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

[Thorvic]

Ant

HP Models do one in their Fun range, which can be found on their websiite, not sure if PFH stock it or not. Its is kinda expensive and i dont think its anywhere near as accurate as the Samek one, but hell if your whiffing it is not quite as crucial.

BTW Secondary armament would likley have changed to the IV 4.5 gun as used on the Darings. Leanders etc.

During the 50's the 3" 76mm  gun was the preferred AA solution, using either the turret fitted to the Tiger class (and some Canadian Destroyers) or the US mount (As used on the other Canadian frigates or with a revised turret shape that was used on Victorious)

G

[anthonyp]

Update to the USS Lafayette!  She's complete, with six 16" guns off an Iowa.  I was building up the North Dakota, and realized the diameter of the gun tubs on both the Iowa and Richelieu class were the same at 1/700.  In my backstory, I'll come up with before completion, one of the South Dakotas was damaged badly, but the turrets could be reused.  Why not reuse them in the Lafayette, allowing the ship to use standard 16" shells and powder bags, as well as simplify commonality with the Iowas in other areas.

The Lafayette was further completed with a new stack and tower, bridge structure, and mast from the Nichimo "Faces II" Iowa class... thing (it's basically good enough for parts).  Added four quad Harpoons, and six Tomahawk ABL's, as well as four dual 5" guns, and three triple 6" turrets from the Skywave WWII equipment pack.  Also squeezed in two IPDMS launchers, and four Phalanx from the modern Skywave pack.  Keeping the stern totally clear for a Helo pad (and trying to find an inboard of the centerline to see if I might be able to squeeze in a hangar in the aft.  Probably not, but it might be cool.

As complete, she looks really good.  I'll get pics taken (someday).

Also finished the USS North Dakota.  Was going back and forth putting Lafayette's turrets on her, but I'd need another quad for the complete look.  I'd need another Richelieu for that (which I might still get).  Finished NorDak as a standard 80's refit Iowa.  I broke the main mast that came with the kit, though I had another in the stash and stole the mast from it.  The one in the stash will probably get a sturdier mast, or a different sensor mount, as well as probably the Richelieu's turrets, or maybe the flight deck from the Nichimo Iowa and other mods.

Lots of pieces go into the Trumpeter Iowas (you can build the ABL's open or closed, and each open one has multiple pieces for the Tomahawk tubes).  The Tomahawk tubes might go onto some sort of small frigate or gunboat I've got under construction.  Lots of possibilities.

I'm also going to merge this topic, the Hood, and my other ship topic.  I've got too many going at once.

[anthonyp]

Ant

HP Models do one in their Fun range, which can be found on their websiite, not sure if PFH stock it or not. Its is kinda expensive and i dont think its anywhere near as accurate as the Samek one, but hell if your whiffing it is not quite as crucial.

BTW Secondary armament would likley have changed to the IV 4.5 gun as used on the Darings. Leanders etc.

During the 50's the 3" 76mm  gun was the preferred AA solution, using either the turret fitted to the Tiger class (and some Canadian Destroyers) or the US mount (As used on the other Canadian frigates or with a revised turret shape that was used on Victorious)

G

Great news!  Thanks, Geoff!  Yeah, whiffing her ala every other final generation battleship I can get my hands on.  Old soldiers never die, they just fade away...

...to one day be reborn with enough firepower to sink entire fleets of their old adversaries four times over!  

EDIT:  GAH!!!!  Dangit!  90 Euros, too much right now.  Saving for a whole house reverse osmosis machine (need to get rid of my salt water softener), so something like this will remain outside my reach until later this year.  Thanks for finding it, though!  Never deep dove HP's site.  There's some good stuff in there.

[Sauragnmon]

I looked over HP's site, and found myself thinking they charged an arm and a leg for everything.  There are other sources for the stuff, you can probably look into the Vanguard over at PacFront and find a decent price.  I don't know if Freetime's got a Vanguard on the list, but it's worth a look.

[anthonyp]

Well, PacFront's got one in an unknown scale for $75.00.  Reverse Osmosis still comes first. 

Free Time's doesn't have it.  I wonder if Hannet's might have it.

[Sauragnmon]

Yeah, well if you look up the maker and the model, you should find the scale in relative order, as well as potentially reviews of the piece in question.  That should solve the situation.

[anthonyp]

Ya know, reading through the ships forum, I realized that I STOLE ideas for the updated Richelieu from the thread about Proditor's fleet 

Credit where credit is due, and all that 

[Sauragnmon]

Yeah, it was all inspiration - it gets passed around, and bounced around, and different interpretations come around time and again, really.

