Hey all. So, I was having a convesation with the one whom I will refer to as the Hairy Admiral, and we basically came to the decision that we just need to build all of the truly odd-ball ships. You know, the ones that, for some reason or another, have either never been built for combat, or have been only built a few times. I THOUGHT I had a good one, the Idefatigable class BC HMAS Australia, but apparently someone makes a fiberglass hull for it. Oh well, it's a cool boat anyway. Thus, here is the question I pose to all of you who have been in the hobby for a while. What kind of interesting ships can you think of that, to your knowledge, have not been built before? I think it would behoove us all to limit the scope of this to light cruisers or larger (too many little destroyer classes out there) so that we don't get into boats that would be totally useless in a fast-gun format. I'll start off... Even though the plans are readily available online, I have not seen or heard of a Bretagne class DN being built for combat. Nor have I seen anything like HMS Neptune (WWI DN). IJN Settsu, anyone? I am curious to hear your input. I want to start narrowing down the list for my next build. ;-) Capt. OCD
I had been thinking about doing a Courbet DN. I usually pick my next builds based on what's not on the water in my corner of the world. (Evstafi was a prime example. I did that one before any of the PDN rule changes came out and it was still a hoot to battle with).
The British have a boatload of Dreadnaught designs that have not been built. There is also many pre-dreadnaughts that have not been built.
Most of the real oddballs were built in the 1880's and 1890's by France and Russia. Treaty and Battlestations are the only ones who go back far enough. I have plans for HMS Colossus, its on the build list. My HMS Achilles (Warrior) class may be the only one of that hull that Strike has sold. Very few armored cruisers about other than Scharnhorst/Gneisenau. PDN's should be more common since BC has the Mississippi/Kilkis, and there is that lovely Verite. Wasn't there also a Faa di' Bruno built? Ganguts are cool, as built, the refits are just odd looking.
I believer Gerald or Dirty battled a Settsu. They're interesting boats. I have plans. And It would round out my Japanese capital ships. Gangut has the potential to be much like a VDT, but it has a superstructure that only the shipyard could love. (translation: U G L Y) I think PDNs aren't more popular because they're 1)slow 2)not as good as 4 unit pig boats in regards to pumping capacity and sidemounts. That said, I've battled with a Sverige and it was a nasty little boat until it went on 5. Then It got pounded and sank most of the time. Courbet/Bretagne suffers from being French. There are some hardcore Frenchies out there, but the French navy doesn't seem to have the kind of cult following the other navies do. Plus it only has 1 rudder and is 28secs. (Baden feast anyone?) I think in the British camp, Neptune/Collosus would be great little sluggers. Ideal turret arrangement and the funky stepped deck make them potentially an extremely tough target to hit. Pretty comparable to a Helgoland. On the American side of things, the Tennessee class of armored cruisers is an Allied ww1 scharny. Tons of hard area. But CAEs suffer from the slow speed (26secs) and lack of sidemounts. New Mexico class battleships. I think the similarity to the Arizona and Colorado classes has kept them from being built. They should perform essentialy the same as an Arizona, just look better with a clipper bow. Still have some good hard area forward though. The IJN Ise in my garage may be the first of its class (at least in a while) to hit the water. It's like a Fuso, but longer and with worse turret positioning! (still 26secs too) Dante Alghiretti, the first Italian dreadnought, could be a fun little boat. I think it has a single rudder though.
The Dante Alghiretti and the Gangut share the two inline rudders IIRC. I rather like the looks of the Dante better, not pretty just more interesting than the Ganguts.
Which plans for the HMS Collosus do you have? I have the Goff plans and they are a little wanting. Taubmans are just Goff plans. I have been toying w/ getting some for maritime museum but that is pretty pricey. However, one day I am going to make is Hercules/Collosus.
I had toyed with doing a Novograd for Treaty, but it falls a little (21 years!) too early. Talk about an ODD ship
I have the Goff plans too. I concur with both of your assessments. The plans from the NMM are peerless but very pricey.
Our Big Gun club (WWCC) allows any prop-driven warship that was in service in 1900, regardless of when it was built. Therefore, my nomination for oddball ship is: U.S.S. Vesuvius [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Vesuvius_%281888%29] Rob
Hmm... Second attempt at a link to Vesuvius: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Vesuvius_%281888%29.jpg Rob
Well, if it was easy, it wouldn't be much fun to have an oddball ship. Also under WWCC rules, this ship could be built as a single-shot, which would mean it would not need a magazine: run out, fire your three 1/4" rounds, run back to port, load three more rounds, etc. No magazine, no rotation - maybe possible. Cool-looking ship, though, wouldn't you agree? And something that small is very hard to hit. Rob
Just about any predreadnought has never been built before. Part of the reason I am building a Mikasa is that it has never been done before. The Russians had one awesome armored cruiser during WWI, that I think is even legal in Fast Gun clubs. ... how about a Q-ship or raider? I'm not sure how fast gun rulesets deal with those, but they ARE warships so they've gotta be allowed something as armament.
Well the NMM says it doesn't have a full ship lines only fore and aft. But if I recall right some ships plans were like that the middle sections were all the same so only the plans for the fore and aft. I may jump off the cliff some day and get them. Will keep you in mind then.
The Ruirik II? I have always loved the look of that ship. Has very Italian lines for a Russian ship built by Vickers.
