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Post by Beekster on Nov 7, 2017 20:40:28 GMT -6
First of all, you aren't dreaming...you are seeing a Canadian dreadnought here. I hear you saying, but Canada didn't build dreadnoughts, did they? No, they didn't but they came within a whisker of ordering three Queen Elizabeths just before the war. This model is the outgrowth of a wargame campaign I participated in a few years ago covering the opening weeks of the Great War in American and Canadian waters. The outcome was decidedly not historical, with Canadian ports being bombarded by German light cruisers and a Pyhrric battle being fought off Halifax at night in a roaring gale. In light of that, I pondered what that would do to Canadian defense policy and decided that they would order a pair of battlecruisers. The model combines elements of IJN Kongo with HMS Hood and HMS Prince of Wales to represent a rebuilt ship in convoy escort service during WW2. The document is a story I wrote about it for my wargame buddies.   |
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Post by BUCKY on Nov 7, 2017 20:44:12 GMT -6
This is a fine looking ship, Greg!! Glad to see this one on our pages!!! Well done!
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Post by Beekster on Nov 7, 2017 21:07:55 GMT -6
Thanks, Keith! It was really a fun project. The Word document really details my thought process in working out the configuration, essentially a Kongo (the lead ship was built by the British, the three sisters in Japan) with some alterations. The decision to make it a WW2 variant in Western Approaches camouflage allowed me to use Hood main battery turrets and superstructure along with Prince of Wales secondary battery and US radars. Just posting this reminds me that I ought to start in on that Flyhawk 1/700 Derfflinger I have on the shelf.
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Post by BUCKY on Nov 7, 2017 21:09:59 GMT -6
Please do, sir! Ship builds have always sorta intimidated me, and I really enjoy watching someone else build one!! LOL
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Post by Beekster on Nov 7, 2017 21:21:21 GMT -6
The secret is to build WW1 dreadnoughts. With no radars and such there's no need for photoetch!
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Post by BUCKY on Nov 7, 2017 21:22:18 GMT -6
HAHAHA! That helps me.....a little! LOL
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Post by JCON on Nov 7, 2017 21:45:40 GMT -6
Looks cool fella!!!
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Post by Buddho on Nov 8, 2017 4:46:46 GMT -6
Very cool build. I did not know the Kongo was influenced by the British.
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Post by ARMORGUY on Nov 8, 2017 6:13:18 GMT -6
That's one beautiful floaty !
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Post by Beekster on Nov 8, 2017 8:32:34 GMT -6
Very cool build. I did not know the Kongo was influenced by the British. Buddho, the IJN was heavily influenced by the Royal Navy in the early years, say the 1890s through the Great War. Many Japanese warships were built in British yards while the Japanese built their own industrial base. I believe Kongo was the last major warship purchased abroad by Japan. The design was an outgrowth of the Royal Navy's "Splendid Cats", the HMS Lion, HMS Princess Royal, and HMS Queen Mary, and in turn influenced the slightly later HMS Tiger. |
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Post by dogfish7 (R.I.P.) on Nov 8, 2017 9:47:12 GMT -6
Awesome work!
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Post by Dukemaddog on Nov 8, 2017 12:01:47 GMT -6
Spectacular work!The closest thing I did like this was a "What if?" Tirpitz that I modified to make it look as it might had it survived the War and been given back to the Germans to rebuild their fleet around when they joined NATO. That was a fun exercise.
Keep it coming man!
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Post by Beekster on Nov 8, 2017 12:18:44 GMT -6
I don't have another what-if lined up, though the possibilities seem endless. There was talk in the 1950s about completing the USS Guam, the third "large cruiser" hull that was 82% complete at the end of the war, as a Terrier/Tartar/Talos missile ship, possibly with Polaris. Those ideas morphed into the USS Long Beach, which appeared without Polaris tubes. But since the 1/350 kit of the Alaska is out I suspect a 1/700 isn't far behind, and a kitbash with a Long Beach would do the job. The mothballed hulls of the rebuilt BB-44-48 classes were also considered for that. Similarly, a mid-80s idea for the Iowas ditched the aft main battery turret in favor of a huge superstructure with flight deck for choppers and Harriers.
All those ideas foundered on two shoals: High cost of conversion and high costs of manning the ship. That's one of the reasons the Iowas didn't stay in service long after the first Gulf war; they required too many guys to run the antique steam turbine technology. That, and the 16" gun tubes were wearing out and we had long since lost the capability to make more.
Another weird idea: The British are allowed by the Washington Treaty to complete at least one incomplete Hood-class hull as an aircraft carrier. Knock yourself out with cheap Tamiya kits of the Hood and Ark Royal.
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Mence
ROLLING ON
OSM'S PROF
Posts: 926
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Post by Mence on Nov 9, 2017 2:43:11 GMT -6
Cracking floaty!
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Post by Dukemaddog on Nov 9, 2017 15:39:43 GMT -6
Good information. I picked up a kit some time ago of a USS New Jersey in the flight deck configuration. It's in 1/800 scale or smaller. I was thinking of building it to use as a template for kitbashing an old Revell Missouri or New Jersey. The only other kitbash I want to do is on the old Revell Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier. I wanted to add a Kiev-class angle deck, bridge and Russian electronics on it to make it look like the Russians hadn't sunk it as a target ship. Instead, when they saw the US maintaining a strong carrier fleet they decided to modify the Graf Zeppelin to build their first aircraft carrier.
Maybe someday.
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Post by JCON on Nov 9, 2017 19:31:55 GMT -6
That sounds cool Mark...
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Post by BUCKY on Nov 9, 2017 21:31:15 GMT -6
Let's see it, Maddog!!
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Post by Dukemaddog on Nov 10, 2017 10:25:33 GMT -6
I will guys. I just need to pick up a new Kiev class ship that I can cut up... or use as a template for sheet styrene assemblage. I think I also need another Graf Zeppelin too. I have to check my stash....
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Post by Beekster on Nov 10, 2017 11:14:49 GMT -6
Maddog, what scale is that Revell Graf Zeppelin? If it's 1/720, then you're in the tall cotton with a 1/700 Kiev or similar for the deck. My initial thought was that the old Graf would be an unlikely conversion for the 1980s, but perhaps not. It took decades for the Russians to develop any fixed-wing carrier aircraft, so the backstory would be that the ship was originally converted to operate helicopters. We should recall that we still had one Essex class ship, the training carrier Lexington, operating in the early 1980s and the bigger, barely post-War Midway & Coral Sea operated well into that decade before retirement. Don't stop with the electronics and superstructure, it also needs Russian guns and some SSM tubes, too.
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Post by Dukemaddog on Nov 11, 2017 11:04:04 GMT -6
Good points. I was going to use Russian guns and was thinking of how I could do that with missile tubes, but mostly I was thinking of how they would have developed that ship using just the basic hull too. I was also considering scratching some experimental MiG 21 "navalized" aircraft since the Graf Zeppelin still had operating catapults. Again, they would have failed so the Yak would have been developed as a result for subsequent Kiev class ships. Of course, helicopters would be added. My idea would have been that during the 50's, 60's and 70's the Russians would have studied the way the US used carriers during Korea and Vietnam in particular and; given this carrier had catapults, they would have been a bit further along in carrier development. Thus the MiG variants.
Also, yes the Revell 1/720 scale kit of the Graf Zeppelin and the 1/700 scale Kiev would be combined. A friend even gave me a photo-etch set of Russian ship railings and accessories for this project. I know I have the one kit; I just need to get the other. With my stash all packed away in boxes, I don't know which I have and which I don't.
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