Calling all USS Long Beach CGN-9 fans

[EJM]

I need to know: Is anybody in the forseeable future planning to make a modern USS Long Beach cruiser plastic kit? I have been desperately wanting one for a very long, long time. The last time I put together a Long Beach kit was possibly a 1/400 or 1/500 Revell kit 25 years ago that showed the Long Beach in an early configuration with a Regulus(?) missile launcher amidships.
If a resin kit exists, I'd take that too. But I'd probably have to wait till tax refund time to buy one.

Any other Long Beach fans out there?

[Timmy C]

Jag makes the 1964 Long Beach in 1/700 Resin.

No news about 1/350 plastic, though.

[EJM]

Darn! Thanks for the info., Timmy. Guess I'll just have to wait and wait and wait and.........

[Admhawk]

ISW does a 1/350 resin one. I doubt you will ever see a plastic version in that scale, but I've been wrong before!

[MartinJQuinn]

Here are some pictures I took of Long Beach at San Diego in 1988. It was during one of the IPMS/USA National Convention tours of the base. The first picture was taken from the tour bus window:


The 2nd was a quick shot while walking up the pier, after we had been told not to take any pictures by a very testy Marine. It was just too good a shot to pass up:


The 3rd was taken from the top of the superstructure of a DD (I can't recall which), that they were giving us a tour of - note the other DD (A Kidd class, IIRC) docking, with Long Beach in the rear:


The last was taken from the bow of the aforementioned mystery DD:


Completely off topic, but San Diego 1988 was one of the best Nationals I ever attended. The whole trip was a blast. In addition to the Naval Base, we saw the Queen Mary, baseball games in LA and SD, and tons of great models. Hard to believe that it was almost 20 years ago!

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
EJM,
I have built the JAG Long Beach in 1/700 scale. Very straight forward, and a decent model. JAG will be releasing a late version some time soon. I also have the ISW 1/350 kit, and it's, "stashed". The Long Beach was a pretty large ship at over 700'. What makes me ill, is that LB was here in SD for 20 years, and I only saw her a couple of times.
Martin,
We may bid for the 2013 Nats........
or will it be 3012?
Tony

[sierra hotel]

I was also there at the San Diego IPMS Convention, I thought it was in 1989 actually. True, it was by far the most memorable, best ever IPMS conventions I have ever been to and sticks into my mind...met some great people. The ship we toured was the ELLIOT, a Sprucan, and the ship coming in is the CALLAGHAN. I shot rolls and rolls of Kodachrome that day, and at the navy yard, as well as North Island, I got a tour of RANGER and CONSTELLATION and succeeded in getting some really great close up shots of Long Beach....

in 2008 I will be releasing a DVD Special, not exactly titled yet, but something like 'THE GRAY SHIPS OF SAN DIEGO'.... a mega pictorial album from all my slide scans over the years, from the 1970s to about 2001 or so.... I am still scanning and cropping images. Incredibly most all the ships I shot are all gone now, but Kodachrome preserved these images, sharp, clear like they were shot yesterday have not decided how many hi rez files there will on the DVD, over 300+ I am sure, but it will be packed full of nostalgia, captioned, labelled etc. More pics packed onto a disc than you will EVER find in any sized book...ideal for naval enthusiasts and ship modelers. Spruances, Leahys, Belknaps, OHPs, BBs, LPHs, LPDs, CGs, CGNs, DEs, FFs, pierside, in the yards and in the channel.

[MartinJQuinn]

I was also there at the San Diego IPMS Convention, I thought it was in 1989 actually.

Oops - it was 89. 88 was Columbus OH.

[nick]

That island of Long Beach really fascinates me. Why does Long Beach use that box looking island? It looks just like Cvn-65's island.

[Charles Landrum]

Both ships had the SCANFAR radar system with the SPS-32 and SPS-33 planar arrays, the rectangular billboards being the original phased array radar. It was the predecessor to Aegis and it was a space and labor intensive system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCANFAR

[Dick J]

Both ships had the SCANFAR radar system with the SPS-32 and SPS-33 planar arrays, the rectangular billboards being the original phased array radar. It was the predecessor to Aegis and it was a space and labor intensive system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCANFAR

Not only that, but the electronic signatures were too unique. From an EW perspective, we could watch an exercise and track the ships by their specific combinations of sensors - target "A" is a CV, "B" is a CV, "C" is the Enterprise, etc. Long Beach had the same problem among cruisers.

[Dustermaker]

Both ships had the SCANFAR radar system with the SPS-32 and SPS-33 planar arrays, the rectangular billboards being the original phased array radar. It was the predecessor to Aegis and it was a space and labor intensive system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCANFAR

Not only that, but the electronic signatures were too unique. From an EW perspective, we could watch an exercise and track the ships by their specific combinations of sensors - target "A" is a CV, "B" is a CV, "C" is the Enterprise, etc. Long Beach had the same problem among cruisers.

