USN Mine Sweepers

To my knowledge the only plastic American (or other) minesweeper that's ever been released is the old one from Lindberg.  The new ownership of the company has recently re-released it:  http://lindberg-models.com/water_model70830.html .  It dates from the late fifties, I believe, and features most of the characteristics of kits from that era.  But the basic shapes seem to be right; I haven't seen it "in the flesh" for many years, but it looks to me like it's capable of being turned into a nice model.

I wonder if the kit Publius is thinking of may be the WWI subchaser, originally issued back in the fifties by ITC and more recently reissued by Glencoe Models:  http://www.squadron.com/NoStock.asp?item=GM09305 .

We must not, however, rule out the possibility that there is indeed another minesweeper kit out there, and that my senile brain has either never heard of it or forgotten about it.

Hey, thanks for the timely replies. I did find some pre built types (not the way I wanna' go) on the www in the price range of, let's say "over 2 grand" (really not the way I wanna go). They look like nice models, but I'm a DIY kinda guy, which brings me to the first reply, I did try the search feature and it returned 4 results here and 2 in the dio section, nothing even came close to answering my question, so then and only then I created my post.

The Lindberg kit looks very close, but the roof of the cabbin is different. I think it would be an easy fix, but I'll have to compare with the few pics of the vessel I'm after, to see if the rest of the ship is close, or if scratch building would be the better way to go.

I did learn it's MSO 443. Part of the agressive class (AM 432 - AM 449) originally commished AM 443 on 19 Jan. 1955, reclassed to MSO 443 on 7 Feb. 1955, decommished 19 May 1989, Call sign was NLZL (Geezer Echo), and sold for scrap around 1990 for about $13,000.

Just wondering, if MSO stands for Mine Sweeper Ocean, what does AM stand for?

"A" designates "auxilliary", and "M" designates "mine".

EdGrune wrote:

The best bet for the MSO class which the Fidelity was a member is the Lindberg Minesweeper class.    The resin manufacturers have not covered this class.

Well.... that might be stretching it a bit...  FIDELITY (MS0 443) was 172' x 35' and wooden-hulled, while the Lindberg kit represents the ADMIRABLE class 184' 6" x 33' and steel-hulled.

Al Ross 

The Lindberg minesweeper kit is an ADMIRABLE Class minesweepr from WWII.  The CALYPSO was converted from a YMS (Yard Minesweeper), also a WWII ship.

 The USS FIDELITY was indeed an AGGRESIVE Class MSO.  Floating Drydock has plans for USS EXPLOIT (MSO 440) which was also an AGGRESIVE Class Minesweeper.

Go here to find info and drawings of the mechanical sweep gear the ship carried. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/navy/nrtc/14160_ch8.pdf

Go here to find info and drawings on influence sweep gear carreid.  http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/navy/nrtc/14160_ch11.pdf

Matt

Senior Chief Mineman (USN Ret.)

CIC Officer, USS PIONEER (MCM 9)

CIC Officer, USS ARDENT (MCM 12)

1st LT, USS CHAMPION (MCM 4)

Thank you all very much for the info and replies. I will look into the plans for the MSO440, as it seems it would be the closest.

Well, thank you fellas. By answering this young man you answered my questions too.That,s like asking me about Gearing class D.D. s that have been F.R.A.M.med. I was on the U.S.S. OZBOURN D.D.846 when she went through the program.I was in the engineering dept. So when, I wonder are we going to see pictures from this builder on his MSO.   tankerbuilder

IPMS Deutchland is reporting the re-release in 2010 of the Revell Calypso under the Revell AG label

http://www.ipmsdeutschland.de/FirstLook/Hersteller_News/Revell_News_2010_I.html#table1