The Ship Model Forum

Hello All. I am new here, so ill try not to screw up

I served on the USS Virginia (CGN) from 1991 untill deactivation (FEB1994). She was my first ship, and i was facinated by her. I personally thought at the time that she was the last ship built that looked like a warship. I was always of the opinion that the TYCO'S looked like a rather ugly building piled atop a spru-can hull. I had always imagined what could be done to the virginia to keep her from becoming obsolete. I have read all the information i could find on the internet about Virginia and thus learning about CGN-42, Modified virginia, and the different versions of the strike cruiser concept.

I decided to wade into the waters and design on of my own.
I lack the resources at the moment to build the models i want so i make what i want them to look like with paint and paint.net

Sensors and
processing systems:

AN/SPY-1B multi-function radar
AN/SPS-49 air search radar
AN/SPG-62 fire control radar
AN/SPS-73 surface search radar
AN/SPQ-9B gun fire control radar
AN/SQQ-89(V)3 Sonar suite, consisting of

AN/SQS-53B/C/D active sonar
AN/SQR-19 TACTAS passive sonar
AN/SQQ-28 light airborne multi-purpose system
AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare Suite

Armament:

4 × 61 cell Mk 41 vertical launch systems
466 × Mix of RIM-66M-5 Standard SM-2MR Block IIIB, RIM-156A SM-2ER Block IV, RIM-161 SM-3, RIM-162A ESSM, RIM-174A Standard ERAM, BGM-109 Tomahawk, or RUM-139A VL-ASROC
8 × RGM-84 Harpoon missiles
2 × Mk 45 Mod 4 5 in / 62 cal lightweight gun
2 × 25 mm Mk 38 gun
2–4 × .50 cal (12.7 mm) gun
2 × RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM)
2 × Mk 32 12.75 in (324 mm) triple torpedo tubes for lightweight torpedoes

Aircraft carried:

2 × Sikorsky SH-60B or MH-60R Seahawk LAMPS III helicopters

The picture is a work in progress and i have a few others Ive been working on.
Any suggestion on realism or anything else will be appreciated.



this is another im still working on.

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In God we trust all others we track

going to have to resize pic when i get home, then ill post it

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In God we trust all others we track

CSGN-138,

This is really nice stuff. I'd love to see you get a chance to build them into model form. I really like how you handled the masts. I don't know that much about how the electronics works so I don't know if there would be interference problems, but it sure looks good.

Bill Liebold

Thank you Bill, I spend a lot of time on these. It really is almost like making a model. As far as the masts, I copied them off the Virginia. The first picture is my final template and im going back through all my older pics to match them up with that drawing. thanks for commenting, i really appreciate it

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In God we trust all others we track

really cool stuff.. In one photo you have a lot of empty real estate on the stern.. What are you planning on putting in that area that used to belong to the ABL's???

Thank you EX navy. Im putting two VLS cells aft of the gun, which still leaves a lot of room for future expansion. Not really sure what to do with the extra room left from the ex-helo deck ex-ABL deck yet

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I love the look of the superstructures and the masts.

What dimensions are you projecting the ship to have (L/W/Disp)?

Well, the Virginia was 586 feet long, 66 feet wide and 12,000 tons (if memory serves). I was thinking about 100 feet longer for the helo deck, so somewhere around 700 feet. I did an unscientific measurement on my drawing using the helo as a reference (64feet) and come up with just over 1000 feet, and i don't think that's correct. Not sure if it would need to be wider than original or how much it would displace. Can anyone give me an educated guess?

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Most ratios of length to beam were 1:10 ish - but the Burke's get closer to 1:8.

Long beach was 721x71, for an example of the larger CGN.

Ill post some more of my drawings to show how they evolve. the files have names like csgn1,2,3 ect. that is just so i can keep them straight. they are all CSGN-138 class.


csgn8



One of my first drawings. i was just going to convert to SPY-1 and VLS. one note, i think the MK41 vls is not in scale in these drawings. I think it needs to be smaller

csgn8helo
the next evolution. aft helo deck 2 vls and no aft gun



csgn8heloflightII
like this layout better than previous. lets me keep that aft gun



csgn8heloflightIIa
My final drawing on this series. Has the mk 45 5/62 mod4 big satcom antennas. forward mk62 directors moved to centerline
I later moved the spq-9 to the forward mast and the sps-49 to aft mast after a old friend reminded me that the surface search needs to be as high as possible and the air search can me lower, besides spq-9 foward and sps-49 aft looks better

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this series were my very first. Again, i was just thinking SPY-1 and VLS at this point.



