Liberty Ships, Attack Cargo ships and Ammunition ships.

Medric wrote:

The O'Brien bears a very strong resemblance to the Nitro.

Huh???   The Nitro was launched in 1919, and looking at photos on NAVSOURCE she bears absolutely no resemblence to a Liberty Ship.   http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/05/0502.htm  The Nitro had a small midship house and a long-low afterhouse.   The crane & boom layout is totally different.   The hull looks to be significantly different too.  

As far as the AKA-40 Scania, again there is a significant difference.   The Scania was a S4 type hull.   The Liberties were EC2- type hulls.   The Scania has twin funnels (Liberties only one).   The Scania has a hight focs'le where the main deck on a Liberty is flush.   http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/02/02040.htm

Conversion of either from a Liberty would be an exercise in scratchbuilding.   I think it would be easier to begin with a set of plans and a stack of Evergreen and construct rather than destruct.

My Pops was on the USS Whitley AKA-91     I would like to build it althouh he is no longer around it would be nice,maybe for my mother

You can probably get to a Whitley using a Liberty Ship easier than either of the forementioned.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/10/02/02091.htm

The Whitley was an Andromeda-class AKA which was based on a C2 hull, but a bit beefier than a Liberty ship's EC2 hull.   The Andromeda class was roughly 18 fet longer and 7 feet wider than a standard Liberty.

My father was on the USS Oberon (AK-56/AKA-14),  also built on a C2 hull

For a box-scale solution look at the Revell Montrose/Randall.   Change the booms  around to make some capable of hoisting LCMs and heavy cargo.  

Another alternative might be the Sea Witch by Battlefleet Models in 1:700 scale (resin & Tom's brass).  It comes with some LVCPs.  LCMs  can be had from HP Models.   It has a more correct deckhouse configuration for the Oberon and the Andromeda-class as well.    The stack is streamlined unlike the round stack on the Liberties 

The first AKAs and APAs were converted merchant ships.  Eventually the Navy developed, on the basis of  Maritime Commission merchant hull designs, classes of AKA and APA that were built for the purpose.  The Whitney was one of those - a member of the Andromeda class of AKAs.

A long-defunct plastic kit manufacturer called Renwal used to offer a not-too-bad Andromeda-class ship.  Here's a link to one that's currently available on the web - but get ready to recover your breath after you read the price:  http://www.oldmodelkits.com/index.php?detail=4655&manu=Renwal

The Revell Randall/Montrose kits represent Haskell-class attack transports (APAs), which looked quite a bit different from AKAs.  The APA had a squat, elongated superstructure, containing large berthing, mess, and medical facilities for the embarked regiment of troops.  (The standard boat complement of an APA did include two or four LCMs, stowed in chocks on the after well deck, and sometimes on the deck just forward of the superstructure, and APA cargo holds frequently did contain light tanks, bulldozers, and other vehicles - though probably not medium or heavy tanks.)  The AKA design had a distinctively-shaped, rather tall superstructure centered well aft of the midships point, a rather sharply-raked bow, and the distinctive A-frame masts.  The old Renwal kit has those features.  It's obviously not up to modern standards in terms of detail, but with the help of aftermarket parts it undoubtedly could be turned into an extremely impressive model.  (I'd be reluctant to pay that much money for it, but I suspect it can be found for a lower price if one is sufficiently patient.)

I built a Revell APA in the markings of my father's ship, the U.S.S. Bollinger, and gave it to him for Christmas.  It really made his eyes light up; he kept it on a shelf in his office at Ohio State until he retired.  I don't know what happened to it after he died.

Thanks for all the advice guys. I've been surfing more than Jeff Spicoli and I've discovered many treasure troves of schematic drawings, photographs and details from old crewmembers of the Nitro. I'm beginning to believe that the total scratchbuild idea may have the most merit. Wow, that's something that completely blows my mind. How do you even begin to contemplate such a task? Surely that is the territory of the Master Modelers among you with years of trial and error experience. Is there literature available with the "how to's" of basic scratch building? The thought of constructing the hulls curves and other complicated tasks fills me with more trepidation than my old ice climbing days. Still, I worked in the stripping room of a large printer for 24 years and precise measuring in the ten thousandths of an inch range gave me invaluable knowledge of precise measurements. Wow! My mind is reeling at the thought of this Hurculean task. If it wasn't the Old Man's ship...

See my response to another post regarding srctachbuilding a hull

/forums/687423/ShowPost.aspx

To do a good job you really need a set of lines (cross section & elevation).   Shoot them to the desired scale on a Xerox (it helps to be in a standard ship modeling scale for PE details).  Laminate to sheet plastic and start constructing.   The hull it the most time consuming part.  Build the superstructure with plexiglas blocks or styrene boxes.  Apply bulkhead detail (PE hatches, fire hoses, etc).   Drill portholes into bulkhead.  Stack up decks like a wedding cake  (it helps if you are not thinking about ease of manufacture for a caster).   Masts & booms are brass rod/tube.   Boats & guns from an aftermarket source such as L'Arsenal.

Post a link to the Nitro site and I'll look at what is there and see if there is enough to start.