Alaska CB1 1:192

Fliger747 · Post by **Fliger747** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 12:41 pm

Alaska has been under construction for say 25 years? I constructed the waterline hull from styrene plate and the main superstructure items from Plexiglass and styrene, main and secondary batteries, directors etc. from plexiglass or home made masters. Began construction again recently but still searching for additional resources. Using the FDD plans of the 1945 configuration. Looking forward to Steve Wipers forthcoming book.

As with the way long term projects flow, better information comes to light and many items to add or (ummm) correct. Corrections not yet complete! Of course the usual wear and tear of storage to be fixed. I believe it was "cats" that forced suspension of construction originally.

Photos on a roundtuit basis.

Cheers: Tom

Fliger747 · Post by **Fliger747** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 2:00 pm

Fire control tower, already have a few more basic changes to further add. Some bridge items, turned from brass and aluminum such as target designators and pelorous not yet installed. Bridge wings need slight modification, may use a finer PE rail, these date from 1987... Basic tower structure from 1/8" plexiglass which allows easy rounding of corners and serious solidity.

Fliger747 · Post by **Fliger747** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 2:04 pm

01 Deck and hangar forward: A fairly complex structure around the flag bags, not sure it is 100% correct as yet so waiting to attach to tower and bridge. Main turrets constructed of Plexiglass with home resin cast rangefinders etc. Bloomer/bucklers of latex over a master and then peeled off. Have held up well for almost 30 years. Many details to research and add!

Fliger747 · Post by **Fliger747** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 2:08 pm

Stack etc. Working on the cranes, constructing of styrene and sprue will take a while! The stack is built up of 1/8" plexiglass which allows sanding to round contour and remains hollow. Some details to change as further info has become available. Wooden yard is to replicate the one on the other side, snapped off in storage!

Fliger747 · Post by **Fliger747** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 2:12 pm

Aft superstructure including 5" twin mount with latex bloomers, cast from epoxy and similarly cast Mk 37 and Mk 38 directors. No rails or radar added as yet. Fore Mk 38 has Missouri later type radar, which needs to be changed... Basic structure of 1/8" plexiglass. Yes, some changes needed...

Fliger747 · Post by **Fliger747** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 2:16 pm

Bottom of FC tower showing use of 1/8" plexiglass

Fliger747 · Post by **Fliger747** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 2:25 pm

Beginning of an aircraft crane. More is to be added to the tip area and winches and innumerable detail to add. Tower is a laminate of 1/8" plexiglass and 0.40 styrene.

Fliger747 · Post by **Fliger747** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 2:43 pm

Whole ship photos at this resolution don't show much, but this is the current state of affairs if one sets some of the pieces on deck. The hull is of quite thin styrene over .040 bulkheads. It came out quite nice in the area of the bow flair. Much of the hull was filled with non expanding sealing foam for strength and rigidity.

taskforce48 · Post by **taskforce48** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 6:51 pm

this is awesome! This is one of my favorite class of ships and a dream project in large scale. Watching intently.

Matt

tegunn · Post by **tegunn** » Tue Jun 09, 2015 11:08 pm

Looking really nice!!

Fliger747 · Post by **Fliger747** » Wed Jun 10, 2015 2:40 am

A strange ship in many ways, a lot of access must be internal as I can only find four inclined ladders on the whole ship. Very cruiser like in not having a lot of superstructure volume besides the aircraft hangars. From her configuration I would guess a high reserve of stability with most of the top weight except for the fire control tower placed low in the ship. Very good arcs of AA and secondary fire, a huge number of small light weight tubs and platforms for the plethora of AA directors.

She fit right in to the same category of fast carrier escort as the Kongo's and certainly would cause opponents to make similar calculations as the USN was forced to make, as fast as any cruiser and a tough opponent. Sometimes compared to say Scharnhorst, which was a ship which didn't quite know what it was for, Not enough gun power to fight say Duke of York and not enough armor to keep out her shells. Power plant reliability and streaming range were big points, no having to tow an Alaska home running out of fuel pursuing any opponent. Much is made of poor maneuverability, however they actually had almost the same tactical diameter as an Iowa and the Fletcher Destroyer. Initial tests at the David Taylor Model Basin suggested a large tactical diameter but the ship performed much better in service.

