Ralph Coles dropped by this afternoon to see the Hawkins Class hull and discuss what our next hull projects might be. Our future hulls will be for smaller ships so they can be shipped more economically by Canada Post instead of Fed Ex. We discussed heavy and light cruisers and would like to include some Neutral ships that can battle as Axis or Allied. Ralph wondered if there's any interest in predreadnoughts and is open to suggestions. I can make 2 hull plugs over the winter (Dutch CL Java will be the first) and Ralph can make at least one. Here's a list of possible projects: Neutral: Swedish CL Tre Kronor - 2.5 units, LOA 49.75", Beam 4.6", Wt. 10.32 Spanish Alfonso - 2.5 units, LOA 48.3", Beam 4.5", Wt. 10.3 Allied: Argentinian CL Venciento de Mayo - 2.5 units, LOA 46.7", Beam 4.9", Wt. 11.04 British Emerald Class CL - 2.5 units, LOA 47.7", Beam 4.58", Wt. 10.0 Edinburgh Class CL - 3.0 units, LOA 51.2", Beam 5.25", Wt. 10.96 Gloucester Class CL - 3.0 units, LOA 49.3", Beam 5.2", Wt. 10.46 Dutch CL De Ruyter - 2.5 units, LOA 46.75", Beam 4.3", Wt. 8.05 Axis: Italian CL Trento - 3.0 units, LOA 53.8", Beam 5.7", Wt. 11.14 " CL Bolzano - 3.0 units, LOA 53.8", Beam 5.7", Wt. 11.47 WWI: Russian PDN Imperator Pavel - 3.5 units, LOA 38.3", Beam 6.7", Wt. 15.7 Let us know what you'd like.
WE need an admiral scheer or lutzow no one makes it anymore and it was the most popular ship of all time with both swampy and strike
Ten years ago Ralph made a very nice Graf Spee hull mold from plans I bought - more accurate lines than the old Swampy version (which was the same hull sold by Strike). After selling multiple hulls Ralph sold the mold to a member of the Ontario Attack Force (Brian Michenfelter) who also bought his Mogami mold. I assume Brian would make hulls to sell if asked.
good question. Mike and I have asked about precisely which ships Ralph has molded, and didn't get an answer. We do know that he's done a large number of them, but the response was that the shipping was too high to sell any. It's just a pipe dream at this point, but maybe somebody like @modelshipsahoy or BC would be interested in taking the molds he still has, that he doesn't want to make due to high shipping costs, off of his hands. I heard rumor that he has an awesome QE hull, and since Strike is closed down, it might be a good thing for the hobby if (from what I've heard from QE drivers) the Allies' best brawler had a fiberglass hull available.
Sorry to derail the thread, Bob. I think PDNs would be a cool addition to the fleet, and I'm still down to buy more Wind class Icebreakers if that mold is still kicking (smaller than a PDN, so I figure that it'd make the cutoff)
If you mean Ralph's hulls he sold the Richilieu and Dunkerque molds to Strike several years ago, just sold his Iowa mold to someone in the US and has a buyer for his Tirpitz. He has a tentative buyer in the US for his Florida and Indefatigable molds. Ralph visited yesterday and said he's still willing to make hulls (despite what he occasionally says about shipping being too high for him to be competitive). I have no idea what BC charges to ship a large hull from FL to CA but I doubt Fed Ex costs from Canada are excessive, given that the Canadian dollar is worth only $0.75 US. We both plan to make only short hulls in the future because we can ship them quickly and more economically by Canada Post, which has a maximum parcel size. The longest hull we can ship by Canada Post would be about 53" (636' LOA). Ralph's other capital ship hulls that I know are still in production are Rodney/Nelson, KGV, Agincourt (new this year), QE/Valiant (only for those 2 ships after reconstruction), USS Florida (beautiful hull), Indefatigable (see my build thread for photos), and Tennessee. I don't know if he sold the Yamato mold. His smaller molds are for the Wind Class US Coast Guard icebreaker, Japanese torpedo cruiser Kitikama (?)(new this year), Akizuki DD, Fiji/Swiftsure/Superb CLs (new this year), and probably more I've forgotten. Ralph has made some Fiji hulls and an Agincourt recently but will have to stop in 2-3 weeks due to cold weather. He'll resume making hulls in the spring, but his preference is to sell his molds to someone in the US rather than make and ship hulls. Like me he doesn't like making fiberglass hulls to sell but enjoys making plugs and molds.
He's trying to find buyers for most of them and has been in contact with a few people in the USA in the last couple of weeks.
No problem - I did have a PDN in the list. There are some I'd be interested in making. I have a very good Russian set of lines for the Imperator Pavel and would do that first if there was enough interest. I've also got lines for the Sverige. Ralph said he'll do PDN molds and is looking for a winter hull plug project, but preferably a hull with few or no casemates. Contact him re the Wind Class hull - if he can't do it until spring I can borrow the mold and make one in the next 2-3 weeks. ralphster30@hotmail.com
Cool stuff. I don't have the cash on hand to buy another Wind for a while, but appreciate the offer. It'll probably be another year or so since I have a wooden Alaska rebuild, one of Ralph's Wind hulls to get ready for Dad's X-mas present (He's an old puddle pirate, so he'll love having a coast guard hull to work on), and plotting out a wooden New Mexico. The Wind and a PDN are looking like FY 2020 for me, so I'll just sit back and get my building technique perfected before building those two little scoundrels. If the Wind sitting in my workshop is any indication, the fiberglass portion of my fleet will be top notch and worth the wait.
Tre Kronor would be an interesting boat, triple turret up front, with dual twins in the stern. If you guys make this one, you could count on me getting one for sure. It was the second best boat on my list after the Italian CL for quad stern guns.
I'll pass that on to Ralph; he's wanted to make the Tre Kronor for years. He doesn't have the underwater hull lines but it's similar to the British Gloucester (Town) Class in dimensions so he could use those and change the hull above water to match the TK. The bow looks like HMS Birmingham's, which was flared and didn't have the 'knuckle' like the rest of the Town Class.
Sounds great, I would get 2 in fact. I showed Don a few months back, and he was interested also. Actually a really good looking boat. If he needs 1/2 down I'm game, to move it along.
I think plans are available for the Cadorna. A search for Tre Kronor plans found nothing. There used to be Taubman plans for the similar sized Southampton/Sheffield hull but I can't find any plans for sale now. I might buy the Anatomy of the Ship book on HMS Belfast, a longer version of the Southampton, and develop lines for the TK from it.
