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JimRussell wrote:One class of ships that has amazed me with a lack of votes is the Cleavland class CLs. There were a LOT of them made, if you want to model a WWII fast carrier group ( a doable project with the CVL release) they were in the thick of it.
Variants are WWII round bridge, WWII square bridge and the post war missile ships.
They have a funky hull, but Dragon is doing the CVL and the unblistered cruiser is easier.
I am sick of scratching EVERYTHING, as I get older resin just gets less appealing (big money for a pile of fixes).
I want a nice relaxing plastic build - I want to do the Burmingham and Miami.
Jim
I'd like to see the Clevelands too.
Erik
Hi,
I have voted, naturally you might say, for RN subjects, but I have asked permission to vote for USN ships. If this was allowed, I would vote for Cleveland-Fargo class as well!
#1: USS Colorado/USS Tennessee Class in any fit
#2: USS Alaska CB-1
#3: Mahan Class Destroyer
#4: Porter Class Destroyer
#5: Northampton class cruisers
Tough one to call but I think these would do me fine to start
1: USS Oakland class (CL 95 - 98) (not "Portland class") - These ships were ordered in 1940 as the second batch of the Atlanta class. Suggestion: design the kit as Flint/Tucson. Include alternative molded parts for the early Oakland and Reno, whose SC air-search radar antenna was first located on the aft mast and was later relocated to the foremast as aboard Flint and Tucson, and who mounted 20mm guns on the forecastle. Among these four ships, only Oakland mounted quad 40mms during WW2 service. The other three mounted eight twin 40mm; no quads. Oakland, Reno, and Flint mounted depth charge tracks but Tucson had none. I have modeled Flint accurately and can provide information from a weapons officer. The 1/700 Skywave-Dragon-Revell kit is very inaccurate in armament, measurements, superstructures, and the hull. In fact you cannot assemble it OOB even as a fictional representation because the kitted parts do not align.
2: USS Atlanta class (CL 51 - 54), similar modeling situation to the above. These four ships were ordered in 1939 as the first batch of the Atlanta class. The 1/700 Skywave-Dragon-Revell kit is offered as Atlanta, Juneau #1, and San Diego, but another modeler tells me that the kitted bridge is for the fourth ship of this group, USS San Juan. San Diego and San Juan were modified during the war, including new bridge structures and complete re-armament of the secondary battery. "CLAA" was the postwar designation and was unique to the Atlanta-Oakland-Juneau #2 design.
3: Cruiser HMS Sheffield, the RN's most distinguished cruiser owing to her combat actions and to her less-known contributions to the development of radar tactics for surface action (Bismarck) and for fighter aircraft direction. Alternative: RN Colony-class light cruiser. Base the design on HMS Jamaica as in 1942 - 43, the most famous among these ships, owing to her actions in which Sheffield too was a combatant.
4: USS Tacoma Class Patrol Frigate of WW2, built using mercantile standards to the British River-class frigate design. The USA lent the USSR a number of these PFs during WW2. The USSR returned them in Japan, where they were still moored in 1950 when the Korean War broke out nearby. The US sent crews and deployed the formerly Russian PFs against Russia's North Korean ally. This design may be valid for the British River-class frigates, too. A production run for those in 1/700 sold out within weeks.
5: RN war-emergency destroyers of the Q - Z/Ca series. Ships of this series did in the Scharnhorst and the Haguro, embarked General Eisenhower during Operation Overlord, and served postwar in other navies, including Israel's Elath, the first combat loss to autonomous anti-ship cruise missiles. There were differences in the gun mounts among these classes.
All of these kits would be physically small even at 1/350. The Atlanta-Oakland kits should share a common design for most of their parts. Costs for design and production would be low and sales would be good.
If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, [atmospheric] CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.
Dr James Hansen, NASA, 2008.
My "top" five are as follows:
1) Brooklyn class cruiser
2) Colony/Ceylon class Cruiser
3) Colossus/Majestic class CV
4) HMS Hermes (Falklands War)
5) Us Tacoma class frigates
HMS Vanguard (BB)
HMS Nelson/Rodney
Town Class Cruiser
British post war Frigates....12's and Leanders/ 41/61/81
British Post war destroyers...Darings/ counties
Michael Potter wrote:but another modeler tells me that the kitted bridge is for the fourth ship of this group, USS San Juan. San Diego and San Juan were modified during the war, including new bridge structures and complete re-armament of the secondary battery.
The stepped bridge included in the Atlanta kit (and left in some of the San Diego kits) is the only correct bridge front for any of the 4 in the class. The "flush" front specified for the San Diego kit is wrong for any of the ships at any time. There were minor modifications to the bridges of San Diego and San Juan (splinter screens, etc.) and the positioning of the gun tubs and light AA varied over time, but there was no "new" bridge structure added during their careers.
However, the kits have plenty of other errors that were in the original Skywave release, and it would be good for DML to release an accurate 1/350 kit and then step it down to 1/700.
rtwpsom2 wrote:This thread will be locked Saturday night at midnight, so make sure you are getting your votes in.
Eastern or Pacific?
Martin
"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." John Wayne