I guess for a largish scratch project one must have a degree of enthusiasm for the subject so pardon me if I do like the ships!

Working tonight on the area around the crane supports just fwd of the aft Mk 38 director tube.

Cheers: Tom

djmap81303 · Post by **djmap81303** » Wed Jun 10, 2015 5:12 am

Very good build. You really did a good job up there with the masters.
I am pretty sure you can find allot of pictures of her on the internet. I have found quite a few in the past. Navsourse.com is usually a good place to look.
I just google the ship and select images instead of web when the sights page comes on line then dig through the picture sights. Can usually find quite a bit then you can blow them up on your computer to get some closer images.

Fliger747 · Post by **Fliger747** » Wed Jun 10, 2015 12:36 pm

Thanks DJ!

I have searched the net and Navsource fairly intensively and have a small group of semi useful photos. They are not usually of a pixel size that much useful can be done by enlargement, which is sad as the originals were probably taken with a 4x5" press type camera and would have great detail. I am hoping for some good info from Steve Wiper's upcoming Warships series on the class. There are several good photos of Hawaii under construction, however she does vary in many details from what I can gather. For my modern Missouri I was able to visit the ship several times and take many hundreds of photos and miss that level of information! Drawings do not for instance show detail in many bits and pieces of equipment such as the aircraft cranes, winches etc. Some items are however fairly standard such as radars, directors, small AA etc and will help fill in the clutter that exemplifies most warships. In my experience seldom a square yard of bulkhead is left unadorned by some item near and dear to the deck force.

One modeler many years ago described his Alaska as a "festival of small detail".

Regards: Tom

Fliger747 · Post by **Fliger747** » Wed Jun 10, 2015 3:44 pm

Some irritating things to be "corrected". I laid down proved styrene planking on the main deck, with the original understanding that the planks continued to the stern break. According to FDD plans in 1945 this was not the case, so had to rip off about 4" of decking (glued down) and replace it with "steel" plate.

T

Fliger747 · Post by **Fliger747** » Thu Jul 16, 2015 3:56 pm

Slow progress as info becomes available. Not too many exterior inclined ladders on this ship, just some for the older senior officers I would guess, aft the #2 turret. Some items not added as yet, waiting to find out for example, whether the area below the 40 mm tubs fwd of the coning tower is rounded or square? The area above the 02 level not yet attached as there are several ares not possible to paint after attachment.

Pelorous and target designators turned from either brass or aluminum, radar atop the MK 38 needs to be replaced with the proper unit and a large number of small details such as texture atop the main turrets, fire hose racks and on and on.

Cheers: Tom

Fliger747 · Post by **Fliger747** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 3:12 pm

Current slow progress, a frequent issue with scratch building is determining even what the basic structure is with some steps forward and backwards. A few remaining basic issues about the top of the stack. When I add the cranes and all the light AA things should begin to look busier. The "hell for stout" 1980 era PE rail will probably have to be replaced. The mast at the fore end of the stack is a recent replacement turned and tapered in brass, mostly an experiment in how to turn long thin objects with taper.

Cheers: Tom

DrPR · Post by **DrPR** » Thu Jul 23, 2015 9:29 pm

Tom,

You are certainly right about trying to determine how a ship was built, especially when working from photos. Even if you have the original blueprints the shipyards didn't always follow them, and sometimes the drawings had errors. Add to that changes made during the ship's service and it can be quite a task.

You are doing a great job - your model looks very good.

Phil

Post by **Dave Wooley** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 6:07 am

Hi Tom super detail work . One reference to ship yard drawings I always question what I see until I can verify , if I can't verify then I go with what I have . Fine model great subject .
Dave Wooley

Song Jung Gun · Post by **Song Jung Gun** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 3:23 am

Hi Tom!
It's very nice subject and i am interesting in U S S Alaska.
Best regards Song.

Post by **ModelMonkey** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 1:25 pm

As good as it gets!

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Alaska CB1 1:192

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