The Ship Model Forum

I had the ideal of creating a fantasy ship for the JMSDF of a hospital ship. Most hospital ships are converted from other ships like oil tankers the Nippon Maru is a oil tanker and I thought would be perfect for a conversion. Below is a simple photoshop of adding Red Cross insignia to the tanker, I plan on covering or removing the details from the deck for landing pads.Comments and suggestions are welcomed.

Edit what do you guys think of the antenna tower yah or neh front or back, I added some cardboard cutouts to mock up a flat deck for helicopter pads.

Heres a little update to my fantasy hospital ship, Ive boxed in the middle section of the ship to mimic the USNS Comfort and added 2 Radome's a small and large version. Im thinking about adding some PE to the ship around the landing pad and the aft of the ship as well.

Another update this morning.

Great idea and work! Looks like a T2 by appearance.

Thanks, What is a T2 Im sure you dont mean a Terminator lol.

Ive been a little busy today, I added some pe safety nets at the bow of the hospital ship and I fabricated some Radomes with a pe radio tower. And you see the two nightmares in my life lol, These ships were the most difficult to build for some reason.

Ive made some additions to the Nippon Maru Hospital ship and I think its taken a turn in a different direction. I've added a some pe parts from Pit Road like the radio tower and scratchbult some aerials on the aft section. Ive added some cranes from the MASHU Oil replenishment kit and Hoists and a radio shack, I think I'll direct my attention to the mid-ship and bow since they look bare.

Further additions include possibly wood decking on the aft and bow per Dan. K and his excellent kit. I want to add some pipe details on the deck mid-ship and some aerials on the bridge. Radar needs to be added to the radio tower along with yardarms then finally clean up, painting and decaling.

Below is the latest incarnation of the Nippon Maru Hospital Ship.

Thanks for the link and suggestion.

The hospital ship has been canceled........for now.

In my last update I had the feeling that the direction that this ship was going was not the right way. Im still gung ho for a hospital ship but it won't be the Nippon Maru, Instead of a Hospital ship Im going to convert the Nippon Maru into a Radar Defense or Command & Control ship. The Radomes and antenna arrays pushed it into that direction, The good thing is I dont have to do much more besides adding SEARAMS and other weapons on the ship. Ive added a platform and a larger Radome on the aft of the ship along with a Pegasus class hydrofoil midship with cranes to facilitate offboarding and onboarding. (not pictured). I've added some pictures please critique & comment if you like this is a fantasy ship loosely based on Pacific Tracker and reality.

Just some updates.

I like the idea of this fantasy ship as a radar platform.

You can pretty much "Flag" it to any country, even a make-believe one.

(Just in case you do... and you lean toward an alternate History....You may want to pick up some CSN flags or DKM decals before they are gone.)

I will be following along as I enjoy a good what-if. Makes a guy Think.

Nice work so far. Real nice.

Nino

Hi Nino thanks for the encouragement on the ship I plan on making this part of my JMSDF fleet as they dont have any ships like this to my knowledge. This ship is loosely based on the Pacific Tracker which is a United States Naval ship and also the base hull is a Japanese ship the Nippon Maru with odds and ends from other ships and custom pieces. Ive uploaded a infographic of the features on this ship.

'shipclambake', What A GREAT IDEA!! I like what you did, a true "What-If".....I plan, one day, to build ARA 25 de Mayo & HMAS Melbourne, but I have NO Idea what to do to make/purchase a mast??? What did you use? What did you use for the Huge and mid-size radomes....(it looks like putty ball rolled) [?]

I like the idea, even though it started as a hospital ship ( what a change! ), to be set out to sea concept unlike our X-band platform that I saw many years ago. By the way, has anybody made such a thing....X-band 'oil platform' missile defense platform????

M

Hi mmaresm sorry its taken me so long to respond, Thanks I was surfing the net and the USNS Pacific Tracker hit me like a ton of bricks I love tech and this is a lot of tech so I went for it. The mast is photoetch made by a japanese company (I will try to look for the name) All of the radomes were made with Crayola Air dry clay then painted.

Thanks the hospital ship is still going to happen just not with this kit, I dont think anyone has made a X-Band missile defense platform yet (believe me I looked). You reminded me that I need to post an updated progress pic of the ship it's gone through some transformation. (attached is the latest picture)

I found the packaging for the mast it's from PIT-ROAD and the model # is PE-115.

Damn, that is cool as all get out!

Thank you proditor.

Ive done some updates to my Missile Command Ship like added some rigging, photo etch, a cargo load and some antennas check out the link below.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Dy6h1oKsYtyvVFQi6

What a great evolution of thinking and tinkering with this concept.

Consider using one of the IJN small carriers for as hospital ship base. Chuyo, Ryujo or such. Higher freeboard and existing interior space.

Daniel

Thanks I'll look into those ships, It seems everytime I want to use a prototype ship someone changes the role of the ship in real life.