Best ship to promote Battlestations

I’m looking for my next ship project and thought that I might work on a ship that would encourage people to get a Battlestations ship on the water. So the question is… which one? There are a couple of key properties I think the ship needs:
1) Relatively easy to transport. This eliminates WWII battleships and the bigger cruisers. Actually, if size isn’t a concern, I have Baltimore and Takao kits in 1/96 already if anyone is interested.

2) Relatively inexpensive. This one is harder, but it probably means limited guns - not more than two turrets or torpedoes.

3) Is similar in size and shape to several other ships. For example, the C Di Cavour, Imperatrica Maria, and Erin are within 3’ in length and have the same beam. That 3’ difference in length means that no changes need to be made between the ships to meet the +- 1/2” accuracy requirement. The decks on these ships are very similar in shape and most of the differences are in the bow and stern. So I could make a wood kit that used the same ribs for all the ships and just include a different bow and stern piece for each one. So I would like to see if I can make a kit that will build more than one ship, and preferably ships of more than one nationality.
So here are some ships under consideration:

Convoy ships, like the French Golo or American Alamosa. The Golo would be about 36” and 9 lbs, has twin shafts and one rudder. The Alamosa would be about 48” and up to 16 lbs with one shaft and one rudder.
Pros: easy builds, easy to transport, both had 3” guns that could be armed but would not need to be, single shaft of the Alamosa would be inexpensive to outfit.
Cons: I expect most new Battlestations builders to be experienced battlers and I’m not sure convoy would be popular to these captains, minimum speed, single ship from the kit.

Destroyers. Picking destroyers that would be between 48” and 52” in length and around 5” wide yield about 21 classes from 7 countries; ships like the Gearing, Jaguar, Type 1936, and Shimakaze.
Pros: Small, lightweight, fast (most 36+ knots), torpedoes
Cons: Limited displacement (~9 lbs), thin armor, limited interior space

Cruisers. Picking around 70” length and 7” wide gives 10 different ships from 7 countries; ships like the Atlanta, Spahkreuzer, Jeanne Darc.
Pros: manageable length and weight, speeds in the mid/low 30s, plenty of displacement and room, can use fast gun cannons
Cons: mediocre armor, guns, and speeds

Monitors like the Abercrombie and Roberts, 46” LOA, 11” beam, 20 lbs displacement
Pros: Single turret to arm, 1/4” ammo, plenty of room and displacement, easy to transport
Cons: Only one country represented, slow

Pre-dreadnaughts around 56” LOA, 9.5” beam, 11 types, 5 countries; like the Virginia, Mikasa, Formidable, and Regina Margherita.
Pros: Only two turrets to arm, 7/32 ammo, some with 3/32 armor, plenty of room
Cons: On the heavy side for transport at 30-40 lbs, slow

I suppose my favorites are the destroyers or pre-dreadnaughts. With the destroyers you can run and gun, but they are pretty small. The pre-dreds are slow and survivable, but are heavier than I really wanted to build. So what do you think?

 

How about the pre-dreadnought SMS Brandenburg, 47.4" L x 8" W, 3 dual 7/32" turrets, 1/8" armour per current rules.

 

Pre-Dreads are my favorites. What about WW1 cruisers? They probably only appeal more to the historically minded though and there are really no US ones save for maybe the Chesters or the Omahas.

Small armored cruisers perhaps?

 

I guess I would be the third pre-dread partisan, but I already have my next Battlestations! project picked out, so my vote would not count unless the kits would come before I start cutting ribs.

 

What about Yubari? Bigger than a destroyer but small for a cruiser.

 

White and buff with four funnels...how could that not be cool!.

 

Mark,
Takao is probably not a good ship for enticing new captains, as it has 5 main turrets (violates criteria #2).
Your Baltimore, however, meets all the criteria -- it's not too large to transport (though it is close to being too large), it only has 3 main turrets, lots of ships in the class, and it has a decent amount of internal space. It also has a nice secondary armament that can be added later.
I would avoid DDs because most captains would want to fully arm them, and with their small size that might be frustrating enough to make someone give up.
I think a lot of new (raw) captains will be enthralled with a BB that is easy to transport. So how about:
a) South Dakota class, small enough to transport (about the same length as the Baltimore) 3 main turrets, 4 ships in the class, gobs of internal space
b) Deutschland class, easy to transport, 2 main turrets, 3 ships in the class, good internal space
If you want to stick with cruisers, then how about:
a) New Orleans class. Smaller than a Baltimore, 3 main turrets, decent internal space, 7 ships in the class, decent internal space
b) Northampton class / Portland class, Smaller than a Baltimore, 3 main turrets, decent internal space, similar enough to share design with 8 ships between the two classes, decent internal space, though maybe lacking the name recognition of the New Orleans class
c) Cleveland class, smaller than a Baltimore, 4 main turrets, but there are 27 ships in class, decent internal space.
If you are sold on DDs, I would suggest either the Geering or the Z-23. The Z-23 is larger and more buildable, fewer guns will make it easier to build, but the Geering has 96 ships in the class.
Hope this helps,
Carl

