looking for USS Gaudalcanal LTH-7

Aurora made a 1:600 scale LPH-7 Guadalcanal.    It is now long out of production and brings a pretty penny on sites such as eBay.

Iron Shipwright makes a LPH-9 Guam, sister-ship of the Guadalcanal in 1:350 scale resin & brass.  http://ironshipwrights.com/pages/guam.html  It is still in production and available direct from ISW or through ship vendors such as Freetime/Pacific Front or Sprue Brothers

Thanks Ed, LPH-9 is a bit to modern isn't it? The LTH was from the mid '60s.

 I'm not really up to speed with Navy stuff so don't know if it would work or not.

I like the commercial shipping stuff myself.

No, not really modern.  Just long serving.

The Guadalcanal was laid down in 1961,   the Guam in 1962, the lead ship of the class, the IwoJima was laid down in 1959.  The Guam was sunk as a target in 2001.   The Guadalcanal was sunk in 2005.

The designations of Navy ships is arcane, but very precise.

LPH is (amphibious) Landing (ship) (for) Personnel (and with) Helicopter (deck).  This is also known  as "Landing-Platform-Helo" as a mnemonic from the initials; the 'official' (and virtually unused) title is "Helicopter Landing ship."

LHA is (amphibious) Landing (ship) (with) Helicopter (deck) (shore support ) Assault.  this is also known as "Amphibious Attack Helicopter Carrier."

LPD is (amphibious) Landing (ship) (for) Personnel (with) (well) Deck.  This is also known as a "Landing-Platform-Dock" from its initials.  IIRC, the official title is Amphibious Assault ship.  There is a related and similar ship, the LHD, which has a small helo-landing deck at the stern.

The main feature is a floodable well deck (near universally mis-called a "dock' or "dry dock") from which landing craft can be launched (and one LCAC; Landing Craft, Air Cushion) can be stowed internally.

LSD is (amphibious) Landing Ship (with) (well) Deck.  These are also known as "Landing-Ship-Dock" from the intials, again with the misnomer of "dock' for "well deck."   LSD can devote as much as 2/3 to 1/2 their overall length to the well deck, to the purpose of carrying a large number of relatively-fragile landing craft (often nested one within the other).  The pone top of the well deck allows the use of cranes to load the landing craft while stable and dry, and let them leave 'wet' afterwards.  Since the 60's all LSD have carried some sort of helo deck; the more modern classed some hangaring provision for helos is also included.

LST  was (amphibious) Landing Ship (with) Tank (deck).  The term "Landing-Ship,Tank" is too often used--a hold-over from British RN usage, and not at all related to armored fighting vehicles.  LST are the largest vessels designed to "strike ground."  Which is actually quite complicated.  Further, "doors" in the bows are one of the least-desirable design constraints in nautical architecture.  (very much a pain to navigate on open water with a cross-wind.)

In WWII, there were a number of Auxiliaries used.  AP just meant Auxiliary (Ship) Personnel (carrying) and was most used for militarized Liners.  AK encompassed merchant cargo vessels in military service.  With the advent of Liberty and Victory ship construction, a way was needed to to designate those hulls modified for specific Amphibious use, thus the suffixed "A" creating APA from AP; AKA from AK.  As Amphibious tactics gelled, it was felt that the APA & AKA ought carry an "L" as their companion vessels did.  This gave us the LPA and LKA. 

There was almost no difference between an LPA and LKA, other than in how many pipe rack frames were installed on platform decks in the cargo holds.  The use of  "combat loading' pretty much standardized the cargo layouts for Amphib ships.  So, combining the classes started giving us LPH, LPD, LHD, and the like.

Now, I was Ambib (aka "gator navy") for only seven years (3 active 7& 4 Reserve); but, I've not heard of a US designation of LTH.   But, there could be a Military Sealift designation along those lines; like one of the RoRo's.

CapnMac

i enjoyed your explanation of the various amphibious ship classes. As an ex "gator" I do take exception to one comment though. There was a great deal of difference between the APAs and AKAs. The Haskell class APAs were built on modified victory hulls. The major modification being the addition of an additional deck forward and aft of the main deck house over the #2 and #4 holds. This housed a complete hospital aft and troop officer's quarters forward. The AKAs appeared to be constructed on other types of merchant hulls but had much heavier cargo handling masts and booms to handle the heavier weapons and boats.

Thank you very much, Not being a Navy guy I'm only passing on what was given to me with no research done on my part at all.

 You would think that if you served aboard a ship that you would know more about the ship but no.

 Ah well. It's always good to learn something new everyday. Thank you all!

There was also a 1/700 resin kit of this class.  Can't remember who manufactured it, and it has been long out of production.  I have one in my kit stash that I traded an Aurora 1/600 kit for.  Will need to dig it out to see who produced it.

Matt

amphib

I do take exception to one comment though. There was a great deal of difference between the APAs and AKAs.

And rightly so, for I was in error (a cogent reminder against blithely creating walls-of-text while insomniac).

Mind you, the 13th Ed of KMS I grew up with barely mentioned the C-2/C-3 ships at all; the the Knights at Newport getting water-wings was scarce better .  And, it was an odd time to learn these things, too.  Our last teaching example was Inchon, which used "strait" hulls like AK, AF, AO and the like to support the beachhead once all the "L's" did the major work.  My O-6 day had a gig planning and organizing convoys to resupply NATO in Europe, and most of those TOE had "No MTS hull of that that type available" in them. 

Which could make a person jaded, even cynical.  Especially by the late-80's to come to the trade late on.  We'd proved (the hard way) that the 1200# plant was not going to be the eave of the future; our merchie friends were fleeing steam plants for reliable, simple, marine diesels.  "Read my lips, no new taxes" put the kibosh on 600# plant Auxiliaries, too.

Then Moore's Law made grounding actual ships in the littoral an unlikely thing--not that we did not try to wear out all those County-class LST first (ah the joys of riding at anchor with a full batch of ami barges lashed alongside--not missed at all; twice on Sunday, too).

I'll let this peter out, lest it get to tl;dr again--I'm trying to cope with deciding whether I really want to fuss with this new set of "dominance" wings or not.