Famous AMERICAN Ships

Modeling Subjects Ships
1

HI,You. All the folks out there in hobbyland ,may not like what I am going to say.I am going to say it anyway. We here in the good old U.S.of A could care less about our maritime history in real life.Sure ,we have the INTREPID,HORNET and the MISSOURI,WISCONSIN et/al. The problem here is many folks have NEVER heard of these unless there,s some kind of publicity.

Now look for VICTORY and LIBERTY ships,we DO have what, two of each ? okay how about the liners that made history? The S.S. UNITED STATES and the S.S. AMERICA should NOT be forgotten. the fact is that many of our merchant ships of historic note have gone into a short ,brief sentence or two in some history book and that,s it.

Now you may think this is a rant,but it isn,t.We have had many ships fly the flag that NO ONE,even in resin makes a model of. We have had some of the most beautiful ,hand crafted yachts too.Where are the models and books on them. If it doesn,t have something on deck that flies and shoots or goes blam on it,s own ,we are NOT interested,it seems.

Military ships make good museums ,true.But what about the peaceful,gentle side of life.What about the good floating things that all those sacrifices made possible. We seldom make them available.There are a few aircraft,and many cars. Sadly the civilian floating side( UNLESS IT,S WOOD) is not available to most of us.

We are familiar with SCIENTIFIC,BLUE JACKET and others.But,has anyone really tried to even fill the powerboat niche-NO.Now,I am not talking ski,or bass boats here.I am talking really good plastic versions of the Presidential yachts.The fine yachts by CHRIS-CRAFT,OWENS, STEVENS and HIGGINS. some of those were engineering and style and design winners too. Where are they? Well,something to mull over for those few interested in the subject.

Many of the AMERICAN yachtbuilders made the P.T. and other small fighting craft possible.Now,why don,t we celebrate the civilian side both pre and post war that they were responsible for? I know there is smaller interest in these,but,even limited edition resin would be prefferable to nothing at all.Does anyone agree with me? I sure hope so. OH,this goes for all types of commercial craft besides tugs too. TANKER-builder

2

Someone made a half decent Chris-Craft a long time ago. Can’t remember who. A strategically placed smoke bomb followed by an M-80 sent her to Davy Jones Locker.[:'(]

I built many of the Dumas wooden ones for R/C. They were great to start with but needed a lot of extra help to really look good. Used to take them to work with me on the 12 to 8AM shift. All the sanding kept me wide awake while sitting in front of the control board watching the gauges.

Jim [cptn]

3

You can’t dictate what people SHOULd be interested in. I have no interest in sports teams, and there’s nothing wrong with that. This is part of community and society though; there isn’t enough time in the day to know everything, so we have our groups that specialize. it’s up to those groups to keep the knowledge and information out there for others that may become interested.

4

Even within the field of naval and maritime history, there really isn’t time for one person to know it all. I studied with the Munson Institute at Mystic Seaport Museum when I did my Master’s degree and have an extensive knowledge in naval and maritime history but am admittedly not interested in everything within that field. So, I specialize in those areas of interest and leave it to others to focus on their areas. So, let’s all sit back and enjoy that which we enjoy!

Bill

5

I honestly don’t care about civilian ships. Even the many builds of Titanic leave me stone cold. MAYBE the British merchant cruisers of the Great War. But…I don’t really care much for most civilian aircraft, either. Or trains, which I guess are kind of the closest thing to civilian armor.

In terms of American ships, though, there are a ton that are missing.

First and foremost is a good, large-scale CV-6 Enterprise. Probably the single most accomplished warship in United States history, and there’s nothing in 1/350.

Ditto the USS Washington, the only US battleship to make a BB-to-BB kill. Sure there’s the Trumpy North Carolina, but 1) it’s not that great a kit and 2) converting her to Washington is a whole ton of work.

Dragon recently started giving us some of the converted-cruiser CVLs, but I don’t know of any escort carriers.

Cruisers and destroyer escorts are also pretty fabulously under-represented. I desperately want to build a 1/350 USS Atlanta or USS Juneau, but the only option is a several-hundred-dollar resin kit. Yeah no. Or how about a four-stacker destroyer?

And that’s just World War II. I’m not as familiar with the Cold War and modern navy, but I have to imagine representation is equally if not more sporadic.

6

Where’s the USS Texas? Last of the Dreadnoughts, fought in both World Wars, even preserved as a museum so model companies can use for making a kit of it. Even the poll Finescale did about wanted kits, had the Texas as a top three most wanted kit.

Sure there’s that resin one, but I can’t afford that one. I don’t want a small scale but a 1/350 version.

