This model is on display in Roanoke, Va. at the Virginia Museum of Transportation. It is a very handsome ship! I would like to have a good size model of it, but, since there were only two in the Worcester class, I guess it will never happen in my lifetime.
Hi,
That’s a nice looking model. I’ve always liked how navies will sometimes use names of various cities, towns, states or regions for their ships, as it gives those places a connection with the people at sea even if the actual town or city etc is 100s of miles from the oceans [:)]
At least back in the day the name of the ship often was related to the hometown of a benefactor. So there were some somewhat obscure ones such as the USS Astoria CA-34, as in Astoria Oregon. Named for the John Jacob Astor expedition which founded the City to establish fur trading on the Columbia river. She was sponsored by a Mrs. McKay, a descendant of a partner in the Pacific Fur Company.
Roanoke was to have a sister ship USS Vallejo, which was not built. That name was eventually given to SSBN 658 USS Mariano Vallejo, built at Mare Island, CA. One of the few USN ships named for the citizen of a foreign country.
Obscure, yes, but not without models.
In 1/700 scale, both Niko Models and Admiralty Modelworks produce very nice kits of the class. In 1/700 The model is just about 12 inches long.
The Admiralty kit has more detail and more options for different time periods, and is a bit more expensive.
Rick
1/700 is just way too small for my old eyes! Especially at those prices!!!
She is a very pretty ship.
Have faith, another class of two, with the third cancelled (late war US battle cruisers, Alaska and Guam) has been released. So there is hope, especially if enough requests are made.
Hi,
Hopefully not getting too far off topic, but I guess the USS Harold E. Holt, USS Conte De Grasse, USS Lafayette and the USS Winston Churchill are a couple other ships named for foreigners and the USS Canberra is a ship named for a foreign city (or at least a previous HMAS Ship named for a foreign city).
Pat
Wow,never saw that one,puts me in mind of the Japanese heavies with the three turrets forward.
I knew we had some triple forwards, can’t remember if 5 or 6 inchers, mostly used as AA support for carrier task groups/forces.
Brooklyn class light cruisers, 5 turrets, 3 forward & 2 aft each with 3x6" guns.
Yes! Except Winston had dual american/ british citizenship. There’s also the USS Simon Bolivar.
If you want a big ship model, consider scratchbuilding one in wood. The cost is very reasonable. If you use the bread and butter method of construction, and keep the layers reasonably thin, the carving is minimal except at bow and stern.
Ship modeling was the original form of model building. Big tradition of ship modeling. There used to be many sources of scale drawings available. Less so today. The wide availability of great model kits has hurt the market and plans/drawing vendors are disappearing, but for a US warship I am sure there are sources.
Don is right on there. Pick a scale that has all of the bits and pieces you need available. These days with 3D on demand online, just about anything is possible. But other common scales in either metric (1:100) say, or English (1/96 or 1/8" = 1’-0") will provide railings, ladders and all of that kind of thing.
Back to 3D, if you can get together the file, anything pretty much can be found There are more and more stories regarding special requests being fullfilled.
Someone here (EJHammer) needed Bofors guns in some screwy Lindberg scale around 1/500.
Found them in another scale, ordered a re-scaled set and voila!
I used “obscure” to refer to the USS Astoria. Of course there’s nothing obscure about that ship. She fought and died heroically. I meant the name. I apologize for that.
quad bofers http://www.3dmodelparts.com/1-500-quadruple-40-mm-bofors-autocannons-with-shields-8-pcs/
could use a Baltimore class hull, 5" & light aa guns plus maybe most of the superstructures to use on the Roanoke.
Roanoke Dimensions, 679’ 6" (oa) x 70’ 8" x 25’ (Max)
Baltimore Dimensions, 673’ 5" (oa) x 70’ 10" x 26’ 10" (Max)
Really, Roanoke is a follow-on to the Atlanta-class CL(AA) cruisers, so you could use one to kit-bash.a 1/350 copy.
There are (IIRC) fiberglass hulls for the CL(AA)s in 1/8" (1/96) and 1/16" (1/192) scales; for which there are a ton of aftermarket/scractchbuild supplies.
Now, a 1/16"=1’-0" model will be about 42" lonng, too.
I had started a waterline 1/16" USS San Diego years ago, but the hull did not survive a move, so the project was sheled.
I wonder if an AA cruiser or two might have been useful to the RN in the Falklands, particularly at the landings.
Certainly Atlantic Conveyor and Sheffield were done in by longer range missiles, but Tristam and Galahad were hit with iron bombs.
Ship naming has as many exceptions as it has rules of its history.
The term “capital ships” comes for vessels of a size and rarity to be named after national or State Capitals.
The US pattern, for the first half of the 20th century at least, was rather elegant.
Battleships, the heaiest of the heavy, were named for States, so that allowed for 45-48 at a time.
Heavy Cruisers were named for large cities, often State Capital cities, or for cities of historical significance–Lexington, Saratoga, etc. This allowed for 60-75 ships.
Light Cruisers were named after notable cities, so this allowed for about 100.
Destroyers, once the world got around to naming them, were named for significant Naval figures, CNOs being much featured. This allowed for 300-400 ships.
Submarines, once they were named, were named after fish. Which allowed for untold numbers of boats.
Aircraft carriers and Amphibious warefare ships picked up a pattern of being named for notable battles.
Now, all that is pretty much chunked out the window in 1947. Heavily spurred on by the fact that the USN commissioned over 50 aircraft carriers during the war, and followed no convention at all in naming them (to this day, arguments rage over whether USS Franklin was named for Benjamin, the Battle of (in Tennesse), or the city in Massachusetts).
The rise of the nuclear submarine further muddied the waters. The boomers (blasitic missle boats) were orginially named after war leaders. Which would have allowed for more than a few such boats.
For a very brief while, there was some sanity. SSNs were named after cities; SSBNs and CGNs were named after States; Amphibs (generally) named for famous island campaigns or for previously famous naval vessels. Even that was more exception than rule–last 4 CGNs were Virginia, California, Texas, and Truxton (a former CNO of some note).
After the debacle with USS City of Corpus Cristi (religious leaders required the “City of”), SSNs went back to fish.
One CV was named after an entirely fictitious place.
And a class of Ship named
after cabinet secretaries .
Yep, Shangri-La–postwar naming.
Cabinet Secretaries have gotten short shrift overall, excepting with USCG, which has never had to comport with USN guidelines.
(Although the Coasties have opted for maritime features and virtues