You do have occasional flashes of genius…
Bill
Flashes:
What ? Are you kidding me? I have been doing this for years! LOL.LOL. Remember if it floats, That’s what I would Rather be building! Besides, Remember your Atlantis conversion? Now, that would have been an excersize in drawing a Boot line. I do know this though.The Captain on my ship wouldn’t let us Bunker up till we painted a deeper Boot line on our Gearing. Then, When we bunkered up, No Red or Yuk showed. So we looked Ship-Shape and Bristol fashioned when the Brits nested up near us! In One of the last trips I ever took to Hong Kong!
From how she sits in Quincy at present, 6 foot (72" 1828.8mm) is probably dead on.
Cruisers often has the largest displacement ranges in wartime, from expending fuel, provisionts, and ammunition. So, a wartime boot of eight or ten feet might not be out of line.
Des Moines did get close to expending 50% of her magazines while o nthe gun line in Viet Nam, though.
As far as HO3S-1 helos (I agree that’s the most likely for the time frame you’re doing), Shapeways is your friend. I scored some 1/600 HO3S-1s for my USS Missouri in Korean War-era build, and I think they were offered in 1/350 as well.