upscaling it to make the guns bigger !

Do you have a wee chopper to plunk on the deck ?

[retro_seventies]

Do you have a wee chopper

isn't that a rather personal question?    

[anthonyp]

Here's a sneak peak at a few of the ships I've suddenly jumped into.  Front to back:

WHP-1 USCGC Pegasus, Pegasus class Patrol Hydrofoil
CL-161 USS Oscoda, Oscoda class Light Cruiser (Spruance mod hull)
DDH-998 USS Selfridge, Spruance class modified Helicopter Destroyer

More coming, but I've planes to finish first  

EDIT:  Forgot to mention they're all 1/700 scale, based on the Dragon Spruance (the Oscoda) and a bash between an Arii Tico and a Minicrap Spruance (the Selfridge).  The Pegasus came with the Arii Tico, as well as a bunch of landing craft (including an LCAC).

[Rafael]

Wow, Tremendous!!!!    

What scale are those bautiful ships?

Rafa

[John Howling Mouse]

Nice but where are the other 239 ship models you've also built today?  
Oh right, you've got a few hours to go.    

[anthonyp]

Heh...  The Selfridge was actually built last night in about two hours, whereas the Oscoda was built on Wednesday night in about an hour.  The Pegasus took all of 15 minutes...

[anthonyp]

UPDATE!

I'm definitely in a ship building mood right now.  Specifically, modding the USN's general purpose hull from the 70's and 80's (the Spruance).  

The first pic has (from rear to front) DDH-998, USS Selfridge, CL-161, the USS Oscoda, and the newly completed CG-97, USS Ballard, a Mayo class guided missile cruiser.  Basically, it's a Dragon USS Chandler with VLS instead of the Mk. 26's, and two additional harpoon launchers for a total of 16.  Like I said, the Kidd's were originally "cruisers" as designed for the Imperial Iranian Navy, so when they got reassigned to the USN, they became DDG-993 (CG-93 in my USN).



This second pic is of the above three, with an unfinished helicopter patrol carrier based on the Spruance hull.  It's evolving as I build it, so it might lose the forward helicopter deck and become less of a "through-deck cruiser" and more of a conventional design ala the Jeanne d'Arc or the Vittorio Veneto classes.  Still mucking with it.



Not pictured are the Scharhorst or Graf Spee that are getting new deckhouses and platforms for Tomahawks and other SSM's.

Now, I've got another Spruance hull that's going to become one of the Burke competitor proposals, but I need reference pics.  I've got the DDM painting from Friedman's updated Destroyers book, but he notes there's some differences between the one in the book and the actual proposal.  Anyone got pics?

[John Howling Mouse]

You own your own hobby shop, don't you?

This is incredible.  All 1:700?  Can you do one of those ocean water diorama bases complete with trailing wakes for each vessel?

[anthonyp]

Been thinking about that, but with the amount of Sprucans and Ticos in the stash still, that's gonna be one huge diorama if I'm gonna get all the models onto one sea-scape.

The one thing I hate about the Minicrap Ticos and Sprucans is that they're full full models.  If I want waterline, I have to whip out one of the razor saws, and those things don't like me!  Actually, they do, but only when they draw a lot of blood.  I need a set of those auto mechanic no-cut-em gloves.

Got plans for the Litton-Ingalls DDM competitor for the Burke, the through deck DDV proposal, and the mini-Invincible type of Sprucan mod.  In addition, I was going to bash two models each to get the CSGN Mk 1 (standard strike cruiser) and CSGN Mk 2 (aviation capable strike cruiser), as well as two for the CGN-42 AEGIS nuke cruiser.

I've apparently come full circle in Whiffing, as naval builds are what got me into building again years ago.

[Sentinel Chicken]

Like I said, the Kidd's were originally "cruisers" as designed for the Imperial Iranian Navy, so when they got reassigned to the USN, they became DDG-993

Hence their nickname in the USN as the "Ayatollah" class.........

[roughneck06]

Anthony- did you get your stash from great lake hobbies in Utica? That's where i obtained mine. I had a girlfriend a few years ago that bought me $200.00 worth of ship kits there for Christmas ( In addition to other stuff : ) ).

I'm almost finished with my pro SCS- USS Langley CVL. I think I'll use the decals from a CV or LHA to finish out the flight deck

[anthonyp]

I get mine from all the LHS's (Rider's in Madison Heights, Old Guard in Sterling Heights, Great Lakes in Utica, P&D in Roseville, Prop Shop in Warren), as well as eBay and Dean's up in Flushing, MI.

Most of the local shops have either really expensive 1/350 kits, nothing but carriers, or tons of WWII Japanese stuff that I have no interest in building.  Old Guard's probably got the best selection of ships, followed by Great Lakes.  Rider's used to, but they got picked over this year, as has P&D.  Prop Shop just never has very many non-carrier ships.

[Captain Canada]

Nice work, Comrade !

I really like the look of that trhu-deck cruiser thingy......that's gonna be sweet ! You'll be needing some wee Sea harriers ! I sure hope Trump comes out with some in 700th and 350th. Now that would be sweet.........

I also really like the look of the Hydrofoil. All of them are pretty nice for such a small scale.

Let me know if you come up with a good ( ie. easy ! ) way of making a water base.....I'd love to do one.

Mirage Hobby have a nice line of 400th scale Russian boats. I know it's the wrong scale for you, but you sure do get tonnes of extra ship bits in those little $10 kits !

Cheers !

 

[anthonyp]

UPDATE!!

The Thru-deck cruiser is coming along nicely.  In the picture below are (from front to back):

USS Bismark Sea CVH-141, second of the Curtiss class helicopter thru-deck carriers (aka, escort carriers)
USS Selfridge DDH-998
USS Ballard CG-97
USS Oscoda CL-161



And here's the Bismark Sea leading a small surface action group on really woody looking water



And some close-ups of the Bismark Sea in her unfinished glory (this old camera sucks for close-ups):




I had a thought for an after superstructure for the ship using another Tico front superstructure halfway building this one, but decided against it since I put both sets of uptakes on the starboard side of the ship.  All in all, it turned out better than I thought, and copious amounts of putty made the bow look a lot better than I thought it would.

BTW, I named the Bismark Sea after the carrier my grandpa served on in WWII.