I was talking to Ralph Coles this evening. He has time to make one more large 1/144 hull mold this summer. We talked about carrier hulls last week. Now he's wondering if anyone has good plans for the Lexington Class. As an alternative project he's thinking of the hypotheical Montana Class battleship, again if good plans are available. Either would be a large and expensive mold making project with possibly limited appeal, so Ralph will only do one of these hulls if there's a guaranteed minimum sale of 6 hulls, for which some degree of advance payment would be necessary. Any interest in either? Bob
In the future I'd be interested in a Montana.... but thats not for a few years at the minimum! If you do decide to go with the Monty, Buddy Friend has a set of plans for it!
There are Wiesmesser (spelling?) plans availible for the Lexingtons, As battlecruisers, I don't what hull mods (if any) were done to convert them into carriers. But then again a Lexington class BC might be cool for an alternate history scenario....
We've got a Lexington that's sortied twice in NTXBG. Pretty fearsome ship under std Big Gun rules. 8 torps and 8 16" guns. Maneuvers like drunk pig that's passed out though. A lot like Hood in that respect, but those cage masts sure are pretty.
Bob inform Ralph if he can get a good set of plans than I definitely would be one of those customers. So I would buy a MONTANA hull from him. Curt
I would check with the Floating Drydock for plans. The may either have the plans or some sort of ship book. Their plans are very nice.
I would absolutely love to see a Montana running around. It would be a beast, an even match for an Iowa or a Yamoto maybe?
Depends on what format you build the Montana for. Big Gun? I'd bet on the Iowa over the longer, slower Montana, but I'd pick a Montana over a Yammie. Fast Gun? I have absolutely no idea if she's even allowed, much less how well she'd fight. But since I build wood hulls, I don't have much of an opinion on which hull you guys should make.
Well, in Fast gun it probably wouldnt be allowed, but it would be a hoot to build. It would be very interesting, seing as you have no pictures of an actual ship to build off of.
For Big Gun, Montana is only allowed in MBG AFAIK. 12 1/4" cannon versus 9 1/4" and a "fair" amount of speed and a huge displacement? Montana would be a fearsome ship. The commonly legal version of that class would be the WWI South Dakota class which also had 12 16" like it's much larger Montana cousin, albeit with slower speed and a displacement closer to the less heavily armed WWII South Dakota.
Montana is allowed in some Fast Gun clubs, Buckeye Battle Squadron for one... Since she was never built, I don't have any stats on her... if someone gets them to me I could see what she would be set up with? (almost the same rules as IRCWCC and MWC)
We do allow them in Treaty. That would be interesting to see a Montana out there. Years ago Rick Schultz ran one.
From Wikipedia (take with some salt) Standard Displacement: 65,000 tons Heavy Displacement: 70,965 tons Length: 906'6" (not sure if this is w/, oa, or pp) Beam: 121' Draft: 36'1" Speed: 28 knots Armament: 12x16"/50 20x 5"/54 16" belt 4 shafts
Wow, what a ship. it is bigger and better armed then i thought. wow, i hope that the IRCWCc would allow it, but i doubt that.
Well I guess my rules guide doesn't go that high - it would be up to the independent clubs to vote on what to allow it. I'd say at LEAST 9 maybe 10 units, depending on what displacement the club follows. I'm not positive on the speed, but she looks like she'd come out at 26 seconds - not bad at all. There is NO WAY I could ever transport one of those things, but I'd love to build an Ohio out of one...
As I said, it's up to the club - they may decide to just put a cap on 8 units (yamato) but I think that's rather unfair to the Montana builder if they do indeed allow Montanas.
That's accurate. Keep in mind that an Iowa and Yamato are "fairly" equal all things considered with a slight edge to Iowa due to superior speed and armament. But the Montana is an absolute get down and dirty bruiser that takes a shotgun to a knife fight. A little bit slower speed, but with an extra of the 16/50 turrets from Iowa and heavier/better placed armour than anything else out there. Alas she wasn't even laid down. Although the Panama Canal widening was started to accommodate them. Point of trivia - the Panamanian govt today is continuing the widening work on the Canal that was started for these ships in the 40's.
Nice info about the canal. Too bad they cap the units, because the Montana class would be cool, even if it was larger then an Iowa.
