I have to ask. If folks are willing to do models of the sunken Titanic and Bismark and Arizona( All Memorials in a way.) Why not just do a model of a just torpedoed Tanker or Freighter ? Why not a Troop ship, or Heavy cruiser? They wouldn’t have to even be identified. In books they are not anyway, usually, so there are many ships that could be modeled.
Here’s a scenario I would like to see. A surfaced U-Boot and a Freighter exchanging gunfire! No one in my knowledge has ever done that as a diorama? Or two Heavies( cruisers) slugging it out, One low in the water and on her way down, But not quite at that stage yet? Or the Aircraft Carriers of either Navy, MortallyWounded and Sinking?
If you are going to do a diorama of two warships firing at each other, you may need a very large base. I don’t think even two cruisers or even destroyers wouild be that close during combat. Remember the range and powerf of the ship’s weapons, a battleship could shoot at many miles and rarely would a ship come too close to its opponent. Even in 1/700th scale the size of the base would have to be 3-4 feet at least.
Not often, but has happened. At Leyte, the Roberts got in close enough to a Japanese heavy cruiser that she couldn’t depress her 8 inchers enough to get a shot.
Now I think that one of the reasons not many of these are done is because there is a lack of documantation of the damage during battle, whereas after the fact there is usually photographic evidence available. You could do a nameless / faceless battle scene; that would be fairly easy. but for specific ships, a bit harder. I did a 1/700 sunk Japanese freighter dio which I gave to our CO as a memento after a working dive trip to Palau.
I was palnning on doing a sinking Maru at some point or even the wallowing Mikuma. There’s a long way between "someday: and “planing to do” to actually getting the kit and doing one though. I still have to re-tackel the Johnston at Samar at some point. The original I was working on had it’s own war injury. She fell off the shelf while my wife and granddaughter were moving my hobby room guts to replace the flooring. She was lost to heavy seas and striken from the books while I was away in Dallas getting my translant. Thankfully, Goldhammer was there to supply a new kit for me so I can get back to it.
That last one has been covered, since it’s easiert to “pose” for a diorama.
Issues of scale interfere with the other two.
With the 88 on a U-Boot you are looking at 1-3km range. At 1/700, 1km is 1.4m, around 56 inches. So, a 5 foot shelf is barely going to contain the two models. Which will need to be more than a foot deep to get a 500’ frieghter broadside to a sub.
With “heavies” you are looking at 8-10 mile (call it 9-12km) separation. Five miles is a lot. At 1/1200 scale, 5 miles is 7.9 feet–94" or 2.4meters. So, our putative 8 foot shelf has a couple of three-four inch models on either end and a vast amount of nothing in the middile (remember this is presupposing a 5 mile range, right where a destroyer screen might be set in–15 miles needs 24’–7.3m).
Which leaves the workaround of forced perspective. Which is always complicated, specially for having to build the diorama to be viewed only in the one direction. The view over a 1/1200 sub to a 1/70 sinking frieghter would be odd at best.
the main ones I was thinking about were single ships and their helpers alongside. Now as for the U-Boot and Freighter they could be done in 1/1200 for sure, because Gunter Prien even mentioned getting close after he disabled the guns to make sure the radio Room and Engines were disabled. Especially if she contained foodstuffs!
Fresh foods were always a premium on the Unterseeboots!
Or you could do a diorama of a allied ship capturing a U-boat that has partly sunk but was saved before it could go down. The boats would have been pretty close.
LoL MC, had completely forgotten about that little thing. Funny thing, I later bought Tamiya’s DD445 Fletcher in 1/350. Go figure.
A few pics out there of U505 and the Guadalcanal.
Judging by the photos from the SBD’s, you could build Mikuma OOB, put the main batteries in the right position, work in the worst of the damage, then run a propane torch over her, put a port list on her and place the time between 17:15 and 19:30, when she rolled to port and went down
You could do the Glowworm ramming the Admiral Hipper. Both kits are available in 1/700 scale. After I read the story I ordered the Glowworm - me, mister not a ship guy.
