The Ship Model Forum

Good evening....

I am going to start Trumpeters 1/700 USS Alaska shortly and I was wondering if there was an aftermarket detail set for it. I'd rather not have to use generic PE and hoping there's a kit specific set.

TIA,
Steve

Five Star makes one: https://squadron.com/five-star-models-1 ... ter-06738/

As does Shipyard Works: https://www.ebay.com/itm/256553857863

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De quoi s'agit-il?

Damn! How did I not see that? I gotta get new glasses!

THanks for the links.

Steve

Yesterday Flinger747 asked me a question about the shell cansiter cages that are installed on the back of the (4) side 5" Mk. 28 gun mounts. I was not aware of those and given the choice of spending the morning doing yard work or model ship research...I think you know which option I took!

I've not come across any actual drawings/plans of these cages, but there are photos which show them in place (Warship Pictorial #43, Alaska Class Cruisers), as well as one rather indistinct photo with the netting also installed around the cage. So, I decided that this might be a good opportunity to make a 3D design version of this mount with the cage in place as well as a few other alterations I noticed where the 5" mounts on the ALASKA's differed from other versions. The cage affair wasn't too difficult to come up with, keep in mind this is a guesstimate on size; I used my std. Mk. 28 gun mount design and scaled it to 1/192. I think the placement and final result is fairly accurate -

And here's a photo of the ship under construction -


Regarding other alterations to these mounts that are visible in various photos of the mounts, the side hand grabs have been removed as well as the ones on the top of the mount. A vertical row of grabs was added to the circular back face of the mount just to right of centerline. One Item I have not added to my version is the trunnion stop on the front of the mount; I may add that later. Here's another view of my version -

In this photo you can see the removal of the various side/top hand grabs.
At 1/200 scale (or in this case 1/192), I'm not sure a realistic netting could be improvised. In larger scales this would probably look OK.

edit. - I've just reviewed the USN 1945 turret & mount catalog and it's possible that the ALASKAs may had had Mk. 28, Mod 3 mounts as this is the only model of the Mk. 28 that shows the front trunnion stop. None of the illustrations in this catalog shows details such as hand grabs or other small items.

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HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48

Hank:

Thanks for those, they printed on the first try, though I destroyed or lost half of them trying to de post them. A couple sproinged off to who knows where. As they are barely visible in the ship photos they add just an "almost there impression" that adds a lot to the overall effect. In this case I merely added the frames to the existing mounts which are the third generation on the model.

Tom

Tom,
Glad those worked out for you!! Always happy when a plan comes together!!

Hank

_________________
HMS III
Mocksville, NC
BB62 vet 68-69

Builder's yard:
USS STODDARD (DD-566) 66-68 1:144, Various Lg Scale FC Directors
Finished:
USS NEW JERSEY (BB-62) 67-69 1:200
USN Sloop/Ship PEACOCK (1813) 1:48
ROYAL CAROLINE (1748) 1:47
AVS (1768) 1:48