I tried to get fancy here and have two CSGN launching missles. FAIL, haha. Ill try this again when my skills get better



Added the aft flight deck here

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these next ones are "one offs" that have not been finished yet. Showing them to give an idea of how i make the drawings

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i have a lot more, but dont want to bore everybody. ill post new ones as they get finished

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In God we trust all others we track

Wow wow we wow! Nice! I like your skill with the internet paint, my man! Keep up the work. I wish you the best of luck scratch building a model up! It's pretty tough, but rewarding when you get pieces built.



I look forward to more!

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love your work.. keep it up... the Flight II version is a keeper, however, I am not sure about the double VLS on the fan tail/ old helo deck/ABL area.. (check with the people who have more knowledge) and the on the bow (may be just increase the # of cells of this is an issue) I am not sure if their is enough space for a second VLS module their.. otherwise keep the ideas coming,, One questions did you add harpoons or keep the original load out..?

Thank you navy dave, that means alot commimg from you. Ive been following your work for awhile. doing google searches for modified virginia and cgn-42 i would always run across your posts long before i joined this fourm. When i am finally able to build, i hope i can do as good a job as you. I would really like to attempt your CGN-42 if you dont mind (digital picture form)

guest user, I have harpoon onboard, but its a design of my own. For fun I'll call it mk8 HLS. I was trying to figure out where to put them after the ram launcher took their place and i thought why not mount them inside the hanger. If you look closley at the first picture of this thread you can see my "horizontal launch system" in the foward part of the hanger. I like it, cuts down on deck clutter.

I am currently working on a new drawing at work that will be this class when it first (theoretically) entered service (1995 or so). there will be not satcom domes, well the big ones anyway, the CIWS will be on the signal bridge deck port and starbord, harpoon will be in the original place centerline just foward of the bridge. Ill share when picture is further along than it is now.

Thanks to evryone for looking and commenting.

Joe

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CSGN138,

You are welcome, man. Great job. Your skills at computer generated imagery is impressive. What programs are you using?

Thank you! That is very kind. I am glad to hear I was able to provide some inspiration for your project. I have a similar weapons configuration for a hull of the Long Beach I have.

I have to say, my man, you must be psychic! Over the last 3 weeks I have been conversing with my Aegis co-workers and guys from naval sea systems command (NAVSEA) about meeting certain levels of survivability. I have drawn out a pair of mast structures that integrate back up tracking and sear radars, yardarms, and terminal illuminator radars and they look very similar! Great job thinking it through, man. Very impressive.

We look forward to more of your posts, man. I would also LOVE to see a CG version of my CGN-42. Very soon there will be a fully built out plastic model of it ready for paint. Keep posted on my thread, too, man. Thanks for the interest, and I will be watching yours, too!

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Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance

I use almost exsclusivly the paint program that comes with windows. I have an open-source photoshop clone called paint.net that i only use when i need to change angles on things i grab from other pictures, ie if i find the perfect gun or radar for my picture but the angle is wrong i can change it with paint.net. otherwise probably use ragular old paint 99.5% of the time. Ill get working on your CGN-42 soon

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Hey great work..
I agree the FLight II with hangar is the keeper for your final version..
explain this non-standard way to launch your harpoons..
on a side note.. can you pm me if possible I doing some research on the Vig circa 1992..

Well LCDR Wheeler (sorry i dont understand army laungage) there really is nothing special about the mk8 hls. Basically, i would cut a hole in the hanger deck big enough for the Mk141 launcher to fit in. I would place the launchers so that they stick outside a bit farther. I would then build a bulkhead inside the hanger bay so the launcher would not actually be in the hanger bay. Then it would need some sort of system to vent the "exhaust" I was thinking something like the VLS where it vents straigh up (only angled with my system) you then weld the piece back in that you cut out (with 4 holes for mk141 tubes to stick out) and whala! Mk8 HLS

Did that explain it? its alot easier to see it in my head than to explain it haha

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