Interesting thought - turn the seaplane area into a Regulus launcher.  That'd be pretty beefy.

[anthonyp]

Small update.

The USS Guam is shaping up.  With liberal use of sheet styrene, I figured out how to do the main mast and still leave the hangar area relatively open (basically extended the tower aft a little bit).  I figure they'd keep the hangars and launch things like RQ-2's amid ships, along with having easy access to the IPDMS launchers for reloads (located below the six Harpoon launchers abaft the funnel).  Aft the Harpoon nests are the elevated platforms for two ABL's per side, positioned to launch across the beam the same way they're situated on the Iowa refits.

She's also got four Phalanx (two on aft platforms, two above the hangars).  Almost done with her, just trying to figure out where to put the last ABL's (either two or four, undecided as yet).

She looks really nice next to the Saginaw and North Dakota.

[Sauragnmon]

Tony, which one's your guam - I can't remember right now, and looking back, couldn't find references for it either.  Might just be me, I'm a little sleepy-esque right now.

[anthonyp]

The Guam is CB-6, Alaska class.  Midships models USS Alaska 1/700.  Midships makes incredible models (much, much better than Iron Shipwrights' casts).

[Sauragnmon]

I'm looking at getting one of the Midships Alaskas eventually... Soon™ as I say.

[anthonyp]

I swear I'll take pics one of these days!

Battleship row increased four fold.

USS Maine (BB-70), last of the Iowa class, but with dual 18" guns in place of the triple 16's.  Built off a Trumpeter Iowa and the barrels from a 1/600 Arii approximation of an Iowa class.  Also gave her a sturdier mast from the 1/600 thing.

USS Michigan (BB-69), modified Iowa 80's refit, with one less Tomahawk ABL per side, one more Harpoon per side, and kept an additional dual 5" per side.  Built off a WWII version of the Tamiya kit.

USS Florida (BB-68), stock Iowa 80's refit off a Trump kit, same with USS North Dakota (BB-67).

Called the Samoa done (after adding radars), as well as removed one ABL per side on the Saginaw.  The Lafayette just looked silly with the dual 5" turrets, so I removed them and the aft most ABL launchers.

I've decided to get my hands on an old South Dakota class kit to build a Phase II BBV out of.  That Nichimo oddly shaped lump of plastic flight deck just doesn't work on a 1/700 Iowa.  We'll see how it looks on a SoDak.

Also finished up a Wasp class LHD I've had sitting around for two years.  Decided to just bite the bullet and build her as is, with the one in the stash maybe becoming a light carrier.  I think she'll become a USCG ship  

I had the BB's all in "formation" over the weekend.  I NEED to learn how to do water dioramas.

EDIT:  OH YEAH!!!  Almost forgot, I finished my Burke based CGN this weekend.  Like the Lexington, she's got 2x 64 cell VLS, 1 32 cell VLS, and four quad Harpoon launchers, but she's also got a small 8 cell VLS forward the amid ships Harpoons (for RIM-162's), and a larger gun on the foredeck.  Lost the original 5" 62, but decided to take a WWII turret from the Dragon Independence class CVL, and put the 5" barrel from a Mk 54 gun.  I figure it'd be like a 6" gun or something.

[Sauragnmon]

Anthony,

If you get in touch with Burkhardt from BMK, you can get the 18/47 Mk A guns from him in 1/700 scale - I have a set of them, and had him machine them for me, he probably still has the numbers if you wanted.  1.25 EUR a barrel, plus shipping - good quality, nice service.  You can get in touch with him through modelwarships.com.

Your SoDak idea isn't bad, though Trumpy's got a new SoDak out, that's apparently quite a nice piece of work - could be worth looking into, just as a thought.  Take your time on the mods, and if the dual 5's don't look right, shuffle the equipment around.

[anthonyp]

The 1/600 ones work out to about 18.5" guns in 1/700, but at that scale, who cares about a half inch!

I actually settled on a 1/700 Trumpeter SoDak class ship off of Evil-bay just now    Like I said, the beam on the flightdeck is the same as a 1/700 kit, but the length is all wrong.  If you can find a 1/800 Nichimo "Faces II" Iowa, buy it if only for the insanity staring at it induces.  Booze?  Drugs?  Don't need 'em!  I got's me a Nichimo Iowa that in no reality could EVER exist!

I had a stupid idea also enter my head when I bought the SoDak, but I'd need another two Richelieu class to do it, which I don't want to do... yet.