i was hoping someone could help me. i figure youguys ar eth egiuys to ask. i am looking for a model kit of an Iwo Jima class LPH ship . i was stationed aboard one in the eighties the U.S.S. OKINAWA, LPH-3 . it was my first ship in the Navy. i also deployed on a west pac in a helicopter squadron i was in aboard the U.S.S. Tripoli LPH-10. so you can see why this would be important to me. i am building models of all the ships i served aboard, every aircraft i worked on, flew in and spilled blood on.
and help you could give would be deeply appreciated. thanks for yout time.
Unfortunately, it looks like LPHs are kind of not well represented as models right now. There is one older kit from Aroura in plastic for sale on eBay right now for a rediculous amount (over $500). Other than that I think you are probably left with looking at resin models, which can also get kind of pricey.
Doing a quick internet search there appears to be a company called Wave-Line that has a waterline version of the older LPHs and another called Iron Shipwrights that has a full-hull version of these ships, in resin, but looking at the Iron ShipWright site it looks like they are asking $430 for their kit, and I didn’t see a price anywhere right now for the Wave Line kit.
Maybe you could search and see if there are any paper models out there, but other than that, I’m not sure that there is anything that may meet your needs at a reasonable price right now. [:(]
Pat
PS. Ooops, it looks like you already got some input, while I was typing up my post. Sorry about that
You are in a predicament here . LPH types are definitely underrepresented in model form . I would suggest going to Naval Institute and see if they can help with plans .
You might have to build her or them from scratch ! The Skywave kits , when available are 1/700 in scale .The other’s well , as said , Very Pricey . I don’t know if there is a card ( paper ) model . But there is the Papermodelers International site you can check to find out !