 

My vote doesn't count, since I can't join the club for several years anyway, even if I wanted to, but I support predreadnoughts. They are easy to arm initially with two twin 7/32" cannons, but also have lots of upgrade options later with secondaries and torpedoes. Their hull shapes are similar enough, but there's enough variation (two vs three shafts, single vs twin rudder, step deck, tumblehome, etc.) to make a wide variety of ships.

The whole point behind going to a larger scale for combat is to enable the construction of ships that are impractical in our normal scale of 1/144. The 1/72 scale clubs emphasize WWII destroyers, and the 1/48 scale clubs are for AOS and ACW. 1/96 scale is ideally suited for all types of ships from WWI and the Predreadnought era.

 

Kotori, of course your vote counts. You can do a big version of your Mikasa when you eventually get the time.

 

I think the smaller pre-dreds are a good possibility. The SMS Brandenburg launched too early for the current rule set, but there are several ships in the 47" range with 1/8 armor and two twin 7/32 guns -- ships like the Charlemagne, Kearsarge and Petrop Avlovsk. These ships are topping out at 30 pounds, so still reasonable to lift, although 20 pounds would be better. My back isn't what it used to be.
I'm going to do some more research on the armored cruisers and protected cruisers. But to me, their main advantage would be that you could do a lighter ship. You are still running at the same speed as the pre-dreds but you have smaller guns and lighter armor. I've also thought about building the Omaha, because of it's speed, but then I looked at those stacked secondaries and 4 smoke stacks and decided to do something different.
I can see where ships like the Deutschland and Scharnhorst would be popular, they are similar in size to battleships in 1/144 scale. But they are a little heavier than what I was looking for.
Votes? Votes? Who told you the navy was a democracy? Seriously though, I appreciate everyone that takes the time to add their input. Thanks.

 

I am seriously considering the Adm. Ushakov CBB's. You can be Axis or Allied.

 

From the current rules: "Ships will be 1/96 scale replicas of warships and civilian ships that sailed during the 1905-1945 period. To be "legal" for this hobby, the hull must actually have floated, even if just sliding down the ways"

So Brandenburg can still be used, since we go by floating during the period, not by launch date during the period. I vote for SMS Brandenburg obviously. I will even provide plans for Mark if he makes a kit of it

 

I submit the Capitani Romani class cruiser. 58" long and 6"wide plus or minus. Square hull bottom. 4 twin BB guns. 8 torpedoes in 2 quad mounts. 41kts in service (no light load trials were done, 43kts claimed by some). Also 5400 long tons at full load. That's about 13lbs right?
Das Butts

 

I had not noticed that it was sailed, not launched during those dates. That will open up a lot more ships to model.
The Capitani has some advantages over the destroyers, and the Yubari is very close in size, although everything else in that length is slower. I do like the weight. As I was lifting my 12 pound cruiser out of the water this weekend I was asking myself 'This is nice, do I really want to build a ship twice this weight?"

 

The Capitani sounds really good. I have seen some in action in 1/144, and they handle amazingly well. There were a bunch planned, even if not all were finished. I'm pretty sure they fought on both sides, being Italian and all.

 

When I started looking for a cool ship to build, knowing I needed to build two because I needed two to battle, I gravitated towards the early stuff. Pre-dreadnought, or dreadnought. I like the Potemkin, myself. In 1/96 it reallly works. Under 4ft, 9in wide, two twin turrets, interesting history.
I may be the target captain you're aiming for. I have rc experience, reasonable wood working skills, and no battling experience. Reading the carrier build stickied elsewhere, a wood build seems doable with my skillset and time. This type of ship is what I'm planning.

 

And guess who found his copy of the builders plans for Connecticut/Louisiana.