So stop making another Bismarck or Arizona, and make a Texas BB-35.

Not to mention the former CGN cruiser that was retired in the eighties, how about that one for a modern ship.

7

Which CGN? There were four classes if I remember correctly.

8

Oh TRACY,You misread my intention here. There are some ,a finite few,who are interested. The thing is ,we should celebrate the great craftsmen that helped us win the war.A HIGGINS or TRUMPY or STEPHENS yacht still bearing the proud lines of her military counterpart still do exist.

I for one have been carving ,in solid hull,full cockpit versions ,the speed boats that sometimes do bear a resemblance to the military counterpart.With mahogany stripping as an overlay they can look good(I sell every one I do) It,s just that there are many civilian versions out there.I know many do not share my interest ,that,s true ,but come on - How many truly beautiful versions of the military vessels are represented in plastic is all I am saying.

Why not a 1/350 VICTORY or a really good AKA ? the ones that survived kept our maritime strength up there for a while. I just would like to see a model somewhere that helps say it all.just a little ? MATSON NAVIGATION took many and set them back to what they did before the war.One or two would be nice. TANKER-builder P.S. I am NOT trying to dictate-there must be interest or why do so many papermodels of these ships get made ?

9

I’m thinking he meant CGN 39 USS Texas, as a companion to BB-35.

Which would be even better with a SSN-775.

Which would be a good grouping, 573’ loa; 578’ loa & 377’ loa

CGN-39 would be good for the kit makers for being a foundation for Virginia, California, and Truxtun as well.

And all three would sell well in the BB-35 gift shop. And some extra cash would help Texas, what with the dry berth project back on hold again.

10

HI,I would welcome a really good model of the TEXAS. On another vein though,how about a good model of the S.S. LURLINE( a MATSON passenger vessel of definitely war vintage. ? Or,how about a model of the TENNESSEE after PEARL HARBOR? Even then the support vessels get forgotten. How about the U.S.S. DIXIE or a SUB-TENDER of WW2 vintage? I know we have REVELL,S U.S.S. CURRITUCK and the PINE ISLAND.There are many more though. TANKER-builder

11

No, I didn’t misread your intent. I just focused on the fact that those are very niche topics with very few who are interested and took for granted that everyone made the same logical leap that I did in my head :stuck_out_tongue:

Point being that most of those subjects are for the scratch-builders, or limited run kits. My family had a Chriscraft growing up, and I’d love a kit of the Matson Lurline for a variety of reasons, but I don’t think either are commercially viable as mainstream releases. Enterprise… Juneau… there are some that have been mentioned here that are obvious choices.

But I also hang out and help at a friend’s model shop in the Seattle area and know what people are interested. No one comes up and says “sell me a model of something I’ve never heard of or seen before.” 90% of the people who walk through the door want the stuff they’ve read about or seen on TV. 9% are buying for a family member and have a vague idea (“he builds airplanes…maybe tanks?”).

The sort-of logical conclusion I draw from this is that to get more of these rare subjects built, we need to foster scratch builders…

12

TRACY, I definitely will give you that point.When I go to HILL COUNTRY HOBBY SHOP (owned by my friend GARY EMERY ).folks will walk in with absolutely no idea what to gift someone.As far as the civilian anything there again you made a strong point.By the way.You CAN (with a good measure of scratchbuilding) do a nice LURLINE from the PYRO/LIFELIKE/LINDBERG version of the AMERICAN president liner. I do get the point,but , I guess it hits close to home.I was one of the last four apprentices at the RYBOVICH boat works back in the late 50s.My love comes from there I guess. TANKER-builder

13

Hasegawa 1/350 Gambier Bay. And I strongly suspect it’s only sold because they sank it.

Now, if someone would sell a Bogue…

14

When i was a child I remember donation requests for the hospital ship SS Hope. An organization that sent a fully equipped hospital ship to poor countries all over the world. Talk about the “gentler” side. It would be a fine subject for a kit.

15

I think there was a model done by REVELL. I believe it was 1/400 or 1/525? TRACY,correct me if I am wrong.This was the only hospital ship model I,ve ever seen.I believe I have one in my stash to build.It may be called the HAVEN. TANKER-builder

16

The old hospital ship kit was rereleased in the last couple of years. It is about 1/500 scale. That was built on the C-4 troopship hull, so could make a nice conversion.

17

Here is a finished USS Hope.

www.modelshipgallery.com/…/bn-index.html

18

I’d love for a USS Texas and some Pearl Harbor battleships in 1/350 plastic myself.