A ship model that I would like to see designed

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RyanShort1

I must confess that ship models traditionally hold VERY little attraction to me. I am a devoted airplane nut and haven't even considered building a card ship, but right about now I'd actually be interested. Below is a picture taken on board a ship this Saturday, June 5th. I'll let readers guess which ship this is, but I can tell you that the events yesterday might give you a hint. If someone knows of a cardmodel of the ship, please tell me. If not, then one of the ship model designers might want to have a crack at building one. I'll post another hint later if no one guesses it first.

Ryan
 

Jim Krauzlis

Active Member
Ryan,
Would that be the USS Texas, residing at San Jacinto State Historic Park near Houston, Texas?? 8)
Not aware of any paper model kits of her or her sister ship, USS New York. :cry:
Beautiful ship, would make a very interesting model, I think!
Jim
 

Maurice

Member
Ryan

BB35 USS Texas - and get out the way - you're spoiling the view. :lol:

Dont think think there's a paper model of it yet and it's about 217th on my list of possibles. :D

Maurice
 
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RyanShort1

Yes, you got it right! We visited the ship on Saturday as a rememberance of D-Day which was yesterday. It is a really neat experience. Would recommend it to anyone visiting Houston. It's the only surviving Dreadnaught battleship and served in BOTH World Wars. Suprisingly enough, they didn't even have ONE model kit of the BB35 at the gift shop that you could purchase. They said that the cheapest model that they could find was in the $70 range. I was thinking that even Digital Navy's kits aren't more than $30 so why couldn't someone make a relatively decent card or multimedia kit for them. I'd be glad to see if I could help any.

Ryan
 
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RyanShort1

Sorry about the view. My sisters were taking most of the pictures.
There was a D-Day commemoration there on Saturday but only about 100-200 people showed up. Considering that our family made up about 5 of the crowd and we drove in from San Antonio, it really stank. People seem to have forgotten our history. You'd think with 2 million folks in Houston, a FEW more would have shown up.
Anyway, here's a better shot.
There's a lot of great history with that ship and I sure wish I could get my hands on a model of it. Someone PLEASE?

Ryan
 

Jim Krauzlis

Active Member
Ryan:
I believe if you do a search of the internet you will find one or two resin kits out there, but they are usually very expensive being a cottage industry of sorts.
Nothing in paper as far as I can recall, at least not currently available.
Why not get a similar battleship kit, scan it and alter it to the Texas configuration? Just a thought...
Jim
 
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RyanShort1

Does anyone know how much $ it would take to sponsor a kit such as this in say 1/350th or 1/200th scale?

Ryan
 

wunwinglow

Active Member
http://www.floatingdrydock.com/G.htm
http://www.floatingdrydock.com/HULL.htm

Knowing next to nothing about USN battleships ( I am ashamed to say) I don't know if any of the other vessels were close sisters that their plans would also be useful, but at least Floating Drydock can supply these for a reasonable sum.

As to commissioning a model.... megabucks, I suspect.

Ryan, the most important thing you need to succeed as a designer of a model, resin or paper, is a passion for the subject matter. I'd say you have that passion!! Why not have a go yourself? There are plenty of willing advisors, maybe even colaborators, on this site! Maybe a 'Team Design'?

Just a thought...

Tim P
 
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RyanShort1

wunwinglow said:
http://www.floatingdrydock.com/G.htm
http://www.floatingdrydock.com/HULL.htm

Knowing next to nothing about USN battleships ( I am ashamed to say) I don't know if any of the other vessels were close sisters that their plans would also be useful, but at least Floating Drydock can supply these for a reasonable sum.

As to commissioning a model.... megabucks, I suspect.

Ryan, the most important thing you need to succeed as a designer of a model, resin or paper, is a passion for the subject matter. I'd say you have that passion!! Why not have a go yourself? There are plenty of willing advisors, maybe even colaborators, on this site! Maybe a 'Team Design'?

Just a thought...

Tim P

Yeah, I guess you're probably right about the cost... Still with a ship that's still around it might do ok. I've got plans but not the time or what I'd consider the skill to do a decent job. I'm still having fits trying to build that Tomahawk.

Ryan
 

Atomsk

Member
wunwinglow said:
Knowing next to nothing about USN battleships ( I am ashamed to say) I don't know if any of the other vessels were close sisters that their plans would also be useful, but at least Floating Drydock can supply these for a reasonable sum.

Tim P

USS Texas had one sister, USS New York. New York was "nuked" in 1946, at the Bikini Atoll A-bomb test, along with USS Pennsylvania, USS Saratoga, and DKM Prinz Eugen.
 
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RyanShort1

Actually you can get a set of plans at the Ships Store, but that's it... No models, no nothing hardly. Not even a Vought Kingfisher model.
I did buy the plans and a photo book, but don't feel up to doing it myself at this point.

Ryan
 
The Hull number of the Arizona is BB39. Is it in the same design class as the Texas, I'm not sure but if it is in the same class the Digital Navy kit would be a good starting point. The ships foremast as it is today looks to be a copy of the Arizona's
 
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RyanShort1

I'd like to think that the Arizona could be modified to fit the bill, but I don't think it'll work. There are more differences between the ships than one might think. A nice webpage that has a few side views might illustrate this: http://www.battleship.org/html/Articles/Features/Scale.htm

At any rate, I'm still interested in finding something that'll work.

Ryan
 

Atomsk

Member
Definitely not Arizona. Texas was a Dreadnought, she had 10 12" guns in five double turets. Arizona was a Super Dreadnought, and had 12 14" guns in four triple turets.

Arizona was longer, wider and had a much larger superstructure, thanks to the absence of the midship turet.

The similarities between the two are mainly in the battery control towers (or tower in the case of Texas) and their corresponding tripod masts. These share common design features because they were installed when these ships were rebuilt in the '30s. Texas' sister New York, and Arizona's sister Pennsylvania (and half-sisters Oklahoma and Nevada) all shared this similarity because of the time they were rebuilt.

The New Mexicos, had no towers at all, after their late '30s rebuilds, and that trend continued with the wartime rebuilds. If the Colorados and Californias ahd been rebuilt pre-war, I have no doubt they would have lost their towers as well.

...but, I digress. There's no way you can build a model of Texas out of a model of Arizona.
 
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RyanShort1

Atomsk said:
Definitely not Arizona. Texas was a Dreadnought, she had 10 12" guns in five double turets. Arizona was a Super Dreadnought, and had 12 14" guns in four triple turets.

Arizona was longer, wider and had a much larger superstructure, thanks to the absence of the midship turet.

The similarities between the two are mainly in the battery control towers (or tower in the case of Texas) and their corresponding tripod masts. These share common design features because they were installed when these ships were rebuilt in the '30s. Texas' sister New York, and Arizona's sister Pennsylvania (and half-sisters Oklahoma and Nevada) all shared this similarity because of the time they were rebuilt.

The New Mexicos, had no towers at all, after their late '30s rebuilds, and that trend continued with the wartime rebuilds. If the Colorados and Californias ahd been rebuilt pre-war, I have no doubt they would have lost their towers as well.

...but, I digress. There's no way you can build a model of Texas out of a model of Arizona.

Thanks for backing me up on the Arizona "conversion."

One note however. The Texas DID have 14" guns. She was the first ship to have them installed: http://users3.ev1.net/~cfmoore/history/HistoryAll.htm

Ryan
 
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