I still LOVE the way they look, to me its a design that really stands out in my mind.

[brandon]

I still hope that Revell will re produce the Long Beach again. Have been trying to buy one through Ebay but the prices are so high to pay for it Same as a few others which I am sorry dont like to pay for it.

Lets hope that revell do something for Long Beach lovers

regards

Wim

I need to know: Is anybody in the forseeable future planning to make a modern USS Long Beach cruiser plastic kit? I have been desperately wanting one for a very long, long time. The last time I put together a Long Beach kit was possibly a 1/400 or 1/500 Revell kit 25 years ago that showed the Long Beach in an early configuration with a Regulus(?) missile launcher amidships.
If a resin kit exists, I'd take that too. But I'd probably have to wait till tax refund time to buy one.

Any other Long Beach fans out there?

[Peter O]

I've got the 1/700 JAG Long Beach on the way. Are there any LB plans available, either online or for sale? I've found some very low resolution drawings, but nothing detailed enough to use as a reference.

Also, I've read that LB had some deck areas that were planked. Don Shelton's photo shows darker areas alongside the forward superstructure. Is this where the planking was?



What was the purpose of the planking? Was it just for dressing up the deck where all the brass who visited came aboard?

Thanks!

Peter

[Tony Bunch]

Hi Guys,
Peter,
The dark area in the photo of Long Beach is indeed where the wood planking was. The resson for wood planking; I can't say right off hand.
Here is a JAG Long Beach under construction. You can see the wood dekc area; same for the opposite side.

I have built JAG's Long Beach. Be prepared to do a lot of masking.
I too have some scale drawings of Long Beach, but the accuracy I can not ascertain; but from comparing with photos.
I'd be happy to send a copy to you or something like that. Just give me the time.
PM me, Tony

[Devin]

Completely off topic, but San Diego 1988 was one of the best Nationals I ever attended. The whole trip was a blast. In addition to the Naval Base, we saw the Queen Mary, baseball games in LA and SD, and tons of great models. Hard to believe that it was almost 20 years ago!

Great. I was in boot camp running my #@@#$$ off and you're at the Nats!

As far as the wood planking goes: yes, it was there for the quarterdeck because it was pretty.

[Bob DeWoody]

I would love to see a 1/350 scale model kit of the Long Beach It would look lovely next to the Enterprise like in the 60's promo pictures I've seen. I think the Bainbridge was in that photo too. I think the combination of the Enterprise, Long Beach and Bainbridge would be the about the coolest diorama ever. Maybe Trumpeter will read these posts and do the cruiser and the destroyer.

[SumGui]

That is indeed wher the teak decking was - I walked on it when I was onboard for her second to last cruise.

The story was that it was there for show, as she was a cruiser, and fitted with flag facilities, and would therefore be shipping brass all the time. Steel deck underneath.

She was my first ship, and those earlier pics from 1988 also have a sister (DDG-994) of another one of my ships (USS Kidd, DDG-993).

Kidd also had an interesting addition to her deck - on the deck to the port and starboard of mount 51 nad 52 was diamond beck plating to resist the gouges ejected 5" shells would put into the normal non-skid.

[Scale Shipyard / W.L.U.]

I was aboard Long Beach back in 1981 up in Puget Sould NSY while she was in Drydock, that was a sight being under her looking up, but the Enterprise was even more imposing from that perspective. Under the Big E was like being down in a cave. I have been under most classes of USN ships during the 80's but the Enterprise and the Long Beach were unique for me as they were nukes.

When they removed the Scanfar system they removed well over 100 tons of weight up there, with the arrays and everything, it made a differance on how the LB rolled in most seas.

[pandax]

I served on the Long Beach from 90-92. Some other facts are she was the first nuclear powered surface vessel and the first ship designed with guided missiles as her main weapons (the other missile cruisers up to that point were converted WWII cruisers). Someone asked about the teak wood on the quarter deck. The quarter deck is a ceremonial place on a Navy ship. It's were you first come aboard so the teak wood is there to class it up and go back to the days of sailing ships. Like everyone else I would like to see a new model of the Long Beach, one that is configured to her later years, when I was aboard. By that time as has been noted the original radar had been removed and the rear Talos missile launcher. Conventional radars were installed along with two Tomahawk box launchers (aft where Talos was), Harpoon anti-ship missiles (2 quad launchers amid ship, port and starboard) and two Phalanx (CIWS) mounts installed on the aft superstructure. This is the version I would like to build. I've seen a very good kit that gives that option but it runs around $350.00 last time I checked. Just a little steep.