Hi all,
I'm relatively new here, as well as to the modelling scene.
Anyway, after building a few aircraft kits when I was a child I have never really made anything special. Until now!! I'm collecting a large fleet of Naval ships, most of them in 1/700th scale. My newest additions are the LST-4002 from Tamiya and the LHD-4 USS Boxer (BTW, those helo's, harriers and V-22's are really small in scale 1:700th!!
![Big Smile [:D]](/FSM/CS/emoticons/icon_smile_big.gif)
) from Revell. Both are amphibious assault/support ships, which happen to be my favorite genre in ships.
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone here could give some tips in making these ships. Or are there any books on this subject?
BTW, speaking of the Boxer, she is a Wasp class Landing ship. But the scale is 1/700, I was wondering if this (or a similar design) is also available in 1/350th scale? You see, when I get some more experience (and more display space...) I'd like to take on a massive modelling project. Something that dwarves even the largest aircraft carrier to a "puny attackboat"
I'd like to create an AFSD which stands for "Afloat Forward Staging Base" more commonly known as "SeaBase". The basis for thsi ship is a super tanker or giant container carrier hull fitted with a large flightdeck. This would be capable of having a huge number of helicopters tiltrotors (V-22 Osprey and V-44 QTR) as well as VTOL aircraft (Harrier/JSF) to be stationed aboard.
Below is an image of such a design:
Massive!! I know, but before I ever be able to make such a ship... Currently the largest container ships are about 250-300 meters long. But in Korea they are already talking about ships of 400 meters and larger, possibly even 500 meters or more. Even now the ULCC's and VLCC's are comparable to this size, the biigest commercial ship (actually the biggest sailing vehicle in the world) is the ULCC "Jahre Viking" which is 458 meters long. So a 500 meter ship should be just around the corner. The various Marine Corps around the world are already drooling when thinking of these kinds of ships. Just imagine, an enormous amount of troops, vehicles, spares, supplies etc. etc. very near the frontlines, but far enough from shore to be relatively safe from hostile forces. No longer having to depend on foreign bases, and far better to control.
Sorry for the rambling, I get a little carried away sometimes...
Anyway, are there any models available of ULCC's or giant containerships? Preferably in scale 1/700th? Projected size for the ship should be about 70 or 80 cm long.
I'm also looking for a model of the HMS Ocean, the new LPH from the Royal Navy. I thought that Revell had a model of it, but I can't find any references of it anywhere...
Thanks for any help!!
Remko